Current Information:

Age-19

Kew Green

Enlisted-London

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

By the beginning of September, 1916,  the Battle of the Somme had been raging for two 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.

On 15th September, 1916, the offensive on the Somme was renewed with a full scale attack on the German 3rd line of defences. Four Army Corps were used on a front that stretched from Combles, through the village of Flers and on to Courcelette.. The artillery barrage that preceded this attack was more concentrated than that on 1st July and the attack itself was more successful. The villages of Flers, Martinpuich and Courcelette were captured and the enemy was finally pushed out of High Wood, but the breakthrough was not achieved and the reality was that when the battle ended on 22nd September, the front line had just been moved forward a mile or so. The battle is notable for being the first time that tanks were used.

At the beginning of the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, 56th Division attacked on the extreme right of the British line, next to the French and had the task of forming a defensive flank along the north-west slopes of the Combles Ravine. 167 Brigade and 169 Brigade  were used in this operation while 168 Brigade were in reserve and on 14th September the 14th London battalion moved up to the reserve trenches in Angle Wood. They remained here until 18th September when they moved forward to Leuze Wood in support of an attack on the sunken road at Combles. 14th London did not take part in the attack but were subjected to shell fire in their more forward positions and suffered some casualties. Relieved in Leuze Wood that night, the battalion moved to an assembly trench near Middle Copse, where they stayed until relieved during the night of 20th/21st September when they moved back to Angle Wood. The Battalion Diary recorded that they had to withstand heavy shell fire during the four days in these forward positions and this, no doubt, accounted for most of their casualties one of whom was Leslie Axbey who was killed on 19th September.