Longueval & Delville Wood

The Battle for Longueval and Delville Wood

Two weeks after the start of the Battle of the Somme, the fighting came to Longueval and Delville Wood. An ambitious silent attack was planned to take place on a four mile front, timed to start at dawn on the 14th July, following an assembly by night. The main assault troops being the 9th Scottish Division including the South African Bde and the 3rd Division, who were to attack between Delville Wood and Bazentin le Grand Wood. To left the 7th and 21st Divisions were also to attack.
At first, Sir Douglas Haig was firmly against the plan, particularly the difficult night-time operation of concentrating unseasoned troops fairly close to the German positions and his doubts were shared by the French. But Gen Rawlinson insisted that the scheme was workable and was backed by his corps and divisional commanders. Gen Haig finally sanctioned the attack, the preparations were made and the scene was set.
During the night of the 13th and the early hours of the 14th July the 26th and 27th Bde’s of the 9th Scottish Division silently moved to there start line on the lower slopes of the Caterpillar Valley in the distance they could see the faint silhouette of Longueval and Delville Wood on the ridgeline. To there right the intense noise of the fighting for Trones Wood covered there approaches.

At 3:20 am the whole line behind the attacking troops opened with a roar as the combined artillery opened up and machine guns set on set lines opened on the enemy front line positions. At 3:45 am the troops crossed the tapes and advanced. The German front line garrison was taken completely by surprise and was quickly overwhelmed. Thereafter however resistance stiffened. Not for nothing had Falkenhayen issued instructions to his men to yield not an inch. Typical of the German defenders attitude was the response of a small German detachment in Longueval to an offer of surrender by a group of Highlanders who had completely surrounded them.
‘I and my men have orders to defend this position with our lives. German soldiers know how to obey orders, we thank you for your offer, but we die where we stand.’
And they did. The outcome, in general was bitter, costly hand to hand and house to house fighting, made worse for the attackers by the fact that the short bombardment had not sufficiently destroyed the village, let alone collapsed the network of underground tunnels and shelters joining cellars and wells.
By the afternoon of the first day, Longueval had still not been taken in its entirety by the Scottish regiments. This had consequences for the advance on Delville Wood, since the capture of the village was judged an essential prerequisite for any operations against the adjacent wood. Even more important the heavy losses of the Highlanders in the street fighting necessitated their reinforcement within the village, and their replacement outside it, by troops of the divisional reserve.
Thus it came about that the South African Infantry Brigade was called upon, first to take and thereafter to retain, at all costs the area known as Delville Wood.
The attack got under way at 5am on the 15th July. Progress was slow though less on account of the enemy action the garrison had been thinned out as a precaution against the expected bombardment of the area 154 acres in extent had was described as think tangle of trees. By midday the South Africans had cleared the wood and reached the perimeter in every sector except the north west corner. Intense shelling began, the Brigade began to dig-in, in anticipation of the expected counter attack. The South African held a line of 1,800 yards and replied several battalion size counter attacks throughout the afternoon. During the night the shelling intensified, including gas shells, with three more determined counter attacks taking place after midnight, all being repelled at close quarters by rifle and machine-gun.
The next day, 16th July, an attempt was made to clear the north west corner of the wood, but because of the closeness of the opposing trenches, there was no preliminary bombardment.
The Brigade trench mortars were brought forward in support and after a quick mortar bombardment the 1st South African Reg attempted to rush the enemy position from Princess Street and the 11th Royal Scots attacked north through Longueval.But despite great gallantry including the actions resulting in the award of a VC to Pte Faulds, the German position was too strong to be taken.
The following day, 17th July, a further attempt was made again without artillery support and one hour’s worth of intense mortar bombardment. The Scots attacking from Longueval square and the South Africans from the Strand, but again nothing to show for it other than more casualties. A pattern on both sides was now beginning to emerge of bombardment followed by counter attack followed bombardment. During the night the German batteries fired a mixture of high explosive and gas onto Longueval and Delville Wood turning the wood into an inferno of fire.
At 3:45 am on the 18th July the 3rd Division launched an attack from the Windmill to the west of Longueval. The 1st Gordon’s and the 8th Kings Own assaulting Longueval from the west advanced the line a couple of hundred yards but were once again stopped by the German garrison holding the very north of the village in an area known as the Orchard. The Germans now intensified there bombardment of the area, Delville wood being hit at a rate of up to 400 rounds per minute. Soon the ruins of Longueval were ablaze and black smoke arose from Delville Wood, it was said that nothing could survive above ground. By now most of the South Africans holding the northern perimeter of the wood were dead or wounded At 3:30 pm the Germans counter attacked from the east of Delville Wood, the attack being broken up with heavy casualties caused by the South African’s rifles. To the north of the wood a large counter attack commenced on the surviving South African’s, during fierce close quarter fighting the remnants fell back to the brigade HQ located in the south west of the wood and there they held. To make the situation worse another German counter attack was launched against Longueval from the north west and after intense fighting the Highlanders fell back to the southern half of the village. The situation being saved by the 5th Cameron Highlanders, who recaptured some of the ground, repositioning the line back in the village square.
The next day, 19th July, the attacks continued at 7:15 am the 8th Norfolk’s assaulted from Longueval to Delville Wood recapturing part of the southern portion of the wood, later the Essex, Berkshire and Suffolk’s attacked without much result, due to the intensity of the German bombardment. During the night the 3rd Division finally relieved the 9th Scottish Division except for the remnants of the South African Brigade who stayed in the wood. It wasn’t until 6:20 pm on the 20th July that the surviving South Africans were relieved, out of the Brigade of 3,000 men only 3 officers and 140 men appeared from the wood. The South African’s had covered themselves with glory at Delville Wood, which is now laid out as there national memorial.
The fight continued early in the morning of the 20th the 3rd Division made another attack on Delville Wood and the village. At 3:35 am the 2nd Suffolk’s and 10th Royal Welsh Fusiliers advanced from the west, but the two lead companies of the Suffolk’s were almost entirely wiped out. The Fusiliers went astray and came under fire from a British machine-gun barrage, losing most of their officers. Despite these losses the Fusiliers advanced into the wood and became involved in heavy hand to hand fighting during which two members of the battalion were awarded the VC for there actions.
During the next 36 hours the 3rd Division consolidated there position and prepared for the next major assault, always under constant shelling. On the 23rd a joint operation by the 3rd and 5th Divisions was put into action. Both Divisions attacked from the west of Longueval with the 3rd Division on the right and the 5th Division on the left. At 3:40 am the 1st Northumberland Fusiliers advanced followed by the 13th Kings and 12th West Yorks. They made good progress advancing through the northern part of Longueval and into Delville Wood itself, until they came up against heavy machine-gun fire from the front and left. They were forced to fall back at first to Piccadilly Street and then to Pont Street. Two other battalions captured a German strong point close to the Orchard in the north of the village but after being heavy counter attacked they were also forced to retire. On the 25th July the 3rd Division was relieved by the 2nd Division.
The 2nd Division and 5th Divisions then continued the fight on the 27th with the 2nd Division concentrating its assault on Delville Wood and the 5th Division on the northern portion of Longueval. At 7:10 am after a very severe barrage the 1st KRRC and 23rd Royal Fusiliers advanced by 9 am they had captured a line as far 50 yards from the northern perimeter of the wood. The 5th Division to the left advanced with the 1st Norfolk’s and 1st Bedford’s into the western edge of the wood and north through the village, the fighting in the village proved to be the hardest, with the strong point in the orchard remaining in German hands, from that position they launched a counter attack at 9:30 am causing the British to make a small retirement. The following day was spent repelling strong German counter attacks.
On the 30th July the 5th Division continued the attack, assaulting the northern end of the village with 2nd KOSB, they pushed forward into the orchard were they dug in and remained for two days before being forced to fall back. On the 1st August the 17th Division relieved the 5th Division, the 5th Div had taken 5220 casualties during there time in the line. The first few days of August were relatively quite, with both sides taking advantage of the stalemate. The 17th Division making there first attack on the 4th August. Assaulting Orchard Trench with the 12th Manchester’s and the 9th Northumberland Fusiliers but they were caught in a heavy enemy HE and gas bombardment that broke up there attack. On the 7th August they tried to attack this time from the right, the Borders and South Stafford’s advanced in the Wood but were stopped by heavy close quarter fire. On the 12th August the 17th Division was relieved, during its ten days in the line it again received over 5000 casualties. The 43rd Division took responsibility for Delville Wood and 14th Division took over Longueval and during the next days the fighting switched to the west and south of the area.
On the 18th August the assault continued once more within the close confines of Delville Wood, the fierce fighting continuing all day at times hand to hand, the line changing hands by only yards throughout the day. To the left the 14th Division attacked Orchard Trench with the same results.
On 17th August GHQ informed Gen Rawlinson that the ‘Tank’ would be available for a new offensive in mid-September, therefore some three weeks remained to get to a proposed start line. Amongst other requirements XV Corps would be required to clear the northern edge of Delville Wood. On the 21st August an attempt by 8th KRRC to occupy posts in the German front line in the wood was foiled at the cost of 200 men and no gain. A more considerable effort was made on the 24th August. Again 8th KRRC, 41st Bde, on the right of the Divisional attack, had difficulty making progress and were stopped before Ale Alley trench. It fell to 10th DLI to launch a surprise attack on the afternoon of the 27th August which finally removed the Germans from Delville Wood for the first time, their tenuous grip in posts in Edge Trench was finally broken.
On the morning of 31st August 14th Division was relieved in the wood by the 24th Division, the fighting in and around Longueval and Delville Wood had cost the Division 3,600 casualties.
The men of the 24th Division were not to enjoy a peaceful time. The Germans launched a series of counter attacks, commencing at 1 pm on the 31st August and ended some eight hours later. Each attack was interspersed by ferocious shelling of the British Line. Some ground was given on the right and the situation for a while on the Divisions left, but towards the evening the German efforts had petered out, their attack however did leave them a small foothold once again back in the wood. It was not until the 3rd September that Delville Wood was finally secured.
During the six weeks of intense fighting nine British Divisions had taken part in the fighting, the total number of British and Commonwealth casualties is estimated at 30,000 the German army must have suffered a similar number.