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Enlisted-Chiswick

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

By the beginning of November, 1916, the Battle of the Somme had been raging for four months. Thousands of men had already been killed or wounded or were simply missing, never to be seen again and just a few square miles of the French countryside, nearly all in the southern part of the battlefield, had been captured from the enemy. With November came the winter weather and this, combined with the sheer exhaustion of all involved, brought the battle to a close by the end of the month. Since the 1st July, 1916, British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and South African casualties numbered over 400,000, killed, wounded and missing. 

During November the focus of the fighting switched to the Ancre valley where the last major British offensive was launched on 13th of the month. By now German defence tactics had evolved. They defended in depth without a well defined front line but rather setting up machine-gun nests in shell holes and other strategically important sites where just a few men could hold up an entire battalion. Meanwhile their artillery bombarded the British front line and all the communication trenches added to which the weather was simply awful turning the battlefield into a morass of mud. A few gains were made such as the capture of the village of Beaumont-Hamel and some of the marshy land either side of the river, but very few of the British objectives were achieved. Once again the casualty rate soared.

On 13th November 63rd (Royal Naval) Division attacked next to the River Ancre along its northern bank. By the end of the day and despite fierce resistance from the enemy, units from the division had managed to establish a line just short of the village of Beaucourt. That night, 111 Brigade of 37th Division, attached to 63rd Division for this operation, moved up to resume the attack the following day. At 6.20am on 14th November 13th Royal Fusiliers and 13th Rifle Brigade attacked Beaucourt Trench. Moving off too quickly some of them got caught by their own creeping artillery barrage and their initial impetus was lost. Hit by machine-gun fire from both Beaucourt Trench and from south of the river, the attack came to a halt 200 yards short of the objective. At 10.30am they renewed their advance behind a fresh barrage and they were able to take Beaucourt Trench which they held and consolidated. The Battle of the Ancre continued through to 19th November and throughout that time 13th Royal Fusiliers were in the front line or in close support. It was a truly awful place to be. Not only did they have to contend with enemy fire from artillery, machine-guns and snipers but it was also cold, wet and muddy. Not surprisingly the casualty list grew the longer they stayed there. One of those killed was James Norton on 17th November.