I Fought in the Wood of Death - Trones Wood, Somme, by Corporal Alleway | 13-14 July 1916 | Episode 132

Published on 13 July 1916

Of the series of fortified positions stormed by the British during the Somme battles of 1916, Trônes Wood proved to be one of the most elaborately prepared and the most stubbornly defended.

Here Corporal Alleway relates how a little group of five men of the Northamptonshire Regt. found themselves in danger of falling into a trap, from which they only escaped by cool daring and wonderfully accurate shooting.

I Fought in the Wood of Death - Trones Wood, Somme, by Corporal Alleway

Our Narrator, Roger Morlidge, recently visited the wood, and he reports:

12766 Cpl Ernest Alleway of the 6th Northants was awarded a Military Medal in October 1916 - presumably for this action as he was invalided home and then transferred to the Inniskilling Fusiliers. He is described as a "local" in the Midland Mail when that award is reported on 27 October 1916. Searching the Newspaper Archives, this article, or one like it about his experiences in Trônes Wood, seems to have been published in "The London Magazine" in November 1916.