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Born-Brentford

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

By the beginning of August the Battle of the Somme had been raging for a full month. Thousands of men had already been killed or wounded or were simply missing, never to be seen again and and just a few square miles of the French countryside, all in the southern part of the battlefield, had been captured from the enemy. Mistakes had been made by the various commanders and would be continued to be made but there was no turning back as the British, Australians, South Africans, New Zealanders and Canadians carried on battering away at the German defences in the hope of a breakthrough, 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 more 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.  

On 15th August, 1916, 3rd Division relieved 55th Division in the front line running in front of the village Guillemont. The British had been battling in vain to capture this village and now it was the turn of 3rd Division to see what they could do. Progress up to the front line was not plain sailing. The enemy artillery was constantly bombarding the front line and all the approaches to it and 4th Royal Fusiliers of 9 Brigade sustained a number of casualties as they made their way forward. One of these was Edward Maslin.