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Age-23

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 began preparing for their part in a general attack on the night of 22nd- 23rd July, 1916, which would involve seven other divisions with objectives that stretched from Guillemont on the right of the line to Pozieres Ridge on the left. 15 Brigade was not involved in this attack but they were brought forward for a further attack on Longueval and Delville Wood on 27th July. At 6.10am the British artillery unleashed a heavy barrage on Delville Wood.  An hour later, the western part of the wood was attacked by 1st Norfolks in front and 1st Bedfordshire in support, both of 15 Brigade, while at the same time, 99 Brigade of 2nd Division attacked the wood from the south. During the wait to go ‘over the top’ the German artillery was not idle and one company of 1st Norfolks were buried alive by its force. The attack went ahead, the barrage had wreaked death and destruction among the German defenders and both 1st Norfolk and 1st Bedfordshire made good progress and linked up in the wood with 99 Brigade. Parts of Longueval still remained in enemy hands and machine gun nests there were causing difficulties so a third battalion from 15th Brigade, 16th Warwickshire, was drawn into the conflict. The fighting  continued all day and the casualty list kept on rising as the German artillery bombarded their old trenches which were now in British hands. Among the many killed here on 27th July was Henry Burton of 1st Bedfordshire.