Page 36 - History of War - Issue 30-16

SOMME
1916 2016

Heroes of the Victoria Cross

TOMEDWINADLAM

During the Somme campaign, a schoolteacher from Salisbury

inspired his men to victory against insurmountable odds

WORDS PETER WOLFGANG PRICE
y the 27 September 1916, the grenades with great proiciency. These men These casualties were so high that
Somme campaign had been would stand out with the red grenade badge on reinforcements had to be shipped over from
raging for almost two months and their right arms. This training would turn out to Britain and this is where Adlam and the rest
British soldiers in France were be invaluable as Adlam described the i ve-inch entered the i eld. Sceptical of some peoples’
B preparing themselves for an attack Mills bombs as having enough weight to wrench view of the war being over by Christmas, Adlam
on the village of Thiepval and its formidable an arm out of its socket if thrown incorrectly. nevertheless put his conservative estimate at
fortii cations. Lieutenant-Colonel Tom Adlam, His cricket days would be of great help rei ning the conl ict lasting one year. After the horrii c
at that time a second lieutenant, almost single his technique of using either arm to throw a loss of life on the i rst day of the Battle of the
handily turned the tide of battle in his fearless bomb upward of 40 feet. Somme, this estimate fast became a dream
storming of the German trenches. Adlam, a After this training was complete he was for both Adlam and his fellow teachers on the
man with a self-confessed nervous disposition, assigned to 7th Battalion, Bedfordshire i elds of Flanders.
seems to play down his role in the attack, & Hertfordshire regiment, 54th Brigade, Life on the Western Front was, at times,
which saw British forces establish a foothold on 18th Division, a Pals Battalion with fellow bad or as Adlam put it, “bloody awful”. Even
the heavily defended German line. teachers making up his squad mates and their with inside billets and access to a change of
Tom Edwin Adlam was born on 21 October commanding ofi cer being the headmaster clothes, one of the perks of being an ofi cer,
1893 at Waterloo Gardens, Salisbury. After of the school. While they were preparing for the conditions were still woeful, but Adlam
leaving school he trained as a teacher and deployment in England, the rest of the 7th remarked that the men managed to stay
found himself at Brook Street Council School, Battalion had been ordered forward on the i rst remarkably cheerful despite this. Adlam, and
Basingstoke. As well as teaching, Adlam joined day of the Somme and suffered heavy losses another young man named Cartwright, turned
the Territorial Army in 1912 where he worked in the assault. They were one of the few British out to be the lucky ones of the regiment as
his way up to the rank of sergeant. Here, battalions that entered and cleared the German they were never troubled with lice or any
he received basic army training and, when trenches assigned to them in contrast to many other insects, even joking with each other as
war broke out in 1914, he was pressed into other units that beaten back. Several weeks other men stripped to their waist trying to rid
service with the rank of second lieutenant. No later the battalion would again suffer massive themselves of the vermin.
additional ofi cer training was available but losses in the deadly assault on Trones Wood. Adlam almost didn’t participate in the
Adlam was able to make up for much of what battle as, after receiving news of his mother’s
he didn’t receive. In his eyes, a sergeant would passing, the army offered leave to attend the
need the knowledge of a platoon commander funeral. An adjutant ofi cer talked him out
and so learnt any other information he needed of leaving, stating that the ceremony would
on the job. be over by the time he got back and that he
Adlam did receive some specialist training couldn’t do any good back home, so it was
as he was commissioned as a bombing best to stay on the front. Taking the ofi cer’s
ofi cer. This differed from the modern use advice, Adlam stayed in France. This innocuous
of the word and was used to describe men decision would pave the way for one of the
trained rigorously in the use of grenades, i nest military feats in the battalion’s history.
both Allied and enemy. From mechanisms and
tactics, including attacking and clearing trench Left: Members of the 7th Battalion pass through a French
systems, bombing oficers were taught to wield village on their way to the front

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