the royal dublin fusiliers
The Dublin Fusiliers
the dublin fusilers first day of the somme
Commanders: VIII Corps Commander General Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston
GOC 4th Division: Major-General Lambton
GOC 29th Division: Major - General H de B de Lisle
Divisions: The 4th and 29th
The plan:
The plan was to mount two attacks on either side of the village- the 4th Division along Redan Ridge to the north, the 29th along Hawthorne Ridge and a deep valley called ' Y- Ravine ' to the south. In the centre, a huge mine had been dug. Hunter Weston wanted to explode the mine 4 hours before the attack, so that the Germans would stand - to, expecting an attack, but then would have time to decide that the attack was not going to happen and stand down; the British attack at 7.30am would then take them by surprise. Haig denied the request, but agreed that the mine be blown ten minutes before zero hour. In fact this was a fatal decision and all it did was warn the Germans that an attack was coming, it also led to the disastrous decision to lift the artillery bombardment along the whole line for ten minutes. The British Commanders had sealed the fate of their men.
preperation:
Five access trenches had been built towards the German lines, because they were attacking over a ridge, the british did not have a proper appreciation of the German defences and beaumont Hamel was one of the most strongly fortified german positions along the whole of the front line. In fact the german tenches were so well constructed with deep dugouts that they considered the whole line impregnable, except for a section which jutted out into No Man's Land which they called the Heidenkopt and the British called the
' Quadrilateral ' This section of the trench the Germans had allocated only one machine gun, and they had mined it to blow up when they had to abandon it.
Artillery bombardment:
In the north sector the wire had been cut in many places, but in the south the 29th Division ( veterans who had returned from gallipoli )
found much of the wire was uncut. The Artillery bombardment utterley failed to destroy both the wire and the deep German dug-outs due to the lack of heavy calibre guns involved. Hunter -Weston later blamed the failure of the attack on poor artillery fire. The failure was due to a combination of incidents and events. The Lifting of the artillery barrage for ten vital minutes was a terrible mistake which gave the Germans ample warning of the attack and time to man their machine gun positions. Shrapnel shells proved totally inadequate in destroying the German wire and the barrage itself consisted of a great number of dud shells. The fact that the whole of the British position was overlooked by the German line never seemed to enter the minds of the High Commanad and the whole of No Man's land became a killing zone. Many young men never even got a yard beyond their trenches. A creeping barrage had been planned, but simply to advance 100 yards every two minutes, so it quickly became useless when the advance was held up.
Sixty-six German artillery batteries had been ordered to fire only if there was a general attack; the British Commanders therefore knew nothing about them until the attack went forward. British counter-artillery was unable to locate and destroy them.
The Somme was not only the killing field of many a fine Irish Regiment, it was also a place where a generation of young men died and suffered. When we talk of regiments being slaughtered or decimated we wonder how this could have happened. These photos are intended to give some idea of what these men faced. Left, the mine at Hawthorne Ridge goes up under the German front line, ten minutes before zero hour. A small figure at the lower left bottom gives some idea of the scale of the explosion. Above right, men of the 1st Lancashire Fusiliers, 29th Division have crawled into a sunked road just in front of their front line trench, useing covered saps (trenches) to hide their movement from the enemy. The idea was to reduce the amount of ground they had to cover in order to get across No Man's Land. This film was taken 30 minutes before the attack went in. The German front line is over the hedge row on the left. Most of the men you see staring at the camera were killed before they had even got a couple of yards out of the road ..the photograph lower left was taken from the lip of the Hawthorne Ridge crater which was soon occupied by German machine gunners. They had a perfect view of the sunken road, which is the line of hedge's on the left beyond the two tress and stretching out to the right distance. The German front line was at the edge of the wood on the right.The whole of the British Front line was overlooked, and this was the case with nearly all of the German positions on that fateful day. The Lancashire Fusiliers attemped to cross No Man's Land from left to right but were mown down as soon as they left the cover of the road. One machine gunner could cut a Battalion to pieces from this position, never mind several. The cemetary ( Beaumont Hamel British Cemetary ) is situated in the middle of No Man's Land, behind a slight ridge which was lined with barbed wire on the morning of the 1st July, and was itself a trecherous barrier to the advancing men. Most of the men from the 1st Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers are bueried here. Many years ago i visited this part of the battlefied, on a quiet December's day. It is hard to appreciate the view the Germans had on that day unless you actually stand where their front line was. I was shocked when i saw just how much the German lines dominated the whole area,, they could even see the 4th divisions attack from here.. and my thoughts were quite simply that the British Staff and Commanders were guilty of murder.
Above right is incredible footage of that morning in the ' Sunken Lane ' on the 1st July 1916 when a cameraman ( Geoffrey Mallins ) actually went out with the 1st Lancashire Fusiliers and filmed them 30 minutes before the attack on Beaumont Hamel and Hawthorne Ridge. It is not staged... Although men are seen smiling when the air overhead must have been filled with shells and bullets, the apprehension can be felt and seen in the faces of these poor lads, not knowing that just over the hedge they would walk into a hail of enemy bullets and that the enemy would not be all dead as predicted by their Commanders.
The whole attack was a complete failure and both the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Royal Dublin Fusilers suffered heavy casualties.Men from the 2/Royal Fusilers were unable to capture the crater and only held a tenuous grip on the westernmost edge whilst survivors from the battalion used the heap of earth that it had created as a means of cover. 1/ Royal Dublins found themselves under fire from German defenders on the ridge to the immediate north of Beaumont Hamel,whilst 1/ Lancashire fusiliers and their support 16/ Middlesex had come under withering German enfilade fire from Hawthorne ridge as well as from their front.
The 2nd Dublins of the 4th Division attacking north of the Hawthorne Crater were in the second wave and lost 325 men out of a total of 503 who went into action.. The 4th Division suffered 4692 casualties ( making it the 5th worst hit Division out of 16 used on the day) and the 29th Division ( containing the1st Battalion Dublins ) Suffered 5,240 casualties.( the 2nd worst hit Division )
The Mine at Hawthorne Ridge contained 40,600lb of ammonal, it was 75ft deep and 1,000ft long. It took seven months to build.
beaumont hamel 1st july 1916:
2nd Battalion Dublins
4th Division who attacked in the second wave at 9.00am
German Front Line
1st Lancashire Fusiliers.
The ' Sunken Lane '
Hawthorne Ridge Mine Crater
2/Royal Fusiliers
1st Battalion Dublins
29th Division, First Wave.
British Front Line.
