Background
The 9th (Service) Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment was under orders of 71st Infantry Brigade, which was part of 6th Division.
The battalion had been relieved after their previous attack in the Battle of the Somme, and moved to the rear area and the village of Flesselles. It began to move forward again on 6 September, going via Allonville, Querrieu and Corbie to Méricourt l’Abbé. On 8 September 1916 it moved to a tented camp in the Sandpit area between Albert and Bray. A working party was supplied to help to unload ammunition from a train arriving at Plateau Station.
On 11 September the battalion moved forward via Carnoy to an area of trenches south of Trones Wood. Captured earlier in the battle, it was a mass of shell holes, destroyed trees, barbed wire and dugouts, and the men bivouacked as best as they could. Although the front was by this date some miles away the area was still under long-range shell fire and could be raided from the air. Three officers became casualties on 13 September. Many men, who had arrived as recent drafts, for the first time experienced the unmistakeable and harrowing sights and smells of the battlefield.
The 9th Norfolks, having now been given their orders for the attack on 15 September, began to move to their place of assembly at 10pm the previous day and were in position by 1am.
The attack
The battalion’s war says little of the attack: “Held up by [barbed] wire which was uncut. Casualties 431 other ranks.” It then names eighteen officers who also became casualties. These figures mean that almost all officers and about two-thirds of the men of the battalion who went “over the top” were killed, wounded or captured.
In order to understand what happened in more detail, it is possible to refer to the brigade and division war diaries, but the objectives and effect of their action are described succinctly in the published history of 6th Division, thus:
“The British objective for the 15th September was Gueudecourt-Flers-Lesboeufs-Morval – the XIV Corps (Guards and 6th Division) to capture the two latter. It was the first occasion on which tanks were employed, and as far as the Division was concerned was a failure, for of the three allotted to the 6th Division two broke down before starting, and the third, moving off in accordance with orders long before the infantry, had its periscope shot off, its peep-holes blinded, was riddled by armour-piercing bullets, and had to come back without achieving anything.
…
To facilitate the movement of the tanks a gap of about 200 yards had been left in the creeping barrage. This gap unfortunately coincided with the strongest point of the Quadrilateral. The barrage, moreover, had passed over the German trenches by the time the infantry advanced; the latter had, consequently, to attack up the glacis-like slopes without any artillery support except the bombardment. This, owing to the enemy’s trenches not having been accurately located, was ineffective.
…
The 16th Infantry Brigade attacked on a battalion front – one company of the Bedfords bombing up the trench from Leuze Wood, and the remainder over the open to the north against the south-west face. The Buffs and York and Lancasters supported the attack, but in spite of the greatest gallantry could not take the strong point. The 1st Leicesters and the Norfolks, passing through the entrenched Foresters and Suffolks, attacked the Quadrilateral from the north-west with equal drive, but they too failed. Some ground, however, was made, and by 10 a.m. the 16th Infantry Brigade on the south, and the 71st Infantry Brigade on the north, were digging in close to the enemy’s wire and trenches.”
Let us make things a little clearer: the 6th Division was to attack employing two of its brigades – the 16th on the right and 71st on the left. In the 16th Brigade, one battalion only – the 8th Bedfords – would advance and in the case of the 71st two made the attack, the 1st Leicesters and the 9th Norfolks. They faced a key and formidably defended German strong point known as the Quadrilateral.
Elsewhere the British attack met with mixed fortunes, but in places was most successful: this was nowhere better than in the deep advance that resulted in the capture of Flers, where tanks played an important role.
The remnant of the 9th Norfolks was soon relieved and the offensive was carried on by other units.
Aftermath
Using records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission I have traced the fates of the men of the battalion who died. It breaks down as follows:
- 126 officers and men have no known grave and are commemorated at the Thiepval Memorial. Some of them may lie marked only as “unknown soldiers” in the cemeteries in the area if, for example, they were found by post-war battlefield clearance parties but could not be identified. Some may still lie in the fields facing the Quadrilateral.
- 29 lie in Guillemont Road Cemetery. This is reasonably near to the location of the battalion’s attack but this is not where the men were originally buried. According to CWGC, “The cemetery was begun by fighting units (mainly of the Guards Division) and field ambulances after the Battle of Guillemont, and was closed in March 1917, which it contained 121 burials. It was greatly increased after the Armistice when graves (almost all of July-September 1916) were brought in from the battlefields immediately surrounding the village and certain smaller cemeteries”.
- 2 lie in Guards’ Cemetery, Lesboeufs, which is also close to the attack site.
- 3 are buried in Corbie and Meaulte. These were locations of medical units and these men had died of wounds, having been taken rearward to these places.
- 4 lie in Serre Road Cemetery Number 2, which is quite some way from Guillemont and is a post-war battlefield clearance cemetery.
Links
This page is dedicated to Pte 40026 Walter Frederick Read, who was among those who lost their lives in this action. He was killed in his first period in the front line. I researched him for a private client in 2013.