The Somme Chronicles by Chris Schoeman

Author:Chris Schoeman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: On the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War, The Somme Chronicles tells the gripping stories of the men of the 1st South African Infantry Brigade via their letters and diaries, providing an invaluable, human account of one of history’s most devastating conflicts.
ISBN: 978-1-77022-677-7
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Published: 2014-05-14T00:00:00+00:00

Three German armies, consisting of highly trained elite German storm troops, were simultaneously attacking General Gough and his Fifth Army’s extended front and half of the front held by General Byng’s Third Army on Gough’s left flank. Confusion reigned in the British ranks thanks to the thick mist, and many units that survived the massive bombardment got cut off and wiped out. Before those at the outposts knew it, the Germans were in their rear and they were overwhelmed before they could send back warning. The fog enabled the Germans to bypass the strong points manned by machine guns that Gough had established, and as the day wore on, the Allied situation became desperate. They were covering a front of 65 kilometres with 12 infantry divisions and three cavalry divisions while, by the second day, the Germans had unleashed more than 60 divisions. The Fifth Army was forced to begin a retreat as Third Army positions fell to the south.

At Quentin Redoubt, where a company of the 1st Regiment was stationed, there was no attack. The main assault in that area fell upon the left brigade of the 21st Division, and on B Company of the 2nd Regiment in Gauche Wood. Captain Garnet Green, the company’s commander, had three strong points inside the wood and one in the open on the south-west side. Also in the wood were two machine guns and a detachment of the South African Brigade Trench Mortar Battery.

The Germans attacked the wood from the east, and Second-Lieutenant Kennedy fought them with his machine gun until all members of his team were either dead or wounded. He himself was wounded and captured. The enemy then began to enter the wood from the north and overpowered the two posts in the east under Lieutenants Bancroft and Beviss, killing Bancroft and most of his men, and wounding and capturing the rest. Beviss, with nearly half his garrison, managed to reach Captain Green, who then withdrew the men of the third post to join the fourth post in the open ground to the south-west. When the mist lifted, the garrison at Quentin Redoubt to the north opened a heavy flanking fire on the advancing Germans, and for the rest of the day Green and his few men held their position on the outskirts of the wood.14

Before midday, the Germans broke into the Fifth Army front at Ronssoy, Hargicourt, Templeux-le-Guérard and Le Verguier, and into the Third Army front at Lagnicourt-Marcel and Bullecourt. That afternoon, orders came for a general retirement of all forward troops. During the evening and early night, the South African brigade fell back from the forward zone.

Throughout the following morning, the Germans gradually closed in on Chapel Hill and Revelon Farm, and took both in spite of a brave defence. In the attack, Captain Liebson, a medical officer with the 4th Regiment, was killed. Just after midday, orders arrived to fall back further to the next line and to be ready to retire later to the next line five kilometres in the rear.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.