A Short History of the 6th Division | Page 8

of which earned him the D.S.O. On the 10th June he
was reported missing from a patrol of the 9th Norfolk Regiment, and
nothing has since been heard of him. For nearly two years he contrived
to serve voluntarily with the Division, nobody quite knows in what
capacity or by what authority, and during that time he endeared himself
to all by his unfailing good nature and cheeriness, his whole-hearted
enthusiasm and his lack of fear.

It may here be mentioned that during its last "rest" the Division carried
out very hard training over dummy trenches for an attack on the Pilkem
Ridge, in conjunction with the Guards. This attack was abandoned
when the Division moved to the Somme, but it formed the basis of the
very successful attack delivered by the Guards and Welsh Divisions in
July 1917.
CHAPTER VI
THE SOMME
1916
At the end of July the Division was at last relieved from the Salient,
where it had suffered nearly 11,000 casualties during its thirteen
months' sojourn, and went south by train to join the Fifth Army.
The greater part of August was spent on the Ancre, on the front
opposite Beaumont-Hamel, making preparations for an attack which
was eventually abandoned for a time.
After a short period in reserve the Division was moved, between 6th
and 8th September, to join the XIV Corps, Fourth Army (Lt.-Gen. Lord
Cavan), to which corps it had for some time belonged up north. The
XIV Corps was the right corps of the British attack, and had its right on
the north bank of the Somme. In a succession of hard-fought battles the
Fourth Army (Gen. Sir H. S. Rawlinson) had pushed the Germans back
a considerable distance; units were feeling the strain badly, and fresh
troops were needed.
On 9th September a successful attack had given us Ginchy and Leuze
Wood, but the Germans were holding very strongly the high ground
which lies in the form of a horseshoe between the above-named points,
and which dominates the country for some distance to the south. The
trenches followed the shape of the spur roughly at the back end of the
horseshoe, and covered access was given to them by a sunken road
leading back to the deep valley which runs north from Combles.

At the top of the spur, just south of the railway and communicating
with the sunken road, was a four-sided trench in the form of a
parallelogram of some 300 yards by 150 yards, called by us the
Quadrilateral.
It was this strong point and the adjoining trenches which had held up
the advance of the Fourth Army on the 9th September, and it was the
first task of the 6th Division to obliterate the horseshoe and straighten
the line preparatory to a general attack on the 15th September.
On 12th September attacks by the 56th Division on the south and the
Guards on the north reduced the neck of the horseshoe, or pocket, to
about 500 yards, but could not close it. The situation within the
horseshoe was undefined, and the exact positions of the Quadrilateral
and other trenches were not known, owing to the bad flying weather.
Even our own positions were in doubt, as almost every vestige of roads,
railways and even villages had disappeared under the continuous
bombardments.
On night 11/12th September the 71st Infantry Brigade (Brig.-Gen. J. F.
Edwards) relieved part of the Guards Division and the 16th Infantry
Brigade (Brig.-Gen. W. L. Osborn), part of the 56th Division, with
orders on the 13th September to straighten the line by capturing the
Quadrilateral. The 71st Infantry Brigade attacked with the Foresters
north of the railway and 9th Suffolk Regiment south of the railway,
while the 8th Bedford Regiment, who were close to the Quadrilateral
on the north-east of the Leuze Wood, co-operated by bombing up the
trench towards it. The artillery co-operation was weak, observation
being difficult, and though the troops advanced with the greatest
gallantry the northern attack could only make 500 yards, and the
southern attack of the 71st Infantry Brigade still less, while casualties
from the enemy artillery and machine-gun fire were very large.
A second attack at 6 p.m. the same day succeeded in bringing our line
to about 250 yards from the Strong Point, and in getting touch on the
right with the 16th Infantry Brigade.
Preparations were now made to include the Quadrilateral in the general

attack of the 15th September instead of making it a subsidiary
operation--a situation which recurred two years later almost to a day in
the attack on Holnon Village, and which had similar results.
The British objective for the 15th September was
Gueudecourt-Flers-Lesboeufs-Morval--the XIV Corps (Guards and 6th
Division) to capture the two latter. It was the first occasion on which
tanks were employed, and