THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME by John Buchan

Author:John Buchan [Buchan, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9788075833471
Publisher: Musaicum Books
Published: 2017-06-04T00:00:00+00:00

THE FALL OF GUILLEMONT AND GINCHY.

On Sunday, September 3rd, the whole Allied front pressed forward. In the early morning the Australians attacked on the extreme left—near Mouquet Farm and towards Thiepval. There they encountered some of the Guard reserves, and took several hundred prisoners. They carried various strong positions, won ground east of Mouquet Farm, and still further narrowed the Thiepval salient. The British right, attacking in the afternoon, swept through Guillemont to the sunken road—500 yards to the east. They captured Ginchy also, but were forced later in the day to relinquish the eastern part of that village. Further south they fought their way to the east of Falfemont Farm, where they joined hands with the triumphant French. For the French on that day had marched steadily from victory to victory. Shortly after noon, on a 3¾ miles front between Maurepas and the Somme, they had attacked after an intense artillery preparation. They carried the villages of Le Forest and Clèry, and north of the former place won the German lines to the outskirts of Combles.

As the bloody angle south of Beaumont Hamel will be for ever associated with the Ulster Division, so Guillemont was a triumph for the troops of southern and western Ireland. The men of Munster, Leinster, and Connaught broke through the intricate defences of the enemy as a torrent sweeps down nibble. The place was one of the strongest of all the many fortified villages in the German line, and its capture was the most important achievement of the British since the taking of Pozières. It was the last uncaptured point in the old German second position between Mouquet Farm and the junction with the French. It was most resolutely defended, since, being close to the point of junction, it compelled a hiatus in the advance of the Allied front. With its fall the work of two years was swept away, and in the whole section the enemy were now in new and improvised positions.

But the advance was only beginning. On Monday, September 4th, all enemy counterattacks were beaten off, and further ground won by the British near Falfemont Farm. That night, in a torrent of rain, our men pressed on, and before midday on Tuesday, September 5th, they were nearly a mile east of Guillemont and well into Leuze Wood. By that evening the whole of the wood was taken, and the British were less than 1,000 yards from the town of Combles, on which the French were pressing in on the south. Meantime, about two in the afternoon, a new French army came into action south of the Somme on a front of a dozen miles from Barleux to south of Chaulnes. At a bound it carried the whole of the German first position from Vermandovillers to Chilly, a front of nearly 3 miles, and took some 3,000 unwounded prisoners. Next day the French pressed on both north and south of the river, and in the former area reached the west end of

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