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Born-Stratford

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 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.

Thiepval had been a first day objective when the Battle of the Somme began on 1st July, 1916, and two an a half months later it was still in German hands, That all changed on 26th September when an attack by the Reserve Army succeeded in wresting it  from the enemy. 18th Division were heavily involved with this successful, but  costly attack and 54 Brigade were given the difficult task of capturing the western part of Thiepval and the Schwaben Redoubt on top of the ridge, half a mile beyond the village. Zero hour was 12.35pm at which time 12th Middlesex attacked Thiepval with one company of 11th Royal Fusiliers  ‘mopping up’ behind them while another company of 11th Royal Fusiliers advanced up the German front line system. The attack started well with the leading troops getting clear of the trenches before the German artillery barrage arrived but there was a hard fight for the company of 11th Royal Fusiliers in the original German front line. There were problems with keeping up with the barrage but eventually 12th Middlesex made it to their first objective, a line running through the centre of Thiepval and the attached ‘mopping up’ company of 11th Royal Fusiliers was used to plug a gap on the 12th Middlesex front. At 3.20pm a pigeon message from Lt Col Maxwell, of 12th Middlesex informed Brigade HQ that both forward battalions were ‘practically expended’. 6th Northamptonshire began arriving around the chateau and that night Maxwell organised a line of all three battalions. Successful as it was, this operation was very costly in terms of casualties and among those killed from 11th Royal Fusiliers was William Herbert.