Thiepval

We've covered it through August, through September.

In fact, our last episode is about the fall of Thiepval at the end of September and this mode of crisis, really, for the Germans on the Somme.

And now we're finally at the last major action of the Battle of the Somme and also its official end point, which is the Battle of the Ancre in November.

And this is a period of the Somme that is, I think in some cases, is completely forgotten.

It's outside the realms of quite deep military history.

These final attacks, and there are attacks, of course, in October as well, through October and November, are really neglected.

It's almost as if the battle either ends on the 1st of July, or in some accounts, it ends with the fall of Thiepval.

But this is a period of fighting that is really, really difficult for both sides, it should be said.

The French are engaged on the Somme in 1914.

Some of the names that, especially British names, guests will recognize from the Somme battlefield, like Free Corps or even Thiepval, are going to see heavy, heavy fighting.

You've got some really interesting units serving, including the Chasseurs Alpins, who were fighting on the Somme, the flat terrain for these mountain troops in 1914.

And this is all part of that race to the sea as the follow up from the Battle of the Marne is causing both sides to slowly move towards the North Sea.

And it helps that most of these villages that we're mentioning, whether they be in the British sector or the French sector, are on high ground.

And so they are setting up these mass defenses.

Think of Thiepval.

Think of the argument that you guys so brilliantly covered that Joff and Haig are having over whether to go around Thiepval or take it head on, that whole ridge that this village is positioned on.

The French, who were on both sides of the Somme, were to swing in from their southern flank of attack near Soicourt in the same fashion as the British from the northern, thus bringing the deepest objective along the river in the direction of Péronne, which would fall when eventually the tactical positions commanding it were gained.

Not with a first rush, for the lines of the objective were drawn well short of it, but with later rushes the British meant to gain the irregular ridge formation from Thiepval to Longval, which would start them on the way to the consummation of their siege hammering.

It was to be a battle by inches, the beginning of a long task.

German morale was still high on the Western Front, their numbers immense.

Stretched from trunk to trunk of the trees beside the road were canvas screens to hide the transport from enemy observation.

Passing between them had the effect of going through the curtains into a parterre box.

Light was just breaking, and we were in a field of young beets on the crest of a rise, with no higher ground beyond us all the way to Thiepval, which was in the day's objective, and to Pozières, which was beyond it.

Ordinarily, on a clear day we should have had from here a view over five or six miles of front, and through our glasses the action would be plainly visible in detail.

By the end of September 1916, the Battle of the Somme was turning in favor of British and Empire forces.

After three months, they were at last in position to take Thiepval, a first-day objective that had become a symbol of German resistance and of British failure alike.

How was the fortress finally taken, and what did its fall mean for the wider battle?

Welcome to Not So Quiet on the Western Front, the podcast where we lift the lid, bust the myths, and explore the incredible history of the First World War.

It feels a bit like a, a natural progression, well, it is a natural progression from what we've been building up to.

A- a- and I think that building up to is, uh, is particularly apt today because I feel like we have been, ever since we turned southwards after the 1st of July when we discussed the, uh, Battle of the Somme on this podcast, we, we made our way fairly south.

We've been kinda working our way back northwards with that slightly ominous feel about knowing that the Thiepval Ridge, by September 1916 has still not been taken, but it's got to be at some point.

And today is that some point that we're reaching.