XV Corps: Mametz & Fricourt

On 1 July 1916 7th Division had attacked the village of Mametz.

Mametz

The village fell by evening, but the 7th had to wait until the following day for their sister unit in XV Corps the 21st Division to finish taking Fricourt before moving on up the valley towards Mametz Wood behind the village.

Fricourt

A lost opportunity

At 09:00 hours on 3 July 1916 XV Corps began to move on from its initial successes in the villages of Fricourt and Mametz towards the seizure of Mametz Wood. To assist the Corps, 17th Division had been attached, and it was their 51 Brigade that made the initial good progress from the Northern side of Mametz.

From the south 7th Division reached Bottom Wood which lies about half way between the two villages and Mametz Wood. The Germans made counter attacks but these were driven off.

Unfortunately instead of pressing on with the advantage Lt Gen Horne in command of XV Corps decided to consolidate his positions. No further forward movement would be made until darkness.

This advance failed to materialise as the 1st Royal Welch Fusiliers and 2nd Royal Irish both got lost in the dark. The poet Siegfried Sassoon was serving with 1 RWF noted: "The guide, presumably having presumably lost his way, was having a much hotter time than we were."

By the time the battalions were in position the Germans had reinforced their positions in front of Mametz Wood. An opportunity had been missed.

Pushing on in the rain

On 4 July it began to rain. Much has been made of the mud at Passchendaele in 1917, but soldiers who served in both areas have remarked how the mud of the Somme was by far the worst of the two.

In front of Mametz Wood lay trench systems called the Quadrangle and Wood Trench. At 00:45 hours on 5 July the 9th Northumberland and 10th Lancashire Fusiliers crept out of their trenches and towards the German trenches. From only 100 metres they leapt up and charged forward capturing the Quadrangle Trench.

7th Green Howards

Following the disaster of 1 July the Battalion were now brought back into the line to assist with the attacks on Quadrangle Support Trench.

On 8 July at 07:00 hours they were part of an attack launched on Quadrangle Alley. This was beaten off by machine gun fire and a second attack was ordered for 17:50 hours. This was also beaten off. As the Battalion Diary remarks:

The mud in the trench was over the men's knees & they soon became very exhausted but continued to move forward

Within a few hundred metres the men were too tired to put in a spirited attack.

Yet another attack was ordered for 00:15 hours on the 9th and this met with a similar fate. The Diary this time points out that the:

Stokes Guns unable to participate, ground too soft & muddy to allow suitable emplacements being made.

A night attack using bayonets was now planned for 23:20 hours but some of the other units attacked before the given time and this alerted the German Front Line.

Some success was to come though in the small hours of 10 July as the 38th Division on the right pressed home an attack of their own. The Germans began to retire along the 17th Division's front.

The last few patrols of the 7th Green Howards that night found the Front line abandoned, at 01:00 hours they handed over their position to the 8th Lincolnshires.

7th Green Howards War Diary

On the right of 17th Division the 38th (Welsh) Division attacked the wood across Death Valley.

38th (Welsh) Division