British attacks on the village during this period suffered serious losses as a result of the combination of being bogged down in mud and heavy defensive German machine-gun fire.
One of the attacking units was the 8th Green Howards who were reduced to just eight officers and 150 men in the course of the attacks.
One of the other attacking units was the 13th Rifle Brigade. Their part was to attack a German trench leading back from Contalmaison north to Pozières. They were supported by co-ordinated attacks by other Divisions on their left and right. It was also planned a heavy barrage would support their attack.
As they advanced out of their trenches they were met with a hail of German machine-gun fire and the bullets of snipers. As they advanced they were determined to capture the German trench ‘at all costs’. It rapidly became clear that neither the supporting attacks or the barrage had materialised. Despite huge losses the Rifle Brigade managed to advance through two of the three German lines.
It was at this point that word reached them the attack had been cancelled. The instructions to that effect had been sent out from headquarters to all participating units – reaching them all except the unfortunate Rifle Brigade. There was then very little that could be done to stop their attack which was completely unsupported.
To make matters worse the British artillery saw there was fighting going on and assumed the Germans were counter-attacking. They believed the British attack had been cancelled and so started a devastating barrage on what they thought were German trenches.
They were of course the trenches the 13th Rifle Brigade had just captured and were now struggling to get back from. Their own artillery barrage then cut down those that had survived the German machine guns.
The result was that only a handful of the 13th Rifle Brigade survived. The final irony in such a sad story is that the German were able to re-occupy immediately the trench that had been fought so hard over and for which so many had been killed.
