THE YPRES TIMES
173
7.30 a.m., 1st JulyBattle of the Somme, 1916.
The 1st oi July opened with a glorious though very misty morning. Dense belts
of fog were hanging in the valleys, and only the tops of the hills were to be seen.
After an early breakfast at 4.30 a.m. and a final inspection of the guns, I went up
to the O.P., and by six o'clock the other three battery commanders and their F.O.O.'s
had also turned up, and the party for the great spectacle was complete.
All night long the bombardment had continued, but at 6.25 a.m. the tinal intense
bombardment.started. Until 7.15 a.m. observation was practically impossible owing
to the eddies of mist, rising smoke, flashes of bursting shells, and all one could see was
the blurred outline of some miles of what appeared to be volcanoes in eruption. At
7.20 a.m. rows of steel helmets and the glitter of bayonets were to be seen all along
an infantry attack on the somme, 1916.
the front line. At 7.25 a.m., the scaling ladders having been placed in position, a
steady stream of men flowed over the parapet, and waited in the tall grass till all were
there, and then formed up at 7.30 a.m. the flag fell and they were off, the mist
lifting just enough to show the long line of divisions attackingon our right the
39th French Division in front of us our 30th Division on our left the 18th.
The line advanced steadily, scarcely meeting any opposition in the first three lines
of trenches. Every point was reached at scheduled time, so the automatic artillery
barrage was always just in front of the infantry. At 9 o'clock we could see our flags
waving in the trench behind German's Wood, and by 8.20 the formidable Glatz Re
doubt was captured, an advance of 700 yards with very little loss. This redoubt had
been submitted to a terrific bombardment, and the infantry reported that the maze
