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Born-Bermondsey

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 on the night of 22nd- 23rd July, 1916, 1st East Surrey and 1st Cornwall Light Infantry of 95 Brigade were involved in an unsuccessful and costly  attack on Longueval. On 24th July, 1st Cornwall Light Infantry moved back to Happy Valley before returning to the support trenches at Longueval on 28th July. Their relief of 16th Warwickshire here took place in the early hours between 1am and 4.30am and was accompanied by very severe shelling, indicating that the enemy knew that a relief was taking place. This shelling continued throughout the day and became even heavier on the following day, 29th July, when the Germans systematically blotted out Longueval with their heavy artillery. 1st Cornwall Light Infantry sustained many casualties as a result, one of whom was Thomas Weston on 28th July.