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South of the Ancre : 9am - Midday
Shortly after nine o’clock the German fourth line had been successfully assaulted - and the Crucifix and the Schwaben Redoubt had, at a terrific cost, been captured. Parties cleared trenches north towards the river. Under pressure, the Ulstermen continued to consolidate their position, awaiting the moment, at 10.00 of shortly after, when the Belfast Brigade - who had already crossed no-mans-land - could attempt their assault on the fifth line. However, it appeared highly debatable to the Divisions commanding officers whether any attack should be launched on the final line. The Divisions on the 36th’s flanks had made no gains whatsoever, and their reserve Battalions were not being committed in an attempt to wrest from the Germans what their first waves had signally failed to obtain. The Ulstermen were driving a very exposed wedge into German territory and were venerable. The Belfast Battalions might be heading for destruction, if they tried to push further on. At 8.32 a request had been sent to 10th Corps HQ asking whether the 107th Brigade might be stopped from advancing on the fifth line. The reply was given that new assaults were being planned north and south of the Ulstermen, so the Belfast Battalions really ought to go ahead. Three quarters of an hour later and order was received to withhold the 107th Brigade until the situation on the Ulstermen’s flanks had improved. But the Belfast Brigade had already crossed no-mans-land to the Schwaben Redoubt and the men were waiting for the barrage to lift, to launch their big assault. Because telephone lines taken forward had been cut by German fire, and runners were few, isolated and confused, the attempt to inform the Belfast Brigade was to fail, and their assault on the final line took place after all.

Assualting the final German line

Since 6.30 the Belfast Battalions had been assembling behind the leading waves of troops. As zero hour arrived and the leading Battalions headed towards the German lines, the Belfast men moved up to occupy their places. On their way they picked up coils of wire and iron posts. Already the South Belfast Volunteers were being mauled on the right, due to the inadequate cover of a denuded Thiepval Wood. Then at 8.30 an oppourtunity came as the shell-fire eased for a few minutes. This was the moment, and Colonel Crozier ordered his men to rush forward into no-mans-land in small groups and to occupy the Sunken Road, then he went out and stood there in full view of everyone, giving orders. Lt Colonel N.G. Bernard of the South Belfast Volunteers, in league with Crozier, was to follow suit, sending his South Belfast men in small squads to the Sunken Road as the West Belfast Battalion vacated it in a second mad dash for the German front line.The East Belfast men were at last to leave for the German lines also.
At 8.45 a runner had brought a message back that the Belfast Brigade was, despite considerable casualties, implanted on the far side of no-mans-land, itching to help take the fourth line and then await the moment for the rush to the last line.
Meanwhile, even before the barrage had lifted off the fifth line, men of the Belfast Brigade, aided by some from the other Battalions, were thrusting out across the inhospitable, bullet-raked stretch of land between them and their objectives. This would prove a foolish move - some of the artillery fire was landing short and men were killed by their own shells, but the Ulstermen - trying to learn lessons of earlier in the day - were determined to get as close as possible to the final trench system before the barrage lifted off it. Few recollections exist of that final struggle for the fifth line. The 36th was the only Division on the Somme to break this far into the enemy’s trench system. Those who survived the fight for the last line were to be very few : ‘in the final rush...only about half our men made it. Even fewer made it back’.

An enormous uphill struggle up the Schwaben Redoubt towards the German positions

The men who got there managed to maintain their position for a while, under enormous pressure - they even contrived to rewire and fortify a section of about a hundred yards of trench. Above all else they engaged in hand-to-hand struggles in which only the only the most aggressive soldiers were able to survive. But the fifth line was a venerable position for so few British soldiers to try to hold, and they were exposed to both shells and machine-gun fire. So by midday the line had been cleared of Ulstermen as the Germans began to surge up the trenches from St-Pierre-Division. The tide of advance had reached its furthest point and the German counterattack was beginning to gather force. Not only that, but because German gun-fire dominated no-mans-land, the Ulstermen were in trouble at the rear. The 36th Division was virtually besieged by the late morning, in the four lines they had just taken. During the morning the men of the 49th Division’s 146th Brigade, who were the official reinforcements in the Ulster sector, moved up to the South-east corner of Thiepval Wood to take up a reserve position.
At midday the Ulster Division, south of the river, was besieged, but it still had a firm grip of the German trenches. What would the commanders do? Would they press the attack again on each flank of the Ulstermen? Could the 36th be reinforced by the 146th Brigade? Could the artillery not be concentrated on Thiepval village, wiping out, if possible, the German machine gunners? Surely the advances that the Ulstermen had made ought to be exploited? Two thirds of the Somme battlefield had seen complete failure and some 50,000 British soldiers had fallen casualties by noon. What hard-won gains the 36th had made deserved to be followed up and not let slip.

Armagh Brigade
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