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Updated: May 5, 2025
It was not these trenches only, where I stood, but all that lay out there in the darkness, which had been given into our keeping. Its dangers were ours now. There were villages away there in the heart of the night, still unknown to all but the experts at home, whose names like Thiepval and Bazentin would soon be English names, familiar to every man in Britain as the streets of his own town.
Where from Thiepval to Gommecourt the men who had expected to be organizing new trenches were back in their old ones and the gunners who had hoped to move their guns forward were in the same positions and all the plans for supplying an army in advance were still on paper, to the southward anticipation had become realization and the system devised to carry on after success was being applied.
This is the site of the little hill village of Thiepval, which once stood at a cross-roads here among apple orchards and the trees of a park. It had a church, just at the junction of the roads, and a fine seigneurial château, in a garden, beside the church; otherwise it was a little lonely mean place, built of brick and plaster on a great lonely heap of chalk downland.
I saw our men going into battle with strong battalions and coming out of it with weak battalions. I saw them in the midst of battle at Thiepval, at Contalmaison, at Guillemont, by Loupart Wood, when they trudged toward lines of German trenches, bunching a little in groups, dodging shell-bursts, falling in single figures or in batches, and fighting over the enemy's parapets.
As soon as the high ridge west of Pozières had been taken, a converging movement began upon Thiepval, that stubbornly defended height, which was not to fall until the 27th September. The 48th Division, facing half left, now began to move towards it from the south-east, whilst continuous pressure was directed from the west, or the direction of our old front line.
At the little schoolhouse Twenty miles of German fortifications taken Doubtful situation north of Thiepval Prisoners and wounded Defeat and victory The topography of Thiepval Sprays of bullets and blasts of artillery fire "The day" of the New Army The courage of civilized man Fighting with a kind of divine stubbornness Braver than the "Light Brigade" Died fighting as final proof of the New Army's spirit Crawling back through No Man's Land Not beaten but roughly handled.
How earnestly he hoped it there is no use of mentioning here. It is taken for granted. Carefully thought out plans backed by hundreds of guns and the lives of men at stake and against the Thiepval fortifications! "Yes, we'll make it nicely," concluded Howell, as we went down the steps.
All their hopes were centered at this time on their chief objectives, Guillemont and Pozières. The latter was especially important, for it formed a part of the plateau of Thiepval. If the British succeeded in gaining the crest of the ridge all the country to the east would come under direct observation.
From "light" cases and from "bad" cases, from officers and men, you had the account of an individual's supreme experience, infinitesimal compared to the whole but when taken together making up the whole. The wounded in the Thiepval-Gommecourt sector spoke of having "crawled" back across No Man's Land. South of Thiepval they had "walked" back.
Thiepval again Director of tactics of an army corps Graduates of Staff Colleges Army jargon An army director's office "Hope you will see a good show" "This road is shelled; closed to vehicles" A perfect summer afternoon The view across No Man's Land Nests of burrowers more cunning than any rodents men Tranquil preliminaries to an attack The patent curtain of fire Registering by practice shots Running as men will run only from death The tall officer who collapsed "The shower of death."
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