COURAGE IN THE KILLING FIELDS
THE Battle of the Somme was the bloodiest in British military history.
But amid the horrific loss of life, British and Empire soldiers displayed heroic courage which saw 49 Victoria Crosses awarded.
One of the men given this country’s highest military decoration for bravery was Lieutenant Tom Adlam who led a team that stormed a German trench.
His son Clive, now 87, told how his father, a bombing officer with the Bedfordshire Regiment, led his men to throw grenades down enemy lines at the fortress village of Thiepval.
With fewer than 100 men, his father completed the mission a brigade of troops had failed seven times to accomplish. Mr Adlam, from Braintree, Essex, said: “Once there the men all passed their bombs along to him, because he was very good at throwing.
“He started throwing bombs in front of him down the German trench until eventually they ran out of bombs.” The next day, he led a team that took another trench – despite being shot in the leg and then in his right throwing-arm.
The courageous fighter simply swapped arms to hurl his grenades left-handed. Afterwards, he was sent home to England where at a hospital in Colchester, Essex, he started receiving messages of congratulations.
“He had no idea why, so he sent a telegram to his father... and said ‘Why congratulations, what for?’,” said Mr Adlam.
“His father sent back saying the press had been round, ‘You’ve been awarded the Victoria Cross’.
“That was the first he knew of it.”
Like many men who fought in the war, Lieutenant Adlam was reluctant to talk about his experiences. His son and the rest of the family did not learn about his time in the Army until the 1970s, when historians sought out living VCs before they passed away. Mr Adlam added: “As a child, it didn’t seem to mean very much to me.
“I didn’t really realise what it was all about.
“As I grew older I realised what he had done and after that interview I was astonished at what he had done.
“I felt I could never ever have done anything like that myself and I remember he admitted to me that he must have been mad at the time. I think probably he was.”
Lieutenant Adlam went on to become a schoolteacher after the war, before being called up to serve again in 1939 as a Lieutenant Colonel.
He died in 1975.