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Born-Kent

Enlisted-London

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 the night of 22nd- 23rd July, 1916, there was a general attack which involved seven divisions with objectives that stretched from Guillemont on the right of the line to Pozieres Ridge on the left. 57 Brigade of 19th Division attacked northwards from Bazentin-le-Petit towards Martinpuich. 10th Worcestershire had made a number of attempts to rush some enemy machine-guns before the attack started and at the last moment were replaced by 10th Warwickshire. Not surprisingly 10th Warwickshire were not ready when the attack began at 12.30am and it was left to 8th Gloucestershire to go alone. Despite having crept forward to within 75 yards of the German trenches before zero hour, when they rose to the attack 8th Gloucestershire met heavy machine-gun fire from High Wood and were halted in their tracks. The same fate befell 56 Brigade when they tried again later in the day and all that was achieved was long casualty list. Included on this was Frederick Smith of 10th Worcestershire.