Current Information:

Enlisted-Kensington

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. When the battle drew to a close in November, 1916, British Army casualties numbered over 400,000, killed, wounded and missing.

On 4th September, 1916, the 13th London battalion of 168 Brigade, 56th Division moved forward to the Citadel on the Bray-Fricourt road and on the next day moved into the front line trenches there. The Battalion Diary reveals no more information about this so it is not known how Ernest Chilcott was killed on 5th September but shell fire would be the main suspect.