On 16th September 1916, the day after the major attack between Flers & Courcelette which saw the first use of tanks, the 6th Bn Somerset Light Infantry were ordered to attack the heavily defended Gird Trench, the main German 3rd line, in front of the village of Guedecourt. They assembled in this sunken lane, and the battalion HQ was establised in a dugout in the right-hand bank of the lane at this point.

"If you've ever tried to keep awake when you haven't had any sleep for days, it's not a question of allowing yourself to go to sleep. I can remember lying in a sunken road behind Guedecourt. The trenches were full of water, and I can remember getting out of the trench and lying on the parapet with the bullets flying around, because sleep was such a necessity, and death only meant sleep."

Lance Corporal Arnold Ridley, 6th Somerset Light Infantry