Current Information:

Age-26

9, 'V' Block, Peabody Avenue, Ebury Bridge, Pimlico

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 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.

The village of 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. 7th Bedfordshire were in brigade reserve as 12th Middlesex and 11th Royal Fusiliers, supported by 6th Northamptonshire launched their attack which succeeded in taking nearly all of the village, leaving only the north-western part in enemy hands. The job of completing the capture of Thiepval fell to 7th Bedfordshire. That night they moved forward to the captured parts of Thiepval and shortly after 5.45am  on 27th September, 1916, the assaulting companies moved off. They met machine-gun and rifle fire, some men fell but they kept going and soon the north-west face of Thiepval village had been captured. All of Thiepval was now in British hands and 7th Bedfordshire had put the last nail in the coffin of German occupation of this fortress village. It came at a price however. Over 100 officers and men were either killed, wounded or missing. One of those who died was John Brown.