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Updated: June 7, 2025
Further away, half-right, you can see Guillemont." "In that case," remarked Wagstaffe, "our right flank would appear to be strongly supported by the enemy." "Yes. We are in a sort of right-angled salient here. We have the enemy on our front and our right. In fact, we form the extreme right of the attacking front. Our left is perfectly secure, as we now hold Mametz Wood and Contalmaison.
"I am afraid you won't see him," he replied. "Why?" half suspecting some bad news. "Well, he and four others were killed shortly after you left." I turned slowly away and walked off in the direction of Guillemont. A hundred yards further on I came upon a scene which afforded some relief to the tragedies of the day.
Delville and High Woods and Guillemont and Longueval and the Switch Trench these are symbolic names of that attrition, of the heroism of British persistence which would not take No for answer. You might think that you had seen ruins until you saw those of Guillemont after it was taken.
"Well, old fellow," remarked the major, removing his steel helmet when we got back to headquarters, "a cup of tea, and you'd better go straight down to those trenches the other side of Guillemont and inquire what has become of the Infantry Brigade. And you can deliver our reconnoitring report." It was a long walk, and I resolved to pick up my horse for the return journey.
In this sector all the German first positions had been captured. The second position ran through a heavily wooded country and the villages of the Bazentins, Longueval, and Guillemont. During the night of July 2, 1916, the British had penetrated La Boiselle, and throughout the following day the battle raged around that place and Ovillers.
Headquarter waggons had remained the other side of Guillemont, and I volunteered to walk back and bring the servants up. The major thought that Wilde ought to accompany me; it was not too pleasant a pilgrimage with the Boche maintaining his shelling. But as we climbed the stairs of the dug-out the major made a further decision. "I think you might as well bring the mess cart," he called out.
The German counter-attacks were unusually unsuccessful, and on 9 September Ginchy was carried by the Irish regiments which had helped to take Guillemont. It looked as though the Allies were at least getting into their stride, or the wasting struggle was beginning to tell on the German reserves and resistance.
As the high ground on each side of the Combles Valley commands the slopes of the ridge on the opposite side, it was essential that the advance of the two armies should be simultaneous and made in the closest cooperation." The British made an attack on Guillemont from Trônes Wood on July 19, 1916. It was a rainy, foggy day, that hampered military operations, and they failed to advance.
Over two months had been spent in securing objectives marked down for the first day or two of the battle; but with the fall of Guillemont the last fragment of the German second position had fallen into our hands, their third was more or less improvised, we had a new weapon in reserve, and were half-way from our original lines to Bapaume.
On the 16th, however, the fall of Ovillers prepared the way for an attack on Pozières, which was finally captured with the help of the Australians on the 26th, and the taking of Waterlot farm on our right opened up an advance on Guillemont. Much of High wood was recovered on the 20th.
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