Current Information:

Age-25

47, Ponsonby Buildings, Charles Street, Blackfriars

St. Sever Cemetery, Rouen, France

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. 

At 3.15pm on 1st October, 1916, 141 Brigade of 47th (London) Division attacked towards Eaucourt l’Abbaye with 17th London, 19th London and 20th London plus two tanks. On the right the objectives were successfully captured. On the left of the brigade front however, 17th London did not fare so well. Here the wire was largely uncut and when they were only half way across they were met by a terrific hail of machine-gun fire and not many got any further forward. 23rd London and 24th London of 142 Brigade were attached to 141 Brigade for this operation and while 23rd London joined the attack, 24th London manned the vacated trenches. This was not as easy at it sounded. Arriving just before zero they found them packed with the troops waiting to go over the top and some of 24th London had to take shelter in a shallow communication trench where they were easy targets for enemy snipers as well as being subjected to shell fire. For the next week they remained in these forward positions, either in the front line or in reserve trenches while preparations were made for a renewal of the attack on 8th October on which night they were relieved and moved back to Lavieville. During this time they were under considerable shell fire and it is likely that it was this that accounted for the life of William Heath, who died from wounds on 5th October. after having been taken back to base hospital in Rouen