This was almost predictable since the ' reinforcing lines ' were one of those support battalions, the 11th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, who had already suffered heavy casualties from the machine-guns in Schwaben and Thiepval which now had the range of the Ulster units crossing No Man's Land. Although the 9th Inniskillings were terribly thinned in numbers, they had managed to take their objective on the Mouquet Switch, three hundred metres east of the Schwaben Redoubt, where a mere hadnful of men under 2nd Lieutenant McKinley held on.
the assault of 107 brigade
107 Brigade's attack was marked by incredible bravery and misfortune. Their objective was the ' D ' Lines near Stuff Redoubt and then to work northwards towards the Ancre along the D lines that is the main German second position. At 5.00am, the 8th, 9th and 10th Royal Irish Rifles of 107 Brigade had left their assembly trenches in Aveluy, just north west of Lancashire Dump, and marched across the Ancre to speyside where they lay down to await orders. For these men of 107 Brigade zero, at 7.30 am meant that they would have to through Thiepval Wood, past Gordon Castle and Ross Castle. On that morning of 1st July 1916 just minutes into their attack the 36th Ulster Division's assault battalions were already far to exposed in their own self made salient.
Surrender of the German Front Line as the Ulsters swept over the Summit
The illustration above shows our barrage working ahead of our infantry who are sweeping over the tangle of trenches shooting, bombing and bayoneting, while Germans frantic to surrender wave white flags in the redoubt ( as described in ' The Great War ' edited by H.W Wilson )
Consequently the advance of 107 Brigade through Thiepval Wood would inevitably be observed from Thiepval which was still securely held by the Germans. 107 Brigade would therefore be exposed to a torrent of machine-gun fire before they even approached the British front line. The CO of the 9th Royal Irish Rifles, Lieutenat Colonel Percy Crozier, caught a snapshot of these events in his mind:
" As we pass Gordon Castle we pick up coils of wire and iron posts. I feel sure in my intermost thoughts these things will never be carried all the way to the final objective; however even if they get half way it will be a help. Then i glance to the right through the gap in the trees. I see the 10th Rifles plodding on and then my eyes are riveted on a site i shall never see again. It is the 32nd Division at its best. I see rows of British soldiers lying dead, dying or wounded in No Man's Land. " These were the Tyneside Commercials and Salford Pals whose attacks had already been broken below Thiepval. Crozier knew what that catastrophe meant for him and his men. The 10th Royal Irish Rifles on his right were especially exposed through the thin veil of shattered trees. Crozier and Lieutenant-Colonel H.C Bernard Commander of the 10th Royal Irish Rifles ignored a divisional order that senior officers should not accompany their men in the assault. Bernard was killed whilst leading his men through Thiepval Wood passing Ross Castle . Casualties were severe as the men passing through the wood came under machine-gun fire from the front and rear, before they had even reached their jumping off point. Crozier's batman, Corporal David Starret, reports how Crozier frantically rallied the remainder of of Colonel Bernard's men and some who were retreating and, inflamed by the sight of battalions wiped out he, shouting and dashing forward, led them on: " He walked into bursts, he fell into holes, his clothing was torn by bullets....he again and again rallied his men . " 107 Brigade's men who survived the carnage at Thiepval Wood then had to cross No Man's Land. The German machine-gun fire was so heavy and terrible that men began to waver. Company Commander Major George Gaffikin of the 9th Royal Irish Rifles ( West Belfast Volunteers ) on seeing this took out an orange hankerchief and held it high above his hesd for his men to see and shouted " Come on boys ! No surrender ! " This action drew a whole crowd of men after him over No Man's Land and towards the German lines. Sergeant Jim Maultsaid of the 14th Royal Irish Rifles would write that ' The slopes of Thiepval run red with the blood of Ulsterman. ' ( From the book ' The Road to the Somme ' ) 107 Brigade passed through the forward units of 108 and 109 Brigades at Mouquet Switch and the Hansa Line by 9.15 am. By this time the two German machine-guns neat Thiepval Chateau were causing many casualties amongst 107 Brigade's men. Simultaneously X Corps had issued orders to withhold the final advance of 107 Brigade but it proved impossible, by any means, to inform the forward units. Forty-five minutes later their leading waves were within one hundred yards of the main German second line defences on the Mouquet Farm - Grandcourt line and seemed likely to be able to sweep in vitually unopposed. Tragically here , the men ran into the British barrage which was not timed to lift forward and past the Grandcourt 'D' line until 10.10am. A German soldier tells what happened. " At 9 o' clock i was down in a dug-out in the Feste Staufen ( Stuff Redoubt ) when someone shouted down to me in an amazed voice " The Tommies are here " I rushed up and and there just outside the barbed wire, were ten or twenty English soldiers with flat steel helmets. We had no rifle, no revolver, no grenades, no ammunition, nothing at all; we were purely artillery observers. We would of had to surrender but, then the English artillery began to fire at our trench; but a great deal of the shells were too short and hit the English Infantrymen and they egan to fall back. If the English could have got through, they would only have met clerks, cooks, orderlies and such like. For a distance of several hundred metres to right and left from us there were no German soldiers. It was a decisive moment. "y the time the artillery lift came the German defences had reorganised and as the Ulstermen stood up again and moved forward they were hit in enfilade by machine-gun fire Grandcourt, from the direction of St.Pierre Divion and from across the Ancre from within the Beaucourt Redoubt. Two small groups did however get into the Grandcourt lines. About fifty men entered the Stuff Redoubt and found it unoccupied. A second group fought their way into the trenches three hundred yards further north towards Grandcourt. Two hundred men reached the upper part of Battery Valley but the remainder of 107 Brigade and the remnants of 109 and 108 Brigades who had been swept forward with them were now pinned down in exposed grassland in front of the German second line positions. The Ulsters' position was summed at 10.20am by Captain James Davidson of 108 Brigade's Machine- Gun Company who was holding the left of the Ulsters' advance. " Am in B line and have got up two Vickers guns, am consolidating both. Cannot say how many infantry are in line, but in this part there are only about 30 men of the 13th, 11th and 15th Royal Irish Rifles. We cannot possibly advance and reinforcements, ammunition and bombs most urgently needed." By 11.00am the small numbers of the 36th Division's troops in the D lines began to fall back to the C lines ( Hansa lines ) where they joined with the men already there in attempts at scraping shelter and consolidating their gains. Had it been possible to establish a stable line from Mill Road, across the summit of Schwaben Redoubt and on to Stuff Redoubt, and to reinforce those positions with fresh men, ammunition and trench mortars, and to protect them with a barrage capable of preventing German counter attacks, then Thiepval Village and the ridge behind would have become vulnerable. In the circumstances reinforcement across No Man's Land, bisected by the Thiepval Road, north-west of that village, became impossible and a complete killing zone covered by numerous machine-guns. The terrible dilemma in which the Ulstermen found themselves was due to two inescapable facts. Thiepval had not been captured and on the left of the Ulsters position the 29th Division's attack against Beaumont Hamel had been stopped in its tracks with terrible casualties. The Pals Battalions attacking Thiepval that morning had done everything they could with extreme bravery and it is very true that ' Only bullet proof soldiers could have taken Thiepval this day "
" As we pass Gordon Castle we pick up coils of wire and iron posts. I feel sure in my intermost thoughts these things will never be carried all the way to the final objective; however even if they get half way it will be a help. Then i glance to the right through the gap in the trees. I see the 10th Rifles plodding on and then my eyes are riveted on a site i shall never see again. It is the 32nd Division at its best. I see rows of British soldiers lying dead, dying or wounded in No Man's Land. " These were the Tyneside Commercials and Salford Pals whose attacks had already been broken below Thiepval. Crozier knew what that catastrophe meant for him and his men. The 10th Royal Irish Rifles on his right were especially exposed through the thin veil of shattered trees. Crozier and Lieutenant-Colonel H.C Bernard Commander of the 10th Royal Irish Rifles ignored a divisional order that senior officers should not accompany their men in the assault. Bernard was killed whilst leading his men through Thiepval Wood passing Ross Castle . Casualties were severe as the men passing through the wood came under machine-gun fire from the front and rear, before they had even reached their jumping off point. Crozier's batman, Corporal David Starret, reports how Crozier frantically rallied the remainder of of Colonel Bernard's men and some who were retreating and, inflamed by the sight of battalions wiped out he, shouting and dashing forward, led them on: " He walked into bursts, he fell into holes, his clothing was torn by bullets....he again and again rallied his men . " 107 Brigade's men who survived the carnage at Thiepval Wood then had to cross No Man's Land. The German machine-gun fire was so heavy and terrible that men began to waver. Company Commander Major George Gaffikin of the 9th Royal Irish Rifles ( West Belfast Volunteers ) on seeing this took out an orange hankerchief and held it high above his hesd for his men to see and shouted " Come on boys ! No surrender ! " This action drew a whole crowd of men after him over No Man's Land and towards the German lines. Sergeant Jim Maultsaid of the 14th Royal Irish Rifles would write that ' The slopes of Thiepval run red with the blood of Ulsterman. ' ( From the book ' The Road to the Somme ' ) 107 Brigade passed through the forward units of 108 and 109 Brigades at Mouquet Switch and the Hansa Line by 9.15 am. By this time the two German machine-guns neat Thiepval Chateau were causing many casualties amongst 107 Brigade's men. Simultaneously X Corps had issued orders to withhold the final advance of 107 Brigade but it proved impossible, by any means, to inform the forward units. Forty-five minutes later their leading waves were within one hundred yards of the main German second line defences on the Mouquet Farm - Grandcourt line and seemed likely to be able to sweep in vitually unopposed. Tragically here , the men ran into the British barrage which was not timed to lift forward and past the Grandcourt 'D' line until 10.10am. A German soldier tells what happened. " At 9 o' clock i was down in a dug-out in the Feste Staufen ( Stuff Redoubt ) when someone shouted down to me in an amazed voice " The Tommies are here " I rushed up and and there just outside the barbed wire, were ten or twenty English soldiers with flat steel helmets. We had no rifle, no revolver, no grenades, no ammunition, nothing at all; we were purely artillery observers. We would of had to surrender but, then the English artillery began to fire at our trench; but a great deal of the shells were too short and hit the English Infantrymen and they egan to fall back. If the English could have got through, they would only have met clerks, cooks, orderlies and such like. For a distance of several hundred metres to right and left from us there were no German soldiers. It was a decisive moment. "y the time the artillery lift came the German defences had reorganised and as the Ulstermen stood up again and moved forward they were hit in enfilade by machine-gun fire Grandcourt, from the direction of St.Pierre Divion and from across the Ancre from within the Beaucourt Redoubt. Two small groups did however get into the Grandcourt lines. About fifty men entered the Stuff Redoubt and found it unoccupied. A second group fought their way into the trenches three hundred yards further north towards Grandcourt. Two hundred men reached the upper part of Battery Valley but the remainder of 107 Brigade and the remnants of 109 and 108 Brigades who had been swept forward with them were now pinned down in exposed grassland in front of the German second line positions. The Ulsters' position was summed at 10.20am by Captain James Davidson of 108 Brigade's Machine- Gun Company who was holding the left of the Ulsters' advance. " Am in B line and have got up two Vickers guns, am consolidating both. Cannot say how many infantry are in line, but in this part there are only about 30 men of the 13th, 11th and 15th Royal Irish Rifles. We cannot possibly advance and reinforcements, ammunition and bombs most urgently needed." By 11.00am the small numbers of the 36th Division's troops in the D lines began to fall back to the C lines ( Hansa lines ) where they joined with the men already there in attempts at scraping shelter and consolidating their gains. Had it been possible to establish a stable line from Mill Road, across the summit of Schwaben Redoubt and on to Stuff Redoubt, and to reinforce those positions with fresh men, ammunition and trench mortars, and to protect them with a barrage capable of preventing German counter attacks, then Thiepval Village and the ridge behind would have become vulnerable. In the circumstances reinforcement across No Man's Land, bisected by the Thiepval Road, north-west of that village, became impossible and a complete killing zone covered by numerous machine-guns. The terrible dilemma in which the Ulstermen found themselves was due to two inescapable facts. Thiepval had not been captured and on the left of the Ulsters position the 29th Division's attack against Beaumont Hamel had been stopped in its tracks with terrible casualties. The Pals Battalions attacking Thiepval that morning had done everything they could with extreme bravery and it is very true that ' Only bullet proof soldiers could have taken Thiepval this day "
