Military History

William was listed as missing in action on 25 Jul 1916 and it was later accepted that he died on this day. He is not listed as having been a Prisoner of War in Red Cross Records. The war diary for the 25 Jul 1916 is transcribed below:

Trenches [near Pozieres] 25/7/16: At 2.0am on the 25th, owing to a bombing attack on our left the Germans put up a very heavy barrage on our trenches which prevented our Company from coming up in time to make the attack before daylight so the scheme had to be abandoned. 2^nd Lt Loveitt was killed by rifle fire whilst reconnoitring the ground in front preparatory to the attack.

During the whole of this tour from the 22/7/16 to the 27/7/16 Major Hanson was most conspicuous by the way in which he was always at the front organising and leading attacks and bombing raids.

At about 9am on this day after a short bombardment of the strong post by the Stokes Mortars we endeavoured to bomb up the trench but owing to the Germans heavy bombing etc we were unable to get past their barricade.

About 1.0pm the attack was organised & two Stokes guns were ordered to fire on the point for 5 minutes, bombing parties were to approach as near as possible undercover of the Stokes gunfire and we're then to rush the trench. Unfortunately for some reason (it is thought owing to the guns sinking in the soft ground) the Stokes bombs all fell short and killed about seven of our men and wounding about 10. Naturally this disorganised the bombing parties and all the men were very shaken.

Early in the evening D Coy relieved A Coy who then went to La Boissel. At about 8.0pm we had orders from Bdge to attack the strong point over the open and take it at all costs. Casualties for this day amounted to approximately 18 killed, 27 wounded and 22 missing [including William]. END