page_title: Capture of Fricourt
section_title: 7th Division
hierarchical_section_title: Capture of Fricourt / Battle / Fourth Army / 7th Division
caption_attribution_description: English: Infantry from the British 7th Division advancing towards German trenches at Mametz, 7.30am on 1 July 1916, the opening day of the Battle of the Somme.
context_page_description: Fricourt is a village that was fought over in July 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, which took place in France during the First World War. Fricourt is 3 mi from Albert, north of Bray and west of Mametz, near the D 938 road and at the junction of the D 147 with the D 64. The village is 20 mi north-east of Amiens and on the route of the Albert–Péronne light railway. Fricourt Wood was north-east of the village, with a château on the edge of the village and a number of craters, known as the Tambour on the west side. Fricourt formed a salient in the German front-line and was the principal German fortified village between the River Somme and the Ancre.
  The ground sloped south-west from Bazentin ridge, divided by Willow Stream, which rose in Trônes Wood and flowed past the ends of the Mametz and Fricourt spurs. The stream was the inner boundary of the 7th Division on the right and the 21st Division on the left, of the XV Corps. German fortification of the area around Mametz and Fricourt had created a web of trenches 1,200 yd deep behind the front-line trench, which was irregular making many angles from which an attacker could be engaged.
context_section_description: The right and centre brigades of the division attacked on a 1,800 yd (1,600 m)
  front from the Carnoy–Mametz track to a quarry near Hidden Wood. The 20th Brigade in the centre was to wheel left to form a line, from the north-west corner of Mametz to the south-west along Orchard Alley, across the Maricourt road, with the left near Bois Français, linking with the 22nd Brigade, which waited for the order to advance. The right-hand battalion of the 20th Brigade advanced from an area 250 yd (230 m) behind the front line, due to damage in the front line trenches and was devastated in no man's land by machine-gun fire from Fricourt Wood and the German support trench. The bombardment of Fricourt failed due to the 9.2-inch howitzer shell fuzes falling out before the shells reached the target. The survivors pressed on and entered the front trench south of Fricourt, some parties reaching the support trench, 250 yd (230 m) further on and overpowered the German troops in adjacent communication trenches.
  Advancing further was impossible but the battalion continued to snipe and bomb the Germans opposite, as the flanking battalions advanced. Reinforcements later in the morning were also caught by machine-gun fire in no man's land and the survivors were unable to make progress beyond the existing 20th Brigade position. The left-hand battalion crossed no man's land with far fewer casualties and wheeled left to Hidden Lane, beyond Hidden Wood and short of Apple Alley, up the slope. Small parties mopped up German troops among the craters and mineshafts in the area, taking Hidden Lane by 9:30 a.m., despite losses from German troops in Mametz and Hidden Wood. The wood was captured by a frontal attack, combined with bombers moving down Hidden Lane, before parties advanced to the objective at Apple Alley. Establishment of the defensive flank towards Fricourt was not possible but the 22nd Brigade managed to occupy the German front and support trenches near the village and gain touch with the 20th brigade.
caption: 7th Division advance on the Somme, 1 July 1916 (IWM Q 89)
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