First Day on the Somme

Today's tour switches to the first world war. We started out at the Lochnagar Crater, one of 19 mine craters blown at 0728 on 1 Jul 1916, the first day of the battle of the Somme. The Somme Offensive was developed to reduce pressure on the French Army at Verdun. The British launched a 120,000 man attack over a 15 front at 0730. Due to the unprecedented artillery bombardment the British were expecting that the barbed wire would all be destroyed and the Germans wiped out. That was not the case, and the British suffered 57,000 casualties with almost 20,000 killed on that single day.

The Lochnagar Crater was build by miners tunneling under the battle field to the German positions and placing 60,000 pounds of explosives. After the war, the crater was purchased by a Brit Richard Dunning, as the farmers were filling in the craters and precious battlefield history lost.

The crater was over 1000 ft long, and was 4.5 ft high and 2.5 ft wide. The miners dug through the chalk with bayonets, and passed the chunks out hand over hand with a string of miners sitting on the tunnel floor. When the crater blew, it made a hole 220 ft in diameter.

SInce the crater is on private land, there are an number of memorials placed on it. This is a memorial to the nursing sisters in the war.

The empty chair signifies the lost family member at home.

Next up we went to Courcelette, the first action of the Canadians on the Somme. This battle is special to me as my Grandfather, William Johnston was wounded during this battle, and would spend the rest of the war in England, where he met and married Annie Goodfellow, a British War Bride. His story is in a separate blog post. This is a famous picture from the battle of Courcelette. Although it is extemely unlikely this is my grandfather, both he and the soldier in the picture were wounded in the upper left arm, so my sister Dale and I claim him as our own.

Besides being the first battle for the Canadians on the Somme, it was the first use of the crreping barrage, where the troops advanced under artillery fire that advanced at a set rate, to keep the enemy in his bunker. It was also the first use of tanks in combat. a total of 6 tanks were involved in the battle. Although slow, plodding and difficult to move, the large and imposing tanks were an effective psychological weapon against the Germans. Each tank was run by an officer and seven men. Also assigned to each tank were five infantrymen tasked with the removal of casualties ahead of the vehicle.

Only one of the tanks reached its objective during the battle. The rest were either disabled by shellfire, mechanical failures or stuck in an obstacle. ­Still, tanks were able to roll over barbed wire and trenches while firing machine guns and artillery. This capability struck fear and caused some Germans to surrender at the mere sight of them.

The Canadians suffered 8,000 casualties during the successful battle of Courcelette, and over 20,000 throughout the battle of the Somme that lasted until Nov 1916.

We visited the Canadian Memorial at Courcellete, one of 9 monuments marking significant Canadian Battles.

Although we did not get to visit the exact spot where Grandfather was wounded, if you look over my right shoulder, it was 2.5 km from the memorial location. I plan to be back in Courcelette in October, and will follow in Grandfather's footsteps.

Next up was the Theipval Memorial to the Missing is a memorial to the more than 72,000 British and South Africian soldiers who were killed during the battles of the Somme from 1915 to 1918 with no known grave. The memorial is an imposing structure, standing 140 ft above its podium.

Again, this was a personal visit, as Percy Fowler, uncle of my good buddy and fellow war story fan, Bob Drummond (also known as Wine Bob) is memorialized on the monument with Percy's good friend Leonard Martin. It was a pleasure to find and photograph their names and acknowledge their sacrifice. Bob also wrote a post on Percy Fowler that I posted.

Leonard Martin also served in the 8th Buffs (East Kent Regiment).

The impressive structure was built that big to hold the weight of the 72,000 missing souls.

If that wasn't emotional enough, after an excellent lunch, we visited Beaumont Hamel, the site of the devastating first day of the Somme for the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, and home to the Newfoundland Memorial Park.

The Germans were deeply entrenched at Beaumont-Hamel. In the days leading up to the “Big Push” on the opening of the offensive, Allied commanders repeatedly bombarded the German lines with artillery — attacks they hoped would severely damage enemy fortifications.

But at 7:30 a.m., on 1 July 1916, when the first wave of Allied soldiers went over the top of their trenches and into no man's land, the Germans were ready and waiting, having largely survived the artillery bombardment.

The battlefield at Beaumont-Hamel soon became littered with hundreds of dead and dying Allied soldiers. Yet, the commanders decided to press on. At 9:15 a.m. the Newfoundlanders were ordered to attack from their trench behind the front line, nicknamed St. John's Road. Weighed down by backpacks weighing almost 30 kg, they had to move across open ground in full view of German machine guns and artillery. The soldiers of the First Newfoundland Regiment were slaughtered in an attack lasting less than 30 minutes.

Of the 801 men who went over the top, only 68 answered roll call the next day. There were more than 700 casualties, and more than 300 killed. No Newfoundland soldier made it past the Danger Tree, which was well short of the first line trenches.

One of the members of our tour is from Newfoundland, and she read a moving letter written by a young soldier the night before the attack.

A very sad letter, punctuated by the fact that his body is buried in Y Ravine cemetery, also on the park grounds. In this cemetery there are a number of double burials - that is the bodies were placed so close together that there was no space to give them an individual headstone.

There are other cemeteries on the grounds as well, with unique features. At Hunters Cemetery, the headstones are arranged in a circle around the cross of sacrifice. Hunter's Cemetery, possibly named after Reverend Hunter, a Chaplain attached to the Black Watch Regiment, is in fact a great shell-hole. Soldiers of the 51st Division, who fell in the capture of Beaumont-Hamel were buried in the shell-hole after the battle.

At Hawthorne Ridge No 2 Cemetery, a number of headstones are placed tightly side by side. This is likely because the bodies were originally buried too close together to allow the usual headstone spacing.

A very busy and emotional day covering WWI. In Flander's Field...