200611 somme supplement

4
THE SOMME 90 YEARS ON. NOVEMBER 2006 i ! IHNAVY NEWS 'No division did better ' The Royal Navy on the Somm e -- ,. - I " . - TIL " 4_? SPRINGTIME IN FRANCE A TRIUMPHANT WELCOME A DATE WITH DESTINY IT WAS still light in Marseilles whe n the steamer Ionian arrived in the great French port. As the spring sun disappeared over the horizon, there was the sound of' kit bags being tossed on to the quay below. It went on like this till the small hours of the morning. Aboard the Ionian, ''an old tub'', men kicked their heels. It would he nearly 24 hours before they disem- barked. The wait was worthwhile. The men formed up alongside the ship, then marched through the heart of' Marseilles, ''bandsmen blowing their heads oil---. The citizens of Marseilles cheered, waved their flags as the Brits dressed in khaki filed through the streets towards the station. To every man of tile Hood Battalion, 63rd (Royal Naval) Di i sion, the destination was obvi-ous: the sailor-soldiers were bound for the Western Front. It would he six months before these sailor-soldiers were committed in battle again. The generals chose to throw the ci ivis ion into the line in the gently undulating terrain of a river valley in Picardy is'h ich would hear the hat- tie's name: tile SO111111c. A LONG SHADOW THE BLACKEST DAY THE 'GLORIOUS' SAILORS The Somnie casts a long shadow over Britain socially, politically and militarily. July 1 1916 remains the blackest day in British military history. When the whistles blew at 730am that Saturday the 'new Army', the men who had answered the call to arms, who had responded to Kitchener's finger beckoning them to sign up. the Pals, the under-age whose recruiting officers had turned a blind eye, climbed out of their trenches and began to walk steadily towards the German line. 'Jerry' svould offor little resistance. The eight-day British barrage had seen him oil', eliminated the barbed wire which blocked 'Tommy's' way. But Jerry did offer resistance. By the day's end, nearly 60,000 British soldiers had fallen, a third of them killed. The public consciousness has been blinded by 'tile first day of the Somme'. Today, most people forget that the battle dragged on for over four more months. It began in hope on a splendid summer's day; it ended in the mud, rain, sleet and despair of a hitter autumn. And it was during that hit- ter autumn that one of the most remarkable units in Britain's arsenal cemented its reputation, joining ''tile Glorious company of the seven or eight most famous ill the British Army" with its deeds in the last act of the Somme offensive: the Battle of the River Ancre. The 63rd (Royal Naval) Division was among the more remarkable forces to fight or King and Country. Most of its men were sailors, not soldiers, yet they fought in the trenches, carried rifles and grenades, learned to ix bayonets, wore khaki riot blue. It was born of a dilemma. As 90 ' 90th Anniversary 1 t. I - -'.- -i.- .. . 'The whole of the Ancre valley is a filthy quagmire'.,. The flooded, desolate terrain of the Ancre, November 191 6 Picture: Imperial War Museum. 01567 --- just of battles hut of dilly-to-clay fife- - ---------------------- - - ---- --------- .---'- -. ------ oil the Western Front. A Dtlrhanl oilier pre-war, Murray y A m ROYAL MVAL DIVISION A II I tI I I '' l'5 had lost his brother at Coronel and A s ,- S 0 I- endured the hel I of the Dardanelles - I hast ilg Jollied! the Royal Navy hoping ,, E " f'or Instant action with the newly- R 2-BRIGAD f`orilled na\al brigades. A illonth aliter ill France, A arriving EN W titc di\isioll ssas inspected by 1 H0 C HOWE:- c 0 ti OILINGWOOD W 00D h Gericral Sit. Henry Wilson, the rather H00 afl`able ifiniposing coinniarlder ofIV A W K "HAWKE' ANSON* AN 0N -'--------- A-iny Corps. --- N E1 NELSON--- ON ) ''The general takes the opportunity ,.- . ',n,,, i, S d I ) of seeing hts troops before he coil]- RECRUITS RECRUITS UITS , I I I I I k Id l h I d U 0 I ---t 01-11 Its tIlelo to the sl'tughtu housv ohsdr\ ccl Mutr ty \s tb the TotilIll) S WANTED WANTE D i ) 5 . k dl I d I 1 I I L I S I ( ha d S £1 S S h I Alt , ( typically -jaundiced cyc. HL Is On t be COtlultl,. 55 ttil us VACAElISR(CRUtTS8fltIN ME ACES 18 ,, g ld h1 I I I , r a t I I pp. '. d I u as ht_ is 11111,h too impor 38 LNT f PAMIdYALLOWANCES I t'tt-tt to take 'my personal I Ic ss iii conduct tile 1 I The fight will go on until the enemy has been bled risk ..I r't r'.t ) Ao t' ''5 " far-off iwhite thanks to heroic German resistance,,, English ' I operations f rc)tii a ' cliiiteau in the rear, sur- ,,d "l and French prisoners already refer to the battlefield as rounded by maps and count- less stafIof'iicers with their " A call to arms A recruiting Ol,,c . t ' I batmen. poster for the Royal Naval "' it - and will see to it - that the English and French Army "The ground! gained, if Division nwun.n, meet their downfall in this hell of their creation, any, will he measured in : i - VONBELOW COMMANDER IN CHIEF yards, Murray and his (.0111 the galley. olliLLrsrelaxed riot in rades were not committed mess but the wardroom; a night out ' to the slaughterhouse - yet. rum titled i n in ashore. I A if I Id I tI 1 I I S I I d They spoilt the summer and early ---Mail)' 01 the nltil - ill(] sonic autumn training, learning to hayo- of the officers - requested 'leave Der OhrhefchIsIiahdr ( net 'the Army way', learning to to grow'," Winston Churchill later v. Below march the Army way', learning to wrote, "and paraded creditable kill 'the Army way'. beards in the faces ofa clean-chiilned General Jer Infanlerle. Army." -------------------'-----' L THE BLACK SHEEP Major General Cameroil Shine did riot approve. IIctOokchai&Loiti1e sailors at a n " An order of the day issued by General der Infanterie Fritz von DEFIANTLY NAVAL inopportune Below, commanding German First Army on the Somme, in October For two years the division had 1916, Like many German commanders, he believed the Somme was AN UNPOPULAR GENERAL been led by the popular Archibald a British defeat - but at a heavy cost - . , Paris, a Royal Marine. Amid the khaki 0! the 'new Army . But now Paris was wounded; in Britain mobilised for war with Marseilles ill May 1916, it had seen the Royal Naval Division was it his place came Cameron Shifle, an Germany in August 1914, the Royal action at Antwerp in the autumn of black sheep. officer, Churchill observed, with Navy had too many sailors and too 1914 and suffered bloody losses. It was a naval division. Defiantly "exceptional credentials". few ships. It suffered bloody losses too in naval. Known as Titter - and not for There were no sea drafts br more Gallipoli before the plug was pulled Tile battalions were named 'or aflectionate reasons the 50-year- than 2f).000 reservists. Called to on that botched campaign: 16,000 of Naval heroes: Hood, Nelson, old general was irascible, demand- arms, they were kicking their heels. the 19,001! men in the division were Coilingwood, Anson, Drake, Howe, ing, and above all unendearing. The response of Winston Churchill, casualties (mainly dysentery); 2,600 Hawke. He stamped his authority upo n First Lord of the Admiralty, was to were killed, Tile White Ensign flew proudly tile RND almost immediately - or at use the sailors its soldiers ill two And now the sailors were in over their camps, hells sounded the least tried to. hastily-formed brigades, plus a bri- France, no longer tinder Admiralty. change of a watch, the illeil were lot The sailors., Shute contended, wer e gade of Royal Marines. Thus was the but Army command with the British corporals and sergeants bill leading an ill-disciplined lot. They didn't Royal Naval Division horn. Expeditionary Force, seamen and petty oi'Iicers. salute the correct way - with the Ordinary Seaman Joe Murray was The banter, too, was distinctly palm lacing outwards; they gre w By the time the division arrived ill a keen diarist and astute observer not naval. - -- -- - beards; they used ammunition cases as firing steps; worst of all, they didn't use the latrines properly. The sailors were not amused. Not amused, that is until the waspish Lt Alan Patrick Herbert put pen to paper. The General inspecting the trenches exclaimed sv tb a horrified shout, I refuse to cotlimaild a Division Which leaves its excreta about. But nobody took ally notice No one was prepared to refutc, That the presence of shit was congenial Compared! with the presence of Shute. And certain responsible critics Made haste to reply to his words Observing that his Stall' advis- ers Consisted entirely of turds. For shit may he shot at odd! corners And paper supplied there to suit, But a shit would he shot with-out mourilers ii so mebodiy shot that shit Shine. THE HUN'S LOSSE S THE DUO ARE CALLED FIGHT TO THE DEATH Struggles ss itlt tile Army Oil a day-to- day basis were wearying. Contending \V itil 'Fritz' was another matter entirely. Tile German Army was tile 'engine 01' the war. As long 1t5 it stood in the field, the war could not he s\ oil. And in the autumn of' 19 16, it still stood in the field, but it had suffered a hideous niatilinu. By the beginning of September, more than 300,000 German soldiers were casualties of tile Somme, killed or svouncieci. Coupled with even worse losses at Verci un, it was too much or Kaiser WilIleIm II. Lobbied to axe his Chief of the General StafF Erich Soil Futi kenhayn, Wilhelm acquiesced. In his place he put a duo : Hindenhutrg and Ltidiendionfi The grandly-nltnledl Paut I Ludsv ig l-iltns Anton von Beneckendorfi' und von H indeilhurg was ut nail tot- whom the word 'grttfl' was invented. i-ic glowered in every photograph, his piercing eyes staring out beneath his short-cropped hair and above his tllutton-chops. Hi nden burg ]lad joined the then Prussian Army in tile same year that the Kaiser had been born. He served his country solidly yet unspectacularly for more than 50 years., retiring from active service iii 1911. War called him hack to the col- ours, in August 1914 he was ordered to save East Prussia froni the Russian hordes sweeping westwards. He did so, And 'or it he became a national hero. It svutsa façade; H indetlburg was the figurehead, but the real power lay behind the 'throne' with his deputy, Erich Ludiendorfll Lutdendorff was the archetypal Prussian general. Tile monacIc, the Pickelhauhe helmet, the bushy IllOtis- tacilc, the constant scowl chiselled into his face. What the public cud not see was Ludetldorl'f's irrational behaviour. " Continued on page 5

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Page 1: 200611 Somme Supplement

THESOMME90 YEARSON. NOVEMBER 2006 i

!IHNAVYNEWS 'No division did better'The Royal Navy on the Somme

--,.

- I ".

-

TIL " 4_?

SPRINGTIME INFRANCE

A TRIUMPHANT WELCOME

ADATE WITH DESTINY

IT WAS still light in Marseilles whenthe steamer Ionian arrived in thegreat French port.

As the spring sun disappearedover the horizon, there was the soundof' kit bags being tossed on to thequay below.

It went on like this till the smallhours of the morning.

Aboard the Ionian, ''an old tub'',men kicked their heels. It would henearly 24 hours before they disem-barked.The wait was worthwhile. The

men formed up alongside the ship,then marched through the heart of'Marseilles, ''bandsmen blowing theirheads oil---.The citizens ofMarseilles cheered,

waved their flags as the Brits dressedin khaki filed through the streetstowards the station.

To every man of tile HoodBattalion, 63rd (Royal Naval)Di i sion, the destination wasobvi-ous:the sailor-soldiers were boundfor the Western Front.

It would he six months beforethese sailor-soldiers were committedin battle again.The generals chose to throw the

ci ivis ion into the line in the gentlyundulating terrain of a river valleyin Picardy is'h ich would hear the hat-tie's name: tile SO111111c.

A LONG SHADOWTHE BLACKEST DAY

THE 'GLORIOUS' SAILORS

The Somnie casts a long shadowover Britain socially, politically andmilitarily.

July 1 1916 remains the blackestday in British military history.When the whistles blew at 730am

that Saturday the 'new Army', themen who had answered the callto arms, who had responded toKitchener's finger beckoning themto sign up. the Pals, the under-agewhose recruiting officers had turneda blind eye, climbed out of theirtrenches and began to walk steadilytowards the German line.

'Jerry' svould offor little resistance.The eight-day British barrage hadseen him oil', eliminated the barbedwire which blocked 'Tommy's' way.

But Jerry did offer resistance. Bythe day's end, nearly 60,000 Britishsoldiers had fallen, a third of themkilled.The public consciousness has

been blinded by 'tile first day of theSomme'. Today, most people forgetthat the battle dragged on for overfour more months.

It began in hope on a splendidsummer's day; it ended in the mud,rain, sleet and despair of a hitterautumn.And it was during that hit-

ter autumn that one of the mostremarkable units in Britain's arsenalcemented its reputation, joining ''tileGlorious company of the seven oreight most famous ill the BritishArmy" with its deeds in the last actof the Somme offensive: the Battleof the River Ancre.

The 63rd (Royal Naval) Division wasamong the more remarkable forces tofight or King and Country.Most of its men were sailors,

not soldiers, yet they fought in thetrenches, carried rifles and grenades,learned to ix bayonets, wore khakiriot blue.

It was born of a dilemma. As

90 '

90th Anniversary 1t.

I-

-'.-

-i.-..

.'The whole oftheAncre valley is afilthy quagmire'.,. The flooded, desolate terrain of the Ancre, November 1916Picture: Imperial War Museum.01567

--- just of battles hut of dilly-to-clay fife------------------------- -

-------------.---'-

- .

------ oil the Western Front.A Dtlrhanl oilier pre-war, Murray yA mROYALMVALDIVISIONA

II I t I I I '' l'5had lost his brother at Coronel and A s

,- S 0 I- endured the helI of the Dardanelles -

Ihast ilgJollied! the Royal Navy hoping ,, E"f'or Instant action with the newly- R2-BRIGADf`orilled na\al brigades.A illonth aliter ill France,

A

arriving EN Wtitc di\isioll ssas inspected by1

H0C HOWE:-c0 tiOILINGWOODW00D

h Gericral Sit. Henry Wilson, the rather H00afl`able ifiniposing coinniarlder ofIV AWK"HAWKE'

ANSON*AN 0N-'--------- A-iny Corps.

---N E 1NELSON---

ON) ''The general takes the opportunity

, .-.

',n,,,i,

S dI)of seeing hts troops before he coil]- RECRUITS RECRUITSUITS,I I I I I

k Id l h I d U 0 I---t 01-11

Its tIlelo to the sl'tughtu housvohsdr\ ccl Mutr ty \s tb the TotilIll) S WANTED WANTEDi) 5 . k dl I d I 1 I I

L I SI( ha d S £1 S S h I Alt , ( typically-jaundiced cyc.

HL Is On t be COtlultl,. 55 ttil us VACAElISR(CRUtTS8fltIN ME ACES 18,,g l d h1

II I ,

r a t I I pp. '.d I u as ht_ is 11111,h too impor38

LNT f PAMIdYALLOWANCESI t'tt-tt to take 'my personalIIc ss iii conduct tile1 I The fight will go on until theenemyhasbeen bled

risk ..I r't r'.t) Ao t' ''5 "

far-offiwhite thanks to heroic German resistance,,, English

' I operations f rc)tii a'cliiiteau in the rear, sur-

,,d "l and French prisoners already refer to the battlefield as rounded by maps and count-less stafIof'iicers with their " A call to arms A recruitingOl,,c . t ' I batmen. poster for the Royal Naval"' it - and will see to it - that the English andFrench Army "The ground! gained, if Division

nwun.n, meet their downfall in this hell of their creation, any, will he measured in

:i -VONBELOW COMMANDERIN CHIEF yards,

Murray and his (.0111 thegalley. olliLLrsrelaxed riot inrades were not committed mess but the wardroom; a night out

' to the slaughterhouse - yet. rum titled i nin ashore.I A if I Id I t I 1 II S I I d They spoilt the summer and early ---Mail)' 01 the nltil - ill(] sonic

autumn training, learning to hayo- of the officers - requested 'leaveDer OhrhefchIsIiahdr ( net 'the Army way', learning to to grow'," Winston Churchill later

v. Belowmarch the Army way', learning to wrote, "and paraded creditablekill 'the Army way'. beards in the faces ofa clean-chiilned

General Jer Infanlerle.Army."

-------------------'-----'L THE BLACK SHEEP Major General Cameroil Shine didriot approve.

IIctOokchai&Loiti1e sailors at an" An order of the day issued by General der Infanterie Fritz von DEFIANTLY NAVAL inopportuneBelow, commanding German First Army on the Somme, in October For two years the division had1916, Like many German commanders, he believed theSommewas AN UNPOPULAR GENERAL been led by the popular Archibalda British defeat - but at a heavy cost - . , Paris, a Royal Marine.

Amid the khaki 0! the 'new Army . But now Paris was wounded; inBritain mobilised for war with Marseilles ill May 1916, it had seen the Royal Naval Division was it his place came Cameron Shifle, anGermany in August 1914, the Royal action at Antwerp in the autumn of black sheep. officer, Churchill observed, withNavy had too many sailors and too 1914 and suffered bloody losses. It was a naval division. Defiantly "exceptional credentials".few ships. It suffered bloody losses too in naval. Known as Titter - and not for

There were no sea drafts br more Gallipoli before the plug was pulled Tile battalions were named 'or aflectionate reasons the 50-year-than 2f).000 reservists. Called to on that botched campaign: 16,000 of Naval heroes: Hood, Nelson, old general was irascible, demand-arms, they were kicking their heels. the 19,001! men in the division were Coilingwood, Anson, Drake, Howe, ing, and above all unendearing.Theresponseof Winston Churchill, casualties (mainly dysentery); 2,600 Hawke. He stamped his authority uponFirst Lord of the Admiralty, was to were killed, Tile White Ensign flew proudly tile RND almost immediately - or atuse the sailors its soldiers ill two And now the sailors were in over their camps, hells sounded the least tried to.hastily-formed brigades, plus a bri- France, no longer tinder Admiralty. change ofa watch, the illeil were lot The sailors., Shute contended, weregade of Royal Marines. Thus was the but Army command with the British corporals and sergeants bill leading an ill-disciplined lot. They didn'tRoyal Naval Division horn. Expeditionary Force, seamen and petty oi'Iicers. salute the correct way - with the

Ordinary Seaman Joe Murray was The banter, too, was distinctly palm lacing outwards; they grewBy the time the division arrived ill a keen diarist and astute observer not naval.

---

--

-

beards; they used ammunition cases

as firing steps; worst of all, theydidn't use the latrines properly.The sailors were not amused. Not

amused, that is until the waspishLt Alan Patrick Herbert put pen topaper.

The General inspecting thetrenches

exclaimed sv tb a horrifiedshout,

I refuse to cotlimaild aDivision

Which leaves its excretaabout.

But nobody took ally noticeNo one was prepared to refutc,That the presence of shit was

congenialCompared! with the presence

of Shute.

And certain responsible criticsMade haste to reply to his

wordsObserving that his Stall' advis-

ersConsisted entirely of turds.

For shit may he shot at odd!corners

And paper supplied there tosuit,

But a shit would he shotwith-outmourilers

ii somebodiy shot that shitShine.

THE HUN'S LOSSES

THEDUOARECALLED

FIGHTTO THE DEATH

Struggles ss itlt tile Army Oil a day-to-day basis were wearying. Contending\V itil 'Fritz' was another matterentirely.

Tile German Army was tile'engine 01' the war. As long 1t5 itstood in the field, the war could nothe s\ oil.And in the autumn of' 19 16, it still

stood in the field, but it had suffereda hideous niatilinu.

By the beginning of September,more than 300,000 German soldierswere casualties of tile Somme, killedor svouncieci.

Coupled with even worse losses atVerciun, it was too much or KaiserWilIleIm II.

Lobbied to axe his Chief of theGeneral StafF Erich Soil Futi kenhayn,Wilhelm acquiesced. In his placehe put a duo: Hindenhutrg andLtidiendionfiThe grandly-nltnledl Paut I Ludsvig

l-iltns Anton von Beneckendorfi' undvon Hindeilhurg was ut nail tot-whomthe word 'grttfl' was invented.

i-ic glowered in every photograph,his piercing eyes staring out beneathhis short-cropped hair and above histllutton-chops.

Hindenburg ]lad joined the thenPrussian Army in tile same year thatthe Kaiser had been born.He served his country solidly yet

unspectacularly for more than 50years., retiring from active serviceiii 1911.

War called him hack to the col-ours, in August 1914 he was orderedto save East Prussia froni the Russianhordes sweeping westwards.

He did so, And 'or it he became anational hero.

It svutsa façade; Hindetlburg wasthe figurehead, but the real power laybehind the 'throne' with his deputy,Erich Ludiendorfll

Lutdendorff was the archetypalPrussian general. Tile monacIc, thePickelhauhe helmet, the bushy IllOtis-tacilc, the constant scowl chiselledinto his face.What the public cud not see was

Ludetldorl'f's irrational behaviour." Continued on page 5

Page 2: 200611 Somme Supplement

0 THE SOMME90 YEARSON. NOVEMBER 2006

" Continued from page iI-Ic planned operations down to themmutest detail, yet overlooked the bigpicture. He worked tirelessly, rarely, ifever, took a day's leave, but was proneto fits 01' rage and, in particularly darkhours, to utter mental collapse.The duo's appointment waswel-comedby German public and by the

soldiers in the field. [31tt after twoyears on the Eastern Front, thegener-alshad little idea of conditions in theWest.

At the headquarters of CrownPrince Rupprecht of Bavaria, the sen-ior German commander in the Sowmcsector, was delighted with the changeofcommand. ''At long last!'' he scrib-bled in his diary.

Rupprecht was among the moreable German leaders, assisted h\his highly-capable ehief-of-sta fl.Generalleutnant l-Iermann von K11111.KuhI painted a bleak picture: div i-

sions were being worn out at the rateof one per day; they could spend nolonger than a fortnight in the frontline, and after a briefperiod of rest hepushed back into the Somme mincing,machine a second, perhaps even athird time.

Yet there could be no withdrawal.To pull hack from the Somme wouldbe a fillip to the Allies' morale and abodyblow to Germany's.

''Die Schlach t iii uss also durch-gekfimpt't werden," Kohl concludedbluntly.

/1/7(/ SO lie 1/Il/SI fight our 11w.

t/owigli //I/S baole.''And we will tight our way through

this battle successfully."The duo listened intently.''I began to realise what a task the

field marshal and I had undertaken,''LudendortI observed with typicalunderstatement.

ON THE SOMMEAGOD-FORSAKEN LAND

AN ENDLESS MORASS

Their. months oftraining over, the menof the Royal Naval Division arrivedon the Soilinle at the beginning ofOctober 1916.

They took an instant dislike to theland.The Somme, observed Lt Douglas

.1 errold, the 23-year-old adjutantof Hawke Battalion, was "a God-forsaken battlefield".

Jerrold was an erudite chap; post-war he would write the division's his-tory and make his name as an authorand publisher.

For now he was a valued stallofficer and a keen observer of lit'c inthe Royal Naval Division.

''An atmosphere of over-elaboratedbrusque niefliciency pervaded the inn-teriand (If Slaughter,'' he complained.'"too many lien, too many o leers,hr too litany, generals and a thousandtines too many jacks-in-office andendless seas of mud."

Machine-gunner Joe NIurrayagreed: ''It's useless trying to put aname to this or any other place - theyall look alike."

Farmhouses, hamlets, villages, allhad been reduced to rubble.

''All that way 01' life has gone,'Murray lamented. "Ill its place arehuge heaps of broken bricks and cess-pools, the result of thousands of shellbursts,"Agood mile or so behind the front,

clerk AB Thomas Macmillan was bil-ietcd with the brigade stall' in the vil-lage of Englebeinier.

i-Icadquarters had been establishedin II plirt i I ly shot-up French cottage.The rain dripped through the roof

and formed puddles on the stone floor.The autumn wind wil stied throughthe building. A few hundred yardsaway a I 6i n howitzer thundered away,hurling a storm of steel against theGerniall lines.

"Each time the gun tired, the doors(If our miserable dwelling Ilesv openand loose tiles clattered on to the]loot-," Macmii Ian recalled.The rain fell incessantly. The Ancre

valley was swamp-like at the best ofinies. In the autumn of 19 16 it turnedinto a hideous morass. Trenches col-lapsed. Morale dipped.

"This atrocious weather is gettingthe better of our nerves," a frustratedMurray noted in his diary.

"In some strange way, Fritz relievesthe mollotony when ills artillery opensup ss th a really deatelling roar.

"Alive or dead, there is no peacehere.

He mused: 'Maybe some day wewill all come to our senses, but these(lays will never be lorgotten, howeverlong we live."

Tile rain, the constant digging ofnew positions liom which to launchthe attack, the hi lint new commander.all contributed to a worrying slump inthe division's morale.

''The burden was nearly as great asmany could bear,'' i\ role Jerrold.

" The ruins of the railway station at Beaumont Hamel which was seized by the Royal NavalDivision during the November battle

Even before the battle battalionswhich should have been 700 menstrong now mustered fewer than 500sailors.

Those left were tired, weary. But.Douglas Jerroid observed, they werealso determined.

They were determined to proveShute wrong. They were determinedto prove the Army wrong. They weresailors. They were determined tolive up to the White Ensign's pro/Idtradition.

HUNS LOSE HOPEATTACK EXPECTED

A t'ew hundred yards away in the whatwas left o1 the village of Bcaucourt-sur-Ancrc, the men of 55 ReserveJ0!a/ltel'le Reg/nlellI waited for theEnglish to conic. Always English -Ellgla/lder - never B,'//ischei-.

For ten weeks the German reserv-ists had been in fine - nearly twice aslong as their Commander-in-Chief hadrecommended.

This was their second time oil theSomme; they had been here (ill theiirst day of the battle and they findaccounted 'or 2,000 British soldierson July I alone near the village ofGonimecourt, 'our miles to tile northof Beaucoiirt.

The lwidsei - the German equiva-lent of 'Tommy' - of November 1916was not the sanie as the 10/Ic/See ofJuly 1916.

As many as one in three Germansoldiers suffered l'roni dysentery.Their nerves were frayed. They nolonger expected to be relieved. Thiswas a battle without end.

"Peaceful and rational menbecame irrational," Friedrich 'Fritz'Wiedeman n, a regimental adjutantobserved.

"Daily they saw comrades dyingto the left and right 01' then, theystumbled over the bodies in the fight-ing and counted on the lingers oftwo hands how many (lays would heneeded until the last mail ill the corn-pan)' Would be devoured by the battleand death."

Laildser Max Pechstein wrote a fewhues home to his wife Alex.

---We will soon have these (lays OIl

the Somme behind us. thank God.''I niiss so many things, and you

are perfectly right: grit our teeth andkeep hoping."

Others [lad already lost hope. Theyshunned lif'e itself', shut themselves oftfrom the world."We are slowly beginning to believe

here that a person doesn't matter atall,'' one soldier wrote.A suiiple wooden cross marked the

place where tile Ge/ii/le,1 lay. Soon itwould be shot away. "No-one willrecognise this place where thegood rest," the soldier coiltinned.

''Death is not the mostawful thing. No, theworst thing is a serioussvound which preventsyou reaching sal'ety soyou (lie a miserabledeath as hundredshave suffered since thebeginning of September.

''May I he spared that at least.''He would lot. The 'English' were

not finished oil the Soninie.For a month German intelligence

had monitored the enemy build-up:batteries were being moved into posi-tion, three or tour fresh divisionshad been identified, artillery lire wassmashing defensive positions andruining the German trenches.

"The word is that Douglas Haig islooking to capture nior,g strongpoillts,"Crown Prince Rupprecilt observed.

The word was right.

A DOGGED LEADERANEW OFFENSIVE

ONE LAST PUSH

Nine decades after the Somme,Douglas 1-laig remains a deeplycontroversial figure.

In a war where the generals were'donkeys', 'butchers and bunglers', illthe eyes of his critics Douglas Haigwas the chief donkey, the most blood-thirsty butcher.

It i, of course, far too simplistica view.

Like all his coilteniporarics, Alliedand German, Haig found himselfcon-tronted with a war which he had notanticipated.The warriors of 1914 had expected

a war of movement. They got one- initially - until the front solidifiedthat autumn.Haig's first attempt to breakthrough

had been repulsed on July IBut there were many more black

days through the summer and autumnof 1 9 16 oil the Somme.The British soldier died at the rate

of nearly 900 a day - the total, by thebeginning of November, was around40t),00iI casualties; three in every tenwere killed.

As in 2006, so in 1916. The niediaofthe (lay were obsessed - with somejustification - by the casualty listsissued by the War Oflice.

If Britain's casualty list was bleak,Douglas Haig consoled Il msclf thatGermany's was (lute clearly bleaker.

At his desk, lie played with rawstatistics.

More than 1.150 German battalionshad been rotated through the mincingmachine oil the Somme since July IOne in six German soldiers had

been killed; one in 'our had beenwounded.

In Haig 's analytical mind, that sure-ly meant more than 600,000 enemycasualties on the Somme.

There was still time this winter toadd to Germany's woes with one lastpush on the Sonime. It would come inthe valIcy of the River. Ancrc.

The attack oil tile Ancre hadle to do with nudging thefont line Itimard.

It had little to do withthe villages of BeaumontHamel and Beaucourt-sur-Ancre.

It had little to do withthe Gerniall stiongpoiilts

svhich looked down uponte roiling valley.It 101(1 a lot to (10 with

politics. In fact, it hadalmost everything to (10

with politics.

The battles oil theSomnie were pros'-ing too costly 'or WarMinister David Lloyd 8lDVd'IeAJ

George. He was look- A /IU'dIC/3rig elsewhere for vie- 7/tnt the ittoi'y, perhaps in tile ( Fr a.fitvBalkans. And then

Allied leaders wouldO/tl,i)a. ce

flied a few days' hence7P--re dmt

at French headqliar-ters in Chantilly north TWI?/i//g

/

of Paris to debate strat-egy 'or the 12 months Deuithlj

4

to collie. A/14 todayBritain's standing He luv los

would he nilich higher He ~cwith her Allies if her 1 He lvase/onien were standing ill

H/the/idBeaucourt with 3,000Gernian prisoners to I!

show for their efforts.-

And so it was that the

idea of a "good and 'cheap' success---was dreamed up by 1-laig's stafil Theiriiiaster concurred.

READY FOR BATTLE'BLAH BLAH BLAH'

The Royal Naval Division was giventhe task of smashing its way along theleft bank ofthe Ancre, eight battalionsin two waves advancing along a lentjlist 1,200 yards long over rolling ter-rain to seize what was left of tile vil-lage of Beaucourt-sur-Ancre on highground a little over P/2 Miles to thenorth-cast of the British lines.The plan was meticulous, metliodi-

cal.Lines were drawn on a map to a

specific timetable.The first major objective, the

'Green Line', a trench on au escarp-ment overlooki 19 the battlefield, after40 minutes, then further up tile hillto the second major objective, the '6Line', just in liont of Bealicolirt, acouple of hours into the assault and,finally, the 'Red Line', list beyond tilevillage by the third ]tour.The final (lays before the assault

were spent milling around the desertedvillages behind the front.

Mesnil was a miserable place. Acold village. Not really a village, justtile ruins of line. "There was nowlicreto sleep, nowilere to sit, nowhere tolook -and nowhere to walk," wroteJerroid.

Engichehiier was slightly better;the men at least had a roof over theirheads in tile houses.The guns began spewing fire and

steel late on Wednesday November 8.They would not cease until after darkon tile twelfth, a Sunday.

"The din was so terrific and theair vibrations burst your eardrlmnis,''recalled Pie Williani t3rcof the Royal MarinesLight Infantry.

''If you touched thewall of a house or ally-thing solid it felt like amild electric shock."

Each clay Joe Murrayand his flood comrades

) Hans Gcuer, a 23-year-old German soldier fromCologne, recorded his impressions of tile Somiiic that

dreadful atiturill,

',ka.4nawdoesebefore,

Yythe4iLgyveywa. rag/tuJ /uwrI:c44(e.

(nitdflewItJl'O51(a. thotesa.#td borreic,

/ 501(4144440k, fOltI7id ittier be&is bent.

ca.aire. A f/mIt(uutd.ta-ha.et% bottle roger

ir the cp&irtered fresH a-f Pierre-VomIt./ becositer quit

u;ulez the cold, dItueseot/j stan

rae/ic pa.i#uf/d whiiupea-4 casiter! I fuwe of/s/I s'es/r

14 esraw/ry legslet a wad do-e.

rage like the cnstos/ia.n'c of Hod,a. di'un.knt btctc/ter.

11(550 qII lice oddly quietsored k/i esythe a.tøtest

to the gvow#id.en 4414 with pal, (uuu/c

c the bolt a,owtd his bogeyback.

eyes,let so/lick nwimllykt yqaeon,

had trotted Out ill the rail waiting forthe order to move up to the trenches.Each day the weather had scotchedany hope of an attack. The sailorsreturned to their billets, soaked tothe hone.

It was still raining when CameronSllute inspected the miicn of the HoodBattalion, the 'Steadies'.The rating not impressed by the

Army mail's ''blab biah biah'' -"We've heard it all before" - recordedill 11i5 diary.

Shute pulled no punches."Very 500 you will he called ipon

to wrest liom tile enemy one o1 hisstrongest points n the Western Front."Many previous attempts have

'ailed, but I have every coilfidencein you."The rub, hosvevcr, came at the end

ofthe general's address.''I iiiust warn you, however, that the

more prisoners you take the less Iliodyou will get as they must be fed l'roniyour rations.---

Also visiting his men ill those hid-Noveniberdays was General Sit.] filbertTb rlmster' Gough, CommandingOflicer Fifth Arniy.

Goligil '5 rise had been nicteoriceven by wartime standards, due argu-ably less to his ability than his Iliend-ship with 1-laig.

At 46, Gough was younger thanmost of his Ci low generals-, lie pos-sessed more dash, if 1101 necessarilymore intelligence. An ambitious man,he was eager l'or a victory on theSonime to enhance his reputation.

But would the attack succeed'?II lmbcrt Gough was hope fill but noinure. The incessant waiting for goodweather was wearing down his lien.It was now or not for another iiionth- iv tb di fiercmit units entirely, lie toldhis Commandcr-iii-Ciiief. The pros-pects were "quite good". -

I/er a tour of his cI iii-sions. 1-Ilibert Goughhad changed his li md:"quite good" becamesimply "good".

General 1-laigweighed up tile hueof thousands of lien.

.,The necessity forii success mnlmst not

blind our eyes to thedi lilelmhties," lierecorded in his (liar)'.

"Nothing is so costly as a failure!Blmt I ;mni ready to rui reasonablerisks."

Douglas Haig had made Lip hisinin(l. The attack would begin beforedawn on the miicarow, MondayNovember 13 1916.

DEEPEST FEARS

'- I ii N'lesn i I, the flicml 0 I' the FloodBattalion received their rations tosustain them during the attack: a tinoljani each, ajar of piddl/h i I I i apieceand two sacks of' phosphoroushonhs to share between tliemii - thehatter to destroy Gernian bunkers.The 'Steadies' marched up to

their junsp-off trench in a mood ofgnus determination.

) ---We were boys once, but riot anyi inure; we are iosv iiiuch older andI. 5515cr and miiuch worn, yet anxious

to finish the job.''All Thoniams Macmillan vis-

ited his old company, waiting ina rtmn-dowil f'ariii on the edge of'Enghehcimer for the order to moveup to the front line

The miien chatted, reached themii-selves tot- the coming trials, sangUll printable ditties.

---Suddenly someone began tilestirring song the ship's hands

--j played as we left for Gallipoh:When B/-i/cl//I /1/5/ al //eOh'e/l S

Colmllm/cInc/,'' Macmillan recalled.''As if by miiagic all stood to atten-

tion and raising their right arms highas if in defiamice of all corners, theysang the first verse and chorus.''

As night fell, the incessant bark ofthe British artillery ceased.

''Every gum ll fiell silent at once," PteBrowll remembered.

"Alter four whole days and nightsof that racket, the silence was uncarm-ny, almost unbearableCPO Richard Tobi ii of the Hoods

build the ivaihug inte:rmiiinable."We stood there In dead silence.

You couldn't miiamke a noise," lieremneiiibcred.

"The fellow next Ito you felt hikeyour best friend - you loved him,although you probably didn't knowhim a day hefbre."The minutes passed."They were both tile longest and

shortest hours of niy I. i fe All iii hhntiy-miian in the front line ffbels the coldest,deepest feat-," Tobill ruecamiled.

Joe Mumrray lily do\wil in a nit link-ing two waterlogged shiell craters. Herested his head oil am s;ack of phospho-rous bombs.

"Looking at the desolation aroundmile with bcsi- i lofernielmit, I enjoy eachbreath of polluted aiim-," he recordedin his diary.

"Each and every liolur is the same."There are so manly things I want

to do. I svamit to eracd date the hard-ships of yesterday, thic slaughter andthe sorrow I miiumst endure durim, tileimminent holocaust.---

Fate had taken ovier low. All thesailors could do was wait hope andpray.

Lt Col Bernard ~rc)yberg wanderedup and clown tile linic, encouraginghis men.

In a relnarkable; division,Bernard Frcyherg wamss a remark-able

Born in Sumrrey, hoe was takenamt the age of two to. NewZealand when his paixentsemigrated.

Theme he (111111 fieoi.f asa dentist, but lie ailso -t4~dvolunteered as an olilic-er iii the domiii iom'mi 'sTerritorial Army.

Seeking adventuree whemi

Page 3: 200611 Somme Supplement

-

THE SOMME 90 YEARS ON. NOVEMBER 2006 iii

the-cels, bits of' equipilnent and boxes

was difficult to see anythingwhich resenibled a trench.---

THE SECOND DAY

:THE TANKS COMETH

.L .< THE BATTLE WON

One Iioui bLIOIL dawn oil TuesdayNo enTher 14 1916, three tanks rolledslowly towards the hues of the RoyalNaval Division. Sporadic German

sontheSomme . Are shell i-ire knocked out one of' thesesteel beasts. But dense Soninic jinistshrouded the other two tanks.

war broke Out 1i headedlu ldLd or the nioth 1 ' .Lt Allan Campbell RNVR strode

(t country later propaganda suggest- .(i' . i oil into file dark, cI IlllbLd on to tileed he returned to Britain via Mexico. ; . .leading armoured vehicle and beganwhere he ought alongside Poncho ..

.

.

.'I -

" .Z- 1 directing it towards the GermanVilla - and persuadedChurchill to

stroltpoint which had dciii indcd suchsecure hint I (OfliilliSSiOfl in tile nc I . ._

. 0 C toll ill blood 24 hours bi. I oi il`ornned Royal Naval Division.

Churchill's faith was well placed. Ancre mud. One got no !.iriIier illail

GaIiipof ii1 tLstI11l11 : I::ii1 Iind second bLC imi.down ha

1916, lie was iii cliaige of the Hood Geriiai lines.Battalion. But these tanks were far from being

---The mcii ill ,LLmcd islccp lame ducks they turned their 61h .,unFreyherg recalled. Closer inspection ,. : J ..,- .,

. , .

.

"

on the Gernian redoubt.

their in

mop, T,showed thern awake,

;i.'

inflag,

appeared

11110 the night.'.

... . .. : ": ' " " . ..-'. S......................................

" - " . . . did riot c "C.

The odd man spoke, most Frcyhci., ...

.. . -. ---.

'._ Longed the tank crews climbed

noted, ---secilled to be ill anotherworld". " .. . .

his right. . towards the hunker brandishing

The colonel spied Joe Murray, rec- " Band of brothersThe band of the Hood Battalion in early 1917. Seated in the centre is Bernard Freyberg VC; on his right is ArthurAsquith, Htchkiss machine-tinsat whichognising him 1mm Gallipoli. son ofthe former Prime Minister Herbert

joint 400 Ia,uis'e,s, a mish-mash of"You, too, are still with us. So Picture Capt Christopher Page, Naval Historical Branch

men froiii live divisions, and twopleased to SLL You. Make yourself' liclcusly cratcrcil no nian s land. battalions reached the third Gcrni in inert. The Drakes following behind Bernard I icyhcr was ill (Or dis id officers cliiiibcd out of' their trenchas comloitable as you can and good "Shells were amongst usand beliind line. Hawkc no longer existed", its had been reduced to little more than inn his lbrcc, attacking with one half and surrendered.luck., 'tour' .some om the enemy, and some ofourwar diary tersely recorded, while the So men.andleaving the other behind to defend

Freyberg 5 cContinued.

LilAt'idlie recalled. third and fourth waves of Nelson menWith the attack elsewhere struC- the battalion's gains so far.As the tanks quelled the German

Hello Tobin, how are you'?" heAiid the maelstrom, a few yards "ceased to exist as a lighting lbrcc". gling, Freybere faced a stark choice. But the rain ofsteel remained fixed. redoubt, the sailors and marines who

buttonholed the sergeantlilt to uoi front ol his inert, stood Arthur Hart, Amon the casualties was Douglas Advance with his depleted, mixed up The creeping barrage no longer crept had hltcred in the I icc of ss itlici inAll right, sir.

shaving his arms furiously, urging his Jerrold.force,or fall hack.forward.fireon the thirteenth stormed iiro arclC uLt ci today."nien Oil. I f he shouted encouragement, l-lawke's adjutant moved out to setHe chose to advance.Athis headquarters, Cameron Shute again at dawn on the otirteenth.

no man heard bins for it \s'as lost inup a forward reporting centre behindThe artillery barrage crept forsvard pored over the information coniineBolstered by a brigade ol soldiers, theUNTO THE BREACH the tutistilt.theadvancing lighting men. as planned at the allotted hour. and the back from the front.mencame within a couple of hundred

Richard Tobin left his trench and lit one hand he clutched a revolver, Hoods and Drakes followed. What news there was was hard- yards of the 'Yellow Line' - the

ALL HELL LET LOOSE found his ear and terror had vanishedin the other the battalion's orders,Down the undulating Anere icr- ly encouraging. Nelson and Hawkeobjective laid down for the first hours

instantly.although there was little battalion left rain the ad hoc force went, then up wiped out. Anson and Howe nau led. 0 I the attack the previous clay - bel ore

I . , " , _'You don't look. YOU see. You don't to give orders too.an escarpment to the attack's firstso too I 51 and 2nd Royal MarinesGerman macli i ne-gun lire halted theirAround ulfl. tile minert of' the I Ioo

listen, you hear. Your nose is filledAs he struggled across no-man's objtive. a trench line overlookingLight InOntry.progress.Battalion began to waken - I I t icy lit

with fiines and death and you taste tileland, he reeled back. His left arm had tile battlefield just north of BeaucourtLight

division had battered its wayS/Li Trevor Jacobs ran the gaunt-

ever acnasleep.ascep.For the next 40 or so minutes the top Of your oouth, he recalled. been shot away.station. .to the lirst objective, but apart fromlet of shell. machine-gun and sniper

I tI They stretched tI'

You in. one with your ss c iponI foi.ind toy trio hanging soni. The sailors began smokin out the Frcyhcr s iii ikshilt force, had gone

h. With typical under .t ltLInLnt icwaited

cchecked theirThey stretched Icltheir

the veneer of civilisation his droppedwhere around my back lie wrote Germ in positions s greiisdc here i little luithcr. Thi. German stionpoint

recalled that the advance through the

their greatcoats.

L(away and you see just a line of lienrather iiiatter-of- faetly. phosphorous bonib there.ssliich had scythed the sailors in their iflhld hecanie, at ilnies. 'rather warni

The d .l' -' I I I and a blur of shells."I-Ic slumped iii a shell-hole while"There seenied to he more prison- hundreds rcniained unsubdued. J0hs walked across tile battle] eld;

line lbrmin The floods fell upon the first medic treated his shattered arm and ers than atta.k''e rs,' a perturbed Joe Sliste ordered the guns to conceit- lie didn't run, he wanted to conserve

would pass their lips.German trench "battered almost pondered his hte Mui I iy observed.irate on 11w redoubt. For oil Minutes his ciiciy lot later oil. "All ol ficci

lis eminuies to 0 beyond rcconition Joc MurruySo that was the end of my di c miAround 400 prisoners, in fact. "The tile guns turned their attention to that told mc later that hi. expected to see

The sailors fixed bayonets, stood it observed. No heroic exploits, no ii iumphs Just noise of battle iiisde coniilluilicìtton stubborn, concealed Gcrnrin position drop it toy momcni hi. wrote.

the ready, ]leads and shoulders IcininThere were no Gcrni ins here. Theythree niilcs of retreat in G illipoli and difficult with thusi but file point of thy Around I2 3Opni the rcnhlyints of six ---The expected did not happen.---

tons ocirilics in hand. were cithci dead or [lad ]alien back. ° yards of' advance in France. Net bayonet is understood by ill lighting battalions bludgeoned their way br

5 44amTilefloods pressed oil. The second gain to the ciiciiiy 5,250 yards.--- iien whateverrhis rice or colour,- the ward - and were bloodily repulsed.Bernard I rcybci had spent the night

S/Li Arthur Hart, platoonGerman line was slightly more rcco Douglas Jci iold might consider ordinary Sc illidO recorded. There was nothing left to do Shutc rallying his ad hoc forni ition Shortly

cOillill mdci C C OiTi in Hood iiisahlc is s trench, but still bashed himsclf fortunate. His battalion corn-decided only srmoui could save the before Mini the nicii were to sis ccl)

Battalion, glanced at hiswatch. about". nimdcr was gravely wounded; nine COMMAND DECISIONS day and called foi six links to knock forward finishand " Ii they ]lad

'One miiiute to go, nlen.' Murray found an eiierny dug-out,bellow officers were dead.

d bet-outthe thorn in his division's side.

eouay before

y seizing

tile45am us histlcs Sounded ilon hurled ill

]owed by a couple of' Mills. bornhs1 phosphorous bombbol

ten Lt ColBattalionition

their coiiiiiiandei ONE LAST ATTEMPT These

goodwere a 1icigiantstiiLionci Card) Mont icii field out

And the gods ob ss ir the lioss it/cis the original pinc ipplc slnpcd hind was killed, is were nine ilorc of the hoc They could not be committed little hoc ui thc attack. The ni tchinc

and field guns, barked ill at once. grenade - br good ilcistire to iivikebattalion's officer cadre. Daylight noss bathed the battlefield hcforc dawn oil the fourteenth. guns iii Bcitieourt still fired relentless-

for

relentless-for

Richard Jerryss'hat it was worth; patches of And the men of the Royal Naval Iy, uiiafbected by the Iceble British

Tohin"Thencame the nlist of dawn - a FEARFUL LOSSES November mist still clung to the val-Division dui in luillicl the mud of the barrage.

One hundred and fifty yards ii Nos cmhcr d iss 1 Richard TohinIcybloor, mingliiig ss tb acrid smoke Aiicrc valley and defended thcmscls csThe hail of steel hccamc morc

.of theof ffirnes phosphorus and corditeiiitcnsc as zero hour approaclicd, then

front of the Flood Battalion's trenches, icmcmhcrcd THE ATTACK FALTERS through the afternoon and evening. s I Bernard F Ino-man's land disappeared behind a'Aburst 01 shellsgavea dirty orange . T artillery barrage continued its

They waited for relief and reinforce-jII11IJcOJiI trenchtrench and urodhi

5' ill of 1-Ire', colour and left hoi I ible tunicsBATTALIONS WIPED OUTinexorable creep borss aid

bIlcilt

iiloi , forss trdA few hundred feet away, the The smoke the noise, the chaos ofHaving carried one 0 jcc is c,_ .

. 'Bernard F....................was...I - d Montaizu followed him with ho -

German soldiers were shaken by the battle \Vli5 too much for SOflie lien. As Oil the extreme left of the division ,s rcy cl is as c ci minc 0 In all, elements of seven British divi-

furiousthe......next,. . . ...................................

. . lets raining Past its" - one passedpassebarrage.Gcriiian soldiers emerizecf ]'rout dug-front - furthest Iroili the Anere - Pie carry ic a ci nl,tn rcnc 1 just 5lOS battered and smashed their way "

. - .-

front I tI f B t through his sleeve. Three fillies the---We threw ourselves towards out. outs they ss crc bayoneted by sonic ofWillrim Bioss n climbed out of t boxo ic ruins 0 caucoui surforwards astride tile Ancrc aided

attackstuttered to i halt, but c ichpieces," one Ian/se, recalled. "Red S/Li John Bentham S company. hole he'd been sheltering in, a GermanAiicic, less than 60() yards away. byan unimaginable steel hail; by tinle Fre her" rose and waved theflares soared up and at that precise"It \Vl15 riot that they ssere that waybullet struck his right hand.The Hoods and Drakes continued

mid-day alone that Monday, 240,00(1troops oil. A bullet struck his helmet

illoillcnt 55 c sent 0111 shells on their inclined, but that they had lost allI-I c looked it his wound., part of' lip tile slope, but stopped short of the 181b shells had crashed down on the. .knocking hint to file floor. lie stoodway.scil)hlaflcc to I civilised being. ThThehis right tliuiiih was split He nluit trench which was still being plastered Gcrnian positions. a fourth tiillc and tile 63rd (Royal

From a reasonably sale vantage inferno was enough to send any sane tered to himself, not because he'd by British and German shells.The only place 'here the assaultDivision carriedirriccf the attack.point Douij isJcrrold 'a is incsmci iscd nlin absolutely berserk,- Benthim been wounded but bcc iuse the mound It was there that Joe Murray s battle hid faltered was around the Germ ii)German iiior tIc sccmcd to siicfby the spectacle.reasoned. wasn't bad enough to warrant a trip toended. Struck by shrapnel in the abdo- strongpoint near Beatimont.deiil Crumble 'The Boehes

"Trevor

"The massed artillery oftwo armiesPrisoners not bayoneted fared nothe sick bay.mefl, he awoke a mile behind the line,Otherwise, General Sir DouglasJieos observed were -rushing up to

was raining down on the n ii ross hcttcr. They were sent to tile real.Brown continued for another Ii il f lying oil i stretcher -with somconcH delighted. More than 3,000 surrender so tb ]lands up iii, iiuiobciquarter of a iii i Ic l'roiii the front line where niany were shot by the iiicn of' a mi Ic or so, then glanced at his hand washing mud o Ii my lice-. prisoners had been taken - for the loss theni''where we \sere standing to the German Drake battalion coming up to bolster again.

Hiscomrades were not 50 fortunate. of 5,000-6,000 British casualties. C(lillCi:0fl Shute had wanted to takefront line," he wrote.the attack."The two niiddle fingers were They grabbed their picks and shovels"The success," I-laig concluded,no prisoners; reality dictated that his

Jerrold watched as first the I-Iawkehanging down; there was a gaping and began to dig themselves in before "has conic at a most opportune lien had to.Battalion, then the Nelson behind it, While the Hoods and Drakes linde hole through the paint

- I could haveanother leap into the unknown.moment.' ---Itallwas ama/i ii a sight - they,elanlbered out of the trench and into good progress, the iiien on their left, poked four fingers through. Instead of I t was not all mud, death and came out of their holes, lean ii a oil'the lust shrouding no-nian '5 land.the Hawke and Nelson battalions werefly thuinlb being split, it was ,,cue." destruction, however. The HoodsThe night o f November 13-14 was their eciu i Pilleilt, L ionc I M ontaozu

"I shall never see a sight more mown clown.William Brown's battle was over. found a Gernlan supply depot- andcold and damp. There was little rest.remembered.

noble," a nioved JerrolclA German strongpoint with promptly raided it.The men grabbed picks and shovels "I myself rounded'.' wrote.three machine-gun nests and Only on the right of the line was"We opened their parcels and and dug in. The machine-guns rat- lip at least 50, waving

"Eight lines of men passed concrete dug-outs, svell-hidden, the Royal Naval Division making smoked their cigars," Lionel Montagufled all night long; there was the re- lily revolver at themI11C so closely that I could proved tiipervious to the British ground. recalled. "We found lots of good quent crack of nIle fire. There were and

shoutine :see every expression on their barrage. r With the Anere, a road and things to eat, including sausages few comforts for those in the front Sc./j,lc//!"laces as they faded into theThe first the men of Hawkc railway line oil their right, and cakes, as well as socks." line, except perhaps for capturedBut, as Shuitc

mist.and then Nelson Battalion, . the 'Steadies' Eiuind, as ice , The battle plan calledGerman rations including, had predicted."I saw notoneexpression following behind, knew Murray succinctly put it, for another spring for- as Lionel Montagu found taking large

'

of fcar or regret, or even of of the redoubt was when -their IcIt is ing in the ward, this time through inside two hot water hot iluilihci s of ,

surprise."themachine-guns rattled air". ,the ruins of the village to ties., cold coffee and prisoners posed

and the hot steel ripped Within hall an hour of a final objective beyond-

liqueurs, problems.Not so Joe Murray. He through the khaki and --r . the attack beginning, the Beaucourt drawn on the ,.was afraid. Hood Battalion tore through their flesh. \Hoods had been reduced map by the stall' plan- --In the darkness of the " Continued

was moving slowly across theBy die time tile two- -

to little more than 300 tiers: the red line.'

small hours ofthe f'ourteenth, on page iv

Page 4: 200611 Somme Supplement

iv THESOMME90 YEARSON. NOVEMBER 2006

" Continued from page iii- -

)

---it \sas rather tricky \vandering,

surrendering Germans, as one never

Hun would riot have a shot or throw

In the Hood Battalion's make- mine

shill headquarters amid the ruins of /,Beaucourt, Ni ontagu found areflec-tiveBernard Freyhera.

5555155555555i\\.\\/i had a long talk: how proud he -."sv,,,155was of the Hood, boss splendidly the

eassø'battalion had done in attacking and ( .55155

-

carrying the three objectives i two ,l 5Ø55.11GRANI)COURT

days, over 1.000 prisoners besidesml ::

machne-guns and a vastquantity

of i Selion'5

stores," Montagu recalled.'°'e sliLe- -

He had, he confided in his corn-

rade. always dreamed of capturing--

Beaucourt. /'' 11050

NI ontagu too became wistful. If hesurvived this war, he told Freyherg, 50

4:5

-

hewouldname a racehorseBeaucourt f

(he did it even won a race). 4ssST PIERRE

This pleasant interlude was soonA,ni,yIllVION

shattered.) mi

I

TheGermaniztins barked "such as

had riever experienced," MontaguiJ / THEROYAL NAVAL DIVISION )

recalled.llANA S ON THE ANCRE, NOVEMBER 1916

The men threw themselves ontheir stomachs and took shelter in a - - -

- - - - ,, - - - - -

shallow trench.---Here we lay for about half an

hour. I don't want to exaggerate butI was sure that 30 of these big shells'el I within 20 yards of us,'' wroteMontagu.

S/Lt Trevor Jacobs cowered in atrench as the German barrage inten-sified. -

"I saw one man blown up 50 to 70Yards high and come down without Beaucourtany clothing on, and saw the lower r

S

half of anothermanblownup

quite

near me." - -

. :

-

Thebarrage

lasted

nearly

four ."-

hours. At least two, andpossibly

three, times Montau and Freybera

were buried bv the reninarits of'

The barrage or 1k

pp front line.,

55 is struck ill the neck by shrapnel- a fragment also struck Montagu in -_

S S

thehead alterpiercing his helmet.

S'

Thetwomen

lay side-by-side,

ypyiUnd

All tile tinic, the battalion coniniand-issued orders.erAll(] then 1IC turned to his Coin-

rade. ---Do you think 1 could walk totile dressing station'?" lie asked.

to escort his 1 elms it an enibank-nient to the first aid post maybe 300yards il~\r~1V.

And there, with shells still falling," The guns now silent, the Ancre battlefield today

Lionel Montagu delivered Bernard Picture: Capt Christopher Page, Nasal Historical BranchFri'vher' Into iii,' care of'I hi' fliedk's

"You can imagine what a gaphe left when he was wounded,'Montagu wrote later.

''Not only had he behaved withmarvellous courage and heroismthroughout, but he showed realmili-tarygenius.

The officer mused: "Ifhe is spared,the whole world will he talking oflint Soon.

Freyherg was spared. And theworld would indeed soon he talk ingabout him. For his actions on theSomme he would earn the VictoriaCross.

THEAFTERMATHTRAGIC SIGHTS

BOTH SIDES CLAIM VICTORY

Fortunately for the Royal NavalDivision, Bernard Freybergsvas wounded with the battle f'orl3eaueourt all but won.

Isolated pockets of German troopsheld out in the shattered villageUntil around midnight, then filteredthrough the scant British lines toreioni their comrades.

As for the sailors, they wererelieved in the small hours of thefifteenth by men from Yorkshire,Lincolnshire and Lancashire and sentto the rear.

Lionel Montagu took shelter frontthe November cold in a capturedGerman dug-out and grabbed threehours' sleep; a doctorshared a secondbunk space; the third was occupiedby a dead German oflicer.

As he wandered hack through thebattlefield oftwo days before, TrevorJacobs came across the strongpointwhich had taken such a hideous tollof Royal Naval Division blood.

"I never saw anything so tragic,"he svrote. "It was a shambles, anyamount of our brave telloss-s being allround in shell holes and ss ith terriblewounds, some of them with ha If ahead blown of]', others without legsand arms, and others with numerousbullet svounds."

In Englehelmer, the miserablevillage where the sailors had waitedbefore the assault, the men were nictby 'Tiger' Shute.A month before lie had thought

little of these sailor-soldiers. Now hehad changed his tune.

"You Floods are wonderful, themen are magnificent and the oflicersare marveIloits,'' he blurted out as theweary troops filed past.

Magnificent and marvellous, yes.But also few.

Of'Trevor Jacobs' company whichhad begun the battle 150 strong, therewere just 85 men left.November 1916 was a black

month. On average, the Royal NavalDivision lost three officers and 53men killed everyday. Total casualties,dead and wounded, amounted toalmost 4,000.

The Battle of the Somme fizzledout on Monday November 19.Douglas Haig was delighted withthe outcome.

,.The picture is full of encour-agement and promise," the generaldeclared. The enemy, lie proclaimed,had sufibred "far heavier" losses; hismorale had suffered too.

"It is safe to conclude that anappreciable proportion of the Germansoldiers are now practically beatenmen ready to surrender."

That was riot how Crown PrinceRuppreeht saw it. For all theirelThrts, the Allies had seized only"a narrow strip of utterly-ruinedterrain". Victory was Germany's, notBritain's.

In a rousing order of the clay, liedeclared:

Everyone who was there can beproud to have been a warrior ofthe Somme. The greatest battleof the war, perhaps the greatestof' all time, has been won.

No man in the Royal Naval Divisionwould permit the tag 'Germanvictory' to the battle for Beaucourt.It was a British victory, a Royal Navyvictory, through and through.

The 63rd (Royal Naval) Division,Douglas Flaig proclaimed, "advancedfurther and took more prisoners thanany division had clone in one day.---

When Lionel Montagu (filled withEdward Beddington, one of Gough'sstall' of'fieers, st few days after thebattle, praise was heaped upon thesoldier-sailors. "No division haddone better," Beddington told him.

Montagu agreed. ''I always thoughtthat it was a magnificent divisionwith splend cl officers and men,'' liewrote afterwards.

"I hope they now get their fairshare of honour."

They did."The capture of Beaucourt was a

brilliant piece of work," The Timexenthused. "It gave England anotherhero."

In reality, it gave England, orrather Britain, a division of heroes.

Their memory, Winston Churchill- the division's original architect- wrote, would flourish 1(11) yearshence. He continued:

By theirconduct in the forefrontof the battle, by their character,and by the feats of arms whichthey performed. they raisedthemselves into that gloriouscompany of the seven or eightmost famous divisions of theBritish Army in the Great War.

Their reputation

Ivasconsistently maintained in spiteof losses ofso awful a characteras to sweep away three orfour times over the originalpersonnel.

A week after the battle Sb/iso,:!- stall' doctor - Hugo Natt with 118Reserve Iofiuitei'ie Regiment wan-dered over the battlefield.

"Everywhere there are deep shellcraters, mostly filled to the brim withwater," he recorded in his diary.

'Then a hideous group ofcorpses,about six, the bodies ripped to shreds,covered with blood and mud.

"The head of one is half, shotaway, a bit further on there's a legshot away. a couple of bodies havebecome so entangled that amid themud we cannot identify the indi-vidual bodies."The Somme, a rather obscure

German hoopononn - captain - Hallsvolt Hetitig wrote after the war, "wasthe muddy grave of the German fieldarmy and oftlte faith in the infallibil-ity of German leadership."

In the post-war years, Hentig'swords were seized upon by Haig'ssupporters as proof the general'sstrategy on the Somme had beencorrect.

THE SOMME- AGAIN

ATERRIBLE GAME OF WAR

The Royal Naval Division's associa-tion with the Somme and tile Aricredid not end in November 1916.

They were back in the line inFebruary 1917.A healed Joe Murray found little

had changed in three ntdinths."The whole of the Anci'e valley

is a filthy quagmire,'' lie wrote illhis chary.

"After years of constant shellingthere's not a yard of even groundanywhei'e.

"The shelling continues, eachsalvo putting sonic poor old blighterout of It is ntisery without a murmur.

"There are itlomettts when I won-der that, if it were possible to con-verse with ally of lily departed pals,what their answer svould be to lilyquestion: Is this pain and siilk,~.iiiggetting u.s ani'wheie"

It was a little question, bill Murraytried to answer it."Men are born to die. The time

and place is of no consequence. Eachbreath of life we take or give leavesits less of life to live.

"Providence is our only hope asthe shells continue to reap their har-vest."

That winter Douglas Haig touredthe former battlefield. The Scotsmanwas riot a figure prone to reveal-ing his inner emotions, yet lie wasfor once nosed by the deeds ofhis armies in this "terrible gante ofwar".

"No-one can visit the Sommewithout being impressed with themagnitude of the effort iliade by theBritish soldier," lie wrote.

"To many it meant certain deathand all must have known that beforethey started,"

Leuoiaitt Otto Ahrends, a Bavarianregimental adjutant, perhaps wrotethe epitaph of every man who 'oughtat the Somme ill 1916, f`riend andf'oe:

When you see a fighter whowas there at the Soninte, bowlow to the -,round, because Yousiniply do riot know what hedid for you.

In February 1917, Lt Alan Patrick Herbert (picturedbe/otis) recorded his impressions in 'Beaucourt revisited':

I wciv4y np to 'F.eawcoccrt; t tookg the rvertracl,saw the L.i.ves we Lived ss, before the B'oche went

bacskt,;Bcst peace was now 'csv Pottage, the Front wasfar ahead,The Front

hjorsrsvejec Eastward and ovsLj le thedead,

And I thocght, f-tow Lofrvg we Laid there, a,d watchedacross the Wi.re,whLe gi.i.vs roared roc<.svd the vaLLej, and set thesesa'firel

vuow there are hoss&es ii'c f-tai'v.eL and tesvts in theVale of I-i-eLI,And a cai'stp at Scsic'cde corner, where half a re ØLssselvtfelt.

The newtroops foLLow a'er, av..d tread the Lasvd we wovt,,To thepsc 'ts so m.csch hLLsLde re-wrested fro-the t-tcsi.s,;We oiLj waLk with reverence

otxrTU0001

th~.5 .5k1Len vK~Le of nt,ci;lle sheLL-hole's hoLd okr k~.StOrd, and kPLfoftlien,,

f-tere, at the head of Peche Street, 'twas death to showoi,cr face;

To tv.e t seeisi,ed Like visasic to Liss.ger Liv the pLace;For 'ste how vstaiai.j spirits hctivg rois the Kev,tLshCaves,

t the w see o spirits -thee oL seethe

graves.

I foctvud the haLf-dug ditches we fash'rosved for the

fight,we Lost a score of isceis. there - ou,ssgJavises was

kiLLed that vs'cght;I sawthe star sheLLs star'm'vg. t heard the bi,cLLets haiL,

'ctt the newtroops pass ucsvheed't.svg-thed never

heard the tale.

I crossed the bLood-red r'dbboss,, that once was No-

Mtti'v's t,..aivd.

Saw a sst'dstj dajbreak avud a

creepia'vg sstisvutte-hasvd;

And here the Lads went over, al-0d

there was t-tarm,sworth shot,

And here was w'cLL'casss, Lj'wg-bi.st the new si,tesv kiow theist

And I sid, "There is stiLL

the river, asvd stiLL the

stiff, stark trees,

To treasisre here ousr stor3,bitt there are ois.L these;"

'B'i,ct cu'sderthe white-wood crosses the dead ssa,eis, -.answered Low,"The new istess, ksvow ss.ot eaco-t bitt we are here- we know,"

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

With particular thanks to CaptChristopher Page and the staff of theNaval Historical Branch. Portsmouth

The following books have also beenconsulted:

A fI'Ierhacht, Holger Kaiser Willie,,, IIa/.s Oheisie,' Kriegs/teri' On ErsientVeltk,'ieg

Arthur. Max /lx,'ooe,t Voices of theGreat War

Binding, Rudolf A Fatalist at tVa,'Brown, Malcol ni The Inipeiial Wa,'

Mii.sei,ni Book of the SotttitteDc Groot, Gerard Douglas Hii~gDti 'by, Christopher Through Gernian

Eves: The British and the ,Son,nieFoerster, Wolfgang Wir Kunipt'r On

t-Ve/rk,'ie,qHaig. Douglas Diary, field by the

National Archive, KewHart, Peter 'The SoninieHirschtfelch, Gerhiard (Cd) Die

Denise/ic,, au die Soiiiine /9/4-1918

Hoh'fntann, Rticholf Dci' Deuuc'IteSo/dat: Briefe aim dciii tVe/iki'ieg

Holloway. Susan Froin Trench andTurret

ern)Id.Douglas GeorgianAdventure

Jerrold, Douglas The Roval NavalDivision

Murray. Joseph Call to A?-insPage. Christopher Conuttaitd in the

Royal Naval DivisionReicltsarcltiv. Der tVeItk,'ieg 1914-

19/8. Band XI, Her/,,st 1916The Royal Naval Division, magazine

edited by Leonard SellarsSell ars. Leonard, The Hood

BattalionSheldon, Jack The Ge,',na,i A,',tt- on

the SontineThtompson, Juhiatt The 1916

ExperienceThonipson, Julian 7'/t e Royal

Marines: Front Sea Soldiers to aSpecial Force

Williams, John, Corporal Hit/c,' andthe Great tVa,'

Winter. Denis Haig '.5 Co,,u,ta,id: ARe-A ,sse,s.s,,ie,it