Current Information:

Born-Limehouse

Flatiron Copse Cemetery, Mametz, Somme

The Battle of the Somme (July-November, 1916)

By the beginning of August the Battle of the Somme had been raging for a full month. Thousands of men had already been killed or wounded or were simply missing, never to be seen again and and just a few square miles of the French countryside, all in the southern part of the battlefield, had been captured from the enemy. Mistakes had been made by the various commanders and would be continued to be made but there was no turning back as the British, Australians, South Africans, New Zealanders and Canadians carried on battering away at the German defences in the hope of a breakthrough, So it continued all the way through to November with nearly every battalion and division then in France being drawn into it at some stage. In the end the German trenches had been pushed back a few more miles along most of the line but the cost in lives had been staggering. By the end of the fighting in November, 1916, British Army casualties numbered over 400,000, killed, wounded and missing.

From 3rd to 8th August, 1916 the 13th Rifle Brigade battalion of 111 Brigade,  37th Division (temporarily attached to 34th Division) were in the trenches in the south-west corner of Mametz Wood. The artillery fire by both sides was a constant feature here but on 7th August, between the hours of 1.30 am and 7 am, the battalion was subjected to an exceptionally heavy bombardment which resulted in forty three casualties. One of these was William Ingle who was killed.