Current Information:

Age-21

29, Linden Gardens, Bayswater

Peronne Road Cemetery, Maricourt, 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.

The days immediately following the carnage of July 1st on  the Somme, had two main priorities. They were to rescue the wounded and to consolidate what gains had been made. However, despite the slaughter of 1st July, there was no going back. This was the “Big Push” and the attacks had to continue and Haig decided that they would continue on the southern sector of the front where the few successes had occurred. The first two weeks of the battle saw Fourth Army pushing forward towards the German second line from Contalmaison, through Mametz Wood to Trones Wood. The problem was that these attacks were uncoordinated, with divisions and  corps operating independently and without direction from Army HQ. In a series of isolated operations the British Army struggled forward and took territory but the price in human life was far higher than it should have been.

The attack on Trones Wood did not start until 8th July, 1916, by which time the enemy had had time to prepare his defences. On this day, 30th Division began a series of isolated attacks, sometimes only by companies, sometimes by battalions against the wood and for the next four days bitter fighting took place in the tangled undergrowth. By 12th July, when 30th Division were relieved, parts of Trones Wood were still in German hands. On 11th July it was the turn of 89 Brigade to enter the fight. Overnight they had taken over the positions held in Maltz Horn Trench. At 2.40am there was a heavy British artillery bombardment of Trones Wood and just under an hour later, 2nd Bedfordshire began to push through the wood while 20th Liverpool (Kings) took more of Maltz Horn Trench. Between them they occupied most of the wood until a German counter-attack drove them back. Among the casualties sustained by 2nd Bedfordshire in this operation was Robert Gibson.