First day on the Somme, 1 July 1916

The battle, stage by stage

1. 24 June – 1 July 1916, dawn

   A week of guns

   The British bombardment opens on 24 June. Planned for five days, it is stretched to seven when rain postpones the attack from 29 June to 1 July; by the usual count more than 1.5 million shells are fired, and the guns are reportedly heard in southern England. Rawlinson's Fourth Army is to attack on a front of about 14 miles from Serre to Maricourt, with a Third Army diversion at Gommecourt to the north and the French Sixth Army (Fayolle) astride the Somme to the south. Facing them is the German Second Army (von Below), its XIV Reserve Corps dug in on the chalk ridges in deep dugouts, many of which survive the shelling. Much of the wire in front of the northern sectors is still uncut.

2. 1 July, 7:20 and 7:28 AM

   The mines

   At 7:20 AM the Hawthorn Ridge mine (about 40,000 lb of explosive) goes up under the German redoubt west of Beaumont-Hamel, ten minutes early by a compromise in VIII Corps; two platoons of the 2nd Royal Fusiliers rush for the crater, but men of RIR 119 reach the far lip first, and the warning puts German machine gunners on the alert. At 7:28 AM the Lochnagar mine, the largest (about 60,000 lb of ammonal, according to the Lochnagar Crater Foundation), and the Y Sap mine blow either side of La Boisselle, with smaller mines at the Tambour near Fricourt and elsewhere. The Germans had detected Y Sap and cleared the position; the mine at Kasino Point blows late, after the infantry has gone over.

3. 1 July, 7:30 AM

   Zero hour

   Whistles blow along the whole British front and the barrage lifts to the next line. Many battalions advance at a walk in lines, loaded with equipment, as the plan expected little resistance; others, like the 36th (Ulster) Division and the 17th Highland Light Infantry at the Leipzig Salient, have crept out close to the German wire beforehand. The Germans climb from their dugouts and man their parapets in the minutes the barrage gives them. North of the river the French XX Corps attacks beside the British at Maricourt at the same moment; south of it the French colonial and XXXV Corps wait until 9:30 AM.

4. 1 July, about 8:00 – 10:00 AM

   Schwaben Redoubt, and the northern failures

   Bursting out of Thiepval Wood, the Ulster Division overruns the German front and takes the Schwaben Redoubt, and parties of its 107th Brigade reach the German second position; in what has been called a spectacular advance. But to its south the 32nd Division cannot take Thiepval, where machine guns in the ruins and cellars rake the Ulstermen's flank, and north of the Ancre its own attack is stopped. At Serre the 31st Division's Pals battalions are cut down, a few men reaching the village; the 4th Division takes part of the Heidenkopf (the Quadrilateral); the 29th fails at Beaumont-Hamel; at Gommecourt the London Division breaks into the German lines while the 46th, facing uncut wire, cannot. Only the 17th HLI's capture of the Leipzig Redoubt holds south of Thiepval. At La Boisselle the 34th Division gains a lodgement around the Lochnagar crater, and some Tyneside Irish push toward Contalmaison.

5. 1 July, about 9:15 AM

   Beaumont-Hamel

   Told that the first waves had succeeded, the 88th Brigade is ordered forward. The Newfoundland Regiment, according to Veterans Affairs Canada at about 9:15 AM (other accounts give the order at about 8:45), leaves its support trench, St John's Road, alone; the 1st Essex on its right is held up in choked communication trenches. It has more than 200 meters to cover before even reaching the British front line and then over 500 meters of open slope to the German wire, and it is under fire from the start. Many fall around a lone tree, the 'Danger Tree', partway down the slope. Within about half an hour the attack is over. Of roughly 800 who went forward, about 710 were killed, wounded or missing, and only 68 answered the roll call the next day.

6. 1 July, about 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM

   Success in the south

   In the south, where the British artillery was heavier and the French guns had helped, the plan works. The 30th Division enters Montauban at 10:05 AM, reportedly finding it deserted but for a fox, and holds the ridge by noon; the 18th Division takes Pommiers Redoubt and, by late afternoon, the rest of Montauban Alley; the 7th Division takes Mametz. Fricourt holds out but is nearly surrounded, and the 21st Division gains ground north of it. The French XX Corps takes its objectives toward Hardecourt and fights into Curlu, beating off counter-attacks from Hardecourt; south of the river the colonial divisions overrun Dompierre and Becquincourt in minutes, take Frise at the second attempt and Assevillers by 4 PM, while XXXV Corps takes Fay. By one count the French take about 4,000 prisoners on both banks for light losses.

7. 1 July, evening – night

   The cost

   Without support on either flank, the Ulster Division is driven out of the German second position and, by about 10 PM, back from the Schwaben Redoubt by German counter-attacks, keeping only small parties in the German front line; it lost about 5,100 men. The London Division's survivors at Gommecourt fall back after dark, and Herbécourt, attacked by the French at 5:30 PM and briefly taken, is lost again. Fricourt is abandoned by its garrison overnight. The British official history (Edmonds) puts the day's British casualties at 57,470, of whom 19,240 were killed: the heaviest losses in a single day in the history of the British Army. French losses were far lighter (about 1,590 by the usual count), and modern estimates of German losses on the British front run about 10,000–12,000. The battle went on for another four and a half months.