from the 2/4th and 4/4th Bns in May and June, bringing it up to strength. 56th Division was scheduled to undertake its first operation in the Attack on the Gommecourt Salient at the start of the Battle of the Somme. On the night of 25/26 May the 1/4th Bn dug a new jumping-off trench half-way across No man's land. Over following days and nights this position was enlarged and linked with communication trenches, during which the battalion suffered a trickle of casualties. 1/4th practised the attack on 6 June, but as a support unit its rehearsals were less detailed, and the battalion carried out weeks of night labour. It returned to the line on 27 June, where in the days preceding the attack it came under the sharp German counter-bombardment, losing numerous casualties. Gommecourt When the 1/12th Londons (The Rangers) went over the top on 1 July, 1/4th Londons moved up to occupy their vacated jumping-off trenches, with A Company to the right, C Company to the left and D Company in reserve. Half of B Company was being used as carrying parties, while the other half (two platoons) were to follow the Rangers to clear German dugouts. However, these two platoons had already lost a third of their strength while waiting to move up. Only 10 men from this half-company returned at the end of the day's fighting. The battalion found the Rangers' trenches badly damaged by the German counter-bombardment, and the Germans were laying a curtain of shellfire across No man's land. During the morning, A and C Companies of the 1/4th were ordered forward through this barrage to reinforce the Rangers. Those men of A Company who got across No man's land were soon left leaderless when all their officers became casualties, and the survivors were 'mopped up' by German troops and taken prisoner; only 18 men of the company returned after the attack. Similarly the two platoons of C company that attacked lost their officers and the survivors were brought out of action by the Company Sergeant-Major. When the battalion's carrying parties tried to cross No man's land with supplies at 10.45, they were driven back with heavy casualties by the German barrage, while the reserve companies in the British line were suffering badly from German Howitzer fire. D Company, having already suffered 50 per cent casualties, was ordered to send over another carrying party; all