- One Company 5th Cheshires (Pioneers).
- One Section 2/2nd London Field Company, R.E.
- Y 56—2-inch Mortar Battery.
The artillery affiliated to the Brigade consisted of four 18-pr. batteries and one 4·5-inch howitzer battery, comprising the southern group.
Similar attachments were made to the 167th Brigade, and over and above these there remained at the disposal of the Divisional artillery, a counter-battery group consisting of two 18-pr. and one 4·5-inch howitzer batteries; and two 18-pr. batteries in reserve; while of trench mortars there were one 2-inch battery (X 56) and two heavy (9½-inch) mortars.
During the evening of the 30th June the other battalions of the Brigade began to move into W sector to take up their assembly positions. The assembly areas are marked on the map in Roman numerals as follows:
- London Scottish (right front).
- Rangers (left front).
- Kensingtons (right support).
- 1/4th Londons (left support).
As each battalion arrived and took over its area the various companies of the 1/4th Londons withdrew to No. IV area in rear of the Rangers. In order to avoid congestion and cross traffic in the communication trenches several platoons of the 1/4th Londons had to withdraw to assembly position over the open, and by 10 p.m. this operation was completed.
The 1st July was a glorious summer day, and the light haze which tells of great heat hung over the rolling hills of this great plain which was destined to become the scene of so great a struggle. With the earliest grey of dawn the Germans opened an intense bombardment on all our trenches, to which no reply was made by our artillery. This severe shelling started at about 2.45 a.m. and lasted for nearly an hour: in the course of it part of the Rangers were blown out of their assembly trenches and compelled to make a temporary withdrawal to our area, causing a good deal of congestion and confusion.
At 6.25 a.m. our week old bombardment increased to "hurricane" intensity and every gun, trench mortar and machine-gun on the British front from Gommecourt to the Somme came into action, pouring a hail of shot and shell into the enemy lines with merciless precision and rapidity. Under such a colossal weight of metal it seemed that nothing could live, and it was confidently hoped that the bombardment would go far towards breaking down the enemy's morale and power of resistance to our attack.
At 7.25 a.m. a smoke barrage was raised along the whole front of the attack by firing smoke bombs from the front trenches, and under this at 7.30 a.m. the British battalions moved to the assault under cover of a creeping barrage, a moving curtain of fire.
On the 168th Brigade front the attack was made by each assaulting battalion on a four-company front, each company in column of platoons in extended order. The attack as a whole, therefore, moved in four "waves," and following as a fifth wave moved a trench-clearing party consisting of two platoons of B Company of the 1/4th Londons.