John Elson Carpenter: Background

Background German Spring Offensive

"What was to be the last year of the war, 1918, dawned. It was a year featuring a strong offensive by both sides, which would lead ultimately to the collapse of the German war machine. In March the Germany Army launched its spring offensive, aiming to defeat or be defeated, before their resources ran out. This offensive saw all four Battalions again involved in fighting before being augmented by the 11^th and 12^th Battalions in May and the 2/4^th Battalion in June. With the launch of the German offensive in the Somme in March, the 6^th and 7^th Battalion were immediately called into action. On 21 March in the Battle of St. Quentin, the lines held by the 6^th Battalion were swept first by mustard gas and then by heavy shelling, which cut all communications leaving the front-line troops isolated. The German infantry swept across No Man’s Land and reached the British front lines without warning. The 6^th Battalion suffered badly in the attack, and only four men out of 360 made it back to Brigade headquarters. The 7^th Battalion fared little better, when in a German attack on 23 March it suffered heavy losses and a day later at the Somme Crossing was forced to retire in the face of heavy enemy action. Between 23 and 25 March the 61^st Brigade, of which the 7^th Battalion was part, suffered such heavy losses that, on the 25^th, it was reorganised into a composite battalion of four companies. The total strength of this unit was nine officers and 440 other ranks, barely the size of a normal battalion."

Background to the 7th Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry

Out of line, infantry troops practised for their role in the coming battle with ceaseless exercises. They had been fighting in trenches for the best part of four years but now there was something new in the air. The British Army still intended to fight based in trenches and redoubts but there was now a need for counter-attacks operating in open warfare conditions. One battalion training for this new role was the 7^th Somersets, which was to be held back in reserve at the village of Freniches.

“We would be put into the line or sent up as reinforcements wherever the enemy attached fiercest and wherever we should be wanted the most. We would therefore be taken by bus or train and then would have a long march to where the enemy had broken through. Of course, we would be fighting in open country and not in trenches. During this ‘rest’, therefore, we were hard at work training the men in open warfare and its tactics, getting the men used to long marches and in every way getting the men fit. We had physical training, squad, platoon and company drill, instruction in the Lewis gun, bombing and shooting, practise in digging in with entrenching tools, and last of all battalion drill, battalion attacks and route marches. Whilst on route marches, we practised suddenly scattering in all directions on the alarm of hostile aircraft and small bodies of men were told off to get the Lewis gun firing and snipers to snipe at the aircraft. We also practiced getting ready to march off at a moment’s notice.”

Captain George McMurtrie, 7^th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry, 61^st Bridge, 20^th Division

Extract from ‘1918- A Very British Victory’ by Peter Hart

Background to John Elson Carpenter:

John Elson Carpenter, Private 29037, 7th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry was with the 20th Division, British 5th Army and died on Saturday 23rd March 1918, probably between Jussy and St Simon, on the south-west bank of the St Quentin canal. The memorial at Pozières (500m south-west of Pozières on the Albert-Pozières road, D929) commemorates the missing soldiers of the 4th and 5th Divisions of the British Army in 1918 and records the names of over 14000 soldiers who have no known grave. These are engraved on over 100 panels, arranged by Army unit. John Elson Carpenter's name appears on the top half of panel 26, with other privates of the Somerset Light Infantry. The officers appear on the bottom half of panel 25.