Stephen Carlin

1st RM Bn RN Division Allied attempts to capture Beaumont Hamel on July 1st 1916 proved a catastrophic failure. The village was finally taken on November 13th (widely regarded as the final day of the first Somme battle). The 51st Highland Division was principally responsible but Royal Marines played an invaluable part in the operation. This dramatic account records their contribution. 'From "Sailors who fought in the final days of the Somme" (royalnavy.mod.uk/news) After a five-day barrage, at 5.45am on Monday November 13 1916, officers’ whistles sounded all along the 1,200-yard front held by the Royal Naval Division. On the men’s left, Beaumont Hamel. Directly ahead, Beaucourt, 1½ miles distant, on their right, the barely discernible course of the swollen Ancre and what was left of the rail line to Arras. At their side, six British divisions all moving forward over craters where there had once been farmland and ruins where they had once been villages. The Hood and Drake battalions made good progress – the preparatory barrage had largely destroyed the German lines. Not so Hawke and Nelson battalions, which ran straight into a German strongpoint they had no knowledge of. German machine-gunners cut them down. By mid-morning, neither battalion existed as an effective fighting force. But then even for the battalions finding the going rather easier, the toll was fearful. The Hood was reduced to 300 men, Drake to an alarming 80. That these two battalions not only remained in the battle but continued to advance was largely down to the personal courage of the Hood’s commander, Bernard Freyberg. He carried his makeshift force to within a few hundred yards of their goal, taking 400 prisoners to boot. A final concerted effort to reach Beaucourt shortly after mid-day by every battalion which were still battle-worthy was bloodily repulsed. Divisional commander Cameron Shute decided only tanks could win the day. An hour before dawn on November 14, these modern miracles of warfare moved forward, guided by a junior naval officer. A combination of German fire and Somme mud brought the armour to a halt, but the tanks did at least knock out the German redoubt which had inflicted so many casualties on the Hawkes and Nelsons 24 hours before. Otherwise, it was left to the bravery of individual leaders to carry the attack forward once more. Again Bernard Freyberg came to the fore. Three times the attack he led faltered. Three times Freyberg, a champion swimmer, stood up and waved his men forward. Finally, on the fourth assault, enemy resistance seemed to melt away. Men who minutes before had poured lead and steel into the attacking sailors now surrendered in droves. Perhaps 500 or 600 Germans emerged from battered trenches and shattered dugouts with their hands raised. The enemy guns subjected the attackers to one last ferocious barrage which badly wounded Bernard Freyberg. Carried from the field of battle, he would subsequently receive the VC for his deeds on the Ancre. A generation later, he would lead the unsuccessful defence of Crete against Hitler’s airborne troops.'

Stephen Carlin was buried at Y Ravine Cemetery Beaumont Hamel, Sp Memorial C 9 Identification of this fatality was by Peter Gillings