The history of the Twentieth (Light) Division

by Valentine Erskine Inglefield

During the fortnight which the Division spent in this sector the time was chiefly spent in improving the line and in making preparations for a coming attack. Accordingly the artillery and the troops in the front trenches were kept fairly busy, while the enemy trench mortars caused a good deal of fresh damage and hindered the parties working at night. The Divisional Signal Company was largely occupied in an attempt to sort out a complex system of buried cables left by the VIIIth Corps after the unsuccessful attack at the beginning of the month. Wire cutting by shell-fire was carried out daily for the first four days of August. On the 4th our trench mortars and Stokes guns and the 59th Brigade machine guns co-operated with the artillery in a bombardment to silence the enemy’s trench mortars. That evening, between 7 and 9.15 P.M., another bombardment was carried out in order to assist the operations of the Ist Anzac Corps at Pozières. It had been intended to make a smoke and gas attack on the front of the 61st Brigade, but the wind was unfavourable, so all that could be done was to bring the enemy’s trenches under rifle and machine-gun fire. The 61st Machine Gun Company fired 14,000 rounds, forming a barrage behind the enemy’s line between Beaumont Hamel and Serre. The enemy’s retaliation was slight at the time, but at 11 P.M. he opened a heavy trench mortar fire.

On the 7th the 61st Brigade was relieved by the 74th Brigade of the 25th Division, and went into Divisional reserve about Coigneux. On the same day the 38th Divisional Artillery was relieved by that of the Guards, whose left group fired 1000 rounds on the German front line on the 8th to assist the operations of the Fourth Army.

A good deal of preparation was made on the 13th to meet an expected attack. The army operators at the listening sets overheard a conversation between two German officers, which seemed to indicate that a bombardment our lines, to be followed by a raid, had been arranged to take place that night. The Germans actually shot tracing tapes by rocket across “No man’s land,” exactly bounding the front of the expected attack. Neither the bombardment nor the raid, however, came off, the night as a matter of fact being particularly quiet.

On the 14th the 61st Brigade relieved the 60th, and that night made a smoke barrage in conjunction with operations further south, while artillery, machine-gun and rifle fire was opened along the whole Divisional front, a barrage behind the enemy’s support line being made by the 61st Machine Gun Company.

Two days later, on relief by the Guards, the Division went out of the line, and after a few days in the district known as “A” area, with headquarters at Beauval, moved towards the scene of the battle in which it was to make its name. On the 22nd of August the 20th relieved the 24th Division in the sector north of the Guillemont-Montauban road. The 6th Divisional Artillery, which had been attached to the 20th Division since the 17th, when it had replaced that of the Guards, moved also to the new area. Divisional Headquarters was opened on the 23rd at Minden Post, near Carnoy.

The 59th Brigade held with one battalion in the front line the right sector from the Guillemont-Montauban road just west of Guillemont village to the station, with Brigade Headquarters at the Briqueterie, about half a mile south-east of Montauban. The 61st Brigade had a battalion and a half in the front trenches, continuing the line to a point just south of the south-east corner of Delville Wood. Brigade Headquarters was north-east of Bernafay Wood. The 60th Brigade was in reserve at the Craters, close to the Carnoy-Montauban road, about 1000 yards from Carnoy.

In order to appreciate the important part which the capture of Guillemont played in the general scheme, we will review briefly the course of the fighting up to this date. The original British line enclosed Maricourt on the east and north, running thence westward as far as Fricourt, which was in the hands of the enemy. It then turned rather west of north, past La Boisselle, Thiepval and Beaumont Hamel, all of which formed part of the German front line defences. Between the British right flank and the Somme the fighting was carried on by the French. The attack of the 1st of July gave us Montauban, Mametz, and a sharp salient each side of La Boisselle. These gains were increased in the fighting of the next fortnight to include Fricourt, Mametz Wood, Contalmaison, Ovillers-la-Boisselle and all ground between these places. On the left flank the German defences on the high ground south of Thiepval held out for many weeks. A second attack just before dawn on the 14th of July yielded very important results; a footing was gained on the great ridge which extends between Combles and Thiepval, and part of the enemy’s second defensive system was broken.

Sir Douglas Haig in his despatch[2] divides the battle of the Somme into three phases. In the first, which ended with this advance on the 14th-18th of July, the success of the attacks evidently came as a surprise to the enemy, who must have considered his defences practically impregnable. The second phase was a severe struggle for the possession of the main ridge, ending with the capture of Guillemont and Ginchy on the 3rd and 9th of September respectively. By this time the enemy had begun to bring strong reinforcements on to the scene, so that on the 18th of July, at the close of the first phase, his 62 battalions had been increased to 138, and by the end of August, when the 20th Division came into the fighting, his original 6 divisions on the front of attack had been reinforced by 30 divisions more.[3] The third phase was the exploitation of the success.

The line gained by the 18th of July, at the close of the first phase, included Trônes Wood, Delville Wood, and Longueval; it then turned to the west, passing on the north side of Bazentin-le-Grand and Bazentin-le-Petit to join our original trenches near Ovillers-le-Boisselle. This left a dangerously sharp salient about Longueval and Delville Wood, overlooked by the enemy all round from the south-east to the north-west. Behind this salient ran the French communications as well as our own, and many guns and much ammunition had here to be crowded into a confined space. It was evident that the enemy might well cause us heavy loss by bringing concentrated artillery fire to bear on this area, while if he could drive in the salient he would get direct observation over the ground behind. Indeed, in a heavy counter attack on the 18th he succeeded in regaining part of Delville Wood and penetrated into the northern half of Longueval, maintaining these gains until on the 27th and 29th he was once more driven back. It became particularly important, therefore, in this struggle for the ridge, to straighten out the line by the capture of Guillemont and Leuze Wood, so bringing the right flank of the attack into line with the centre.

With this end in view, while a further advance was being made in the north towards High Wood and Pozières, several attacks were made on Guillemont. The first, on the 23rd of July, failed. On the 30th of July, and again on the 8th of August, our troops entered the village but were unable to hold it. Lastly, on the 16th and 18th of August, attacks planned on a more comprehensive scale advanced the line to Guillemont station and to within a few hundred yards of the outskirts of the village, which, however, still remained in German hands.[4]