THE LOCHNAGAR CRATERTHE LOCHNAGAR CRATERThe road from Albert to Bapaume runs directly to the northeast. Topping a rise before descending into the Avoca Valley, it then starts its long steady climb past La Boisselle, close on the right, to the summit of the ridge at Pozieres, nearly halfway to Bapaume its destination. La Boisselle itself is on a small spur which reaches out into the valley. It was on this front that the 34th Division, as part of the III. Corps under the command of Lieut. General Sir W. P. Pulteney, was to advance on July 1st 1916, the opening of the British infantry assault of the Battle of the Somme.
On the front of the 34th Division two large and two small mines were ready to remove the heavily fortified German strong points which might be left in the enemy's front line after the previous seven day bombardment by the British artillery.
Major General E.C. Ingouville Williams, who commanded the 34th Division, was confident that his men could thrust up Mash Valley to the left and, Sausage Valley to the right of La Boisselle, outflanking the village and driving what remained of the German Garrison into the guns of his troops manning the trenches at the south west entrance of the village. While the rest of his division would continue in their advance to Pozieres and Contalmaison throughout the rest of the day.
In the front line, astride the road, was the
102nd (Tyneside Scottish) Brigade,
with the 20th and 23rd N.F. (1st and 4th Tyneside Scottish) to
the left and 21st and 23rd N.F. (2nd and 3rd Tyneside Scottish)
to the right, alongside 101st Brigade, with its battalions, the
10th Lincolns (Grimsby Chums), the 11th Suffolks (Cambridge Pals)
and 15th and 16th Royal Scots, on the right of the Divisional
line. In support, on the Usna and Tara ridges a mile to the rear,
was the 103rd (Tyneside Irish) Brigade, composed of the 24th 25th
26th and the 27th Battalions (1st - 2nd - 3rd - 4th Tyneside Irish),
Northumberland Fusiliers.
Half a mile to the south of the village of La Boisselle, at 7.28am, a mine was blown that overshadowed the seven large and eleven small mines by both its size and achievement. Twin charges, of 36,000 and 24,000 lbs of ammonal, had been placed in two chambers at 60 feet apart. Captain James Young of the 179th Tunnelling Company. Royal Engineers, pressed the switches and observed that the firing had been successful. Captain Young had blown the mine crater of La Boisselle, the biggest of the Great War, a single, vast, smooth sided, flat bottom chasm measuring some 400 hundred feet diameter across the rim. It had obliterated between 300 and 400 feet of the German dug-outs, all said to have been full of German troops.
In eight successive waves the infantrymen of the 34th Division stood up from their trenches, and in straight lines prescribed, officers in front as ordered, set off at a walk to attack the German front line trenches. One mile behind the British front line the four battalions of the Tyneside Irish Brigade climbed from their trenches, on the Usna and Tara ridges, and started down the hillside. In a matter of minutes this Brigade had sustained heavy casualties from enfilading machine gun fire.
During the intensive bombardment of the previous days the Germans had sheltered in their deep bunkers, tormented by the incessant concussions as they were battered by the British artillery fire. But they had survived and so had most of their barbed wire. The silence of the barrage lifting was the signal for them to come up from their deep dugouts, hauling their machine guns with them, and taking their positions in the line. Through the smoke and the haze of gunfire the German defenders peered out on an astounding site, successive waves of British soldiers marching steadily toward them as if on parade. The enemy were offering themselves as perfect targets.
The slaughter was immense, the machine guns cut down the British infantry like a farmer's scythe cuts hay. Within minutes German artillery was raining down on the attacking survivors, the regimental rows of British soldiers had disappeared.
Parade ground order was now forgotten, small groups of survivors continued forward taking cover in shell holes. Some of the survivors gained the sanctuary of the Lochnagar Crater, and by the early evening were able to make contact with elements of the 21st and 22nd Northumberland Fusiliers, who held a position in the German second line between Lochnagar Crater and the village of La Boisselle.
On the right of the Divisional attack small parties of the 15th and 16th Royal Scots and elements of the 11th Suffolks and 10th Lincolns were to advance 700 yards into the German lines and occupy a position in Wood Alley which guarded the left flank of the advance of the British 21st Division. From information obtained later, and those present at the taking of Contalmaison, it is amply proved that men of the Tyneside Irish Brigade did actually reach this village on the 1st July, but none lived to tell the tale.