Current Information:

SDGW-JOCHIN

Born-Hackney

Quarry Cemetery,  Montauban, Somme

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

By the beginning of August the Battle of the Somme had been raging for a full month. 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.

For the first two weeks of August , 1916, 1st Middlesex of 98 Brigade, 33rd Division were out of the line undergoing training at Meaulte. This was followed by periods in reserve trenches in Mametz Wood, in the front line in High Wood and then, on 25th August, they moved into front line trenches just north of Delville Wood. The conditions here were awful. Shattered tree stumps, obliterated trenches but worst of all was the number of dead bodies lying around in various stages of decomposition. Add to this the almost constant artillery bombardment kept up by the enemy and it became truly hellish. They were here throughout 26th August when the men in the company in the reserve trench were hardest hit as the German artillery seem to have its exact position. The Battalion Diary entry for the next day, 27th August, mentions the great strain that the men are under. This had been brought about by constant work be it digging, patrolling or forming sniper parties and constant danger combined with little or no sleep. 1st Middlesex were relieved on 27th August and moved back to Carlton Trench, west of Longueval, for what was supposed to be 24 hour rest. But that did not happen. On 28th and 29th August the battalion was required to provide carrying and ration parties as well as large working parties for digging new trenches. Their journeys to and fro the front line were perilous especially in those parts where the communication trench had been blown away thus providing a perfect target for enemy snipers and machine-guns. The casualty list continued to lengthen and added to it on 29th August was the name of Alfred Jochim.