Current Information:

Age-23

Born-Tunbridge Wells

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.

Two weeks after the events of 1st July, the British Army on the Somme was ready to renew the offensive along a broad front stretching from Longueval to Bazentin-le-Petit. The Battle of Bazentin Ridge, an attack on the German second line, began on 14th July, 1916. Different tactics were employed this time. The troops moved up, unseen and unnoticed, in the dark and after a fierce five minute artillery barrage, rose to the attack at 3.25am. The surprise element worked and the villages of Bazentin-le-Petit and Bazentin-le-Grand were soon taken as was most of Longueval but these early successes were not fully exploited and opportunities were lost, notably the failure to capture High Wood which was for a short time undefended. The new line was consolidated but once again the British Army found themselves engaged in a war of attrition as they attempted to push the enemy further back across the Somme battlefield.

33rd Division arrived on the Somme battlefield on 9th July, 1916 and 1st Middlesex of 98 Brigade had taken part in an unsuccessful attack on the German 2nd line defences on 15th July. Pulled back that night to lick their wounds and reorganise they had returned to the trenches  at Bazentin-le-Petit Wood on the evening of 17th July. On 20th July they were ordered forward some 1000 yards to a position south of Bazentin-le-Petit village where they spent the day digging new trenches and dodging shells and bullets before returning to bivouacs near Mametz Wood in the evening. The following day, 21st July, 1916, was a quiet day according to the Battalion Diary, until about 7pm when the enemy shelled these positions. The barrage contained many gas shells which caused a thick cloud of gas to linger over the wood and it was still troubling 1st Middlesex when they were relieved later that evening and marched back to Dernancourt. Among the casualties suffered by the battalion on 21st July was Percy Standen.