Current Information:

Age-29

68, Swaby Road, Earlsfield

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.

The Battle of the Ancre Heights  1st October-11th November, 1916

After the capture of Thiepval at the end of September, 1916, the Germans no longer held dominant positions overlooking the valley of the River Ancre and the British attack here was now renewed. It was carried out by the Reserve Army, holding the front either side of the River Ancre while at the same time, further to the east, the Fourth Army attacked in the Battle of the Transloy Ridge.

On 1st October, 1916, as part of this operation, the Canadian Corps launched an attack athey nd although managed to advance 400 yards east of  Courcelette they were unable to capture their main objective, Regina Trench. A further attempt was made on 8th October when an attack was launched in cold rain at 4.50am. On the right the 4th Battalion and 3rd Battalion of 1 Brigade, 1st Canadian Division, reached the Le Sars line and early in the afternoon they attempted to capture an enemy stronghold, the Quadrilateral, but were prevented from doing so by a strong German counter attack. The heavy fighting associated with this lasted all afternoon but by dusk the Canadians had run out of bombs (grenades) and were forced to withdraw to their starting line. Meanwhile the 16th Battalion of 3 Brigade had entered Regina Trench but found themselves isolated here when the 3rd Battalion on their right withdrew, and they too were forced back to their original positions by that evening. 1st Canadian Division remained in these forward positions until relieved on 10th October, sustaining more casualties. One of these was William Barrett of 16th Battalion who was killed on 9th October.