Current Information:

Age-25

Born-Kensington

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.

On 14th July, 1916, a second major offensive was launched against the German second line of defences stretching from Longueval to Bazentin-le-Petit but after a promising start which saw some important gains on the first day, once again the BEF reverted to a series of uncoordinated attacks, using out dated tactics and they soon found themselves engaged in a war of attrition as they attempted to push the enemy further back across the Somme battlefield. As part of this second offensive, 34th Division attacked towards Pozières on 15th July, 1916, from a position just to the east of Contalmaison. However 34th Division had been severely depleted after the events of 1st July and to bring it back to fighting strength, both 111 Brigade and 112 Brigade from 37th Division had been attached to it. It was these two brigades that were involved in the action of 15th July. At 9.20am after a heavy bombardment,  8th East Lancashire and 6th Bedfordshire of 112 Brigade began their advance across 1300 yards of no-man’s land but when they got to within 300 yards of the village of Pozieres, heavy fire from well placed machine guns, which had not been destroyed by the artillery bombardment, stopped them in their tracks and forced them to go to ground in the orchards on the south side of the village. At this point 10th Royal Fusiliers from 111 Brigade were sent up in support but they too were unable to make any progress beyond these orchards. Sheltered from the worst of the enemy fire by a dip in the ground, the assaulting battalions tried again at 6pm, after another short bombardment. The signal was to be two rockets fired from further back but these had got damp and would not ignite and as a consequence, the attack was delayed, the German machine gunners had time to resume their positions and those who did advance stood no chance at all. That night the survivors made their way back across the long stretch of no-man’s land to their own lines. The casualty list was very long and included Alfred Bowley of 10th Royal Fusiliers.