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On the first day on the Somme, on 1 July 1916, the 31st Division was to attack the village of Serre-lès-Puisieux and form a defensive flank for the rest of the British advance. [3] [4] [6] [7] The 31st Division's attack on Serre was a complete failure although some of the Accrington Pals made it as far as the village where they were killed or ...
A notable example was the 11th (Service) Battalion (Accrington), East Lancashire Regiment, better known as the Accrington Pals. The Accrington Pals were ordered to attack Serre, the most northerly part of the main assault, on the opening day of the battle. The Accrington Pals were accompanied by pals battalions drawn from Sheffield, Leeds ...
Battersby and the Accrington Pals spent the winter of 1916–17 in the trenches opposite Serre, which survived repeated British attacks in that period. [2] In March 1917 they were occupying Orchard Trench to the north of Serre at Puisieux-au-Mont. [ 2 ] On 7 March he was at the battalion HQ, under a bridge across the British trench, when a ...
Serre had still not been taken, and the 92nd Brigade was assigned to the attack alongside 3rd Division (the rest of 31st Division was still too shattered to take part). A 48-hour preliminary bombardment began on 11 November, and the brigade moved into the trenches on the night of 12/13, along communication trenches clogged with mud.
The villages of Serre and Puisieux were adopted by the city of Sheffield after the war, and there is a memorial to the Sheffield City Battalion in Serre. Sheffield Memorial Park comprises the woodland of the 'Mark' , 'Luke' and 'John' copses from which the 94th Bde 'jumped off' on 1 July 1916.
In 1916 Serre was to be hell for the British and Allied Armies, but the French had already seen many deaths there in the actions of 1915. In the village of Serre itself is the memorial to the 31st Division which consisted of Pals' battalions drawn from Leeds, Bradford, Barnsley, Sheffield, Durham and Accrington.
Small groups of the Accrington Pals and the Sheffield City Battalion managed to cross no man's land and reach Serre and a party advanced 1.25 mi (2.01 km) to Pendant Copse, before being cut off and killed or captured. Reserve Infantry Regiment 121 was confronted by the British attack before all the troops had emerged from their dugouts.
Serre had still not been taken, and 92 Bde was assigned to the attack alongside 3rd Division (the rest of 31st Division was still too shattered to take part). A 48-hour preliminary bombardment began on 11 November, and the brigade moved into the trenches on the night of 12/13, along communication trenches clogged with mud.