Military History

Theatre of War	Medals	Commonwealth War Grave of Memorial
France and Flanders	British War & Victory Medals	Hawthorn Ridge Cemetery No. 2
Arrived in Theatre	Medal Citation (if app)	SWFHS Area Memorials
After 1 Jan 1916	~	Burton Dassett
Action, Battle or Other Reason Killed	Date and Place Enlisted Date	Other War Memorials
Battle of Albert (Somme)	January 1915 at Rugby
Place of Death	Previous Regiments or Units
west of Beaumont Hamel	Gnr 65365 Royal Field Artillery

Circumstances Leading to Death (Normally from War Diary)           

Francis was killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme during th attack on Hawthorne Ridge during which the 2nd Battalion was nearly wiped out sustaining 561 casualties. The war diary entry is typed below:

From early dawn until 7:20 a.m. bombardment was very fierce. The big mine opposite Hawthorn redoubt was then exploded and Z company rushed forward to occupy crater, but were immediately met by heavy machine gun fire and artillery barrage. Five minutes after this (zero time) the general attack along the whole front was launched. Very few of our men reached as far as the enemy barbed wire. Owing to our artillery persistently shelling the second and third line of the enemy's first system the Germans were enabled to freely use their own front line and therefore resisted all attacks upon it. This continued to about 12 midday when the few remaining men in no man's land were forced to retire.

1 p.m. Maj H H Cripps was ordered to brigade headquarters to take over the duties of brigade major but was seriously wounded within two hours. Lt Col A. V. Johnson was buried in the front line trench by one of our own high explosive shells and severely shaken. Major G S Guyon was killed leading the 16th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment.

Casualties were: Officers killed 3, wounded 12, wounded and missing 1, missing 4, missing believed killed 1. Other ranks: killed 54, wounded 276, missing 140.

Hawthorn Ridge Map	Hawthorn Ridge Cemetery No. 2