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Updated: June 26, 2025
From Albert four roads lead to the battlefield of the Somme: 1. In a north-westerly direction to Auchonvillers and Hébuterne. In a northerly direction to Authuille and Hamel. In a north-easterly direction to Pozières. In an easterly direction to Fricourt and Maricourt.
The artillery beat back that attack before it was over the crest, and the Germans broke and ran. Again the enemy's artillery was turned on. Pozières was pounded more furiously than before, until by four in the afternoon it seemed to onlookers scarcely possible that humanity could have endured such an ordeal.
They stormed the Pozieres ridge yard by yard, and held its crest under sweeping barrages which tore up their trenches as soon as they were dug and buried and mangled their living flesh.
A few pink walls could then be half seen behind the branches, or topping the gaps in the scrub. Within four days the screen in front of Pozières had been torn to shreds had utterly disappeared. The German bombardment ripped off all that the British had left. The buildings now stood up quite naked, such as they were.
"The bloodbath of the Somme," as the Germans called it, was ours as well as theirs, and scores of times when I saw the dead bodies of our men lying strewn over those dreadful fields, after desperate and, in the end, successful attacks through the woods of death Mametz Wood, Delville Wood, Trones Wood, Bernafay Wood, High Wood, and over the Pozieres ridge to Courcellette and Martinpuich I thought of Rawlinson in his chateau in Querrieux, scheming out the battles and ordering up new masses of troops to the great assault over the bodies of their dead... Well, it is not for generals to sit down with their heads in their hands, bemoaning slaughter, or to shed tears over their maps when directing battle.
"His courage was amazing, and had such an effect on the enemy that, on the arrival of reenforcements, the whole trench was recaptured." The battle continued almost without pause, and by evening of July 24, 1916, the British had captured the greater part of Pozières. In the morning of the following day the entire place was in their hands.
The place could be picked out for miles by pillars of red and black dust towering above it like a Broken Hill dust-storm. Then Germans were reported coming on again, as in the morning. Again our artillery descended upon them like a hailstorm, and nothing came of the attack. During all this time, in spite of the shelling, the troops were slowly working forwards through Pozières; not backwards.
With the help of the Pozières Ridge we could observe Fritz quite clearly now, and every time he attempted any digging-in work our guns would speak to him in terms so convincing that he fain would desist. My battery then moved up to within a thousand yards of the foe, one and a half miles northwest of Labazell, where we had to dig right in the open.
All these things were then clearly to be seen, though in the distance. The main hollow of the valley is not remarkable except that it is crossed by enormous trenches and very steeply hedged by a hill on its eastern flank. This eastern hill which has such a steep side is a spur or finger of chalk thrusting southward from Pozières, like the ring-finger of the imagined hand.
One interesting incident occurred when I filmed Mouquet Farm situate between Pozières and Thiepval. Looking at the Farm from the strategical point of view, I feel quite confident in saying that only British troops could have taken it. It was one of the most wonderful defensive points that could possibly be conceived, and chosen by men who made a special study of such positions.
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