Old Front Line
WW1 Podcast with Paul Reed
Somme Central: Ovillers to Fricourt
On the morning of 1st July 1916, as whistles blew along miles of the Somme front, the men of the III Corps and XV Corps rose from their trenches and walked into the centre of one of the most catastrophic days in British military history.
In this second special episode of Old Front Line for the Somme 110th Anniversary, we focus on the brutal heart of the Somme battlefield, that stretch of scarred chalk downland running from the village of Ovillers, down through the fortress of La Boisselle, to the encircled ruins of Fricourt. This was the ground where some of the few remaining regulars alongside men of Kitchener’s volunteer army, Tyneside Scots and Irishmen, Grimsby fishermen, South Yorkshire lads in the York & Lancs, and Green Howards among so many others, were sent against some formidable German positions on this central part of the Somme front of 1st July.
The podcast follows the 8th Division into the killing ground of The Nab and Mash Valley at Ovillers, where German machine guns on three sides made survival almost impossible. We stand at the edge of the Lochnagar crater and trace the advance of the 34th Division, all twelve battalions committed at once, nothing held in reserve, as the Tyneside brigades marched in waves across open ground toward a village that was ready and waiting for them. And we examine the bitter fighting around Fricourt, where the 10th West Yorkshire Regiment suffered the single greatest British battalion casualty toll of any unit in on The First Day of the Somme.
We end with a virtual walk across those battlefields today.
Jonathan Porter’s Somme Books: Zero Hour Z Day website.
Main Image: Destroyed German trenches at Ovillers, looking towards Albert, July 1916. (IWM Q 4044). Image by John Warwick Brooke.
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7 Comments on “Somme Central: Ovillers to Fricourt”
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Great episode and can only echo Paul’s comments on Jonathan’s books!
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Thanks, Niall!
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Thanks, for an excellent podcast. A good plug for Jonathan Porter’s books too I have both volumes and it was good to hear that a third volume may be in the offing. I think though that given the level of detail in these books, it will need a fourth volume to cover the whole of the British sector of the Somme.
I always find Lt Colonel Sandy’s story very sad. The hotel where he committed suicide, the Cavendish on Jeremy Street was pulled down in 1966, with the current building, still called the Cavendish, taking its place.
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The recent two Somme episodes are fantastic. I know the front well and your narrative is so detailed it is easy to ‘walk’ each section as you talk. Thank you Paul. Looking forward to part three.
Jonathan’s two books are indeed superb. What a tremendous achievement they are. Excited to hear the third might be published before too long.
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Thank you!
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hi my grat uncle james henry cairsn was the durham light infantry. he died at the somme on the 10 july 1916. he has been honoured on the thiepval memorial. only his id tag was found his name is on face 1495 15c no 23628 just information you might appreciate. i have only 1 picture of him margaret owen. he was my grandmothers brother
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Thanks for sharing your connection.
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