SOMME BRITISH Sector - A Concise Introduction to the Battle of the Somme

  • by Pierre Grande Guerre
  • •
  • 10 Apr, 2019
  • •

Years of visit: 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012

We start on the D 929 from Albert to Bapaume, axis of the Battlefield of the Somme. On both sides of this road and on both sides of the banks of the river, the Battle of the Somme would rage on from 1 July until 18 November 1916. This chapter forms a concise introduction to the following Somme Battlefield Photo Impressions on this website to offer you some general historical background of its origins.

The view from the top of the Thiepval Memorial over the Franco-British War Cemetery reveals the landscape, across which the tragedy unfolded between July and November 1916. 

The Battle of the Somme

The Somme in 1916 marked the junction of the French and British armies on the Western Front.

The German 2nd Army under General Von Below digged itself in with 16 divisions, in 3 lines of defense, and in heavily fortified and under tunneled villages and farms.

The Chantilly Conference
Allied participants of the conference
In December 1915, a strategic summit took place in Chantilly, at which "Généralissime" Joffre received high military representatives from all Allies.
Together they make agreements about a series of offensives for the spring and summer of 1916. As we shall see later, all those agreements about those other summer offensive elsewhere will later influence the course of the battle during the Battle of Verdun. The supreme commanders of the French and British armies, the Generals Joffre and Haig, made the decision to launch a joint Franco-British offensive in the summer of 1916 on the river Somme.
Albert during the war. Notice the Madonna.

In June the General Haig assembled a massive force of troops in the villages around the destroyed town of Albert. 

The town of Albert nowadays.
The Basilique of Albert with it's Golden Madonna.

General Rawlinson assembled his 4th Army near villages like Mailly Maillet, ... 

Pep talk for the troops on 29 June 1916, near Mailly Maillet
... and like Auchonvillers.
The British offensive started with a continious artillery bombardment of 7 days and 7 nights.
A German filmer made these images of the British artillery bombardment. The film (4 min. 6 sec.) shows the devastating shelling of the German trenches and German soldiers desperately looking for cover.

After the  bombardment, on 1 July 1916, at 7.20 A.M. 17 huge mines were detonated, like the Hawthorn Mine on the Hawthorn Ridge near Beaumont Hamel . 

Or the mine explosion  near La Boiselle, which caused this Lochnagar Crater.

After the mine explosions at 7.30 a.m. the British infantry went "over the top".

They came out of their trenches to attack.

The Germans had enough time to crawl out of their shelters and dug-outs. They immediately manned their machine gun posts and started their enfilading fire on the British soldiers.

Most British units had severe numbers of casualties, and they had to withdraw to their original jump-off lines.

Thiepval Memorial

At the end of the first day the British had some successes, but not much. They had captured some of their objectives and made 4,000 prisoners. Mametz and Montauban were captured. But in Fricourt, La Boisselle, Thiepval, Beaumont Hamel, and Serre only the occasional impact had been made. As night fell, after 14 hours of fighting, these positions were firmly reduced by fierce German counter-attacks. 

British casualties after the first day of Battle:

Killed              19.240
Wounded      35.493
Missing           2.152
P.O.W.                505 

1 July 1916, is still considered as the Bloodiest Day in the history of the British Army.

In the southern, French Front Sector, General Fayolle's 6th Army reached almost all it's objectives for the first day of the Battle.

The Somme

The Battle would continue until 17 November 1916. 

 Continue to the next chapter: "Auchonvillers - Communication Trench "Ocean Villas"

AISNE - Chemin des Dames

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 29 Nov, 2019

De Vanceboro Bridge Bomaanslag

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 14 Nov, 2019

Inleiding: Franz Von Papen & Werner Horn; schaker en pion

Onlangs stuitte ik in een oud boek (1) van 1919 op een opmerkelijk verhaal over een Duitse Luitenant, die in begin februari 1915 een half geslaagde bomaanslag pleegt op een spoorbrug over een grensrivier tussen de Verenigde Staten en Canada. Ook al staat de bekentenis van de dader, Werner Horn, deels in het boek te lezen, de naam van zijn opdrachtgever zal Horn blijven verzwijgen. Na wat verder zoeken vond ik ook de naam van Horn’s opdrachtgever, Franz von Papen, een van de aangeklaagden van het latere Neurenberg Proces in 1946.

In een Grote Oorlog als de Eerste Wereldoorlog  is Horn’s aanslag op de brug uiteraard slechts een bescheiden wapenfeit. Toch vermoed ik dat dit relatief onbekende verhaal, dat de geschiedenis is ingegaan als de “ Vanceboro International Bridge Bombing ”, nog interessante kanten kent. Het is onder andere een spionageverhaal over hoe in een groter plan een sluwe schaker zijn naïeve pion offert.  

Beknopte situatieschets Canada en de Verenigde Staten in 1915

ALSACE-LORRAINE - The Gap of Charmes - La Trouée de Charmes

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 01 Oct, 2019

This trip we start at the Léomont near Vitrimont and we will with some exceptions concentrate on the Battle of Lorraine of August-September 1914 in the area, called, the “Trouée de Charmes”, the Gap of Charmes.

After the Léomont battlefield we continue our explorations to Friscati hill and its Nécropole Nationale. Next we pay a visit to the battlefield of la Tombe to go on to the Château de Lunéville. There we cross the Vezouze to move on southward to the Bayon Nécropole Nationale. At Bayon we cross the Moselle to pass Charmes for the panorama over the battlefield from the Haut du Mont. North-west of Charmes we will visit the British Military Cemetery containing 1918 war victims. From Charmes we go northward to the battlefield of the First French Victory of the Great War, the Battle of Rozelieures of 25 August 1914. North of Rozelieures we will visit the village of Gerbéviller. From there we make a jump northward to visit the ruins of Fort de Manonviller to finish with an interesting French Dressing Station bunker, west of Domjevin.

LORRAINE - Avricourt - Leintrey - Reillon - Domèvre - Parux

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 18 Sept, 2019
Though we depart from Badonviller in the Northern Vosges , we make a jump northward to the east of Lunéville and Manonviller. We start at Avricourt on the border of Alsace and Lorraine. From the Avricourt Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof we explore the southern Lorraine battlefields ; the mine craters of Leintrey , the Franco- German war cemetery and Côte 303 at Reillon , and some German bunkers near Gondrexon , Montreux , and Parux.

LORRAINE - Montreux - German Front Walk 

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 13 Sept, 2019
We depart from Raon-l’Etape to drive northward via Badonviller to Montreux to visit the  "Circuit du Front Allemand 14-18", the  Montreux German Front Walk 14-18,  with its trenches , breastworks , and at least twenty bunkers.

LORRAINE - The Battle of Morhange - 1914

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 08 Sept, 2019
North-east of Nancy, east of Pont-à-Mousson, and south-east of Metz we visit the battlefields of the Battle of Morhange of 14 until 20 August 1914. We follow mainly topographically the route of the French advance eastward over the Franco-German border of 1871-1918.
During this visit, we try to focus on the day that the momentum of the battle switched from the French side to the advantage of the Bavarian side: the day of 20 August 1914, when the Bavarians rapidly re-conquered the territory around Morhange , being also the day of the start of their rather successful “Schlacht in Lothringen”.
We will visit beautiful landscapes of the "Parc Naturel Régional de Lorraine", memorials, ossuaries, and cemeteries. Sometimes we will divert to other periods of the Great War, honouring Russian and Romanian soldiers, who died in this sector. We start our route at the border village of Manhoué, and via Frémery, Oron, Chicourt, Morhange, Riche, Conthil, Lidrezing, Dieuze, Vergaville, Bidestroff, Cutting, Bisping we will finish in Nomeny and Mailly-sur-Seille, where the Germans halted their advance on 20 August 1914, and where they constructed from 1915 some interesting bunkers.

LORRAINE - Lanfroicourt – Nomeny - Monument du Grand Couronné 

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 05 Sept, 2019
South of Manhoué we start this trip at Lanfroicourt along the French side of the Franco-German 1871-1918 border, marked by the meandering Seille river. We visit some French bunkers  in Lanfroicourt, near Array-et-Han and in Moivrons. From there we go northward to the outskirts of Nomeny and the hamlet of Brionne to visit the ( second ) memorial, commemorating the events in Nomeny of 20 August 1914. We continue westward to finish at the Monument du Grand Couronné at the Côte de Géneviève, a former French artillery base, which offers several panoramic views over the battlefield.

LORRAINE - Bouxières-sous-Froidmont - Verny - Feste Wagner

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 28 Aug, 2019
North of Pont-à-Mousson and south of Metz, we explore the relics of German bunkers and fortifications along the Franco-German 1871-1918 border. We start at Bouxières-sous-Froidmont to visit the nearby height of the Froidmont on the front line. This time we will show only a part of the Froidmont, focusing on its military significance.  From the Froidmont we continue via Longeville-lès-Cheminot and Sillegny to the “Forêt Domaniale de Sillegny” to explore some artillery ammunition bunkers. Next we continue to Marieulles for its three interesting bunkers and to Vezon for its line of ammunition depot bunkers. From Vezon we continue to the “Deutscher Kriegsgräberstätte Fey – Buch”. From Fey we go eastward, passing 6 bunkers near Coin-lès-Cuvry to finish our trip at the top construction of the “Feste Wagner” or “Fort Verny”, north of Verny.

VOSGES - Mutzig - Fort de Mutzig - Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 25 Aug, 2019

From Badonviller or the Col du Donon we continue north-eastward for a visit to an extraordinarily well restored sample of German fortifications:  the Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II, or Fort de Mutzig,  lying on a height, some 8 km. away from the 1871-1918 Franco-German Border.

VOSGES - Ste. Marie-aux-Mines - Tête du Violu / Bernhardstein

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 23 Aug, 2019
We concentrate on the German side of the front around "Markirch", Sainte Marie-aux-Mines, the so-called "Leber" front sector . We first pay a visit to the Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof, and next to the southern side of the Col de Ste. Marie for the many interesting bunkers of the German positions at the Bernhardstein, at the north-eastern slopes of the Tête du Violu. On the next photo page about the Haut de Faîte we will continue with a visit to the northern side of the pass and the "Leber" sector.
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