Current Information:

Born-Brentford

Pozieres British Cemetery, Ovillers-La Boisselle, France

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 10th August, 1916, 7th East Surrey of 37 Brigade, 12th Division, moved into the front line between Ovillers and Pozières which had been the scene of recent heavy fighting when the ANZACs and other divisions captured Pozières and the high ground beyond it. On the night of 12th-13th  August, the Australians and 12th Division launched an attack from these positions against the German line running from north of the Courcelette track to the Nab, an enemy stronghold. On 12th Division’s front the main thrust came from 7th Norfolk and 9th Essex of 35 Brigade, who took their objective, Skyline Trench, with relative ease. Not so lucky were 7th East Surrey and 6th Royal West Kent, both of 37 Brigade, who were ordered to make holding attacks further to the right to prevent 35 Brigade from being fired on from their right flank. The assault began at 10.33pm after an intense 3 minute bombardment of the enemy trenches under the cover of which the two front line companies of 7th East Surrey worked their way as far forward as possible prior to the attack. But when they charged the last few yards to the German line they met such fierce machine gun fire and a flurry of bombs (grenades) that they were forced to go to ground in what cover they could find. They tried twice more that night  to breach the enemy line but were unable to do so. A third company entered the fight but with no more luck and their efforts just added further to the casualty list which included Henry Stanley who was killed in action.