The Battle of Morval, 25–28 September 1916, was an attack during the Battle of the Somme by the British Fourth Army on the villages of Morval, Gueudecourt and Lesbœufs held by the German 1st Army, which had been the final objectives of the Battle of Flers–Courcelette (15–22 September). The main British attack was postponed to combine with attacks by the French Sixth Army on the village of Combles south of Morval.
The attack was to close up to the German defences between Moislains and Le Transloy, near the Péronne–Bapaume road (N 17). The combined attack from the Somme river northwards to Martinpuich on the Albert–Bapaume road, was also intended to deprive the German defenders further west near Thiepval of reinforcements, before an attack by the Reserve Army, due on 26 September. The postponement was extended from 21 to 25 September because of rain, which affected operations more frequently during September.
Combles, Morval, Lesbœufs and Gueudecourt were captured and many casualties inflicted on the Germans. The French made slower progress near the inter-army boundary, due to the obstruction of St Pierre Vaast Wood to the French attack north towards Sailly and Sailly-Saillisel. The inter-army boundary was moved north from 27 to 28 September, to allow the French more room to deploy their forces but the great quantity of German artillery-fire limited the French advance. The Fourth Army advance on 25 September was its deepest since 14 July and left the Germans in severe difficulties, particularly in a salient which developed to the north-east of Combles.
Tiredness and lack of reserves prevented the Fourth Army exploiting its success beyond patrolling and cavalry probes. The Reserve Army attack began on 26 September, at the Battle of Thiepval Ridge. Deteriorating weather and the shorter days greatly increased British and French transport difficulties; rain and fog grounded aircraft and impeded artillery observation. Mud reduced the blast effect of shells and immobilised infantry, which was an advantage to the defenders. A small number of tanks joined in the battle later in the afternoon, after having been held back because of the later start, reducing a number of German strong points, which had withstood earlier attacks.
Background
Strategic developments
At the beginning of August, optimistic that the Brusilov Offensive would continue to absorb German and Austro-Hungarian reserves and that the Germans had abandoned their offensive at Verdun, Sir Douglas Haig advocated to the War Committee in London, that relentless pressure be kept on the German armies in France for as long as possible. Haig had hoped that the delay in producing tanks had been overcome and that enough would be ready to be used in September. Despite the small numbers of tanks available and the limited time for the training of crews by September 1916, Haig had committed them in the Battle of Flers–Courcelette, in view of the importance of the general Allied offensive being conducted on the Western Front in France, by Italy against the Austro-Hungarians and by Brusilov in Russia, which could not continue indefinitely. Haig had believed that the German defence of the Somme front was weakening and that by mid-September might collapse altogether.
Prelude
Anglo-French preparations
After the attacks of 12 and 15 September, Foch and Haig kept the Germans off balance, by mounting smaller operations. The British 6th Division captured the Quadrilateral north of Combles on 18 September. While the French Sixth and the Fourth Army prepared to resume larger attacks, the French Tenth Army to the south of the Somme captured Berny, Vermandovillers, Déniecourt and took several thousand prisoners. On the nights of 19 and 20 September, parties of the 56th (1/1st London) Division consolidated a line west and north-east of Combles, from Beef Trench to Middle Copse. The new trench was dug north-east to a tram line near the junction of the Ginchy–Morval road, which connected Middle Copse with the Quadrilateral further north, creating a line 900 yd (820 m) long facing Bouleaux Wood. The division was ready to attack from Combles to Leuze Wood and Bouleaux Wood to envelop Bouleaux Wood and avoid a costly fight at close-quarters.
Careful planning for the Anglo-French attack was necessary, due to the French Sixth Army advance diverging to the east and north-east. The attack northwards at Combles to keep touch with the British needed reinforcements, which were taken from the Tenth Army on the south bank. More artillery and aircraft were brought from Verdun and VII Corps was relieved; V, VI and XXXII corps entered the line (which had become 12 km (7.5 mi) longer, since the advance of 12 September) between I and XXXIII corps, increasing the Sixth Army to five corps. The resumption of the general attack was planned for 21 September but poor weather forced a delay until 25 September. The preliminary bombardment began on 24 September but a thick autumn mist in the morning and hazy conditions all day, reduced the amount of counter-battery fire that could be delivered. Late on 25 September, after the Sixth Army had been held up by the fire power of the German forces north of St Quentin, Foch arranged a northward move of the inter-army boundary, so that the I and XXXII Corps could attack Sailly-Saillisel from the south, with V Corps as right flank guard. A conference at the British Fourth Army headquarters on 26 September, arranged the move of the inter-army boundary to run from Lesbœufs, north-east towards Rocquigny.
Anglo-French plans
Foch intended to resume the French attack from Mont St Quentin, east of the Somme bend to Combles, at the boundary with the British Fourth Army. The Sixth Army was to advance 3,000 yd (1.7 mi; 2.7 km), close to the German line running from Moislains to Le Transloy. In the south, VI and XXXIII corps would advance east and south-east, to establish a defensive flank along the Tortille stream, menacing Péronne from the north. V and VI corps would capture the south of Bois St Pierre Vaast (St Pierre Vaast Wood) and southern Saillisel, while I Corps and XXXII Corps advanced east to take Rancourt, the rest of Saillisel and the Wood, Frégicourt and Sailly-Saillisel. Distant objectives east of the Péronne–Bapaume road were selected, should the German defence collapse and the cavalry was made ready to prolong an advance.
The British plan was for an advance to the final objective set for the attacks of 15 to 22 September, 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 the ridge continued through 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 1,200–1,500 yd (1,100–1,400 m) was to be made in stages. The first step was an advance to the third of the objective lines set for 15 September and to the Gird Trenches (Gallwitz Riegel) south of Gueudecourt, beginning at 12:35 p.m. 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 1:35 p.m. The final objective was on the east side of Morval, Lesbœufs and Gueudecourt, the advance to begin at 2:35 p.m., with the objectives to be reached by 3:00 p.m.
The use of tanks was discussed at a conference on 19 September, where the difficulty in hiding them until the late zero hour, led to them remaining in reserve, ready to assist the attack on the villages at the final objective. The open ground on the approach to Gueudecourt was also considered to be too dangerous for tanks. Two brigades of the 1st Indian Cavalry Division were to move forward to Mametz, with all of the division to be ready to advance on Thilloy and Ligny Thilloy in the III Corps area once Lesbœufs and Gueudecourt were captured, if this was done before 6:30 p.m. Small cavalry detachments were also attached to XIV and XV corps to exploit local opportunities.
The British conformed to the French preference for afternoon attacks, which meant that the final bombardment took place in daylight, despite preferring dawn attacks, to avoid the attacking infantry waiting for too long in the front-line, vulnerable to German counter-bombardment. The XIV Corps commander Major-General the Earl of Cavan put all four divisions of the corps in line, to give them narrower fronts for easier deployment of the supporting infantry. The 56th (1/1st London) Division was to mask Bouleaux Wood and reach trenches to the north-east, cutting the tramlines which looped around the north end of the wood. The division was to gain touch with the 5th Division on the left, while trench mortar and machine-gun fire on the wood and on the north-eastern exits of Combles, kept the Germans under cover. The right flank brigade of the 5th Division was to advance from the second objective to Morval, with four 30-minute halts, gaining touch with the 56th (1/1st London) Division. The 6th Division to the north had already reached the third objective of the attack of 15 September, on a front of 700 yd (640 m). The German defences on the flanks were too close for artillery and a Stokes mortar bombardment and machine-gun barrage were substituted, for zero hour.
The Guards Division (Major-General Geoffrey Feilding) anticipated "strenuous" German resistance. Feilding stressed that preparations for house-to-house fighting, maintaining direction, momentum were needed. The green line (first objective) was 500 yd (460 m) west of Lesbœufs, the brown line was from the crossroads south of Lesbœufs, along the western edge of the village and the blue line (third objective) was east of the village from the Lesbœufs–Le Transloy road, northwards along the Lesbœufs–Gueudecourt road. Three tanks were attached to the divisional reserve, ready to move from Trônes Wood once the infantry attack started. The artillery was divided into two groups of three field artillery brigades for each brigade and the bombardment was to begin at 7:00 a.m. on 24 September. During the attack, half of the artillery was to fire standing barrages and the other half was to fire a creeping barrage, moving at 50 yd (46 m) per minute until 200 yd (180 m) beyond the green line, where it would become a standing barrage. Creeping barrages to the second and third objectives were to begin at 1:35 p.m. and 2:35 p.m.
German preparations
On 28 August, Chief of the General Staff, General Erich von Falkenhayn, simplified the German command structure on the Western Front by establishing two army groups. Heeresgruppe Kronprinz Rupprecht controlled the 6th, 1st and 2nd armies, from Lille to the boundary of Heeresgruppe Deutscher Kronprinz, south of the Somme battlefield. Armeegruppe Gallwitz–Somme was dissolved and General Max von Gallwitz reverted to the command of the 2nd Army. The cessation of German attacks at Verdun, ordered by the new supreme command of Chief of the General Staff, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and the Erster Generalquartiermeister General Erich Ludendorff, when they superseded Falkenhayn and the reinforcement of the Somme front, reduced the German inferiority in guns and aircraft on the Somme during September. Field artillery batteries were able to reduce their barrage frontage from 400 yd (370 m) to 200 yd (180 m). Accuracy was improved by using one air artillery flight per division with aircraft sent from the Verdun front. Colonel Fritz von Loßberg, Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army and then the 1at Army during the period of armeegruppe Gallwitz–Somme, was also able to establish Ablösungsdivisionen (relief divisions) 10–15 mi (16–24 km) behind the battlefield, ready to replace front divisions. German counter-attacks became bigger and more frequent, making the Anglo-French advance slower and more costly. After the Anglo-French attacks in mid-September a "wholesale relief" of the front-line divisions had been possible.
As the Germans had been pushed out of their original defences, Loßberg had new positions dug based on the principles of depth, dispersal and camouflage, rather than continuous lines of trenches. Rigid defence of the front-line continued but with as few soldiers as possible, relying on the firepower of machine-guns firing from behind the front-line and from the flanks. The German artillery reduced its counter-battery fire and area bombardments before Anglo-French attacks and used the reinforcements from Verdun for destructive fire, observed from balloons and aircraft. The area behind the front-line was defended by support and reserve units dispersed on reverse slopes, in undulations and in any cover that could be found, so that they could open machine-gun fire by surprise, from unseen positions and then counter-attack swiftly, before the Anglo-French infantry could consolidate captured ground. Rather than pack troops into the front-line, the local, corps and army reserves were held back, in lines about 2,000 yd (1,800 m) apart, able to make progressively stronger counter-attacks. The largest German counter-attacks of the Somme battle had taken place from 20 to 23 September, from the Somme north to St Pierre Vaast Wood but these had been "destroyed" by French artillery fire.