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From: (Bill Maccormick)
Subject: Re: [WW1] Battle of the Somme - recommended reading please
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 15:05 +0000 (GMT)

In-Reply-To: <>
In article <>, () wrote:

> Charles Frederick Cox [9th Battalion Royal Fusiliers], and died on 7th
> July 1916 - commemorated at Thiepval. Of all the many and varied books
> about the Somme, can anyone suggest which of them would give me the
> best and most accurate picture of the action around the 7th of July,
> particularly with reference to his own Battalion.

Sue,

Description of the action taken from the Royal Fusiliers Regimental
History is attached. Ovillers is a tiny village just north of the Albert
to Bapaume Road and was in the front line on the 1st July 1916 when it was
attacked by the 8th Division. The attack was repulsed with very heavy
casualties. It was attacked again in the early hours of Monday, 3rd July
by the 12th Division, resulting in 2,400 casualties and total failure.
12th Division attacked again on the 7th July with the 36th Brigade (8/Rf,
9/RF and 7/Royal Sussex).

Regards

Bill MacCormick

Ovillers. On the 7th (July) two other Fusilier battalions were also
engaged in the battle. The 8th and 9th Battalions of the 36th Brigade,
with the 7th Sussex between them, made another attempt to capture
Ovillers, and few more costly actions were fought in the whole of the
battle of the Somme. The 8th Battalion was on the right, and the plan was
to take Ovillers from the S. W. flank. The bombardment began at 4.30 a.m.,
and at 8.26 the two leading companies, A and D, crawled over the parapet
and lay out in the open. The weather was bad; and though no rain fell
during the night, the fumes of the gas shells were blanketed into the
hollows of the ground, and formed a death-trap for many who fell wounded.
Lieut. Colonel Annesley, waving his stick, led the attack as the barrage
lifted, and the men leaped forward into a withering machine-gun fire. The
Prussian Guards who held these battered positions were worthy foemen, and
though the first and second trenches were captured, the cost was very
terrible. Annesley, a most gallant officer, was early hit in the wrist.
Later he was wounded in the ankle; but he still kept on, and for a time
the final objective was in the 8th's hands. Annesley was at length shot
above the heart, and fell into a shellhole, where he lay till evening,
when he was taken to Albert and died that night. Shortly after noon the
Fusiliers were in Ovillers, and the brigade held about half of it on a
north and south line. But every officer engaged was either killed, wounded
or missing. Captain Featherstonhaugh, who had been wounded, but refused to
leave, was killed. So also were Captains Chard and Franklin. Captain and
Adjutant Robertson-Walker was never heard of again, and Second Lieutenant
Procter was killed ; 17 other officers were wounded. The battalion had
gone into action 800 strong ; they mustered 160o at night, but held on
until relieved on the following day.

The 9th had fared similarly. They had fought under the same conditions,
and their losses were only slightly less than those of the 8th Battalion.
Rawlins, Cook, Philipps, Street, Osborne, Bindett, Peacock and Manson were
killed, and Vere-Smith later died of wounds. Spiers, Brown, Bastable,
Twiddy, Garrood (missing), Mackenzie and Evans were wounded. In all about
180 men came out. The gallant survivors of both battalions were
congratulated, and it is merely the sober truth that the ordeal through
which they had come was unique. Ovillers held out some days longer, and it
was not taken until the village had been more completely obliterated than
any other in the Somme area and its garrison reduced to 126. The two
Fusilier battalions carried the reduction to its penultimate stage.

This thread:

• [WW1] Battle of the Somme - recommended reading please by
  • Re: [WW1] Battle of the Somme - recommended reading please by Tom Morgan <>

  • Re: [WW1] Battle of the Somme - recommended reading please by (Bill Maccormick)