Current Information:

Enlisted-New Cross

Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval, France

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, this time against the German second line of defences stretching from Longueval to Bazentin-le-Petit, but unfortunately, after a promising start which saw some important gains on the first day, the British Army once again reverted to a series of uncoordinated attacks, using out dated tactics. Not surprisingly they soon found themselves engaged in a war of attrition as they attempted to push the enemy further back across the Somme battlefield. This was no more so the case than in the fight to capture the village of Longueval and Delville Wood that lay next to it; a struggle that went on for many weeks through the summer of 1916.

On 19th July, 1916, 5th Division moved into this sector and began preparing for their part in a general attack on the night of 22nd- 23rd July, 1916, which would involve seven other divisions with objectives that stretched from Guillemont on the right of the line to Pozieres Ridge on the left. The bombardment of the German defences began at 7pm on 22nd July  and at 10pm, even before the barrage had lifted, 14th Warwickshire and 1st Royal West Kent, both of 13 Brigade, made a considerable advance, protected by the lie of the land, towards the Switch Line east of High Wood. But once over the crest they were illuminated by German flares and hit by heavy frontal fire and enfilade (flanking) fire from the eastern corner of High Wood and went to ground.  2nd Scottish Borderers and 15th Warwickshire, the other two battalions of 13 Brigade, were sent up but enemy fire was too heavy for the attack to be renewed. Those of 14th Warwickshire and 1st Royal West Kent still out in front, were brought back. At dawn 13 Brigade re-organised on its old line having sustained  1000 casualties, one of whom was Ernest Cook.