The last great hope for strategic success on the Somme had come on September 15th, at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, though this was only apparent to Rawlinson, the commander of the Fourth Army a week or so after that date, and not the opinion of Haig or the commander of his Reserve Army, Gough, who felt that the German army might crack at any moment with just one more push.
In due course, however, all of them turned to tactical reasons for continuing the attack in to the winter. In the case of the sector around the Ancre, the German position gave them clear views right down to Albert — go to the area of Frankfurt Trench Cemetery and the site of the Beaucourt Redoubt to see for yourself. This would be a major impediment to preparations for any offensive the British might have in mind for the spring of 1917. The continuing British advance around Thiepval and along the Albert-Bapaume road throughout September and October meant that the German position around Beaumont Hamel and St Pierre Divion found itself increasingly exposed to observation and artillery fire from the flank.
Gough’s Fifth Army was tasked with capturing the Ancre heights, right up to Serre in the north and towards Pys in the east. He found its planned offensive operations stymied by the weather, and by November 13th it was a case of now or never — the attacking divisions were being worn down by fatigue, the conditions and the sea of mud. In this book I am simply concerned with the 63rd and the 51st Divisions. These two, and the 39th Division on the south side of the Ancre, were successful in gaining the bulk of their objectives; the operations of the 51st and 63rd Division are to a large extent described elsewhere. Further to the north the attacks failed, and Serre and Puisieux remained firmly in German hands until their withdrawal in the spring of 1917; Serre had the distinction of being the only front line village on the old German front of July 1st that they still retained at the end of the battle of the Somme on November 19th, when the bloody onslaught finally slithered and sank into the mud around Frankfurt Trench.
See Map 5
