Hard Slogging on the Somme: The Guards Division at Lesbœufs, September 1916

Shoulder Patch of the Guards Division

The battle of Flers-Courcelette, which began on 15 September 1916, was the third major phase of the campaign on the Somme and its largest operation after the 1 July opening assault. Ten infantry divisions in three corps were to be involved in what was to be a massive attack on a broad front, in conjunction with a major French offensive to the south. It was to be the biggest assault since 1 July. Tanks were to be used for the first time. The Guards Division was part of XIV Corps.

The objective on 15 September 1916 was for the 4th Army to capture Morval, Lesboeufs, Gueudecourt and Flers.  Lesboeufs is a village 16 kilometers northeast of Albert, its capture  the primary responsibility of the Guards Division. In their struggle to take the village, the British Guards Division lost no fewer than 60 officers killed or mortally wounded. The Coldstream Guards suffered particularly severely. With their three battalions attacking in line abreast for the first time, 22 officers died. The enlisted ranks suffered heavy numbers of killed and wounded in all the attack in battalions, but I've been unable to find the statistics for the enlisted losses on 15 September.  Lt.  Raymond Asquith, son of the Liberal Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, was shot through the chest and killed as he led the first half of No.4 Company of the Grenadier Guards, outside Ginchy.

Click on Map to Enlarge 

The attack began at 6:20 a.m., with the three Coldstream battalions, in the words of an eyewitness quoted in the Morning Post, advancing "as steadily as though they were walking down the Mall." From British gun positions, German infantry were seen to retire towards Lesbœufs. Small parties from the Guards Division advanced on Lesbœufs and eventually took cover in a trench for several hours, before falling back during a German counterattack. For several hours the village had been unoccupied but no British reserves were left, after the great number of casualties inflicted on the assault divisions earlier in the day. The Guards Division eventually dug in short of the final objective, west of the Gird Trenches in front of Lesbœufs

Unfortunately, four factors soon turned the operation into a desperate affair. First, most of the tanks supporting the 2nd  Guards Brigade were unable to make much headway and left enemy machine gunners along their designated pathway, which was deliberately omitted from the artillery barrage, free to attack the advancing infantry.

Casualty Clearing Station on the Ginchy-Lesbœufs Road

Second, the 1st  Coldstream found that only 500 yards from their start-off point and before their first objective, there was a trench full of Germans that had not been previously noticed. They caused considerable casualties before being overrun. 

Third, the complete failure of 6th Division to take a strongpoint called the Quadrilateral on the Guards’ right enabled the enemy to pour intense enfilading fire into the advancing battalions. 

Fourth, the two Guards brigades involved in the assault were expected to make a difficult maneuver during the advance, changing direction. But officer casualties were very high from the outset, which, combined with the unknown trench and the intense fire from the right, caused the battalions to lose direction, moving too far in a northerly direction, and to have a confused idea as to how far they had penetrated the enemy’s defenses.

Guards Memorial Along the Ginchy-Lesbœufs Road

 

None of these factors prevented the 1st  and 2nd  Guards Brigades advancing to take their first two objectives, but Lesboeufs remained beyond their reach on that day. Ten days later, in a better-planned, limited assault. The Guards Division in combination with the 6th Division. Once again the Guards division took heavy casualties at Lesboeufs, about 2,000 total casualties on 25 September. Kipling, in his History of the Irish Guards, said that the plan for the 25th was much less ambitious than that of 15 September. The distance to the first objective was 300 yards, to the second 700 yards, and to the last 1,300 yards. In each case he says that the objective was a clearly defined one. Also the ground sloped toward Lesboeufs. In addition the artillery did its work more accurately than on the 15th. The casualties were nevertheless very high and again especially amongst the officers.

Sources: "Rage, Guilt and This Awful State of Uncertainty," British Journal for Military History; The Irish Guards, The Grenadier Guards Website (Map).