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Born-Sussex

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

By the beginning of October, 1916,  the Battle of the Somme had been raging for three 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 19th Middlesex battalion arrived in France in May, 1916 and became the pioneer battalion of 41st Division. Each infantry division had a pioneer battalion. Their ranks were made up from labourers and skilled and semi-skilled workers and although they were trained to fight as infantrymen, their role was one of construction, road making and building. However this did not mean that they were not in danger and this became even more apparent for 19th Middlesex when 41st Division moved south to the Somme at the end of August. 15th September marked the start of Battle of Flers-Courcelette when the battalion were involved in road work and digging cable trenches near Delville Wood. The battalion diary recorded that on 3rd October, the day when John Lee was killed in action, they were engaged in this work in Cable Trench but that they were  greatly hindered by heavy rain with three feet of water getting into the trench. The most likely explanation of his death would be shell fire which was a constant threat, especially during the Battle of the Somme.