The Durham Light Infantry and The Somme 1916 by John Bilcliffe edited and amended in 2016 by Peter Nelson and Steve Shannon Part 4 The Casualties. Killed in Action, Died of Wounds and Died of Disease. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License You can download this work and share it with others as long as it is credited, but you can’t change it in any way or use it commercially © John Bilcliffe. Email [email protected] Part 4 Contents. 4.1: Analysis of casualties sustained by The Durham Light Infantry on the Somme in 1916. 4.2: Officers who were killed or died of wounds on the Somme 1916. 4.3: DLI Somme casualties by Battalion. Note: The drawing on the front page of British infantrymen attacking towards La Boisselle on 1 July 1916 is from Reverend James Birch's war diary. DCRO: D/DLI 7/63/2, p.149. About the Cemetery Codes used in Part 4 The author researched and wrote this book in the 1990s. It was designed to be published in print although, sadly, this was not achieved during his lifetime. Throughout the text, John Bilcliffe used a set of alpha-numeric codes to abbreviate cemetery names. In Part 4 each soldier’s name is followed by a Cemetery Code and, where known, the Grave Reference, as identified by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Here are two examples of the codes and what they represent: T2 Thiepval Memorial A5 VII.B.22 Adanac Military Cemetery, Miraumont: Section VII, Row B, Grave no. 22 Below is a full list of the Cemetery Codes and Names used by the author. A few, in italics, were added during later editing by Peter Nelson: Code Cemetery Name A1 Abbeville Communal Cemetery A2 Abbeville Communal Cemetery Extension A3 Acheux British Cemetery A4 Achiet-le-Grand Communal Cemetery Extension A5 Adanac Military Cemetery, Miraumont-Pys A6 A.I.F. Burial Ground, Grass Lane, Flers A7 Albert Communal Cemetery Extension, Albert A8 Authuille Military Cemetery A9 Aveluy Wood Cemetery, Mesnil-Martinsart A10 Amplier Communal Cemetery A11 Avesnes-Le-Comte Communal Cemetery Extension A12 Arras Memorial B1 Bancourt British Cemetery B2 Barlin Communal Cemetery Extension B3 Bazentin-le-Petit Communal Cemetery Extension This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License You can download this work and share it with others as long as it is credited, but you can’t change it in any way or use it commercially © John Bilcliffe. Email [email protected] B4 Bazentin-le-Petit Military Cemetery B5 Beaulencourt British Cemetery B6 Beauval Communal Cemetery B7 Becourt Military Cemetery, Becordel-Becourt B8 Bernafay Wood British Cemetery B9 Bertrancourt Military Cemetery B10 Bienvillers Military Cemetery B11 Blighty Valley Cemetery, Aveluy B12 Boisguillaume Communal Cemetery B13 Boulogne Eastern Cemetery B14 Bouzincourt Communal Cemetery Extension B15 Bronfay Farm Military Cemetery, Bray-sur-Somme B16 Bulls Road Cemetery, Flers C1 Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery C2 Cambrin Churchyard Extension C3 Canadian Cemetery No. 2, Contalmaison C4 Carnoy Military Cemetery C5 Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval C6 Cerisy-Gailly French National Cemetery C7 Contalmaison Chateau Cemetery C8 Corbie Communal Cemetery Extension C9 Couin British Cemetery D1 Dantzig Alley British Cemetery, Mametz D2 Daours Communal Cemetery Extension D3 Dartmoor Cemetery, Becordal-Becourt D4 Delville Wood Cemetery, Longueval D5 Dernancourt Communal Cemetery Extension D6 Dive Copse British Cemetery, Sailly-le-Sec D7 Douchy-Les-Ayette British Cemetery D8 Doullens Communal Cemetery Extension No. 1 E1 Englebelmer Communal Cemetery E2 Etaples Military Cemetery E3 Etretat Churchyard E4 Euston Road Cemetery, Colincamps F1 Flatiron Copse Cemetery, Mametz F2 Faubourg D’Amiens Cemetery, Arras G1 Gezaincourt Communal Cemetery Extension G2 Gordon Dump Cemetery, La Boisselle G3 Grove Town Cemetery, Meaulte G4 Guards Cemetery, Lesboeufs G5 Guillemont Road Cemetery, Guillemont G6 Gorre British and Indian Cemetery H1 Hamel Military Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel H2 Hazebrouck Communal Cemetery H3 Hebuterne Military Cemetery H4 Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-l'Abbe H5 Habarcq Communal Cemetery Extension L1 La Neuville British Cemetery L2 London Cemetery and Extension, High Wood, Longueval L3 Longueval Road Cemetery, Longueval M1 Martinsart British Cemetery, Mesnil-Martinsart M2 Meaulte Military Cemetery M3 Mericourt-l'Abbe Communal Cemetery Extension This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License You can download this work and share it with others as long as it is credited, but you can’t change it in any way or use it commercially © John Bilcliffe. Email [email protected] M4 Millencourt Communal Cemetery Extension N1 Norfolk Cemetery, Becordel-Becourt O1 Ontario Cemetery, Sains-les-Marquion, Baupaume O2 Ovillers Military Cemetery, Ovillers-la-Boisselle P1 Peake Wood Cemetery, Contalmaison P2 Peronne Road Cemetery, Maricourt P3 Porte-de-Paris Cemetery, Cambrai P4 Pozieres British Cemetery, Ovillers-la-Boisselle P5 Puchevillers British Cemetery S1 Sailly-au-Bois Military Cemetery S2 Serre Road Cemetery No. 2 S3 Serre Road Cemetery No. 1 S4 St Pierre Cemetery, Amiens S5 St Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen S6 St Sever Cemetery, Rouen S7 St Marie Cemetery, Le Havre S8 Sucrerie Military Cemetery, Colincamps T1 Thiepval Anglo-French Cemetery, Authuille T2 Thiepval Memorial T3 Tranchee de Mecknes Cemetery, Aix-Noulette W1 Warlencourt British Cemetery W2 Warloy-Baillon Communal Cemetery Extension W3 Wimereux Communal Cemetery, Wimereux This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License You can download this work and share it with others as long as it is credited, but you can’t change it in any way or use it commercially © John Bilcliffe. Email [email protected] 4.1: Analysis of casualties sustained by The Durham Light Infantry on the Somme in 1916. There is something rather insidious about compiling statistics of casualties. A man killed in action or dying from his wounds is much more than just another number in a table. But in trying to appreciate what happened in the Somme battles, so as to give an accurate overview, tables are probably inevitable. The figures may not include all soldiers who were wounded and subsequently died of their wounds at home, though every effort has been made to identify them. There is no general information regarding the date when soldiers who were wounded subsequently died of their wounds. We have only the date of their death Regretfully it may not, therefore, have been possible to record those soldiers in the Somme roll of honour. In respect of others, the rule has been adopted that any soldier who died of wounds on or after the start of a battle is assumed to have been wounded in that battle and not in the previous action. There is obviously a risk of error. Soldiers who died of wounds on 1 July are assumed to have been wounded on that date. Soldiers who died of wounds in December, unless at home, have not been included in the battalion figures for the Somme. Soldiers who died of disease while recuperating, or by accident, if identified, are included in the overall total and in the battalion total, if the date of death was between 1 July and 31 December 1916. Somme War Somme Bn. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. Total Total % 2nd - 11 64 61 - - 136 1363 10 5th - - 111 12 29 1 153 920 16.6 6th - - 64 74 98 - 236 933 25.3 7th - 1 15 26 22 1 65 672 9.7 8th - - 70 17 125 1 213 826 25.8 9th - - 82 17 104 - 203 788 25.8 10th - 61 160 6 1 - 228 732 31.1 11th - 11 27 24 - - 62 314 19.7 12th 92 11 29 62 - 1 195 567 34.4 13th 46 31 27 31 - - 135 678 20 14th - 5 106 47 2 - 160 626 25.6 15th 171 1 159 10 3 1 345 1559 22.1 18th 85 4 - 1 2 - 92 552 16.6 19th 65 23 1 - - - 89 545 16.3 20th - - 69 31 2 - 102 695 14.7 22nd - - - 35 20 - 55 549 10 Total 459 159 984 454 408 5 2469 13283 18.6% Of the total DLI casualties of the Somme campaign, 121 were Officers and 2348 were Other Ranks. Officers represented 4.9% of the 2469 Somme total and 0.9% of the War total. From the above table it can be seen that the 15th Battalion suffered more than any other DLI battalion, both in terms of the Somme in 1916 and the Great War as a whole. This battalion lost 139 all ranks killed on the first day of the Somme Offensive (1 July 1916) and another 138 in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette (135 on 16 September 1916). September was in fact the most serious month for losses in the Regiment (984 killed in action or died of wounds) and during that month the Battle of Flers-Courcelette accounted for 784 of the casualties. The other main disaster day was 5 November 1916, when the attack on the Butte de Warlencourt claimed 281 lives. Many, wounded, died later. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License You can download this work and share it with others as long as it is credited, but you can’t change it in any way or use it commercially © John Bilcliffe. Email [email protected] Bn. a b c d e f g h i j k l m Total 2nd - - - - - 44 19 - 61 - - 11 1 136 5th - - - - - 103 - 11 - 36 - 3 153 6th - - - - - 61 - 77 - 97 - 1 236 7th - - - - - 11 - 20 - 30 - 2 2 65 8th - - - - - 38 - 46 - 123 - 3 3 213 9th - - - - - 72 - 26 - 102 - 1 2 203 10th - - 65 - - 163 - - - - - - 228 11th - - - - 17 7 - - 24 - - 14 - 62 12th 37 51 - 15