October 1915 - 'Off to France...'
On the 4th of October 1915, the division sailed from Southampton at 6.30 pm arriving in Le Havre, France at 7.30 am the following morning. The Divisional Artillery however, remained in England until November 1915. The Ulster Division initially concentrated in the area around Flesselles, some ten miles north of Arras. Gradually, men were sent in groups for familiarisation with trench warfare conditions, and were attached to the regular army 4th Division for the purpose in the (at this time) quiet area north of the River Ancre near Albert. Some small scale engagements have been recorded for the Ulstermen around this period and this recorded the first shots fired in anger by the division. On the 21st of October 1915, the Division was moved away from the fighting area, towards Abbeville, where it spent most of the winter of 1915-16 continuing training. One of the Brigades was attached to 4th Division for several weeks at this time, and the artillery provided by the London Brigades finally joined in late November.
February 1916 - The front line
The Division finally took over a complete section of the front line on 7 February 1916, between the River Ancre and the Mailly-Maillet to Serre road. Division HQ was at Acheux. Records show the next six weeks were quiet enough, but punctuated by mine explosions, sniping, many patrols and similar small-scale incidents. It was however the grim life in the trenches that shocked many of the men. Constant rain, rats and lice were just some of the problems encountered. The ever present damp brought the horror of 'trench feet' which proved fatal for some with the rapidly declining health of some of the younger men.
March 1916 - Advance to Thiepval
In the first week of March, the Division extended its front, the 109th Brigade taking over the sector south of the Ancre, known by the name of Thiepval Wood near the village of the same name. The Ulstermen soon discovered that whereas the Hamel sector north of the river valley was normally quiet, the Thiepval sector was subject to frequent, sudden enemy bombardment. Despite this the men were considerably happier and moral boosted by the condition of these new more permenant front line trenches. This quote is taken from the famous diary of Jim Maultsaid of the 14th Royal Irish Rifles (YCV) :-
"Often in the days gone past I had looked out over at this wood away on our right - watching the big black 'Jack Johnson' shells bursting until it looked like a black curtain against the sky line. Now the YCVs were actually to hold this line. It was our first spell in 'Thiepval Wood'. The 14th Royal Irish Rifles entered it with awe. Here was a trench with running water! And here a dug-out with cement sides and steel beams in the roof! (but later I found ot it required them)."
Thiepval comprised an area of some 100 acres of deciduous forest and was criss-crossed with deep communication trenches leading to the front line. Dugouts were excavated from the chalky earth and provided some shelter from the German artillery. Food stores and ammunition dumps were also constructed in the wood. The 'Wood’ soon provided the Derry Volunteers with a baptism of fire. Throughout the afternoon of 10 March there had been unusually heavy fire from the germans, which had aroused suspicions. Then at midnight came a big sudden bombardment which lasted until 2am. When the shelling died down it was discovered that the enemy had penetrated trenches manned by the Derry men. Flares had failed to go off and the telephone lines had been cut at the start of the bombardment, so there had been a delay in getting the 36ths own artillery to open up in defence. The Germans had time to do sufficient damage to the British defenses to result in thirty dead and wounded - and a number of prisoners had been taken. But some Ulstermen had managed to inflict a toll on the Germans, once they had organised themselves in defence.
This quote is taken from the diary of an unknown Ulsterman :-
"In the hand to hand fighting with the Germans in the trench, there was a German caught in the wire and a fellow from Cookstown called Ned Anderson tried to send up a flare - well it caught the German on the wire. Now weather or not the fellow was alive or dead i dont know, but we could smell him burning as the fire blazed up. It fair turned your insides, but we had to fight on until the Germans went back....They tried to bomb a dugout we had at a cross-trench, but one of our men had the presence of mind to throw across the main trench a couple of rolls of wire and we sniped at them every time they tried to force their way across."
Preparations were soon underway for an Allied offensive on the Somme, which were intensified as more artillery was brought into the area behind the Ulster Division. For many men, this was a very exciting time indeed. No one had believed that the army could be so obviously strong. On 7 May 1916, the Division made its first raid, designed to damage enemy positions and more importantly to gain intelligence and prisoners.
June 1916 - Preparing for the Somme Offensive
By the summer of 1916, the German Army had penetrated deep into Northern France. At Verdun, the French Army was being bled to death. Britain resolved to make a supreme effort to relieve her ally. The plan of the British Commander-In-Chief, General Sir Douglas Haig, was to attempt to break through German lines with fifteen British and five French Divisions. Then, swinging northwards and southwards, roll up the Germans flank. Haig deliberately chose, as the point for this break-through, the strongest part of the German line, believing that to be defeated here would demoralise the German troops. Nowhere on this line were the defences more formidable than in the area selected as the objective of the 36th (Ulster) Division, the ridges on either side of the River Ancre (a tributary of the Somme) north of the village of Thiepval including the supposedly impregnable Schwaben Redoubt.
In early June, two Brigades were relieved by units of 49th Division, in order to permit them to train together, in the tactics of the offensive. 108th Brigade was at this time stationed in the area of Martinsart: close enough to move up in support if anything happened at the front. The fine weather broke on 12 June, which disrupted training and other preparations.
An un-named officer recorded this in his journal :-
"On Friday 23 June after a warm day, heavy rain began to fall and made things most unpleasant for the men. By the end of Friday the Infantry who were to occupy the front-line positions during the bombardment were in place - the Tyrone Volunteers and the South Antrim Volunteers in the Thiepval Wood Sector, and the Armagh Volunteers in the Hamel trenches. These troops would have hell to endure under increasingly furious German shelling.Then on Saturday 24 June the British bombardment started. The final violent prelude to the big push had begun........"
This poor spell of weather continued through the opening of the immense British bombardment of enemy wire defences and front lines on 25 June. On some days, visibility was so poor for men on the ground and in the air that it proved difficult to observe the effect of the shelling. The barrage was extended for two more days, and the final time for the infantry attack fixed for 7.30am on 1st July 1916.
For seven days prior to the start of the "Battle of the Somme", the British guns along a twenty mile front bombarded the German trenches and dug-outs. As zero hour 7.30 a.m. approached, the guns fell silent as the bold men of the 36th (Ulster) Division prepared to leave their trenches.