TOM MORGAN'S SOMME DIARY
- PART 3
TOM MORGAN'S SOMME DIARY
- PART 3
The villages on the Somme are generally smaller now than they were before the war. I think that one reason for this might be that, in terms of population, they may always have been "lean" in that they provided homes only for the people who needed to live there - those who worked on the land surrounding them. Perhaps after the war, when the land was being returned to agriculture, and when the villages were being rebuilt, a concurrent development of the mechanised side of farming meant that fewer labourers were needed than before the war, and so the rebuilt villages reflected this. The Somme villages in the part of the Somme area I have described so far are all pretty, and typically Northern French, but very small. Beaumont Hamel has a church and maybe 20 houses. Auchonvillers, just inside the British lines, is not much bigger, although it, too has its church. Neither village has a shop, neither has a bar. In all the villages of the area, there are two kinds of home-building - houses and farms. Houses are usually small - two floors. Sometimes you may find a slightly larger one here and there, maybe at the end of the village.
"Farm" here refers to the house where the farmer lives, and these are usually situated in the villages, not set apart in the middle of the farmland which the farmer owns, as they often are in Britain. The farms look at first like long high barns, running right along the side of the road. There is always a large, wide, usually arched gateway in the centre and when passing and looking inside, one sees that the farm is a fully-enclosed rectangle. Stables, cowsheds, etc, form two sides of the rectangle and the fourth side, opposite the gate, is taken up by the house itself, usually considerably grander than the more easily visible village houses. They are just like the farmhouses described in the memoirs and diaries of many, many British soldiers. Where the farmer keeps cattle, the traditional steaming dunghill may sit fermenting quietly in the middle of the farm, just a few yards from the farmer's front door, (another thing which so often surprised the men) but this link with the men's memoirs is rare. Now, the farmers seem to move all this stuff away from the house and dump it beside one of the farm tracks up on the ridge. A huge and particularly impressive mountain sits just behind the Newfoundland Memorial Park, on the track running down to the Old Beaumont Road. Beaumont Hamel and Auchonvillers are really just small settlements built up around country road-junctions But some villages are even smaller that that - just a few houses and farmhouses stretching for a short distance on either side of the road. Such a village is:
SERRE
This was another of the nine fortified villages which were part of the objectives planned to be reached and taken on 1st. July, 1916. Serre was a significant target on that day because from their trenches in front of the village, the Germans had a high view over a wide area of No-Man's Land, including the part which would be crossed slightly to the South, in the attack on Beaumont-Hamel and Hawthorn Ridge. To the North, there was a stretch of the front about a mile long, in which no attack was to be launched, although the men holding the trenches there had carried out patrols, cut conspicuous gaps in their wire, and done all they could to convince the Germans that whatever was being prepared for in the rest of the battle area was being prepared for here, as well. On the morning of the attack, men in these trenches were detailed to create a smoke barrage across No-Man's Land to try to conceal the fact that nothing was happening there, for as long as possible, so as to draw German artillery fire which might otherwise have been directed at the attackers around Serre, to the South, and Gommecourt, to the North, where a full-scale diversionary attack was being launched to draw fire and resources even more. In the event, the smoke failed, as the wind was blowing in the wrong direction, but even if the wind had been more helpful, the Germans in the area would not have been confused for long but, hopefully, for just long enough. The Plan, of course, meant that the Germans had to be fooled only for a few minutes - the time it took for the Battalions gathered around Serre to walk across No-Man's Land and occupy the smashed German trenches. Then the benefit of observation would be with the British.
The story of the attack on Serre has become one of the most powerful and emotional Somme Legends. All over Britain, in the early stages of the war, young men rushed to enlist, urged not so much by Kitchener's steely eye, frighteningly martial moustache and pointing finger as by a genuinely-held belief that it was the Right Thing to Do. In many parts of the country, particularly in the industrial North, many groups of friends and workmates enlisted together and expressed a desire to serve together. The town leaders themselves often fostered this natural desire, and declared an intention to raise as many men as possible to serve in the name of their community, the natural target being a whole Battalion. The result was the famous "Pals Battalions." They were keen to serve. Their enthusiasm and comradeship were among their greatest virtues. They were proud to be members of the "Citizens' Army" who had left their homes and loved ones and enlisted to help in their country's hour of need. These may seem quaint notions in 1998, but these men believed in these things, and we must respect them for this alone. How many of us would do as much?
They were hard workers and they became Good Soldiers. However, in the eyes of many senior officers, they were not Real Soldiers, and this would be their first battle. The Commander of Fourth Army, Sir Henry Rawlinson, may have been thinking of the inexperience of many of the battalions under his command when he planned his attack. He placed great faith in the power of artillery to do the job of actually killing or subduing the Germans. Following the pounding bombardment, there would be little for his quickly-trained and inexperienced Pals to do beyond taking the German positions and holding on until more experienced military minds were able to direct them as to what to do next. The orderly, parade-ground march across No-Man's Land, five yards between each man, rifles to be held at the high port, with following lines of men to follow the bombardment as it moved from line to line, was part of this simple plan. The Accrington Pals, the Barnsley Pals, the Bradford Pals, the Durham Pals, the Leeds Pals and the more formally known Sheffield City Battalion rehearsed and believed. These were trusting, obedient men. They were also intelligent men, but this initiative was not really required by the battle plan for this area. They would advance and accomplish as one communal force - in keeping with the history of their recruitment. A nice touch.
From Auchonvillers, a road runs North. After about a mile, one reaches a crossroad. Straight on is Hebuterne. The road to the right is the Serre Road. Driving along it, towards Serre, one can see, off to the right, the trees of the Newfoundland Memorial Park and Hawthorn Ridge Mine crater. I found it difficult to keep my eyes off these landmarks. The road, which had been quite straight for a long time, swung to the right and then to the left. Time to look ahead. And there, to the right of the road, I saw the huge Serre Road Number 2 British Cemetery, the largest on the Somme.
Up to this moment, I had followed what I thought was a noble practice. Whenever I visited a cemetery, no matter how long it took, I looked at every gravestone and read every name. Even the ones with over two hundred graves! Serre Road Number 2, with its 7,139 graves, cured me of this habit. This is a cemetery which started off originally as a burial-ground when it was safe to begin the work of clearing the battlefield. In this area, this was not possible until the village of Serre and its formidable defences had been captured and this did not happen until 1917. The original burials were added to later, during the many searches of the Serre battlefield, which did not finish until the 1930s.
The cemetery today is immaculately-kept. When I was there, gardeners were laying new turf between some of the rows of graves, in preparation for the summer visitors. This cemetery receives many, but even the smaller and more isolated ones like Frankfurt Trench on the Redan Ridge nearby, are maintained with the same breathtaking devotion.
From the cemetery, one can look across fields towards the village of Serre. The village is actually out of sight at this point, but one can see the nature of the open land towards it, which the British had to cross. An indication of the size of the tragedy which took place in this area is visible however - in the shape of another two big cemeteries - Serre Road Number 1 (2,412 graves, almost three-quarters of them unidentified) with, next to it, the French National Cemetery. This cemetery , strangely enough, is also the work of the British. By the time the last search for British bodies in these fields was made, in the 1930s, the bodies of 817 French soldiers had also been found. These men fell in the days when this had been a French sector of the front. As French bodies were found, the British buried them in a cemetery of their own. Eventually, the completed cemetery was handed over to the French Government.
Opposite these two side-by-side cemeteries is a track, leading to the Redan Ridge cemeteries. Those who have read Part 1 of this diary might remember my description of my walk up the Sunken Lane near Beaumont Hamel, to the cemeteries on the sites of Frankfurt Trench and Munich Trench. I returned home the way I had come on that occasion, but if I had carried on along the site of the German front line, I would have arrived in about ten minutes at the Serre Road, by this track. The track leading from Serre Road is the "official route" to the Redan Ridge cemeteries and at the junction with the road stands a multiple signpost, pointing the way to them. At the foot of the signpost were about half a dozen unexploded shells. These are still being ploughed up, eighty years after they were fired. The farmers always leave these relics next to a cemetery signpost. I suppose that this is where the collection and disposal teams look for them. In all guidebooks to the Somme, the reader is warned of the danger of meddling with these shells. Presumably the farmers themselves don't read these guidebooks. All the shells I saw awaiting collection, apart from one huge monster, had been attacked with hammer and chisel and the valuable copper driving bands removed.
Just beyond the twin British and French cemeteries, another farm track leads off to the left towards a very historic part of the front. This is the Sheffield Park area dedicated to the memory of the Sheffield City Battalion. The track presents a major challenge to the suspension of any car, but I drove up and down it four times during my visit, because the sites it gives access to mean a great deal to me. Driving up the track with the car windows open meant that everything inside the car was covered in a fine, white dust - the dust referred to by so many men who served here that summer.
(The farmer was harrowing his field. This is where all the dust was coming from. He wore a dust-protector over his face as he drove his tractor. He seemed to be doing this all the time, using powerful lights on an overhead bar over the cab when it got dark. By the last visit, we had waved to each other sufficiently often for us to become acquaintances. So, as he was working near to the road, I asked him if I might inspect his pile of scrap. Every farmer in this area has such a pile, brought in from the fields. This is how I came to bring home a complete British screw-picket, used to support barbed wire.)
NOTE: Although this track is the official access route to four cemeteries, I have heard that the farmer has begun to lose his patience with visitors who park cars carelessly, blocking the track. There isn't much parking-space but there is room for one or two cars next to the first cemetery reached - Serre Road No. 3 Cemetery. From there it's a short walk to the other important sites a little way along the track. Park anywhere else, and you'll be blocking the farmer's access to his land. According to one friend who lives nearby, the farmer had threatened two visitors by that time - August 1997. I had planned to visit the site on the day I received this news and did so. I drove up the track without interference, parked near the cemetery and walked the rest of the way. No-one bothered me. Earlier this year, 1998, another friend was held up for half-an-hour as he drove away from the site, by the farmer's son, who refused to allow him to leave the track and return to the main road. Although I have every sympathy with French and Belgian farmers who are inconvenienced by inconsiderate visitors, all those who were troubled were behaving perfectly responsibly. It is worth remembering that visitors have unrestricted right of access to Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries. Access is protected by law - French and Belgian law, that is. Visitors who experience any form of harrassment in their attempts to visit cemeteries should take the trouble to report matters to the CWGC when they return home. The CWGC has the "clout" required to get something done, and in people's experience, they take such matters very seriously, investigate and report back to the person who brought the matter to their attention.
The track peters out at the top, and I parked next to the first of three small cemeteries which mark the halfway point across the old No-Man's Land in this area. This is Serre Road Number 3 Cemetery. A little further away is Queen's Cemetery and beyond that is Luke Copse Cemetery. These cemeteries mark the No-Man's Land of the Northern limits of the main British attack front on 1st July, 1916. Opposite Queen's Cemetery is the Sheffield Memorial Park. In 1916, there were four small copses here, marked on British maps as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They now form one continuous line of trees, and this is the boundary of the Park. Behind the Park area, the land falls away into a little valley, where a light railway ran, and on this spot, next to the biggest shell-hole I have ever seen anywhere on the Western Front, is Railway Hollow Cemetery, which was started, like so many cemeteries in this area, in 1917. It contains the graves of many Pals who fell on 1st July. At the edge of the Park, facing the German positions, a shallow depression snakes along the line of the perimeter fence. This is trench from which the Accrington Pals attacked. The Germans were about 250 yards away. Hardly any of the Pals reached the German lines. The three cemeteries in the old No-Man's Land tell their own story.
These fields were the anvil on which the metal of the Pals was tested. The metal may have been beaten, and rendered shapeless and unrecognisable, but as any blacksmith will tell you, its purity and worth were not destroyed, only enhanced.
Here, about ten minutes before zero-hour, the Accrington Pals climbed
out of their trenches, passed through the gaps in their wire and lay down
in No-Man's Land until all the leading "waves" were in position. At
7.30 a.m. the barrage stopped, the whistles blew and the Pals stood up. Then
the steady walk forward began. This was also the land of the deep German
dug-outs. As soon as the barrage lifted, the Germans were quick to respond,
manning their parapets and staring in disbelief at the slow, regular advance
of the Pals. The first shots began to ring out and other German defenders
joined in. They couldn't believe that the British were just walking towards
them, wave after wave. One German soldier in this place, facing the Accrington
Pals, later wrote to Martin Middlebrook, who was collecting information for
his book, "The First Day on the Somme." "If only they had run," said the
German, "they would have overwhelmed us."
Cartridges and shrapnel-balls picked up from the Serre Battlefield. The
cartridge on the left,
with its corroded steel bullet, is German. The others are British. The one
on the right is
still contained within the rusted remains of its metal clip.
The Pals' advance was broken. Those who were still alive lay scattered around No-Man's Land, at a loss. They had been trained to follow orders, and had done this proudly. Now, a situation had arisen which they had not been prepared for. Their communal attack had failed. They had not been prepared for this and simply didn't know what to do. From the direction of Serre, they were being shelled. The Germans in the trenches opposite were firing at them. They were weighed down with the equipment which they would have needed to consolidate the German trenches which, they had been led to believe, they should have occupied so easily.
The British barrage, which could have relieved the pressure on them, was now dropping its shells far into the rear of Serre, according to a previously-planned timetable which could not be changed. It had all gone horribly wrong. Their leaders had been mistaken, but had not allowed for this possibility.
Those who survived, emerged as different men. They and their friends had offered their all, trustingly, and they felt, right or wrong, that this trust had been squandered. The belief that their leaders knew best and knew all, this Victorian belief which had enabled them to entrust their very lives to the will and care of others, was as dead as the 5,415 men who lay out in the No-Man's Land of this Northern Sector. From now on, men would begin to think of themselves first, a little more often, and would want to have more of a say in the control of their own future.
I firmly believe, in spite of what the calendar may say, that the 20th Century began in these fields, around Serre, on 1st July, 1916.
Copyright © Tom Morgan, July,
1996
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