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Born-Putney

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

By the beginning of September, 1916,  the Battle of the Somme had been raging for two months. 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.

The village of Thiepval had been a first day objective when the Battle of the Somme began on 1st July, 1916, and two an a half months later it was still in German hands, That all changed on 26th September when an attack by the Reserve Army succeeded in wresting it  from the enemy. 18th Division were heavily involved with this successful, but  costly attack and 54 Brigade were given the difficult task of capturing the western part of Thiepval and the Schwaben Redoubt on top of the ridge, half a mile beyond the village. At the end of a day of most of the village was in British hands but the Schwaben Redoubt, an enemy strongpoint, still remained to be captured. This task was given to 8th Suffolk of 53 Brigade and 7th Royal West Surrey (Queens) of 55 Brigade. 7th Queens left their overnight position in Blighty Valley in the morning but as soon as they left the cover of Authuile Wood their movements could be seen by enemy observation balloons so when they moved into their starting line for the attack they came under shrapnel and long range rifle and machine-gun fire and sustained a few casualties as a result. The artillery barrage on the enemy positions began at 1pm at which time 7th Queens advanced. In the confusion of battle they initially strayed too far to the left which together with resistance to be overcome in Martin Trench and heavy fire from the Schwaben Redoubt, slowed their progress and thinned their ranks. Nevertheless they gained a footing in the south face of the Redoubt, capturing 50 prisoners in the process. There followed some very confused fighting in the maze of trenches and shell holes but by 8pm 7th Queens and the support battalions, 7th Bedfordshire of 54 Brigade and 5th West Yorkshire attached from 146 Brigade, 49th Division, had captured the western face of the Schwaben Redoubt as well. There had been many casualties for the attacking battalions during the course of the operation one of them being Edward Ward of 7th Queens.