ollows: The right wing of Sir Edmund Allenby's Third Army and General
Hunter-Weston's Eighth Corps lay opposite Gommecourt, and down to a
point just south of Beaumont-Hamel. North of Ancre to Authuille was
General Morland's Tenth Corps, and east of Albert General Pulteney's
Third Corps, a division directed against La Boiselle, and another
against Ovillers. Adjoining the French forces on the British right
flank lay General Congreve's Thirteenth Corps.

The Allies' attack was not unexpected by the Germans, and they were
not entirely wrong as to the area in which the blow would be
delivered. From Arras to Albert they had concentrated large forces of
men and many guns, but south of Albert they were less strongly
prepared. Their weakest point was south of the Somme, where the Allies
had all the advantage. In recording the history of the day's fighting
two separate actions must be described, in the north and in the south.
The Allies failed in the first of these, but in the second they gained
a substantial victory over the German hosts. The most desperate
struggle of the day was fought between Gommecourt and Thiepval.

Three of the British divisions in action here were from the New Army;
one was a Territorial brigade and the two others had seen hard
fighting in Flanders and Gallipoli. They confronted a series of
strongly fortified villages--Gommecourt Serre, Beaumont-Hamel, and
Thiepval--with underground caves that could shelter whole battalions.
A network of underground passages led to sheltered places to the rear
of the fighting line, and deep pits had been dug in which, in time of
bombardment, the machine guns could be hidden. The Germans had also
direct observation from the rear of these strongholds, where their
guns were massed in large numbers.

Occupying such strong positions with every advantage in their favor,
it is easy to understand why the British troops that attacked from
Gommecourt to Thiepval failed to attain their objective. If the
British bombardment had reached a high pitch of intensity on the
morning of July 1, 1916, the German guns were no less active, and
having the advantage of direct observation, their explosive shells
soon obliterated parts of the British front trenches, compelling the
British to form up in the open ground. A hot barrage fire of shrapnel
accurately directed followed the British troops as they advanced over
no-man's-land. Into a very hell of shrapnel, high explosives, rifle
and machin