page_title: Battle of Guillemont
section_title: German defensive preparations
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Guillemont / Prelude / German defensive preparations
caption_attribution_description: IWM caption&#160;: "THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 1 JULY - 18 NOVEMBER 1916. Interior of a German underground dugout complete with a brass bed at Fricourt. British troops were astonished at the comfort of German living conditions".
context_page_description: The Battle of Guillemont was an attack by the British Fourth Army on the village of Guillemont. The village is on the D 20 running east to Combles and the D 64 south-west to Montauban. Longueval and Delville Wood lie to the north-west and Ginchy to the north-east. The village was on the right flank of the British sector, near the boundary with the French Sixth Army. The Fourth Army had advanced close to Guillemont during the Battle of Bazentin Ridge and the capture of the village was the culmination of British attacks which began on the night of 22/23 July. The attacks were intended to advance the right flank of the Fourth Army and eliminate a salient further north at Delville Wood. German defences ringed the wood and had observation over the French Sixth Army area to the south, towards the Somme river.
  Preparatory to a general attack intended for mid-September, from the Somme north to Courcelette, the French Sixth Army, the Fourth Army and the Reserve Army conducted numerous attacks to capture the rest of the German second line and to gain observation over the German third line.
context_section_description: Despite the obliteration of trench lines, by stupendous Allied artillery bombardments, the value of trenches as boundaries and rallying-points remained and as labour became available, new back lines and switch trenches were dug, sited according to the principles used by Loßberg in Champagne in late 1915. An artillery observation line was chosen and then a main line of resistance was dug 500–1,500 yd (460–1,370 m) in front, 200–400 yd (180–370 m) behind a crest overlooked by the observation line. Outposts were built along the crest, for infantry observers and listening-posts. Another line was built 2,000–3,000 yd (1.1–1.7 mi; 1.8–2.7 km) further back near the field artillery, which became known as the Artillerie Schutz Stellung (artillery protection line), ready to be occupied by reserves, if the forward area was overrun. Command and supply became more difficult in such dispersed defences, which led to a streamlining of the chain of command, with battalion commanders being given sole authority over an area, as the Kampf-Truppen-Kommandeur. Division commanders were given similar control of the forces in the divisional sector, except for aviation units and some heavy artillery being used for special tasks.
  Gillemont and Ginchy lay on spurs, which constricted the British right flank and commanded the ground to the south, in the French Sixth Army area. During the time when the German third line and intermediate lines and redoubts, were being completed on the rear slopes of Bazentin Ridge, Allied attacks had become smaller and periods of wet weather, the terrain, supply and ammunition difficulties, combined with the German policy of unyielding defence and the reinforcements reaching the German 1st and 2nd armies, slowed the Anglo-French advance, particularly south of the Somme. The German second line ran north-west, from the French sector near Maurepas to Wedge Wood, behind Arrow Head Copse, in front of Guillemont, past the station and thence to Delville Wood and Longueval, before turning sharply west. The approaches to the village were bare and overlooked by German posts in Leuze Wood. A quarry west of the village and the ground to the south, from Maltzhorn Farm to Angle Wood and Falfemont Farm had been fortified.
  The Germans were able to nullify much of the Anglo-French material superiority in the battle, particularly during the periods of cold and wet weather in late July and late August. The defence was as piecemeal as British attacks but with the French exposed to converging artillery-fire, on the Flaucourt Plateau south of the Somme and the British bogged down on Bazentin Ridge, the Germans used observation posts around Guillemont and High Wood, to observe fire into the salients around Maurepas and Guillemont from three sides. Poor weather was less of a handicap to the Germans, while they held such commanding ground. Positions were linked with more support and reserve trenches, behind the second position south and east of Delville Wood and new "switch trenches" dug oblique to forward lines, were used to prevent Anglo-French infantry from "rolling up" German defences, from an isolated penetration.
  German field fortifications continued to be defended by machine-gun fire, artillery-fire and swift local counter-attacks, extra heavy artillery brought from Verdun, was used to extend bombardments beyond the Allied front line, to artillery positions and supply routes. New German defensive works were harder to spot, during the fewer periods of good flying weather, often not being revealed until attacking infantry were engaged from them. The Germans also gained an advantage, from being forced back, as the area most devastated by artillery-fire grew wider and was on the Allied side, which created chronic problems in transporting supplies to the front line, periodically made worse by downpours, which turned roads and tracks into glissades of mud. It was far easier for supplies to be brought up to the German front line, as it was pushed back along supply lines that had been established for two years.
caption: German bunker with bed, Somme 1916 IWM Q 1384.
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