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Born-Shoeburyness

Enlisted-Westminster

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.

The days immediately following the carnage of July 1st on  the Somme, had two main priorities. They were to rescue the wounded and to consolidate what gains had been made. However, despite the slaughter of 1st July, there was no going back. This was the “Big Push” and the attacks had to continue and Haig decided that they would continue on the southern sector of the front where the few successes had occurred. But first two diversionary attacks were launched on 3rd July to take the attention of the Germans away from the real target. One of these was made by 14 Brigade, 32nd Division and 75 Brigade, 25th Division against the German fortress of Thiepval and achieved nothing other than the loss of more lives. On the night of 3rd- 4th July, 1st Wiltshire, 75 Brigade moved up to the trenches in front of that small part of the Leipzig salient that had been captured on 1st July and immediately had to fight off a heavy attack on their new positions. On 5th July in the evening, 1st Wiltshire attacked 300 yards of the German 2nd line which formed part of the Leipzig Redoubt stronghold. They managed to capture some of this formidable defence system in the Hindenburg Trench  which they then consolidated. The next morning they were relieved but returned to these positions that same evening with orders to renew the attack on the next day. But before that could happen they had to face a fierce counter attack by the enemy trying to regain their lost trench. At 1.15 am on 7th July the Germans tried to rush the trench from both sides and the front but met stubborn resistance and the attack was beaten off, For the rest of the night a bombing (grenade) contest took place as the Germans continued in their efforts but to no avail. Despite this disruption, 1st Wiltshire attacked at 9.30 in the morning after an intense 30 second bombardment and took the German positions thereby completing the capture of the Leipzig salient. That afternoon they had to endure a 5 hour bombardment of these new positions and by the end of the day their casualty list had risen to over 160 officers and men. Among those killed in action was Wallace Jackson.