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| British Trench at Gommecourt |
Gommecourt is just one of the many insignificant hamlets which dot the rolling farmland between Arras and the River Somme. Apart from the two military cemeteries which bear its name there is little apparent about it to detain a passer-by. It is not even in the Department of the Somme, being just across the border in the Pas de Calais. And yet it was here that Sir Douglas Haig, C-in-C of the BEF, determined that two divisions should create a diversion to the main Somme offensive starting just to the south at the equally insignificant village of Serre.
The Attack on the Gommecourt Salient was a British operation against the northern flank of the German 2nd Army that took place on 1 July 1916, on the Western Front in France, during the First World War. The attack was conducted by the British Third Army (Lieutenant-General Edmund Allenby) as a diversion, to protect the northern flank of the main attack by the British Fourth Army on the first day on the Somme, from Serre southward to the boundary with the French Sixth Army at Maricourt. To extend the attack front of the Fourth Army, the VII Corps (Lieutenant-General Thomas Snow) of the Third Army was to capture the Gommecourt Salient, the most westerly point of the Western Front.
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| Note 46th and 56th Division Positions at Top of Map |
In the first week of May, the 56th (1/1st London) Division (Major-General Charles Hull) and the 46th (North Midland) Division (Major-General Edward Montagu-Stuart-Wortley) moved into the area for the attack. By 10 May, both divisions had taken over the front on the right flank of the 37th Division (Major-General A. Edward W. Count Gleichen) and begun training for the operation, making no attempt to conceal the preparations.
At 7:30 a.m. on 1 July, the attack on Gommecourt began and the 56th (1st London) Division to the south, overran the first two German trenches. Troops also reached the third trench, but a strongpoint at Nameless Farm held out despite several attacks. The German artillery fired a standing barrage along no man's land and trapped the British on the far side all day as German infantry gradually recaptured the lost trenches, all attempts to send reinforcements from the British lines being costly failures.
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| 46th Division's Opening Position Today Gommecourt Wood (L), Gommecourt Village, Gommecourt Wood New Cemetery (R) |
The 46th Division attack on the north side of the salient had even less success, a smoke screen leading the attackers to lose direction as their advance was slowed by deep mud. Some parties of the 137th Brigade got into the German front line and parties of the 139th Brigade reached the second line but German small arms and barrage-fire on no man's land, trapped the attackers and isolated them from their supports.
The parties who got across no man's land were surrounded and destroyed, a few men being taken prisoner. The 46th (North Midland) Division had the fewest casualties of the 13 British divisions which attacked on 1 July, which got Montagu-Stuart-Wortley sacked on 5 July. After several local truces, the British wounded were got in during 1 and 2 July, after which the area became a backwater
Sources: Gommecourt website & Wikipedia "Battle of Gommecourt" page
Great entry--I really needed more details on this and you gave them to me here.
ReplyDeletejust found out my great grand father was killed here 1st July, it was never mentioned in the family
ReplyDeleteMy Mother’s cousin was killed here on July 1st as part of 56th division. We visited the battlefield and the Thiepval Memorial last year. Beautiful countryside but such a huge loss of life and so little gain.
ReplyDeleteMy great great Grandad.... RIP x
ReplyDeleteI have just started researching two great uncles who fought in the war, one is buried at Gommecourt and the other at ficheux (about 6 miles away). I have planned a trip next year to visits their graves and take there war medals to the spot they sacrificed their lives for. Thinks it’s going to be emotional.
ReplyDeleteMy Great Uncle was injured in this theatre on the 1st of July 1916 and died from his injuries on the 7th of July 1916 he was a private in royal army medical core. 3 others died on the 1st of July
ReplyDeleteMy wife's grandfather was in the Queens Westminster Rifles and although injured was the only survivor of a six man machine gun squad at Gommecourt. He is not named but referred to in the QWR War Diaries.
ReplyDeleteMy grandad was wounded here and lost his leg, age 29.
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather was with the 4th Lincolnshire’s when he was captured at Gommecourt and taken to a POW forced labour camp in Silesia, Poland where he spent the rest of entire war working in a salt mine - during which his black hair was bleached white. When the war ended he was mistakenly sent directly to serve in Ireland and only repatriated when the mistake was picked up on.
ReplyDelete