Capture of Lesbœufs
The Capture of Lesbœufs was a tactical incident in the Battle of the Somme 1916. Lesbœufs was a village on the D 74 between Gueudecourt and Morval, about north-east of Amiens; Le Transloy lies to the north-west and Bapaume is to the north. French Territorials fought the II Bavarian Corps on the north bank of the Somme in late September 1914, after which the front line moved west past the village. Little military activity occurred round the village until the beginning of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916, when German troops passed through the village in the first weeks of the battle. During the Battle of Flers–Courcelette advances by the right flank corps of the British Fourth Army, brought the front line forward to the Gallwitz Riegel trenches west of Lesbœufs but exhaustion prevented the British from reaching their third objective, a line east of Morval, Lesbœufs and Gueudecourt.
A combined offensive was prepared by the Fourth Army and the French Sixth Army but was postponed several times because of inclement weather and the Battle of Morval was delayed until In the British sector, the final objectives of the Battle of Flers–Courcelette were captured, the 52nd Reserve Division garrison in Gallwitz Riegel and Lesbœufs being overwhelmed by brigades of the 6th Division and the Guards Division. No German troops were available to counter-attack and the village was consolidated. The capture of Gueudecourt next day, linked the new front line between the villages.
Lesbœufs was transferred to the control of the Sixth Army a few days later to enable the French to attack Sailly-Saillisel from the west. British attacks in the vicinity continued during the Battle of Le Transloy During the rest of the winter of 1916–1917, offensive operations in the area diminished to shelling, sniper fire and trench raiding; the area became quiet after the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line in March 1917. The village was captured in March 1918 by the Germans during Operation Michael, the German spring offensive and reoccupied for the final time on 29 August, by the 38th Division, during the Second Battle of Bapaume.
Background
1914
On 25 September, during the Race to the Sea a French attack north of the Somme against the II Bavarian Corps, forced a hurried withdrawal. As more Bavarian units arrived in the north, the 3rd Bavarian Division advanced along the north bank of the Somme, through Bouchavesnes, Leforest and Hardecourt until held up at Maricourt. The 4th Bavarian Division further to the north, defeated French Territorial divisions and then attacked westwards in the vicinity of Gueudecourt, towards Albert, through Sailly, Combles, Guillemont and Montauban, leaving a flank guard on the northern flank. The II Bavarian Corps and XIV Reserve Corps pushed back a French Territorial division from the area around Bapaume and advanced towards Bray-sur-Somme and Albert, as part of an offensive down the Somme valley to reach the sea. The German offensive was confronted north of the Somme by the northern corps of the French Second Army east of Albert. The XIV Reserve Corps attacked on 28 September, along the Roman road from Bapaume to Albert and Amiens, intending to reach the Ancre and then continue westwards along the Somme valley. The 28th Reserve Division advanced close to Fricourt, against scattered resistance from French infantry and cavalry.1916
During the Battle of Albert troops of Bavarian Infantry Regiment 16 of the 10th Bavarian Division, had lost many casualties in the fighting around Mametz and Trônes Wood, III Battalion having been reduced to by the time of the beginning of the Battle of Bazentin Ridge The 7th Company, having been based in the south-east of Longueval, retreated at through artillery and machine-gun fire to Gueudecourt. The survivors saw that the way through Ginchy and Lesbœufs was open to the British but by evening reinforcements had arrived and closed the gap either side of Foureaux Wood. On 27 August, Delville Wood had fallen and a counter-attack was planned for 31 August by three regiments of the 56th Division and the 4th Bavarian Division. Infantry Regiment 88 advanced through Le Transloy, Lesbœufs and Flers, where there were still fields with standing crops, towards the front line.On 14 September, field gunners behind the line saw British artillery bombardments falling on German defences along the Ginchy–Gueudecourt road and Gallwitz Riegel. On 15 September, the British used tanks for the first time in the Battle of Flers–Courcelette and an extraordinary vehicle was engaged by Field Artillery Regiment 78, which hit the vehicle and then shot down the crew as they emerged. From the gun positions of Field Artillery Regiment 77, German infantry were seen to retire towards Lesbœufs, which left the road towards the artillery unprotected. British infantry were engaged but they reached Flers and by outflanked the gunners who retired to Gueudecourt, as the British emerged from Ginchy, Delville Wood and Flers and advanced towards Lesbœufs but the efforts of the artillery with remaining field guns managed to prevent the British from overrunning Gallwitz Riegel.
Small parties from the Guards Division advanced on Lesbœufs and eventually took cover in a trench for several hours, before falling back during a German counter-attack. For several hours the village had been unoccupied but no British reserves were left, after the great number of casualties inflicted on the 56th, 6th and Guards divisions earlier in the day, many caused by a decision to leave tank lanes in the British barrage, which left several German machine-gun nests undamaged. Few lanes were used by the tanks, most of which broke down early or were knocked out. The Guards Division eventually dug in short of the final objective, west of the Gird Trenches in front of Lesbœufs.
Prelude
British offensive preparations
The 6th Division, was relieved from then returned to the line on 21 September and began to dig assembly trenches. The most advanced position was in a captured trench The most forward portion of the line taken over by the Division consisted of part of the third objective attacked in the Battle of Flers–Courcelette, of a trench held by the Germans on both flanks. Several prisoners were taken when ration parties blundered into the occupied part of the trench, who gave useful information. A German attack on 24 September, against both flanks of the trench under cover of a mist, was driven back except on the extreme right, where a bombing post was entered but the Germans were then forced out, eleven being killed and a prisoner being taken.The Guards Division was withdrawn from the front line by 17 September for three days, to reorganise after the Battle of Flers–Courcelette. Replacement of the incurred from was easier than in other divisions as plenty of trained Guards reserves were available. At a conference on 19 September, Feilding stressed the importance of maintaining direction during the attack despite the difficulties and that the 1st and 3rd Guards brigades should make special arrangements for attacking Germans troops in the cellars and dugouts of Lesbœufs. Jumping-off trenches were to be dug in sheltered areas and battalions in reserve were to be ready behind the jumping-off points, to forestall a German counter-barrage and to engage a German counter-attack, if the attacking battalions were repulsed. By 21 September, the 1st Guards Brigade had relieved the 60th Brigade on the right and the 59th Brigade on the left was relieved by the 3rd Guards Brigade.
British plan of attack
The British plan was for an advance of to reach the final objective which had been set for the attacks of during the Battle of Flers–Courcelette. The ground to be taken was on the east side of Bazentin ridge, which ran north-west from the Somme to a hollow facing north-east with Combles at the west end, the hollow running towards Rocquigny beyond the Péronne–Bapaume road. North of the hollow lay Morval, Lesbœufs and Gueudecourt, then the Albert–Bapaume road, west of Le Sars to Thiepval. Spurs ran down the eastern slope, generally to the north-east in the direction of the Péronne–Bapaume road, before the ground rose again from St Pierre Vaast Wood to Sailly-Saillisel, Le Transloy, Beaulencourt and Thilloy. An advance on the main front of the British attack of was to be made in three stages. The first stage was an advance to the third of the objective lines set for 15 September and to the Gird Trenches south of Gueudecourt, beginning at the second objective was a line along the sunken road running from Combles to Gueudecourt west of Morval and Lesbœufs, then over a spur south-east of Gueudecourt and through the centre of the village, beginning at The final objective was on the east side of Morval, Lesbœufs and Gueudecourt, the advance beginning at with the objectives to be reached by Tanks were to be kept in reserve, due to the difficulty of hiding them for a daylight attack, ready to assist the attack on the villages at the final objective. Two brigades of the 1st Indian Cavalry Division were to move forward to Mametz, with all the division to be ready to advance on Ligny-Thilloy in the III Corps area, once Lesbœufs and Gueudecourt were captured, if this had been achieved before Small cavalry detachments were also attached to XIV Corps and XV Corps to exploit local opportunities.The 6th Division was to take the ground from the north side of Morval to a road through the centre of Lesbœufs, with the 16th Brigade on the right and the 18th Brigade on the left flank. Because of the advanced position in Gird Trench, no artillery bombardment was to be fired, instead a mass machine-gun and Stokes mortar bombardment was to begin at zero hour. Objectives for the Guards Division were set at the green line a line north from west of Lesbœufs along a road from Ginchy to the village. The brown line ran from a crossroads south of the village along the western fringe and the blue line ran from the Lesbœufs–Le Transloy road east of the village to the Lesbœufs–Gueudecourt road. A flow of troops was to be maintained to keep up the momentum of the advance up to the final objective and three tanks allotted to the division were to assemble at Trônes Wood, move up to Ginchy after the attack commenced and then advance to the divisional headquarters at Minden Post. The divisional artillery was split into two groups, one for each brigade and were to begin a bombardment of the German positions from During the attack, half of the guns were to place standing barrages and half to fire a creeping barrage. At zero hour a barrage was to stand on the green line and then jump to the second and third objectives as the creeping barrage, beginning in front of the jumping-off trenches was to move at per minute and then stop beyond the green line. One hour after zero hour the creeper was to move on, halting beyond the brown line and then moving after another hour to the brown line.