Attack on the Gommecourt Salient

Attack on the Gommecourt Salient
Part of the Battle of the Somme
Battle of the Somme 1 July – 18 November 1916.
Date 1 July 1916 Location Gommecourt, France 50°08′27″N 02°38′46″E / 50.14083°N 2.64611°E / 50.14083; 2.64611Coordinates: 50°08′27″N 02°38′46″E / 50.14083°N 2.64611°E / 50.14083; 2.64611 Result German victory
Belligerents
British Empire	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Sir Douglas Haig	Erich von Falkenhayn
Strength
2 divisions	5 regiments
Casualties and losses
6,769	1,241
Gommecourt Gommecourt, a commune of the Pas-de-Calais department of France

The Attack on the Gommecourt Salient was a British operation against the northern flank of the German 2nd Army that took place on 1 July 1916, on the Western Front in France, during the First World War. The attack was conducted by the British Third Army (Lieutenant-General Edmund Allenby) as a diversion, to protect the northern flank of the main attack by the British Fourth Army on the First day on the Somme, from Serre southwards to the boundary with the French Sixth Army at Maricourt. To extend the attack front of the Fourth Army, the VII Corps (Lieutenant-General Thomas Snow) of the Third Army was to capture the Gommecourt Salient, the most westerly point of the Western Front. In the first week of May, the 56th (1/1st London) Division (Major-General Charles Hull) and the 46th (North Midland) Division (Major-General Edward Montagu-Stuart-Wortley) moved into the area for the attack. By 10 May, both divisions had taken over the front on the right flank of the 37th Division (Major-General A. Edward W. Count Gleichen) and begun training for the operation, making no attempt to conceal the preparations.