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2018 France/Belgium Trip. Post No. 20
Our first visit on Day 3 was to the Sheffield Memorial Park which is located on the D919 Mailly Maillet to Serre Puisieux road and commemorates the Pals Battalions of 31 Division who suffered horrendous casualties on Sat 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
The Pals Battalions were specially constituted Battalions, comprising men who had enlisted together in local recruiting drives, with the promise that they would be able to serve alongside their friends, neighbours and colleagues ("pals"), rather than being arbitrarily allocated to battalions.
31 Div consisted of three Brigades, the 92nd, 93rd and 94th. Of the 12 Bn’s, ten were from Yorkshire, one from Durham and one from Lancashire.
92 Bde consisted of 10th Bn East Yorks (Hull Commercials), 11 Bn East Yorks (Hull Tradesmen), 12 Bn East Yorks (Hull Sportsmen) and 13 Bn East Yorks (Hull T’others)
93 Bde consisted of 15 Bn West Yorks (Leeds Pals), 16 Bn West Yorks (1st Bradford Pals),
18th Bn West Yorks (2nd Bradford Pals) and 18th Bn Durham Light Infantry (Durham Pals).
94 Bde consisted of 12th Bn York & Lancs (Sheffield City), 13 Bn York & Lancs (1st Barnsley Pals), 14 Bn York & Lancs (2nd Barnsley Pals) and 11 Bn East Lancs (Accrington Pals).
The Div was tasked with capturing the fortified village of Serre on the extreme left flank of the 15 mile Somme front. To the North a one mile gap separated them from the diversionary attack on Gommecourt.
On the front line were four copses, shown on trench maps as Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. 92 Brigade held the front line trenches during the British artillery bombardment in the days leading up to the battle, suffering significant casualties from German counter-fire.
The night before the battle, working parties of 92 Bde were out in No mans land cutting lanes through the British barbed wire for the assaulting troops to pass through. It then withdrew into the support trenches, to hold the front line while the other two brigades, 93 and 94, attacked on 1 July.
Despite all the preparation and high hopes, the First day on the Somme was a disaster for 31st Division. 93 and 94 Brigades went 'over the top' at 07.30, 10 minutes after the explosion of the nearby Hawthorn Ridge mine had alerted the enemy.
When the casualty lists were published the impact at home in working-class northern towns and cities was devastating. Of an estimated 700 Accrington Pals who took part in the attack, 235 were killed and 350 wounded within the space of twenty minutes.
Eight Pal’s Bn’s from Bradford, Leeds, Sheffield, Barnsley, Accrington and Durham were fighting in their very first battle and suffered 3,600 casualties. The Division had been 18 months in the making, one day in the destruction.
Despite repeated attempts, Serre was not taken until February 1917, at which time the German Army had voluntarily withdrawn to the Hindenburg Line.
Today Mark, Luke and John Copses have been replanted and form one wood. Mathew copse was not replanted.
Within the Memorial Park are four battlefield cemeteries, three are in no mans land and one just behind the old front line.
The most southerly cemetery is Serre Road Cemetery No.3 in the old No Man’s Land. It contains 85 graves, 81 are from 1 July, mostly from the Leeds and Bradford Pals (West Yorkshire headstones). There are 37 unidentified casualties.
The next cemetery is Queens Cemetery with 311 graves in six rows. This is where the East Lancs attacked. There are 181 unidentified casualties, 50 of the identified and many of the unknown burials are from the Accrington Pals.
The most northerly cemetery of the No Man’s Land cemeteries is Luke Copse British Cemetery with one long grave of 72 men of which 28 are unidentified. This is where the 12 York & Lancs (Sheffield City Bn) attacked from and were the extreme left flank of the whole battle of the Somme. Two brothers are buried here, L/Cpl Frank (aged 25) and Pte William Gunstone (aged 24) from Sheffield.
Level with Queens Cemetery in the wood opposite is the Sheffield Memorial Park with the shallow remains of trenches either side of the gateway and deep shell holes visible. This is where the 11 East Lancs (Accrington Pals) and the 13 East Yorks (Barnsley Pals) started their attack from.
Within the park are a number of memorials to the various “Pals” battalions that fought here or near here that day. The largest is a brick built structure commemorating the Accrington Pals, shown below left. The bricks used to construct this are known as ‘Accrington NORI’ bricks; they are very red in colour from the iron oxides in the clay, and the name ‘NORI’ apparently comes from the accidental printing in reverse of the word ‘IRON’.
Right next to the Accrington Pals memorial are two smaller stone memorials with bronze plaques set on their fronts (picture above right). These commemorate the Y (Chorley) and Z (Burnley and district) Companies of the 11th East Lancashire Regiment. The inscriptions are in both English and French. At the base of the Chorley Pals plaque are the words ‘Where larks sing and poppies grow they sleep in peace for evermore‘.
Another brick built structure, a shelter, is in memory of the Sheffield City Battalion (left picture below). This battalion suffered tremendous losses, with just under 500 casualties, which included 246 killed, plus a further 12 who later died of their wounds. Only four of the officers who attacked here survived.
There is also a memorial to the Barnsley Pals, in the form of a black granite stone. The funds for this were raised by businesses, the council and individuals from Barnsley, and it was unveiled in 1998, seven years after the last veteran of the Barnsley Pals had died.
A stone cross near the trench line commemorates Pte. Albert Edward Bull, aged 22 from Derbyshire, serving with the 12 York & Lancs (Sheffield City Bn), whose body was found several years after the war. He is now buried in the nearby Serre Road Cemetery No.2. Grave number XIX.E.16
Just behind the Park and the old front line trenches is Railway Hollow Cemetery, a battlefield cemetery which holds 107 British soldiers, 42 of which are unidentified and two French soldiers who were killed in the 1915 battles. The majority of the burials are from 1 July and 13 November 1916 which reflects the two major battles in this area during the Somme offensive.
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