2a. Ulster Tower

10-30 minutes

Continue on the D73 until you come to a T-junction. Turn left. Keep going until you come to a right hand turning over a railway line – take that turn. After just under one km the Tower will appear on your left.

Context

The memorial to the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division.

Orientation

With your back to the tower, looking at the road, German positions were behind you and British in front. At this point, the road is actually in the middle of No Man’s Land. In front of you and to your left is the famous Thiepval Wood, which will be discussed at the next stop.

Spiel

The 36th (Ulster) Division enjoyed some of the only success of 1 July encounters north of La Boisselle. They charged out of Thiepval Wood and swept up the incline to our left [stood with your back to the Tower] and, beyond the cemetery that you can see on top of the hill, toward an infamous German stronghold: the Schwaben Redoubt. We will also pick up that story at our next stop.

This is the Ulster Tower and is a memorial to those men. It is a replica of Helen’s Tower in County Down where the men of the Division trained.

Activities

Point out the orientation and have a look inside the tower and in the grounds at the various artefacts and memorials. There is a small shop, museum and café inside. As you leave the Tower, to your right is a small track into the fields. If you follow the track for about a hundred metres you will find the remains of a German observation post; it is probably part of what was known as the Pope’s Nose – another German strongpoint.

3. Connaught CWGC Cemetery/

Mill Road CWGC Cemetery/
Schwaben Redoubt

45 minutes

Connaught cemetery is just past Ulster Tower, on the right hand side of the road.

Connaught CWGC Cemetery

Context

Thiepval wood is behind this cemetery and it was from here that the 36th (Ulster) Division launched their attack on the German lines. There is a section of excavated trench in the wood which can be visited through prior arrangement with the staff at the Ulster Tower.

Orientation

With the wood behind you, look up the crest in front toward Mill Road Cemetery. This is the line of attack that the Ulstermen took on 1 July.

Spiel

Gather at the back of the cemetery

This is Connaught Cemetery and there are 1,268 burials here. Most are men who died on the Somme and many of them are members of the 36th (Ulster) Division. We are going to follow their story on 1 July.

The German Army had held Thiepval and the surrounding areas since September 1914. On 1 July, the Ulstermen were given the task of launching an attack from ThiepvalWood, which is behind this cemetery, and heading up the crest that you see in front of you, to attempt to capture the German stronghold of the Schwaben Redoubt, which was beyond and to the right of the cemetery that you can see towards the top of the hill.

Ultimately, the Ulster Division would be one of the few British relative success stories on 1 July, as they charged the Schwaben, entered its trench and dug out systems, and some even made it to the second line of defences, Stuff Redoubt. However, as we shall see, this gain was temporary and had to be given up due to the failure of forces on either side of this section of the line, as well as the effectiveness of the German counter attack measures.

However, before we walk the footsteps of the Division, the heroism of Billy McFadzean deserves mention. He was in an assembly trench in the wood behind this cemetery, just hours before 0730 on 1 July 1916. In one of the finest books written about the Somme, The First Day on the Somme, Martin Middlebrook tells Billy’s story. McFadzean was a bomber and, as zero hour approached, he was opening boxes of grenades and passing them around the men. German shelling was quite heavy. ‘Suddenly, a box of grenades fell to the floor of the trench […] the fall had knocked the pins out of two grenades. In four seconds they would explode.’ In one of the most remarkable splitsecond decisions that any man could ever take, Billy McFadzean threw himself onto the fallen and now live grenades:

‘A moment later the live grenades exploded and Billy McFadzean was dead. In giving his own life, he had saved his friends […] The shocked Ulstermen laid the shattered body carefully aside, hoping that someone would be able to bury it later, then they finished sharing out the grenades and sadly waited for the battle to begin.⁵

July 1, using the old calendar, was the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne, and the proud Ulstermen had worked themselves into a religious and nationalistic frenzy.

Just before 0730, the first battalions to attack had left the front line trench system and were positioned in No Man’s Land, nearer the German positions. At zero hour, they jumped up and, ignoring the cautious advances witnessed in other areas of the attack, rushed the German trenches. Profiting from the cumbersome German response, they captured the trench and turned their attentions to capturing the Schwaben Redoubt.

We will now walk in the direction of their attack, passing where they once lay in No Man’s Land and toward the front line trench that they captured.

Leave the cemetery, cross the road and take the rubble track up to Mill Road CWGC Cemetery.

Mill Road CWGC Cemetery/Schwaben Redoubt

Context

A unique cemetery on the Somme due to the positioning of some of the headstones [explained below]. It is also situated on what was an entrance to part of the Schwaben Redoubt.

Orientation

You have just walked part of the Ulster line of attack. Although you are at a connection to it, the Schwaben stronghold itself was situated north-east of this spot, approximately 200 metres away in the field behind the cemetery.

Spiel

This is Mill Road Cemetery; there are 1,304 burials here. You will notice something rare about this cemetery: several headstones are laid flat. This is because of the terrible subsistence in the area caused by the considerable tunnelling and trench networks; laying the stones flat spreads the weight. It is almost certainly the case that where the headstones are flat mark an incline to the German stronghold.

The Schwaben was one of the most formidable German positions on the Somme; it was a group of linking trenches, underground bunkers, machine gun posts, aid posts, communication areas and a handful of tunnels. It provided an all-round defensive system. This is what the Ulstermen were aiming for.

We left the Ulstermen having captured the front-line trench; we shall pick up their story as they headed for the Schwaben itself.

The Germans in the Schwaben had had time to get out of their underground cover and were ready for the Ulster Division. The Irish, advancing from the captured trench, came under fire from machine gun crews from Thiepval village, the other side of theAncre and also from hidden snipers. Once in the Schwaben the combat was medieval, raw and bloody. Artillery obliterated men; grenades ripped away limbs and bayonets did their eviscerating best at extremely close quarters. Men’s heads were caved in by the butt of a rifle and one man, Captain Eric Bell, won the Victoria Cross for throwing trench mortars (an unbelievable feat, given their weight) at the enemy; these Ulster men were fighting for their lives whilst in such a heightened state of emotion that is near impossible to understand, unless one was there.

The Ulster Division captured the whole of the Schwaben Redoubt and took over 500 German prisoners. Yet now they faced a new set of problems. They lacked command on the ground, its brigade north of the Ancre and the division on the left had both failed – thus leaving the Ulstermen in a salient – and now the German artillery shells began to rain down upon their former stronghold. The Germans began their counter attack.

Later that afternoon, attempts to send reinforcements proved impossible. Men from the 49th (West Riding) Division attempted to cross No Man’s Land but were being ripped into by German machine guns from their strongpoints to the east, north and south, as well as artillery fire.

By nightfall the Ulster Division was in an appalling position. No reinforcements had made it through to them and they were desperately short of ammunition. An order was given to retreat. Their heroism was undoubted but their gains had largely been abandoned – at the cost of over 5,000 casualties.⁶

The Redoubt was finally captured on 14 October.

Writing in 1917, John Masefield walked up Mill Road and to the Schwaben. He describes a scene ‘littered with relics of our charges, mouldy packs, old shattered scabbards, rifles, bayonets, helmets curled, torn, rolled and starred, clips of cartridges, and very many graves.’ When he reached the Schwaben he saw ‘nothing whole, nor alive, nor clean, in all its extent; it is a place of ruin and death’.

Masefield also recounts one of the most bizarre stories of the battle, if not the war as a whole; that of a woman, spotted by British soldiers, who appeared on the front of the Schwaben, walking along its edge during a lull in the firing toward it. It was thought that this was a German dressed as a woman (although why they would risk their lives doing this, one could not imagine) but when the British finally took the strongpoint, astonished, they actually found her body and buried her. Therefore, if this is true, then her body lies unmarked somewhere nearby.

It had been a hell of a fight on 1 July; it had been simply hell for many. Yet, had a significant number of reinforcing troops made it through to assist the Ulstermen, to exploit their achievement in taking the Schwaben, it might just have been possible to attack the German positions at Thiepval itself from the rear. This could have completely changed the course of the day and, possibly, the battle overall. 1 July might have been remembered very differently indeed. On the other hand, the Germans had a brilliant counter attack plan.

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