Current Information:

CWGC-H G RUNDLE

Enlisted-Chatham

Ovillers Military Cemetery, France

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

On 1st July 1916 The British Army launched a massive offensive along a section of the front line running north of the River Somme. The French attacked south of it. The first day was a disaster for the British army which suffered nearly 60,000 casualties, 19,000 of whom were killed, and made hardly any inroads into the enemy lines. But the battle had to go on, if for no other reason than to relieve pressure on the French at Verdun where they had been facing the full onslaught of the powerful German Army. So it continued all the way through to November with nearly every battalion and division then in France being drawn into it at some stage. In the end the German trenches had been pushed back a few miles along most of the line but the cost in lives had been staggering. By the end of the fighting in November, 1916, British Army casualties numbered over 400,000, killed, wounded and missing.

The days immediately following the carnage of July 1st on  the Somme, had two main priorities. They were to rescue the wounded and to consolidate what gains had been made. In some cases the Germans allowed a temporary truce so that injured men could be brought back from no-man’s land, but many were not reached and they faced a lonely and anguished death. However, despite the slaughter of 1st July, there was no going back. This was the “Big Push” and the attacks had to continue and Haig decided that they would continue on the southern sector of the front where the few successes had occurred. But first two diversionary attacks were launched on 3rd July to take the attention of the Germans away from the real target. The first of these was an attack by 12th Division on Ovillers. 5th Royal Berkshire and 7th Suffolk from 35 Brigade attacked on the right whilst 6th Royal West Surrey and 6th Royal West Kent from 37th Brigade did the same on the left. One company of 9th Essex were in support of 5th Royal Berkshire and 6th East Kent (Buffs) were in support of the 37 Brigade attack. It was a familiar tale of disaster. 12th Division had just arrived in the sector and were unfamiliar with the ground over which they attacked and had little time to prepare. As soon as the attack began German artillery opened up on the British front line and no-man’s land causing havoc and confusion there. The artillery barrage did not destroy all of the German wire let alone the deep dug outs from which the German machine guns emerged and once again dominated the battlefield. The attack began in the early hours of the morning of 3rd July and although ,in places, the German front line was taken, it could not be held and there was no chance of any further progress. By 9am had been declared a total failure and those who could, made their way back to their own lines. 12th Division’s casualties for those few short hours numbered nearly 2,500 men.