Alright lovely people. A thread on a very important day in a very important battle, which I’m sure isn’t forgotten, but we’re running through a lot of anniversaries at the moment. On this day 104 years ago Thiepval was captured. #Somme104 #Thiepval104

Firstly, who cares? Well we certainly do now; as is common knowledge, Thiepval is home to this gigantic Lutyens memorial - the Thiepval memorial covers the missing in this area between 1915 and early 1918.

At the time? Crucial. Thiepval sits on the nose of the high ground that winds over to Pozières including the Schwaben Redoubt. Recommended reading here is by Jack Sheldon, but to the Germans, the redoubt underpinned the defence of the area.

You only have to look at all the lovely pictures of the area and the view that we keep posting to see how commanding the position is. The high ground mattered, and capturing Thiepval could unlock the German defences in the area.

Choosing this site for the epic memorial must make the ground especially important though, why not Serre, or La Boisselle, or Montauban? Well to my mind it covers both tragedy and success in a way that few other sites on the Somme can.

Firstly, failure: No joy for 32nd Division here in early July. As was lovingly set in film in ‘Somme - Defeat to Victory’, Thomas Morland couldn’t see a way past the Stammler on the opening day of the offensive, despite climbing a tree for a better view.

32nd Division bashed away for a couple of days, borrowing a brigade from 25th Division. Still no joy, and they were withdrawn with a casualty figures of 214 officers and 4,462 ORs killed, wounded & missing.

The focus then switched away to the South, and the area of Thiepval passed to the command of Reserve Army, under your friend and mine, General Sir Hubert de la Poer Gough. No big attacks here for over 2 months.

Come mid September, the situation had changed. Pozieres had been taken, tanks were on the battlefield, and Thiepval was on Gough’s radar. Enter one of the more impressive divisions of the battle: 18th Eastern.

They were part of the subject of a podcast we did back in July as they’d captured their objectives on day 1. The also cleared Trônes Wood and helped at Delville Wood. Time for further glory for Major-General Sir Ivor Maxse’s men. https://twitter.com/greatwargroup/status/1309232907970662401

Three days before the attack on 26 September, the men were shown over model trenches of Thiepval. Two brigades would be put in line; Harold Higginson’s 53rd Bde and Thomas Shoubridge’s 54th, which was led in to action by Frank Maxwell VC’s 12th Middlesex.

Both brigades were allotted two tanks each - although General Maxse probably wasn’t relying on them. He’s quite quotable: ‘I believe a well trained division can capture any “impregnable” stronghold and this doctrine has been taught to 18th Division’.

Zero was 12.35pm on the 26th, although the defenders lives had been made a misery in the days leading up, with shellfire and lachrymatory gas. The attack mostly went fine, with a couple of German MGs causing hold-ups.

One of these hold-ups on 54th Bde’s front was dealt with by a tank - the only real input from the armoured vehicles that day. They hadn’t made it to help 53rd Bde, but 10/Essex and 8/Suffolk did fine work anyhow. Please give the divisional memorial a nod when you pass.

Clearing the north face of the Schwaben redoubt was a bridge too far that day, but the break-in was made.

The following day, the go-ahead was given to German engineers from their army group commander, Crown Prince Rupprecht, to get to work on a new set of defensive lines some miles in the rear just in case they were needed. These would be very heavy-duty indeed - one for another time

The capture of Thiepval then - victory and defeat, a stunning feat of arms and profound consequences... the right location for our greatest memorial to the missing. (Ends) #Thipeval104