| abstract | - The Battle of Guillemont (3–6 September 1916) was an attack by the Fourth Army on the village of Guillemont. The village is on the D 20 running east to Combles and the D 64 south-west to Montauban. Longueval and Delville Wood lie to the north-west and Ginchy to the north-east. The village lay on the right flank of the British sector, near the boundary with the French Sixth Army. The Fourth Army had advanced close to Guillemont during the Battle of Bazentin Ridge (14–17 July) and the capture of the village was the culmination of British attacks which began on 22/23 July to advance on the right flank of the Fourth Army, to eliminate a salient further north at Delville Wood. German defences ringed the wood and had observation over the French Sixth Army area to the south towards the Somme. Preparatory to a general attack intended for mid-September, from the Somme north to Courcelette (beyond the Albert–Bapaume road) the French Sixth Army, the Fourth Army and Reserve Army conducted numerous attacks to capture the rest of the German second line and to gain observation over the German third line. The German defences around Guillemont were based on the remaining parts of the second line and numerous fortified villages and farms north from Hem, Maurepas and Combles, to Falfemont Farm, Guillemont, Ginchy, Delville Wood and High Wood, which commanded the ground in between. Numerous attempts were made by Joffre, Haig, Foch and the army commanders Rawlinson and Fayolle to co-ordinate joint attacks, which failed due to a recovery by the German army from the disorganisation caused by the defeats in early July, disagreements over tactics by Haig and Joffre in July and August and organisational constraints caused by congestion behind the front, roads and tracks obliterated by Anglo-French artillery-fire becoming swamps in periods of rainy weather and increasing German artillery-fire on targets behind the front line. Inexperience, unreliable machinery, guns and ammunition and an unpredictable flow of supplies from Britain reduced the effectiveness of the British armies. Difficulty in co–ordinating attacks by the Allied armies and the large number of piecemeal attacks resorted to by the British have been criticised as costly failures and evidence of muddle and incompetence by Haig and Rawlinson, even though the French Sixth and Tenth armies had similar difficulties and despite the severe strain put on the German Second and First armies, which were forced into a similar piecemeal defence. Wilfrid Miles noted in the British Official History, that the defence of Guillemont was judged by some observers, to be the best performance of the war by the German army on the Western Front. A pause in Anglo-French attacks at the end of August to organise bigger combined attacks and postponements for bad weather, coincided with the largest counter-attack by the German army in the Battle of the Somme. Joffre, Foch and Haig abandoned attempts to organise large combined attacks in favour of sequenced army attacks and the capture of the German defences from Cléry on the north bank of the Somme to Guillemont from 3 – 6 September brought the French Sixth and British Fourth armies onto ground which overlooked the German third position. Rain, congestion and reliefs of tired divisions then forced a pause in French attacks until 12 September. In the Battle of Ginchy (9 September) the Fourth army captured the village, ready for the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, (15–22 September).
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