#8842 Private Albert Victor Atkins
1ST NORTHAMPTONSHIRE REGIMENT
THUS FAR THE 1ST NORTHAMPTONSHIRE Regiment had spent August to the rear at Henencourt, to the west of Albert. The men’s days were a combination of sports contests (tug of war, relay races and sprints), general exercises that encompassed the art of musketry or bayonet fighting and precise training for night operations on an elaborate, brigade level. Among their number was a 26-year-old labourer from Northampton named Albert Atkins, who had enlisted in 1908.
Albert had done more to potentially damage himself than the Germans had managed so far. He had had to attend a court of enquiry in November 1915 after he and some accomplices managed to get hold of a box of pear-shaped bombs and decided it would be good sport to throw them back and forth to each other. Fifteen minutes later, predictably, one had gone off when one of the men stooped to pick it up, wounding three, and the blame was put on Albert for fetching the box in the first place.
Long since suitably admonished, on 12th August 1916 Albert Atkins’ battalion received orders that it would be moving back into the line the following evening. Gathering their kit, the men did just this, passing through Albert and out the other side, where they bedded down for the night. On the afternoon of the 14th they carried on moving towards the fighting. They went into support lines to the left of High Wood and began digging frantically under enemy fire to improve their trenches and fashion adequate protection from the German artillery. The next day Albert and his battalion rested as much as possible until 5pm, when the Northamptonshire men moved up and relieved a group of Sussex troops on the front line.
Patrols were immediately pushed out and an attempt was even made to storm a German trench, taking the enemy by surprise. It failed. On the morning of the 16th, the officer who had led the raid crawled back into the front line with information as to the enemy’s disposition, having spent the night in a shell hole in no-man’s-land. He was ‘absolutely confident’ that should the Northamptons receive the order to attack, then they would be successful.
Planning began immediately. That night Albert moved forward with his company to attack the trench in front of them, men of the Royal Sussex Regiment operating on their right. All involved seized their objectives, dashing forward in the dark and then digging furiously to consolidate their position. But the enemy was not about to stand by idly. The Germans launched a counter-attack on the Sussex battalion, forcing it to evacuate its position, and then began bombing systematically down the trench towards Albert and the rest of the Northamptons. The men fiercely stood their ground and managed to halt them, resisting all the bombs thrown at them. For their trouble, the 1st Northamptonshires lost seven officers and forty-two men, including Albert Atkins. It was a high price to pay for an extremely limited gain, and indicative of actions along the Somme front as a whole at the time. Albert was commemorated on a special memorial in Bazentin-le-Petit Communal Cemetery Extension A.8. He was laid to rest within the cemetery, but the exact location was not documented accurately.
Memorial headstone for Private Albert Atkins. (Andrew Holmes)