Alf Razzel (Raz) was a company file clerk in The Royal Fusiliers during World War I. He found himself on the front lines, during the Battle of the Somme, in No Mans Land. It was here he was reunited with his old comrade Bill Hubbard who had been wounded and who was also a member of the Royal Fusiliers from his original company.
In 1914 the Germans attempt to knock out France with a single blow had failed, though it did result is striking gains. In fact so deep into allied territory were the Germans, they discarded large portions of poorly defensible ground, and consolidated on their strongest line.
The allies, the French commanded by general Joffe, and the attacking British first army commanded by Field Martial Sir Douglas Haig, on the other hand counted every yard. The Belgians, along a few vital miles in the far north, and the French, holding a front of several hundred miles to the south, with the British in between.
The standard British entrenchment consisted of three lines: a forward one protected by barbed wire entanglements, machine-gun nests and listening posts; a support line; and a reserve line. Each trench was cut in a continuous pattern of traverses; that is, short legs or bays zigzagging at right angles to reduce the possible effect of enfilade or shell blast.
Four platoons formed the fighting strength of an infantry company which, with various administrative and specialist personnel, ran to some 240 men, nominally commanded by a major (though not infrequently, when officers were short, by a captain). Next came the battalion. The battalion, representing it's parent the regiment, was commanded by a lieutenant-colonel and comprised at full fighting strength thirty-six officers and a thousand men, though its actual fighting strength (four rifle companies) was nearer eight hundred. Twelve battalions (three brigades) were incorporated in the largest unit of permanent components involved in the trench war, the infantry division.
British trenches were virtually large ditches. In places they might have been deep enough to provide full cover for a standing man but the sides were generally heightened by a parapet of sandbags. In order to shoot over the top the troops mounted a fire-step.
But the most intimate and persistent enemy to the trench soldier, was privation, and the weather. Nothing to see but bare mud walls, nowhere to sit but on a wet muddy ledge, no shelter of any kind against the weather except the clothes they wore, and no exercise even for warmth. When it rained the trenches became dykes, icy water, submerging duckboards rose to ankle, knee, even thigh depth. Long periods of immersion caused the men's feet to swell until keeping their boots on was torture, while taking them off produced worse results, for then they could not be replaced. At night soaked puttees and trousers froze stiff while the troops huddled in shell holes, and scraped in the trench walls. Officers and senior n.c.o.s occupied larger holes known as dug-outs. Simple comforts such as smoking or lighting fires for warmth were prohibited because smoke would give away their position to the enemy. Until 1916, when steel helmets were introduced, the troops wore woolen helmets. Trench life was a daily routine of bleak discomfort.
The area of land in-between the allied lines and that of the enemy was called No Mans Land, for anyone caught in the open there was almost always shot and killed by snipers.
By the end of 1915 the British had taken over the Somme region from the French. In an Allied conference at Chantilly; France, Britain, Belgium, and Italy, with representatives from Russia and Japan, agreed in principle on an all out simultaneous general offensive that would make all the battles of the previous years look like skirmishes. The Battle of the Somme (River Somme) was fought in three or four offensives and planning began soon after Christmas 1915 as a 1916 offensive on the western front. The offensive would be launched on July 1st as a combined French and British assault on a sixty mile front athwart the Somme from Lassigny to Arras. The British forces now numbering fifty-eight divisions. By early 1916, the British line ran from the Somme (France) to beyond Ypres (Belgium) where the allies could advance side by side. Behind British lines began amassing 400,000 men, 100,000 horses, 455 heavy guns and howitzers and all the equipment and supplies attendant to launching nineteen divisions at the enemy. Two more stood in close support and a further eight including five cavalry divisions and headquarters stood in reserve. Tunnels were dug to mine beneath the enemy lines, and the Royal Flying Corps was able to establish complete air control over the area of the Somme.
Preliminary shelling of the German lines commenced on 24 June in preparation for the assault, blanketing the front of the German trenches. As the infantry went in the heavy guns would lift back to the enemy's second line while the field guns would Ôcreep back by short lifts' -an early reference to the creeping barrage familiar later. The British commanders hoped that the combined effects of artillery bombardment, mining, and gas and air attacks, would have done much to neutralize the enemy defense system before the infantry went in. On July 1, in the early mourning hours infantry columns moved to their forward positions through a clear, moonless night, enlivened by ceaseless gun flashes. The rumble of artillery smothered the sounds of the laden men. Dawn brought a perfect day. Where the ground was suitable the troops crawled out beyond the front line and lay waiting in No Man's Land. Elsewhere they packed the trenches.
At 7:28 am, the main salvo of mines went up with a roar which drowned even the bursting of heavy shells. Two of the big mines contained 24 tons of explosive each. Earth blotted the sky to hundreds of feet. As the noise and debris subsided, a curious silence pervaded the countryside. The sun was shining. Suddenly whistles and shouts began to ring along the line and, for as far as the eye could see, dusty figures rose from the ground, hefted rifles across their chests, and started forward. Dense waves of walking infantry,Ñfifteen divisions of the fourth army mounted the attack on a front of fifteen miles, north of the River Somme. To the left, three divisions of the third army then advanced in the Gommecourt area. On the right, five divisions of the French sixth army went into action on an eight mile front south of the river.
Facing the British, the Germans had six divisions in the front line and four and a half in close reserve. Though their numerical inferiority was offset by formidable positions, including a string of fortified villages linked with trenches.
As a result of the bombardment the Germans had lost substantial portions of their trenches, but the troops themselves had sat out the barrage in deep, blast proof dug-outs, aware that the expected assault could not commence until the shelling lifted. Immediately when this happened, they clambered up the steep shafts to the surface with their rifles and machine guns, running to the nearest trenches or shell craters. When the amassed British and allies began crossing No Man's Land they expected to find nothing alive in the front enemy trenches, but when they came within range, German machine gun and rifle fire began, followed by carefully ranged artillery barrages onto No Man's Land. The effect on the British advance was devastating. Swept by traversing machine guns, hindered in many places by uncut wire, the rigid, slow moving formations were straddled by German shells. To add to the horror, a 5,000 pound British mine exploded late, crippling men in several advancing battalions. Wave upon wave of infantry was shattered. Following echelons, saw those ahead mown down; leading groups, clinging to desperately won positions, waited in vain for reinforcements which had, in turn, been massacred.
The slaughter continued with little gain. The Germans then launched a successful counter attack. By evening entire British units had practically disappeared. Final figures for the first day of the battle of the Somme revealed a staggering total British loss of 57,470 men (19,240 dead, 35,493 badly wounded, 2,153 missing, and 585 taken prisoner). One in every two men of the entire attacking force, 143 battalions was a casualty, and three out of four in the case of officers. The German losses totaled in comparison only 8,000; 2,200 of whom were taken prisoner. British losses outnumbered German losses by a ratio of 7 to 1, which ironically is the same ratio that the British force involved outnumbered the Germans.
The Battle of the Somme proceeded day after day after day, almost in a deadlock, with small gains and losses on both sides. On July 14 the second great assault of the Somme began. By the end of July, Field Martial Haig wrote London, "Maintain our offensive, our losses in July's fighting totaled about 120,000 more than they would have been had we not attacked. They cannot be regarded as sufficient to justify any anxiety as to our ability to continue the offensive."
To end the continual deadlock of the Somme offensive many and various plans and schemes were tried, (scattering calcium arsenide by shell fire to cause arsenic dust to be inhaled by the enemy, igniting coal dust and oil over enemy positions, jamming enemy artillery by dispersing carborundum powder over them,) various new gases developed, and many new weapons were invented and developed (smoke bombs, Flame throwers, new mortars, projectile weapons, and of course The Tank). And in return many new weapons were invented to defend against these other new weapons.
With the invention of the tank, the third offensive began on Sept. 15. It was a British gamble and a last chance for a major advance before winter. The object was to break down German resistance and break through to Bapaume. The attack was planned on a ten mile front along the Pozieres Ridge, from Thiepval, to a point at its southern end, Combles. Twelve British divisions to tackle an enemy front line held by six and a half German divisions. In addition 49 tanks were detailed to the British attack. The new tank did well, but heavy casualties, plus the inability to capture vital tactical positions had made it evident that the operation would not achieve its objective. By Sept. 18 rain fell steadily as a precursor to winter and soaked a flat country side enveloped in fog. One more attack was planned in October, but, it was increasingly a problem of reaching the starting line rather than driving back the enemy. November also saw few gains and it represented the last toils of the Somme offensive of 1916.
The great battles of the Somme had cost the British about 420,000 casualties, and the French nearly 200,000. Territorially, the Germans had been squeezed back on about 30 miles of front. It was a minor dent in enemy-held France, won at such a painfully protracted slog that the Germans had been able to construct new defenses as needed in the process. German casualties at the Somme, in the end however, almost equaled allied losses.
Seventy five years later, in the midst of the Gulf War, Roger Waters sat watching TV. A British documentary was on about the effects of war on World War I veterans still causing emotional and psychological problems in many to this day. Roger decided to tape one dialog to be included as part of a new song on his forth coming album Amused To Death. It was a story told by Alf Razzel, about how he was forced to leave his dying comrade Bill Hubbard in No Man's Land during the Battle of the Somme.
"Two things that have haunted me most are the days when I had to collect the paybooks; and when I left Bill Hubbard in no-man's-land.
"I was picked up and taken into their trench. And I'd no sooner taken two or three steps down the trench when I heard a call, 'Hello Razz, I'm glad to see you. This is my second night here,' and he said 'I'm feeling bad,' and it was Bill Hubbard, one of the men we'd trained in England, one of the original battalion.
I had a look at his wound, rolled him over... I could see it was probably a fatal wound. You could imagine what pain he was in, he was dripping with sweat...
...and after I'd gone about three shellholes, traversed that, had it been... had there been a path or a road I could have done better. He pummelled me, 'Put me down, put me down, I'd rather die, I'd rather die, put me down.' I was hoping he would faint. He said 'I can't go any further, let me die.' I said 'If I leave you here Bill you won't be found, let's have another go.' He said 'All right then.' And the same thing happened; he couldn't stand it any more, and I had to leave him there, in no-man's-land."
"Years later, I saw Bill Hubbard's name on the memorial to the missing at Aras[?]. And I... when I saw his name, I was absolutely transfixed. It was as though he was now a human being instead of some sort of nightmarish memory of how I had to leave him, all those years ago. And I felt relieved. And ever since then, I've felt happier about it, because always before, whenever I thought of him, I said to myself; 'Was there something else that I could have done?' [background: "I'd rather die, I'd rather die..."] And that always sort of worried me.
And having seen him, and his name in the register - as you know in the memorials there's a little safe, there's a register in there with every name - and seeing his name, and his name on the memorial; it sort of lightened my... heart, if you like." (woman) "When was it that you saw his name on the memorial?" "Ah, when I was eighty-seven, that would be a year, ninetee... eighty-four, nineteen eighty-four."
The Ballad of Bill Hubbard transcribed by Joshua Bruce.
Pictures and portions of text were taken from "The War In The Trenches" by Alan
Lloyd.