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ATTACK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS
ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO
MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
TORONTO
ATTACK
AN INFANTRY SUBALTERN'S IMPRESSIONS
OF JULY 1ST, 1916
BY
EDWARD G.D. LIVEING
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
JOHN MASEFIELD
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1918
_All rights reserved_
COPYRIGHT, 1918
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
Set up and electrotyped. Published, April, 1918
TO
THE N.C.O.s
AND
MEN OF No. 5 PLATOON
Of a Battalion of the County of London
Regiment, whom I had the good
fortune to command in France
during 1915-1916, and in
particular to the
memory of
RFN. C.N. DENNISON
My Platoon Observer, who fell in action
July 1st, 1916, in an attempt
to save my life
INTRODUCTION
The attack on the fortified village of Gommecourt, which Mr. Liveing
describes in these pages with such power and colour, was a part of the
first great allied attack on July 1, 1916, which began the battle of
the Somme. That battle, so far as it concerns our own troops, may be
divided into two sectors: one, to the south of the Ancre River, a
sector of advance, the other, to the north of the Ancre River, a
containing sector, in which no advance was possible. Gommecourt
itself, which made a slight but important salient in the enemy line in
the containing sector, was the most northern point attacked in that
first day's fighting.
Though the Gommecourt position is not impressive to look at, most of
our soldiers are agreed that it was one of the very strongest points
in the enemy's fortified line on the Western Front. French and Russian
officers, who have seen it since the enemy left it, have described it
as "terrible" and as "the very devil." There can be no doubt that it
was all that they say.
The country in that part is high-lying chalk downland, something like
the downland of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, though generally barer
of trees, and less bold in its valleys. Before the war it was
cultivated, hedgeless land, under corn and sugar-beet. The chalk is
usually well-covered, as in Buckinghamshire, with a fat clay. As the
French social tendency is all to the community, there are few lonely
farms in that countryside as there would be with us. The inhabitants
live in many compact villages, each with a church, a market-place, a
watering-place for stock, and sometimes a château and park. Most of
the villages are built of red brick, and the churches are of stone,
not (as in the chalk countries with us) of dressed flint. Nearly all
the villages are planted about with orchards; some have copses of
timber trees. In general, from any distance, the villages stand out
upon the downland as clumps of woodland. Nearly everywhere near the
battlefield a clump of orchard, with an occasional dark fir in it, is
the mark of some small village. In time of peace the Picardy farming
community numbered some two or three hundred souls. Gommecourt and
Hébuterne were of the larger kind of village.
A traveller coming towards Gommecourt as Mr. Liveing came to it, from
the west, sees nothing of the Gommecourt position till he reaches
Hébuterne. It is hidden from him by the tilt of the high-lying chalk
plateau, and by the woodland and orchards round Hébuterne village.
Passing through this village, which is now deserted, save for a few
cats, one comes to a fringe of orchard, now deep in grass, and of
exquisite beauty. From the hedge of this fringe of orchard one sees
the Gommecourt position straight in front, with the Gommecourt salient
curving round on slightly rising ground, so as to enclose the left
flank.
At first sight the position is not remarkable. One sees, to the left,
a slight rise or swelling in the chalk, covered thickly with the
remains and stumps of noble trees, now mostly killed by shell-fire.
This swelling, which is covered with the remains of Gommecourt Park,
is the salient of the enemy position. The enemy trenches here jut out
into a narrow pointing finger to enclose and defend this slight rise.
Further to the right, this rise becomes a low, gentle heave in the
chalk, which stretches away to the south for some miles, becoming
lower and gentler in its slope as it proceeds. The battered woodland
which covers its higher end contains the few stumps and heaps of brick
that were once Gommecourt village. The lower end is without trees or
buildings.
This slight wooded rise and low, gentle heave in the chalk make up the
position of Gommecourt. It is nothing but a gentle rise above a gentle
valley. From a mile or two to the south of Gommecourt, this valley
appearance becomes more marked. If one looks northward from this point
the English lines seem to follow a slight rise parallel with the
other. The valley between the two heaves of chalk make the No Man's
Land or space between the enemy trenches and our own. The salient
shuts in the end of the valley and enfilades it.
The position has changed little since the attack of July 1. Then, as
now, Gommecourt was in ruins, and the trees of the wood were mostly
killed. Then, as now, the position looked terrible, even though its
slopes were gentle and its beauty not quite destroyed, even after two
years of war.
The position is immensely strong in itself, with a perfect glacis and
field of fire. Every invention of modern defensive war helped to make
it stronger. In front of it was the usual system of barbed wire,
stretched on iron supports, over a width of fifty yards. Behind the
wire was the system of the First Enemy Main Line, from which many
communication-trenches ran to the central fortress of the salient,
known as the Kern Redoubt, and to the Support or Guard Line. This
First Main Line, even now, after countless bombardments and nine
months of neglect, is a great and deep trench of immense strength. It
is from twelve to fifteen feet deep, very strongly revetted with
timberings and stout wicker-work. At intervals it is strengthened with
small forts or sentry-boxes of concrete, built into the parapet. Great
and deep dug-outs lie below it, and though many of these have now been
destroyed, the shafts of most of them can still be seen. At the mouths
of some of these shafts one may still see giant-legged periscopes by
which men sheltered in the dug-out shafts could watch for the coming
of an attack. When the attack began and the barrage lifted, these
watchers called up the bombers and machine-gunners from their
underground barracks, and had them in action within a few seconds.
Though the wire was formidable and the trench immense, the real
defences of the position were artillery and machine-guns. The
machine-guns were the chief danger. One machine-gun with ample
ammunition has concentrated in itself the defensive power of a
battalion. The enemy had not less than a dozen machine-guns in and in
front of the Kern Redoubt. Some of these were cunningly hidden in
pits, tunnels and shelters in (or even outside) the obstacle of the
wire at the salient, so that they could enfilade the No Man's Land, or
shoot an attacking party in the back after it had passed. The sites of
these machine-gun nests were well hidden from all observation, and
were frequently changed. Besides the machine-guns outside and in the
front line, there were others, mounted in the trees and in the higher
ground above the front line, in such position that they, too, could
play upon the No Man's Land and the English front line. The artillery
concentrated behind Gommecourt was of all calibres. It was a greater
concentration than the enemy could then usually afford to defend any
one sector, but the number of guns in it is not known. On July 1 it
developed a more intense artillery fire upon Hébuterne, and the
English line outside it, than upon any part of the English attack
throughout the battlefield.
In the attack of July 1, Gommecourt was assaulted simultaneously from
the north (from the direction of Fonquevillers) and from the south
(from the direction of Hébuterne). Mr. Liveing took part in the
southern assault, and must have "gone in" near the Hébuterne-Bucquoy
Road. The tactical intention of these simultaneous attacks from north
and south was to "pinch off" and secure the salient. The attack to the
north, though gallantly pushed, was unsuccessful. The attack to the
south got across the first-line trench and into the enemy position
past Gommecourt Cemetery almost to the Kern Redoubt. What it faced in
getting so far may be read in Mr. Liveing's account. Before our men
left the trenches outside Hébuterne they were in a heavy barrage, and
the open valley of the No Man's Land hissed, as Mr. Liveing says, like
an engine, with machine-gun bullets. Nevertheless, our men reached
the third line of enemy trenches and began to secure the ground which
they had captured.
During the afternoon the enemy counter-attacked from the south, and,
later in the day, from the north as well. Our men had not enough bombs
to hold back the attackers, and were gradually driven back, after very
severe hand-to-hand fighting in the trenches, to an evil little bend
in the front line directly to the south of Gommecourt Cemetery. At
about 11 P.M., after sixteen hours of intense and bitter fighting,
they were driven back from this point to their own lines.
Mr. Liveing's story is very well told. It is a simple and most vivid
account of a modern battle. No better account has been written in
England since the war began. I hope that so rare a talent for
narrative may be recognised. I hope, too, that Mr. Liveing may soon be
able to give us more stories as full of life as this.
JOHN MASEFIELD.
The Author wishes to thank Messrs. Blackwood and Sons for their kind
permission to republish this article, which appeared in _Blackwood's
Magazine_, December, 1917, under the title of "Battle."
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. GATHERING FOR ATTACK 23
II. EVE OF ATTACK 28
III. ATTACK 54
IV. TOLL OF ATTACK 93
ATTACK
CHAPTER I
GATHERING FOR ATTACK
The roads were packed with traffic. Column after column of lorries
came pounding along, bearing their freight of shells, trench-mortar
bombs, wire, stakes, sandbags, pipes, and a thousand other articles
essential for the offensive, so that great dumps of explosives and
other material arose in the green wayside places. Staff cars and
signallers on motor-bikes went busily on their way. Ambulances hurried
backwards and forwards between the line and the Casualty Clearing
Station, for the days of June were hard days for the infantry who dug
the "leaping-off" trenches, and manned them afterwards through rain
and raid and bombardment. Horse transport and new batteries hurried to
their destinations. "Caterpillars" rumbled up, towing the heavier
guns. Infantrymen and sappers marched to their tasks round and about
the line.
Roads were repaired, telephone wires placed deep in the ground, trees
felled for dug-outs and gun emplacements, water-pipes laid up to the
trenches ready to be extended across conquered territory, while
small-gauge and large-gauge railways seemed to spring to being in the
night.
Then came days of terror for the enemy. Slowly our guns broke forth
upon them in a tumult of rage. The Germans in retaliation sprayed our
nearer batteries with shrapnel, and threw a barrage of whizz-bangs
across the little white road leading into the village of Hébuterne.
This feeble retaliation was swallowed up and overpowered by the
torrent of metal that now poured incessantly into their territory.
Shells from the 18-pounders and trench-mortars cut their wire and
demoralised their sentries. Guns of all calibres pounded their system
of trenches till it looked for all the world like nothing more than a
ploughed field. The sky was filled with our aeroplanes wheeling about
and directing the work of batteries, and with the black and white
bursts of anti-aircraft shells. Shells from the 9.2 howitzers crashed
into strong points and gun emplacements and hurled them skywards.
Petrol shells licked up the few remaining green-leaved trees in
Gommecourt Wood, where observers watched and snipers nested: 15-inch
naval guns, under the vigilant guidance of observation balloons,
wrought deadly havoc in Bapaume and other villages and billets behind
their lines.
Thrice were the enemy enveloped in gas and smoke, and, as they
stood-to in expectation of attack, were mown down by a torrent of
shells.
The bombardment grew and swelled and brought down showers of rain. Yet
the ground remained comparatively dry and columns of dust arose from
the roads as hoof and wheel crushed their broken surfaces and
battalions of infantry, with songs and jests, marched up to billets
and bivouacs just behind the line, ready to give battle.