Boom Ravine: Somme

By Trevor Pidgeon

The principal action that took place here in February 1917 was of short duration and failure but with fascinating overtones. This is the dramatic story of the events on the Somme after the great battle of 1916 ended and before the Germans withdrew to the Hindenburg Line. Its focus is on a ravine easily as impressive as that at Beaumont Hamel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jan 12, 1998
• ISBN: 9781473812628

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Battleground Europe

BOOM RAVINE

Other guides in the Battleground Series:

Walking the Salient by Paul Reed

Ypres – Sanctuary Wood and Hooge by Nigel Cave

Ypres – Hill 60 by Nigel Cave

Ypres – Messines Ridge by Peter Oldham

Walking the Somme by Paul Reed

Somme – Gommecourt by Nigel Cave

Somme – Serre by Jack Horsfall & Nigel Cave

Somme – Beaumont Hamel by Nigel Cave

Somme – Thiepval by Michael Stedman

Somme – La Boisselle by Michael Stedman

Somme – Fricourt by Michael Stedman

Somme – Carnoy/Montauban by Graham Maddocks

Somme – Pozières by Graham Keech

Somme – Courcelette by Paul Reed

Somme – Boom Ravine by Trevor Pidgeon

Arras – Vimy Ridge by Nigel Cave

Hindenburg Line by Peter Oldham

Epehy by Bill Mitchenson

Riqueval by Bill Mitchenson

Boer War – The Relief of Ladysmith, Colenso, Spion Kop by Lewis Childs

Battleground guides in preparation:

Walking Arras by Paul Reed

Ypres – Polygon Wood by Nigel Cave

Somme – Delville Wood by Nigel Cave

Somme – Following the Ancre by Michael Stedman

Somme – Mametz Wood by Michael Renshaw

Somme – High Wood by Terry Carter

Somme – Gincy by Michael Stedman

Somme – Combles by Paul Reed

Boer War – The Siege of Ladysmith by Lewis Childs

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Battleground Europe

BOOM RAVINE

Trevor Pidgeon

Series editor

Nigel Cave

LEO COOPER

By the same author

The Tanks at Flers

A two-volume account of the first use of tanks in war

Published by Fairmile Books 1995

First published in 1998 by

LEO COOPER

an imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Limited

47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire S70 2AS

Copyright © Trevor Pidgeon 1998

The right of Trevor Pidgeon to be identified as the author of this book

has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988

ISBN 0 85052 612 4

A CIP catalogue of this book is available

from the British Library

Printed by Redwood Books Limited

Trowbridge, Wiltshire

For up-to-date information on other titles produced under the Leo Cooper imprint,

please telephone or write to:

Pen & Sword Books Ltd, FREEPOST, 47 Church Street

Barnsley, South Yorkshire S70 2AS

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CONTENTS

Wounded being transported by light railway to the rear.

SERIES EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION

This addition to the Battleground Europe series is rather different from those which have preceded it. Boom Ravine is the account of a short, sharp and, from the British point of view, not very successful battle in the February of 1917. It is well after, therefore, the time when the First Battle of the Somme had come to a slithering, slushy and miserable halt in November 1916; and it is before the German retirement to the Hindenburg Line had begun. Those winter months of 1916/1917 were a period of dogged human endurance for both sides. The conditions were quite ghastly for everyone but, particularly for the British, the supply of the front line had to be carried out over the devastated area that had been the scene of such bitter and unremitting fighting since 1 July 1916.

Fighting on the Western Front did not always fit in neatly to the musings of the Battlefield Nomenclature Committee, which published its decisions in 1921. Thus this action at Boom Ravine is reduced to a small part of a section entitled, ‘The Advance to the Hindenburg Line’, and whilst it involved almost as many British divisions as Le Cateau in 1914, it is simply described as ‘The Actions of Miraumont, 17th – 18th February 1917’.

This book is a detailed description of all aspects of that battle – its inspiration, the patrolling, the preparation, the execution and the aftermath. Trevor Pidgeon has applied to it the meticulous care and attention to detail, with the aid of a whole variety of sources, British and German, which those who have read his other monumental and outstanding work, The Tanks at Flers, would expect. The result is a unique description of a small battlefield on the Somme which will enable the reader to position himself on the ground at all the crucial places mentioned in the text.

Although this may not have been a particularly significant battle – indeed the Germans voluntarily retired from the position a few days later – it will enable us to see how a set piece battle developed from genesis to execution. This is important to our understanding of the Great War; it is vital to get away from the widely held view that there was no development in tactics and strategy worthy of the description, that staff work was uniformly shoddy and that troops were merely required to leave their trenches and advance in waves. Things were far more complex than that, and although much of the British action was flawed in several areas, it should bring home to all of us that waging war in 1917 was a deeply complicated and difficult affair.

The text also raises the interesting question of the role which a British traitor (as opposed to a deserter) might have had in the affair; unfortunately it is impossible to be too specific – but there, I do not want to spoil the story!

Because of the book’s unusual nature it has not got quite the same format as other books in this series, though it follows broadly similar lines. Instead of a touring section at the end, Field Guides have been incorporated at the end of chapters so that the pilgrim can follow each phase on the ground before moving on to the next part of the story. This should give them the feel of how the planning and execution of the attack (and the defence) developed.

One facet I like in particular about this book; it will ensure that the participants in this relatively insignificant ‘affair’ have their deeds of endurance and courage brought into the light of the late twentieth century and will rescue them from the obscurity of largely inaccessible divisional and unit histories or archive records at the Public Record Office. Their contribution in the ‘war to end all wars’ is as fitting of recollection and remembrance as the more celebrated actions in which their comrades in arms fought, such as the First Day of the Somme.

Nigel Cave Ely Place, London

Photographs taken by Germans prior to the battle.

Dugouts in the Stall Mulde.

Grenadier-Hang alongside the road east of the Bluff.

The river bend (Schräg Eck) east of the Bluff.

(Norbert Krüger)

INTRODUCTION

The Battle of Boom Ravine on 17 February 1917 is among the less well-known engagements of the Western Front fighting during the years 1914–1918. Britain’s Official History of the Great War certainly devotes several pages to the battle and sees it as a significant factor, at least locally in the valley of the Ancre, in the timing of the Germans’ retreat to the Hindenburg Line, but the guide-books ignore it and few people visit the ground itself.

This is a pity, not only because the men who fought there – especially those who were wounded there and those who died there – deserve greater recognition for the part they played in that most terrible of wars, but also because the battle itself is of interest. For one thing, it took place in the depth of winter, which was an unusual occurrence on the Western Front. Secondly, it constituted both a continuation of the ‘wearing-out’ battles of 1916 yet at the same time heralded the expanded campaigning of 1917. Its aim was to clear the ground for a British swing up to St Leger, but came just as the Germans – traumatised almost as much as the British by the Somme fighting the year before – were preparing their withdrawal to defences far in the rear.

The battle has long held a fascination for me. I visited the area in 1987 and 1989, then lectured on the subject to the Western Front Association in 1990. I have returned there many times since, always moved by the thought that, although these fields, these hedges and Boom Ravine itself represent a much smaller battlefield than many others in the War, nonetheless British soldiers fought here in their thousands and fell in their hundreds, having endured hardship and suffering on a scale which, proportionately, stands comparison with any other campaign in which British soldiers were engaged.

One final point marks out the Battle of Boom Ravine as special. The British failure and loss of life were, on this occasion, very largely due to treachery. A man, or men, from a British regiment willingly and wilfully gave information to the Germans which allowed these to prepare a vigorous and determined response to the attack such as almost guaranteed a British disaster. Fortunately for Britain, treachery of this kind was a rare occurrence, but that was little solace for her soldiers who suffered wounds and hardship at Boom Ravine and for the families at home who mourned those killed.

It is to those who fought, those who died, and those who mourned, that this book is dedicated.

Trevor Pidgeon

Cobham 1998

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In writing this book I have been helped by a number of people to whom my warmest thanks are due.

First, Nigel Cave for his patient encouragement and infectious enthusiasm. During the preparation of the book his skills as Series Editor, coupled with his own deep knowledge of the Western Front fighting, were always in evidence and always helpful.

My thanks are due to the staff of the Public Record Office, that treasure-house at Kew, where so much written material relating to Britain’s history is lovingly stored and made freely available, including a wealth of original documents dating from the Great War. Extracts from these, used as illustrations in the book, are taken from WO 95 2035 (sketch-map and patrol reports of 53 Brigade), WO 95 641 (two II Corps letters), WO 374 22611 (statement by Second Lieutenant Ellison), and WO 95 1295 (barrage map). Crown copyright material in the Public Record Office is reproduced by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

Staff at the Imperial War Museum, who can claim scholarly expertise in every aspect of 20th Century conflict, were unfailingly obliging with their help. My special thanks to James Taylor for assisting me with the German sources.

I am indebted to Peter Liddle, Keeper of the Liddle Collection at Leeds University, for allowing me to quote from his extensive collection of Great War records. I