Current Information:

2, Ormiston Road, Shepherd's Bush

Born-Finsbury

St Pierre Cemetery, Amiens, France

The opening day of the Battle of the Somme 1st July 1916

This was a disastrous day for the British Army in France. Eleven divisions of Fourth Army attacked along a 15 mile front from Maricourt to Serre. Two further divisions of Third Army launched a diversionary attack just to the north of Serre at Gommecourt. For a week beforehand the British artillery pounded the German trenches but the Germans had been there for a long time and they had constructed deep, concrete reinforced shelters beneath their trenches and many survived the bombardment. The troops went over the top at 7.30am but even before they had left their overcrowded trenches, many had been killed or maimed by German artillery. The Germans knew that they were coming. Once in No-Man’s-Land the artillery continued to take its toll and then the machine guns opened up on the advancing British infantry. They fell in their thousands and the attack came to a standstill almost everywhere. Survivors sought cover wherever they could find it and at night they crawled back to their own lines, often dragging a wounded soldier with them. Only in the south were any advances made with the attack on Fricourt and Mametz. Over 19,000 British soldiers were killed on this day, including 2,500 from London. 

On 1st July, 7th Division attacked either side of Fricourt in one of the few attacks where any ground was gained. The village had been turned into fortresses with deep dug-outs some with electricity but at least on this part of the front the enemy artillery had been silenced and there was no German barrage when the attack began.  Machine guns emerging from deep dug-outs were the defence here.  91 Brigade attacked on the right of 7th Division’s front along a 1800 yard line between the Carnoy-Mametz track and the Quarry south of Hidden Wood with their objective being the head of the Mametz Spur and the eastern side of Mametz village.  22nd Manchester and 1st South.Staffordshire led the attack and crossed the 100-200 yards wide no-man’s land with little loss but then were hit by the machine guns in Mametz and Danzig Alley.  By 8am some troops had entered Mametz but here they met determined resistance from west and north of Mametz and from Dantzig Alley and the advance stopped.  At 9.30am, the two supporting Battalions of 91 Brigade, 2nd Royal West Surrey (Queens) and 21st Manchester moved up.  The leading companies of 2nd Royal West Surrey reached 22nd Manchester in Bucket Trench and Bulgar Alley but as the creeping barrage had crept on they could not enter Dantzig Alley. At 10am, another bombardment of the triangle north-east of Mametz, Dantzig Alley, Fritz Trench and Bunny Alley, proved to be ineffective and those that did enter Dantzig Alley were counter attacked from Mametz and forced to withdraw. Two coys of 2nd Royal West Surrey attacked after another half hour bombardment at 12.25pm and by 1pm much of Dantzig Alley was in British hands. 2nd Royal West Surrey then had an afternoon of hard fighting which ended up with them being in possession of all of Fritz Trench. Arthur Channer died of wounds on 4th July, 1916, after having been evacuated to a base hopital in Amiens.