Blood in the Trenches: A Memoir of the Battle of the Somme by Dugmore A. Radclyffe

Author:Dugmore, A. Radclyffe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War I
ISBN: 9781473850507
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2014-07-21T16:00:00+00:00

2. Forward observation officer.

3. Army Service Corps.

CHAPTER IX

HELL LET LOOSE

ON JUNE THE 20th we left La N——e and the kind people turned out to wish us “Bon chance.” They knew we were to he in the fight very soon, and that in ail probability the Battalion would not again return to the village that had been its favourite billet. Our next stop was at V——e, which we found crowded to its extreme limit with men, and consequently very uncomfortable. The poor Town Major was at his wits’ end to find accommodation for us. Every village in the area was in the same condition owing to the necessity of concentrating the vast number of troops needed for the “Show.”

On the morning of the 24th the great preliminary bombardment commenced. The greatest concentration of gun fire ever indulged in by the British up to that time. At last the Boche was to learn our strength and the learning must have been a decidedly painful experience. Everywhere, for miles back of our front line, guns of all sizes were belching death- dealing missiles with tireless energy. Ammunition was practically unlimited, and it was our intention to destroy completely every part of the German trenches, cut all their masses of barbed wire, and level every building in the village strongholds. Nothing was to be left standing or intact. Complete annihilation and only that would satisfy us.

But we did not know how deep were the German dugouts, nor did we fully understand their plan of defence, which included the safeguarding in these dugouts of innumerable machine guns, the instrument most dreaded by the infantry. From these by many ingenious devices the guns would be quickly brought up to the surface of the ground as soon as our guns raised their fire, in order that the infantry might go forward. We were soon to learn a great and important lesson, but at the cost of much good blood.

In the meantime our guns continued the good work to the intense satisfaction of Thomas Atkins & Co. Whenever the men had an hour to spare they would make for the nearest vantage point and watch the endless explosions as our shells landed along the enemy lines and threw up columns of smoke and earth to unbelievable heights.

Overhead our aeroplanes darted about like huge dragon-flies, patrolling the sky and keeping the enemy planes so far back of their own lines that for them no observing of our guns was possible. In this particular region we had absolute supremacy in the air.

Toward evening of this first day every officer and man not actually on duty was watching the “Show.” By daylight it was wonderful, the bursting shells causing many shaped and many coloured columns to cut into the sky-line, but at night it was a far more impressive sight. The whole country before us as far as the eye could see was apparently on fire, dark clouds hanging low in the sky reflected the deep red and orange of the

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