James Rowell 45741 Private 15th (Service) Battallion Durham Light Infantry Home: High Spen Enlisted: Chopwell Killed in action; 16 September 1916 near Flers, Battle of the Somme The 64th Brigade of the 21st Division concentrated near Pommiers Redoubt on the afternoon of the 15 September and came under the orders of the 41st Division that evening. The brigade were to be used for a fresh attack on the Gird system of trenches west ofGueudecourt. At 2.00 am on the morning of the 16th the Fifteenth started for the line. Progress in the dark along tracks and roads congested with all the traffic of battle was very slow. Instead of being in position by dawn of 16 September it was 5.30 am by the time the place of deployment was reached. The 9th KOYLI were then in the sunken road east of Flers which led back to Ginchy, but the 1st East Yorkshire Regiment better served by their guides than were the Fifteenth, had arrived in front of the Durhams and occupied Flers Trench. Colonel Pedley's men were in shell holes just behind but as they had to form the right of the attack it was considerably later before the assaulting troops were in position east of the southern side of Flers village. Very little was known of the whereabouts of the troops of the 41st Division or of the enemy. At 8.45 am C and D companies moved forward to get into closer touch with A and B companies who were to lead the way. Half an hour late the shrapnel barrage came down nearly three quarters of a mile beyond the battalion, who thenadvanced to the attack. A storm of German high explosive burst behind them, but shrapnel and machine gun bullets smote them almost from the start. After covering about half a mile the Lesboeufs road was reached and the line reorganised. Troops of the 41st Division were found to be in the vicinity. The Fifteenth with the 9th KOYLI on their left, went on again into an ever increasing hail of shell, machine gun and rifle fire. When at last the survivors of the two battalions came to a halt in shell holes some of the Fifteenth were within 70 yards of the German trenches. The Yorkshiremen were not quite so near but had overrun a few advanced posts of the enemy and collected a few prisoners. The men lay in the mud at the limit of the advance throughout the afternoon, every incautious movement drawing German fire. They could not indicate their position, for the red flares they carried were too damp to ignite and the British barrage fell alike on friend and foe. Orders for another attack were issued but there was no chance of success and it was never made. At dusk came a withdrawal, the Fifteenth first occupying Flea Trench and at dawn on the 17th the sunken part of the Ginchy road. There was great congestion in all the positions around Flers and when the Twentieth began to arrive later in the morning the Fifteenth moved back again to a position south of the village where the rest of the day was spent under heavy shell fire. The battalion were now only 200 strong. Losses in the ranks amounted to 419 These casualties, the heaviest in the brigade, bore tragic witness to the determination with which the Fifteenth had gone forward. In the words of the brigadier, 'Success was beyond the power of the very best troops. All did excellently'.

Allan Robinson