Day Fifty Two on the Somme

Monday 21st August 1916 From our Correspondent in the Field

Attacks have been made today at those twin sores Delville Wood and Guillemont. An attack by 41st Brigade (of 14th Division) on German defenses inside Devil’s Wood was a failure which inflicted over two hundred casualties on the light infantrymen.

33rd Division made an attack around midnight from the road from Longueval to Flers to a trench called Wood Lane which follows the track from the eastern tip of High Wood south-east towards Longueval and which ends in a T junction short of the northern end of the village. Regrettably one battalion was informed of the planned attack to late so only one battalion made the assault and it was beaten off by the defenders. On a brighter note, 14th (Light) Division succeeded in capturing trenches in and on the east side of Delville Wood and in taking two hundred prisoners.

Last night the French captured Angle Wood, north-east of Hardecourt-au-Bois, north-west of Maurepas and some way south of Guillemont, which they subsequently handed over to 35th Division. 

An attack by 35th Division on a strong-point near Arrowhead Copse was unsuccessful but a trench called Zig-Zag Trench which moves into the remains of Guillemont was captured by 24th Division.

This afternoon an attack on the quarry on the western edge of Guillemont has failed and, although a gallant fight for Guillemont Station was put up by the attackers, our men were unable to hold it due to the number of casualties they had taken. Thus Guillemont still evades the grasping hand of the British Army.