number of heavy guns under the command of X Corps was also to fire on the 36th (Ulster) Division front. The preliminary bombardment of five days' duration was extended by two more, due to wet weather and observers reported that the German wire was well cut. After a hurricane bombardment for a lifting bombardment was planned to fall on the German lines in succession, from A to A1 at zero hour, A1 to B three minutes after zero and from the B Line to a line back after zero hour. The jump to the C Line, would occur after and the final lift to the D Line, after zero hour. After standing until after zero hour, to enable the 107th Brigade to assemble, the barrage would jump to a line east of the D Line. Field artillery would "walk" up communication trenches during each lift and Stokes mortars were to join in the hurricane bombardment as medium and heavy mortars bombarded strong points. The French artillery was to participate in the wire-cutting bombardment and then fire gas shells into the Ancre valley. British plan On the south bank of the Ancre, the 36th (Ulster) Division objective was set at the fifth line of German trenches, known as the D Line, with the right flank at sector D 8. The ground rose in a convex slope to the top of Bazentin Ridge, towards Redoubt and a series of parallel trenches, from the B Line to the C Line. The attack front was divided into two sections south of the Ancre, to be attacked by the 109th Brigade on the right and the 108th Brigade on the left. The 109th Brigade was advance with two battalions to capture the A Line (the German front line), the immediate support trench (A1) and then the B Line, before moving on to the Grandcourt–Thiepval road and consolidating. Two reserve battalions were to occupy the A and B Lines, when the advanced battalions had reached the final objective. The 108th Brigade was to capture the A and B Lines and then dig in along the C Line at the north-east corner of Schwaben Redoubt, with a detachment posted as a flank guard to the left and to send a party northwards, to observe the ground along the Grandcourt–St Pierre Divion road, as two platoons advanced along the A and B Lines to St Pierre Divion. The