1 October 1916 - Supporting 47th Division

The Tanks on the Somme. 1^st October 1916.

C Company with, 47^th Division, III Corps, 4^th Army

D Company intended to get 2 tanks into action on 26^th 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 1^st Division ^(S2.p45)

Orders

Support 1/19^th and 1/20^th Londoners, 141^st Brigade, 47^th 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

1 October 1916 - map

Somme 1916 Narratives