"The mine was fired at seven twenty, and the Germans reached the crater at the same time as the British. The barrage also lifted at seven twenty. The enemy had ten minutes in which to come up from shelter, train their machine-guns on the gaps in the wire, and generally prepare themselves before the assault. Hardly a British shell was fired at the German parapets for several hours."1
"Across the Redan Ridge the Pals of the 31st Division, crawling out to wait in front of the wire for the signal to go for Serre, remarked on it [the silence] too. The bombardment which, more than two miles away had had to cease to allow two companies [sic.] of troops to attack four hundred yards of the enemy's defences on the Hawthorn Ridge, had, by some error of judgement or misinterpretation of orders, stopped along the four-mile length of the 8th Corps Front. For the next ten minutes, not a single shot would be fired."2
These two quotations are not alone in suggesting that British artillery fire over the German front line facing VIII Corps ceased completely ten minutes ahead of the assault of 1st July 1916 and that, crucially, this allowed the Germans sufficient time to bring rifles and machine guns to bear against the slowly advancing lines of British infantry. This is not correct.
At 5am on 1st July, the 60-pdr guns, 4.7" and heavy howitzers of VIII Corps Heavy Artillery opened fire, targetting enemy artillery batteries and selected spots in the German 3rd and 4th lines. At 6.25am, some of the heavy howitzers were redirected onto the German front line which was now also coming under fire from the 18-pdr guns - firing high-explosive - and 4.5" howitzers of the Divisional Artillery.3, 4, 5
Ten minutes ahead of zero, 40,000lbs (18,000kg) of ammonal were detonated under Hawthorn Ridge at 7.20am. Two miles (3km) away, the Pals battalions of 94th Brigade began to leave their trenches in readiness for the assault on Serre. At the same time, the fire from the heavy howitzers began to lift away from the German front line along the entire 3½-mile (6km) frontage of VIII Corps from Serre through Beaumont Hamel.4
The attention paid to the lifting of the heavy artillery fire ahead of zero has obscured the fact that the lighter Divisional Artillery intensified their fire onto the front line over the final 10 minutes before 7.30am. In support of 94th Brigade, 165th Bde. R.F.A. reported firing high-explosive onto the front-line until switching over to shrapnel and lifting at 7.30am5 (cf. the note in the Official History that "the thin 18-pdr shrapnel barrage was to lift at zero off the front line."6); 169th Bde. R.F.A. reported that their bombardment "continued till 7.30 the last 10 mins being very intense. The enemy's lines and our front line were completely hidden in a dense cloud of smoke."7 Furthermore, the light artillery barrage was joined at 7.20am by a hurricane mortar bombardment, 94th Bde. L.T.M. Battery reporting the firing of 1,150 rounds onto the German front line in the 10 minutes that followed.8 Brig.-Gen. Rees, O.C. 94th Brigade, later remarked that "...ten minutes before zero our guns opened an intense fire. I stood on top to watch. It was magnificent. The trenches in front of Serre changed shape and dissolved minute by minute under the terrific hail of steel."9
The premature lifting of the heavy artillery fire can have had no significant effect on the outcome of the attack on Serre. The Germans were in no need of it to warn them that an attack was imminent - the simultaneous roar of the explosion from Hawthorn Ridge and the sight of British troops clambering out into No Man's Land at 7.20am10 left no room for doubt. The Germans were always going to win the "race to the parapet" which decided the battle.
© Andrew C Jackson 2001