At first the working of the communications between D.H.Q. and the leading infantry was all that could be desired. In spite of the incessant shelling, messages came in quickly, and General Furse was able to keep in close touch with his attacking brigades. Thus, on learning that the 11th Royal Scots and the right battalion of the Third Division had been checked by undamaged wire, he sent out directions for the 26th Brigade to assist the 27th, which in turn was to help the Third Division. As a consequence, the advance was maintained practically without a halt. At 5.50 A.M. the G.O.C. learned that Brig.-General Ritchie’s brigade had secured its first two objectives, and an hour later that the left brigade had captured everything except the north of Longueval. When at 6.29 A.M. he was informed that the whole of the village was held by the 27th Brigade, he had every reason to be jubilant.
Unfortunately the information was inaccurate, as a message at 7.20 A.M. made clear. General Furse knew that the check to the 12th Royal Scots was a most serious matter. The possession of the Longueval plateau was the key to the operations against High Wood in the north, and if the village was not taken, the plans of Sir Douglas Haig would be thrown out of gear. Moreover, it was from Longueval that the attack on Delville Wood was to be launched; without it the operation would be more intricate. The crisis demanded decisive action, and the G.O.C. placed the 1st South African Regiment under the orders of Brig.-General Scrase-Dickins, who was instructed to make every effort to clear the village. General Furse was also keenly concerned about Waterlot Farm, which had yet to be taken by the Highland Brigade, since its capture was the necessary preliminary to an attack on Guillemont. Realising that the 26th and 27th Brigades had been heavily punished, he warned Brig.-General Lukin that his brigade would be required to take Delville Wood.
When the advance of the 12th Royal Scots was checked, 2nd Lieut. A. Noble, now the most senior officer on the spot, held a conference of the surviving officers. It was decided to make another attempt with two companies, and they moved forward at 7 A.M., but did not get beyond Piccadilly. At 8.30 A.M. another effort was made by the battalion from the line of Clarges Street. Three sections with a Lewis Gun tried to force their way up North Street by rushing from house to house, but, after progressing fifty yards, they were brought to a halt by machine-gun fire and withdrew to the shelter of a barricade, which had been erected at the junction of North Street and Clarges Street.
At 8.48 A.M. Brig.-General Scrase-Dickins received orders from General Furse. These were that the village was to be bombarded, and that the brigade was to make another attack at 10.30 A.M. But the communications in front were not so satisfactory, and, owing to the delay in the transmission of instructions, the attack was not launched until 11 A.M. To supplement the artillery, Stokes Guns bombarded the orchard area, concentrating on suspected machine-gun posts, but the assault from the line of Clarges Street was again defeated.
It was clear that the northern part of Longueval could not be cleared by a casual or haphazard attack. The enclosed nature of the oblong of orchards made it difficult to locate the enemy’s posts with certainty, and the artillery were handicapped by the want of a post from which to observe the fire. The problem was in fact more intricate than was realised at the time. The battering that the village had received from our guns had only been sufficient to convert it into a stronghold of immense strength. Amidst the jagged and tumbled masonry the defenders had numerous well-protected corners from which they could fire without being detected, and the oblong was full of shelters where the garrison could take refuge from the fire of field-guns. The whole area needed to be pulverised by heavy shells, as General Furse soon realised. Against infantry alone the place was virtually impregnable, since the scope for manœuvring was limited and all approaches were swept by the fire of the defenders. Such was the task that Brig.-General Scrase-Dickins was asked to accomplish.
The 1st South African Infantry bore the brunt of the next attack. Lieut.-Colonel Dawson’s men had moved up to the line of Clarges Street through heavy shell-fire without a casualty. From noon till 2 P.M. the northern part of the village was bombarded, but, as it was believed that isolated parties of the 12th Royal Scots were in the village, the shelling was directed chiefly on the wood to the east of it. Then followed a great deal of confused fighting in which, by the nature of the ground, the South Africans were split into a number of detached groups. Such reports as reached Brigade H.Q. were so vague that it was impossible to act upon them, and it was not till 10.44 P.M. that the position of the South Africans was known. At that time one company was in Piccadilly, immediately south of Duke Street; another was trying to work round from Piccadilly to North Street; a third was in reserve at the south-east corner of the village; and nothing certain was known of the remaining company, which was believed to be on the east side of North Street. That night at 10.50 P.M. Brig.-General Scrase-Dickins urged Lieut.-Colonel Dawson not to relax his efforts and to endeavour to clear the whole of the village before dawn, in order that the attack on Delville Wood might be delivered from it.
While the left brigade was engaged in sanguinary conflicts among the orchards of Longueval, the Highland Brigade was endeavouring to capture Waterlot Farm. This work had been allotted to the 7th Seaforths, who were in Montauban Alley when the battle commenced. As Lieut.-Colonel Kennedy expected the enemy’s counter-barrage to fall on Montauban Alley, he arranged that his men should follow as close as possible behind the Black Watch in order to escape it, and thus the whole battalion avoided the shelling except one platoon, which suffered severely. Advancing on the heels of the Black Watch the leading company entered the German front line and passed along behind the wire in a north-easterly direction. The next two companies consolidated the enemy’s front line and a support line, while the fourth followed in support of the leading company. The Seaforths, finding the Black Watch held up by the machine-gun post at the south-east corner of Longueval, attempted to outflank it by working along Dover Street and Down Street on the south of the village, but they were stopped by hostile fire from Waterlot Farm. In spite of repeated efforts the post held out, for the ground was all in favour of the defenders.
At 2 P.M. Brig.-General Ritchie ordered the Camerons to move up from Montauban. They were to assist in clearing the village, co-operate in the assault on the post that was holding up the Black Watch and Seaforths, and push on to Waterlot Farm. Under drenching shell-fire the Camerons marched up by companies to the village, the outskirts of which they reached at 4 P.M. Before dark one company cleared the houses just north of Clarges Street and a building immediately north of Princes Street, known as the Hospice; another company, in co-operation with the Black Watch and Seaforths, at last accounted for the post on the south-east of the village, which fell to a converging attack, the garrison being bayoneted and three machine-guns being captured. A third company and a company of Seaforths then pressed on towards Waterlot Farm, and in spite of severe machine-gun fire and accurate sniping a good deal of progress was made. The main body took up a position just west of the farm, while a party of the Seaforths advanced down Longueval Alley until they came in touch with the Eighteenth Division, which had done great work that day by capturing the whole of Trones Wood.
After a day of strenuous fighting, in which many losses had been sustained, the Division had just failed to win complete success. The enemy still held the north of Longueval and Waterlot Farm, and Delville Wood still remained to be taken. At midnight the position was as follows: The Argylls held all the south and south-west of Longueval, with lines established in Clarges Street, Sloane Street, and the old German front line from the Windmill to Pall Mall; the Black Watch were in a semicircle round the north-east corner of the central square, and occupied also a line 300 yards long, parallel to and 50 yards south of Princes Street; three companies of the Seaforths held the old German front line on the right of the Argylls; the remaining company and three companies of the Camerons were in Longueval Alley as far as Trones Wood, just west of Waterlot Farm. On the left the 12th Royal Scots were consolidating along the line of Piccadilly, the 11th Royal Scots occupied Duke Street up to Pont Street, and the 9th Scottish Rifles were in the old German support line on the left of the 11th Royal Scots. The 6th K.O.S.B. had not been involved in the fighting, but their work in carrying up stores of all kinds under continuous shell-fire had been of the greatest value.
That evening the G.O.C. met his brigadiers in Montauban, and discussed with them the operations to be carried out on the following day. The 27th Brigade was to continue its attack on Longueval, and the 26th on Waterlot Farm. Delville Wood was to be assaulted by the South African Brigade under cover of a creeping H.E. barrage. This attack was arranged for 5 A.M., and, should the 27th fail to secure the village during the night, was to be delivered from the south-west.