Military History

Theatre

Action/Battle/Other

Battle of Flers-Courcelette (Somme)

Place of Death

near Ginchy

 

Medals

Medal Citation (if app)

~

Enlisted Date/Place

Called up on 4 Aug 1914 at Gloucester

Other Information/Previous Regiments/Units

Arrived in France 11 Sep 1914

Circumstances Leading to Death (Normally from War Diary)

On the 14th September the battalion relieved the 2nd Bn Coldstream Guards in the trenches near Ginchy in preparation for the start of the Battle of Flers Courcelette the following day.

On 15th September, 1916, the full scale attack on the German third line of defences a front that stretched from Combles through the village of Flers and on to Courcelette and with the three Coldstream Regiments attacking line abreast for the first time. Williams 3rd Battalion attacked on the far right of the line and captured their first objective at the Green Line. The villages of Flers, Martinpuich and Courcelette were quickly captured and the enemy was finally pushed out of High Wood, but the breakthrough was not achieved and the reality was that when the battle ended on 22nd September, the front line had just been moved forward a mile or so. The battle is notable for being the first time that tanks were used.

The Guards Division were heavily involved in the attack on 15th September when 2nd Guards Brigade on the right and 1st Guards Brigade on the left attacked the village of Lesboeufs from a position in front of Ginchy. 1st Guards Brigade  attacked with the 2nd Coldstream Guards and 3rd Coldstream Guards battalions in front, 1st Irish Guards in the second line and 2nd Grenadiers Guards in the rear. Only 5 of the 10 tanks allotted to the Guards Division made it to the start and these then either broke down or lost direction and  had little effect. At 6.20am 1st Guards Brigade advanced behind a creeping barrage but 2nd and 3rd Coldstream Guards straight away met machine-gun fire from the junction of Pint Trench and the sunken portion of the Flers road and sustained many casualties. However after a brief check they rushed and overwhelmed the Germans here and then dug in around the Green Line - see map below - the blue line is the 3rd Bn.

Our thanks to Tom Lang at The Great War Forum for allowing us to post his transcriptions of the war diary for the whole month of September 1916. Click the images in the two right hand columns below.

Map of the Battle	Thiepval Memorial	First Use of Tanks	War Diary 1st - 24th Sep 1916	War Diary 25th - 30th Sep 1916

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