An Isleham man, who served as a captain in the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment in the 1980’s, has written a book about the Cambridgeshire Regiment’s storming of the Schwaben Redoubt.
Steven Bowns, a historian for The Royal Anglian Regiment, tells the story of what happened on 14 October 1916, the experiences of those involved and technological and tactical innovations that featured.
He summarises the account by saying: “On 14 October 1916, the 1/1st Cambridgeshire Regiment, supported by other troops of the 39th Division, stormed and held the Schwaben Redoubt, a key fortification in the German defences on the Somme that had resisted at least six previous attacks. “The assault, which cost the Battalion over 200 casualties, led to no less than 42 gallantry awards and was described by Field Marshall Douglas Haig as ‘one of the finest feats of arms in the history of the British Army.”
To buy the book search ‘storming the schwaben’ on www.amazon.co.uk
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