The Somme

Up earlyish and off to do a tour of the more southerly parts of the British sector in the Somme. I have known for a couple of years that my Great Uncle Oswald Booth was killed in WW1 on the Somme but there was no family information on where, even though my Dad was a soldier himself. I suspect that we all thought he was one of the many who have no known resting place. Following a tip on Chris Baker's website I had recently visited the CWGC's website and it showed two Oswald Booths; one of these had the right mother's address, so is our man. We were determined to visit his grave.in Daours and built this into the day.

Oswald Booth's grave

Despite a lot of internet based research before the day, we hadn't really managed to work out where each of our grandparents were involved; the service records that would have shown this must have been part of the 60% destroyed by bombing in WW2. Knowing his regiment and where he died we thought may give us a clue as to where Oswald saw service. Daours was a casualty clearing station so he was unlikely to have been killed outright as most of these either were buried locally where they fell or collected later into nearby cemeteries. Cemeteries by clearing stations were usually for those who died of wounds.

13th Bn Royal Fusiliers were, according to the order of battle for the Somme, part of 111th Brigade. This was part of 37th Division on 1st July when the battle started and would have been attacking Gommecourt with the rest of III Corps under Allenby. However, 34th Division was particularly badly mauled on 1st July, and 111th Brigade was loaned to 34th Division in between 6th July 1916 and 22nd August 1916. As Oswald died on 19th July 1916, he would have been fighting with the 34th as part of II Corps under Jacobs. This time window gave us a fairly precise time frame as it seems that on the 13th July the British advance was facing the second German defensive complex. A night attack on the 14th took this line but ran into stiffening resistance. The 111th fought in the battle of Bazentin Ridge which took place between 15th and 20th July 1916 and it is our guess that this is where he was wounded. It must have been sufficiently serious to move him back for hospitalisation along the clearing stations of which Daours was one. As no antiseptics had been developed at this time, it is quite likely that gas gangrene developed quickly (nothing to do with gas). We have to acknowledge this is all postulation and we are unlikely to know.

Communal Cemetery

Suffice to say it was with mixed feelings that we saw his grave; sadness that Great Uncle Oswald had been lost to us for such a long time; left without a visit from the family and happiness that we are sort of re-united. We obviously never knew him but he was a big brother of my paternal Grandmother whom we did know and crazily, we were fighting the tears. The connection with this particular cemetery was suddenly palpable and personal. Looking round the cemetery reinforced once more the hardships endured by the boys doing the fighting, most of whom were younger than our youngest and by the families who had to contend with the results both of those who stayed in France and those who came back; nothing could ever be the same again.

Caterpiller Valley Cemetery

The day had started with an hour or so's drive to our first call, Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, near Combles; the site of the New Zealand Memorial to the missing listing 1,205 New Zealanders with no known grave. The site gives a great view of the 'Battle for the woods' battlefield of July -Sept 1916 including Bazentin Woods where we believe Oswald may have been wounded. We wanted to look at a few cemeteries in the area as if 13th RF had been involved, it is likely that there would be some concentration of their dead. There were none that I spotted in a quick tour of the cemetery, although I did spot a Mustoe in the Gloucesters who could easily be a relation from the branch in Evesham. Outside we met a lovely couple from Perth, Australia who have decided to visit, over time, all of the Aussie cemeteries. We knew that they are frighteningly common in Northern France but they had a map from CWGC which superimposes all the cemeteries on a map; frighteningly common doesn't begin to cover it! The lady herself was actually born in Reading and lived in Caversham – its a small world!

34th Division Memorial, La Boisselle

From here we went to the tiny cemetery at Bazentin Woods itself. Like all CWGC cemeteries, a lovely location and exquisitely maintained. A tiny cemetery it had no 13th RF either which was surprising and rather dents our theory. However, we have none better so will stick with it. There was a single headstone apart from the others to a soldier 'known to be buried in this cemetery'. Being a front line cemetery, it is probable that it would have been hit by shellfire after burials and all that would be left would be any record that the unit may have kept. Making our way towards Albert, we stopped briefly in La Boisselle to see the memorial to the 34th Div,; identical to the one at Mont Noir. On to the D929, leaving the village, there was a sign noting the position of the Front in 1916.

Town Hall

Next stop was Daours, a pretty little town and one which was more significant than either of us had expected. Back to Corbie and south to the magnificent if slightly chauvinistic Australian memorial with its depiction of a perfectly planned and executed battle plan by an Australian General with Australian troops to capture the high ground in a lesson to others as to how to do it.

Australian memorial

daresay it was exceptionally well done but as Alexander the Great once said – 'The most important quality in a General is being lucky'. Luck must have played its part no matter how meticulous the planning and experience of what had gone before must have informed the plan.

Back to La Boisselle to find the Lochnagar Crater, the largest on the Western Front, one of a group of 17 blown on 1st July 1916.

Lochnagar crater

It is huge, today being some 300ft across and 70 ft deep. The explosion was apparently heard for 100s of miles. I suspect only an aerial photo could give a sense of scale. These mines were under German positions, so huge numbers must have been killed.

On to Thiepval and Lutyens memorial to the Missing of the Somme battlefields. On the panels of stone are listed the names of 72,104 soldiers who were killed in 1916-1917 and have no known grave. Behind the memorial are 300 French and 300 British graves of unknown soldiers. The memorial is dedicated to both British and French. It stands on a labyrinth of trenches forming part of the impregnable fortress attacking which so many of the names were killed.

Memorial to the missing of the Somme

We visited in early evening and it seemed an appropriate end to the day to be visiting this huge, brooding monument as seen set against the sun which was streaming through its arch. Then going through the arch with all the names around, finally seeing the brightness beyond with the stone glowing in the early evening sunshine. It seemed a suitable metaphor somehow.

Albert, France