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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 ...
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, Barnsley, and Bradford. [5] Of an estimated 700 Accrington Pals who took part in the attack, 235 were killed and 350 wounded within ...
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.
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.
The Hull Pals were a brigade of four battalions of the East Yorkshire Regiment (the "East Yorks") raised as part of Kitchener's Army in 1914. They served in 31st Division at Serre on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916, though they escaped the worst of the disaster. However, they suffered heavy casualties in the same area later in ...
The trenches from which the Accrington Pals advanced on 1 July 1916 are still visible in John Copse west of the village of Serre, and there is a memorial there made of Accrington brick. After the war and until 1986, Accrington Corporation buses were painted in the regimental colours of red and blue with gold lining.
The attack was held up by delayed orders and road congestion, and did not go in until after dark, nevertheless, 92nd Bde gained 2 miles (3.2 km) to reach the Warneton–Comines road by morning, while 93rd Bde was pushing through the western edge of Ploegsteert Wood. At 10.30 on 29 September the head of 94th (Y) Bde's column had reached Tilleul ...
At the Somme, the division was assigned to capture Serre on the flank of the main assault and guard against counter-attacks; however, the attacking battalions were decimated by German machine-guns before crossing no-man's land, with only small groups surviving to reach the far trenches. Some small parties reached their objectives, including one ...