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

By the beginning of September, 1916,  the Battle of the Somme had been raging for two 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. When the battle drew to a close in November, 1916, British Army casualties numbered over 400,000, killed, wounded and missing.

The Battle of Morval

This took place from 25th–28th September, 1916, when the British attacked German defenders entrenched around the villages of Morval and Lesbouefs east of Flers These were positions the enemy had withdrawn to after British gains during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette from September 15-22 and they had  not had time to construct deep dugouts nor adequately strengthen the trenches they now found themselves defending. A British artillery barrage which commenced on 24th September, cleared the way for an advance by British infantry and tanks beginning at 12:35 pm on September 25 Aided by a creeping artillery barrage the divisions of XIV Corps surged forwards and despite heavy machine gun fire soon captured Morval and Lesbouefs.

On 25th September, 1916, 168 Brigade of 56th (London) Division, attacked just to the north of the village of Combles on the right of the British line. Advancing behind a good protective artillery barrage. 4th London cleared the northern part of Bouleaux Wood while 14th London captured the first trench running from the wood to the railway track. They then came under fire from the embankment beyond the track but this obstacle was cleared when it was stormed by 1st East Surrey of the neighbouring 5th Division. By 1.30pm all resistance had been ended and eighty prisoners and one machine-gun had been  captured. 14th London then stormed a second, previously unknown trench with a good view over the Combles-Morval valley before consolidating their positions. Among their casualties during this operation was Gerald Kirbell.