The 56th was afterwards sent to the XIV. Corps, Fourth Army, and took part in the successful attack of 9th September, now officially the “Battle of Ginchy.” Paragraph 23: “At Ginchy and to the north of Leuze Wood it met with almost immediate success. On the right (56th Division) the enemy’s line was seized over a front of more than 1000 yards.” Paragraphs 27 and 28 deal with another successful attack on 15th September and following days, officially the “Battle of Flers-Courcelette,” when the Division was again employed.
While the French worked up the south side of Combles, the 56th encompassed it from the north and, on 26th September, met their Allies in the town. Down to the close of the Somme battles, the Division, “hard-worked and splendid,” Sir A. Conan Doyle describes them, “were doing fine work always on the extreme right.”
The fighting between 25th and 28th September has been designated the “Battle of Morval,” and that between 1st and 18th October, the “Battle of the Transloy Ridges.”
The despatch of 25th December, 1917, paragraph 13 (Dent’s edition), shows that the 56th, again in the VII. Corps, Third Army, took part in the Battle of Arras which opened on 9th April, 1917. Paragraph 14: “By 12 noon the 12th Division had captured Observation Ridge and, with the exception of Railway Triangle, the whole of our second objectives were in our possession from south of Neuville Vitasse, stormed by London Territorials (56th Division), to north of La Folie Farm.” A large number of prisoners were taken. The 56th had an extremely difficult task and met with stubborn resistance. As was to be expected, their losses were considerable.
Paragraph 17: “On 12th April our attacks on Héninel and Wancourt were renewed, and our troops (21st and 56th Divisions) succeeded in carrying both villages, as well as in completing the capture of the Hindenburg line for some 2000 yards south of the Cojeul river.”
Paragraph 27: On 11th May “London troops (56th Division) captured Cavalry Farm.”
In addition to the actions mentioned in these extracts, the Division was engaged throughout the Arras operations on many other occasions, notably on 13th and 14th April and on 3rd May, when one brigade made an excellent advance. Throughout the battles of Arras the work of the 56th was of outstanding merit.
The fighting between 9th and 14th April is now the “First Battle of the Scarpe, 1917,” and that on 3rd and 4th May the “Third Battle of the Scarpe, 1917.”
The Division was employed on 16th August, 1917, in the second big attack in the Third Battle of Ypres, now “The Battles of Ypres, 1917.” The action of 16th August is now designated the “Battle of Langemarck.”
Paragraph 46 of the same despatch: “On the right of the British attack the enemy again developed the main strength of his resistance. At the end of a day of very heavy fighting, except for small gains of ground on the western edge of Glencorse Wood and north of Westhoek by the 56th Division (Major-General F. A. Dudgeon) and the 8th Division the situation south of St. Julien remained unchanged.”