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Enlisted-Croydon

The Battle of the Somme (July-November, 1916)

By the beginning of November, 1916, the Battle of the Somme had been raging for four months. Thousands of men had already been killed or wounded or were simply missing, never to be seen again and just a few square miles of the French countryside, nearly all in the southern part of the battlefield, had been captured from the enemy. With November came the winter weather and this, combined with the sheer exhaustion of all involved, brought the battle to a close by the end of the month. Since the 1st July, 1916, British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and South African casualties numbered over 400,000, killed, wounded and missing.

During November the focus of the fighting switched to the Ancre valley where the last major British offensive was launched on 13th of the month. By now German defence tactics had evolved. They defended in depth without a well defined front line but rather setting up machine-gun nests in shell holes and other strategically important sites where just a few men could hold up an entire battalion. Meanwhile their artillery bombarded the British front line and all the communication trenches added to which the weather was simply awful turning the battlefield into a morass of mud. A few gains were made such as the capture of the village of Beaumont-Hamel and some of the marshy land either side of the river, but very few of the British objectives were achieved. Once again the casualty rate soared.

On 13th November, 3rd Division attacked due east towards the village of Serre. 76 Brigade were on the left of the divisional front and had 10th Royal Welsh Fusiliers and 2nd Suffolk leading. Following close behind were 1st Gordon Highlanders. The conditions were truly awful. The thick, sticky, Somme mud was everywhere and progress was painfully slow. To add to their woes the artillery had not done its work and there were only a few gaps in the German wire. Despite this isolated parties of both 10th Royal West Fusiliers and 1st Gordon Highlanders managed to penetrate Walter Trench, the German reserve line but being so few in numbers they were soon overwhelmed. Similarly, 2nd Suffolk were unable to hold on to the German support line and an enemy artillery barrage on no-man’s-land prevented any reinforcements form being sent across. Brigade HQ ordered a withdrawal to the starting line and those who could fell back. There were many casualties for 76 Brigade on 13th November and included among them was William Bagshall of 10th Royal West Fusiliers.