1 October 1916 - Supporting 47th Division
The Tanks on the Somme. 1st October 1916.
C Company with, 47th Division, III Corps, 4th Army
D Company intended to get 2 tanks into action on 26th September 1916
D company
D8, 720, 2Lt Bown HG
D16, 538, 2Lt Wakeley WJ
Notes:
“D” Companies War Diary incorrectly states the tanks were supporting 1st Division (S2.p45)
Orders
Support 1/19th and 1/20th Londoners, 141st Brigade, 47th Division, in capturing Flers trench by Harcourt Abbey
Assembly point: Starfish Redoubt.
Zero was 3:15pm
Account of operations
The tanks were kept at the Assembly point until Zero, then they moved the 1100M to the front, reaching there at 3:45pm. By the time they reached the front the infantry were pinned down in no mans land. The tanks advanced either side of the Eaucourt l’Abbaye-Flers line, engaging the enemy; the infantry now following. 720 crossed Flers trench at M29d.4.5. then crossed Flers support and turned left towards Eaucourt; en route dispersing isolated groups of Germans with 6Pdr fire. 538 meanwhile advanced between Flers trench and Flers support and then met 720 at M23c.9.1. 720 fired on the Germans around the farm enclosure. The moved into the Flers line South West of the Farm, where both ditched, 720 at M23c.3.7 and 538 at M23c.2.4. The Germans counter attacked and recaptured the farm and overran the ditched tanks, both of which were abandoned and burned by their crews. 538s OIC and one crewman were wounded, the others all escaped unscathed.
Summary
Intended: 2
At start: 2
Failed to Start:
Engaged enemy: 2
Ditched / Broke Down: 2
Hit and Knocked out:
Rallied: 0
Penetrated by AP bullets: 0
Note
Aftermath
Both tanks must have remained derelict in the field as both were demolished by the Tank Field Battalion during the week ending 16 August 1919. WO 95-96-3 p112
Sources
W4 - D Company’s War Diary. Transcript from Bovington Tank Museum.
S2 - Pidgeon, Trevor (2010) Tanks on the Somme
S12 - Chris McCarthy. (1998) The Somme. The Day by Day Account. Brockhampton Press.
S22 - Staedman, Michael (1995) Thiepval, Leo Cooper P. 86ff