Current Information:

Age-36

1, Sandringham Avenue, Ealing Broadway

8, Corby Road, Harlesden

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

By the beginning of October, 1916,  the Battle of the Somme had been raging for three 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. By the end of the fighting in November, 1916, British Army casualties numbered over 400,000, killed, wounded and missing.

On 28th September, 1916, the 23rd Middlesex battalion of 123 Brigade, 41st Division moved into the front line near Flers and on 1st October they sent out patrols to keep in touch with the New Zealanders who were attacking towards Eaucourt on their left.  These patrols immediately met heavy fire and to make things worse a German artillery barrage was placed on the battalion’s front line.  On the right some of the patrol managed to dig in some two hundred yards further forward but eventually they were all withdrawn and that night 23rd Middlesex were relieved and moved back to Montauban.  The battalion suffered over fifty casualties during the course of the day, one of whom was Edward Nash who was killed in action.