Hows your day going? A bit of a wet one.... On this day, as the last light of September 1st faded at the end of what had been a fine late summer’s day, as Captain Collier led the Hammers back to the lunar terrain of the Serre sector at 6pm. A & B Company went straight into the Front Line beneath relatively light shelling, taking over the right and left fronts respectively. The badly mauled and still reeling C & D Company stayed in the support lines. Everyone was reported to be in position two hours later. As the officers of A Company peered through trench periscopes across No Mans Land in the gathering gloom, they could see the smashed village of Serre, sitting at the top of a long gentle rise in the distance. It was menacing and, as yet, unconquered. The chalk excavations thrown up when the Germans had built three defensive lines were still gleaming white in the fading light. The enemy trenches were deep and solidly built, but that was to be expected after two years spent occupying the site. The barbed wire was very evident, extremely dense in places and piled six feet high at some spots. To the Hammer’s right front lay the long gentle slope of Redan Ridge, with its horrific detritus from July 1st, the first day of the Somme battles. Bits and pieces of human remains lay like a disintegrating carpet of inhumanity. In places, huge craters were fifty feet wide and just as deep. These were the results of huge mines laid by British tunnellers and they dwarfed the surrounding shell-holes. Each was filled with a toxic liquid mush. Around lay thousands of bodies, ripped up and mashed into the moonscape by the never ending artillery. The dead had equally been used as sandbags in front of some desperately held positions. Time and again, week after bloody week, that ridge proved impossible to capture. Until it was taken, things would remain a death dealing stalemate..... If you want to know more about Our Lads in WW1 grab a copy of Up The Hammers!
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 10:21:34 +0000
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