1. Tactical Notes issued from Fourth Army HQ, May 1916, for the guidance of divisional commanders.
1. Further note by General Sir James Marshall-Cornwall: The disappointing effect of shrapnel shells in wire-cutting brought about the introduction in the following year (1917) of a new type of fuze (the 106 fuze). This was a highly sensitive percussion fuze which acted instantaneously as the shell hit the ground and scattered the fragments horizontally, thus effectively destroying the wire entanglements.
1. The casualties of the 3rd Londons on 1 July were four hundred and sixty-eight killed and wounded.
1. The 8th Corps comprised the 29th Division, the 4th Division and the 31st Division.
1. No troops had ‘occupied Serre village’, much less two battalions, although later there was evidence that a handful had, incredibly, slipped through the German line and reached it.
1. Clem Cunnington is buried in Ovillers Military Cemetery.
1. Lieutenant-Colonels Lyle and Sillery are buried in Bapaume Post Military Cemetery. The bodies of Colonel Elphinstone and Major Heniker were never recovered.
1. It was a popular sentiment, but it is interesting to note that, on 28 June, in the House of Commons it had been stated, in reply to a question, that: ‘The aims of the military machine and those of the New Testament are not compatible.’
1. Also known as Blighty Valley.
1. Turrall’s citation read: ‘For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty. During a bombing attack by a small party against the enemy, the officer in charge was badly wounded and the party having penetrated the position to a great depth, was compelled to retire. Eventually, Private Turrall remained with the officer for three hours under continuous and very heavy fire from machine-guns and bombs and notwithstanding that both himself and the officer were at one time completely cut off from our troops. He held his ground with determination and finally carried the officer into our lines after our counter-attack had made this possible.’ Date of Act of Bravery 3 July 1916 London Gazette 9 September 1916
1. Tom Turrall survived the war and died in 1964.
1. The 111th and 112th Brigades which were exchanged with the 102nd (Tyneside Scottish) and 103rd (Tyneside Irish) Brigades in the 34th Division comprised:
111th Brigade: 112th Brigade:
10th Royal Fusiliers 11th Royal Warwickshire
13th Royal Fusiliers 6th Bedfordshire
13th King’s Royal Rifle Corps 8th East Lancashire
13th Rifle Brigade 10th Loyal North Lancashire
1. The hanging Virgin remained in this position until the late spring of 1918 when she was shot down by the British Artillery after the Germans had occupied Albert. They rightly concluded that the Germans would use the tower as an observation post, just as they had used it for this purpose themselves.
1. Dwelly successfully passed the rigorous training at the Guards Depot in Caterham, was sent back to France in September 1917 and fought in the Guards until the end of the war.
1. Sergeant Paterson, who three months before had earned the Military Medal, was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal after the Battle of Guillemont. The citation read: ‘D.C.M. For conspicuous gallantry in action. When both the officers of his Company had been wounded early in an attack, Sergeant Paterson collected and reformed his Company and pushed on to the final objective. He was twice wounded but displayed the utmost bravery and resource.’
1. Even allowing for an understandable delay in the return of casualty figures, it is difficult to deduce on what information General Gough based his confident estimate of the ‘total’ casualties of the 49th Division. The four under-strength battalions of the 147th Brigade alone suffered more than twelve hundred casualties on the morning of 3 September and, of the 350 men of the 1st/6th West Yorks. who went over the top in the first wave at the Triangle, 244 were killed or wounded. The total casualties of the Division (killed and wounded) including the shellfire casualties of the second wave and Reserve Battalions, were approximately 3,000 – a considerable number for a division which was already under strength. Its total casualties between 1 July and 19 August had been 204 officers and 4,971 other ranks. A division, at full strength, numbered approximately twelve thousand men.
1. There was also a sizeable contingent from the Fairfield school and, like Harold Hayward, from Colston’s.
1. ‘Kip’, however, was at the start of an illustrious military career and eventually became Major-General Sir Howard Kippenberger and Second-in-Command of the New Zealand Forces in the Second World War.
1. Until this day they still stand and even explosives have done no more than tilt them.
1. The ‘male’ tank carried two six-pounder cannon, the ‘female’ tank four Vickers machine-guns.
1. Harry Jackson survived the war, but the other two had indeed been killed on 15 September.
1. Army Order Number W, 19.A.16. O.A.104.
1. Harold Scarlett has no known grave. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the missing and his name (one of some 73,000) appears on Pier 9, near the top of Face D.
1. The remains of the crew were buried on 27 September in Great Burstead Churchyard. The officiating clergyman felt it appropriate to change the words of the Burial Service from ‘our brothers here departed’, to ‘these men here departed’.
1. A feat for which Lieutenant-Commander Freyberg was awarded the Victoria Cross.
1. After three separate raids which incurred 300 casualties the Army had reluctantly called off the rescue.
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