Dauntless Courage on the Somme

The main focus of the book concentrates upon the sixty-four officers of the British Army’s 19th Division (including a small number who were attached from elsewhere) who were either killed or died of wounds during the storming of the heavily-fortified village of La Boisselle, on the Somme, during early July 1916. The initial chapters deal with events from autumn 1914, when the area was captured from the French by the advancing Germans, through the deployment of British regiments the following year, the localised trench raids and digging of mine shafts, and the events of 1 July 1916, when the British attack was totally thwarted after sustaining heavy casualties. A separate section explores the reasons why certain individuals felt compelled to become officers in the first place, often dictated by their pre-war social standing, or simply because the authorities felt they possessed the necessary military attributes to do so. The later chapters deal with the region until the Armistice and beyond, plus a detailed breakdown of casualty figures for all ranks. Apart from a small number of books giving a general background to the village’s capitulation, there has not been an in-depth volume dedicated solely to the endeavours of the 19th Division. (Whilst the officers provide the structure for the narrative, the bravery and contribution of the men who followed them into battle is not overlooked. One of them was awarded a Victoria Cross, as was his overall Commanding Officer, plus a gallant lieutenant who fell in action, and all three are indicative of the chaos and courage of the close- quarter fighting experienced by private soldiers through to lieutenant colonels alike). Contained within this text are eye-witness accounts (including some recently uncovered), war diary entries, numerous photographs of the fallen (a small proportion of these involved a lengthy search to obtain, and the collection as a whole has never been collated in one place before), biographical details, contemporary and modern images (a handful of the former have rarely been given a public platform), and a critical overview of the battle as it unfolded. Coming so soon after the well-documented slaughter of 1 July 1916, the hard-fought tactical success at La Boisselle – resulting in 3,500 casualties, of which 1,000 lost their lives – is sometimes overlooked within the wider history of the Great War.