NE of Hebuterne

When the panorama loads, you will be facing north to Gommecourt.
This is the Gommecourt salient, a triangle of villages here formed a distinct sector of the 1916 front, Gommecourt with its château and park being in German hands and Foncquevillers and Hébuterne in British.
The trench lines had been unchanged since October 1914.
The German trenches jutted out in a prominent salient round the edge of Gommecourt Park and the trench at the point of the park was actually the most westerly post of all the Imperial German forces.
Because of the prominence of the salient, the German defences here, constructed and perfected over twenty undisturbed months, were very strong, with thick belts of barbed wire, several lines of interlocking trenches, machine-gun posts and deep dug-outs.
At Gommecourt, the Germans also used the shape of the salient to construct an inner defence work called the Kern Redoubt around the south end of the village and part of the park.
This all-round defense position would make it difficult for attacking troops who penetrated the outer defences to capture the village.
The British decided to attack at Gommecourt on the opening day of the 1916 battle, partly to cut off the awkward salient into their line but also to provide a major diversion at a point north of the main British attack front.
This diversionary attack was controlled by the Third Army and preparations were to be made as obvious as possible to draw German attention away from the main attack by the Fourth Army.
The salient was to be attacked not frontally but by each of the British divisions from a flank. The 56th Division had ingeniously dug a new front trench by night to reduce the width of No Man’s Land to be covered.
The week-long artillery preparation here was effective and much of the German barbed wire was destroyed.
Three lines of trenches were captured and one small party even reached round to the back of Gommecourt. But the 46th Division’s attack on the northern flank failed, with only a few men getting into the German trenches and quickly being wiped out there.
The Germans concentrated their counter-attacks on the London troops, who were steadily forced back and eventually pushed out of the German trenches.
The two divisions suffered 6,769 casualties, including 2,765 men killed and missing; nearly two-thirds of these casualties were in the 56th Division.
The German casualties were 1,241, with 427 dead. The diversion had no effect upon the outcome of the main battle to the south.
The commander of the 46th Division was sacked for failing to press his attack more strongly. Rossignol Wood, seen from our position, was the dominating German position over the low ground towards Hébuterne.
The wood was a key point in the German defenses which easily held off the attacks made on it in 1917.
When the German advance was halted here in 1918, it again became part of their front line.