GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY
During the forenoon of the 26th an order was received for the 21st and 24th Divisions to attack again at 11 a.m., the latter division being on the left. The 72nd Brigade was to carry out the attack on the front allotted to the division, with the 11th Essex Regiment (left) and the 9th Suffolk Regiment (right) in support of the brigade six hundred yards in rear. Unfortunately, however, this order was not received until 11.25 a.m., whereupon Lieut.-Colonel Brettell, passing a message down the line, ordered the battalion to advance immediately. Without hesitation each section mounted the parapet and began pushing forward under heavy artillery fire towards the objective of the previous evening.
The advance continued until the leading line had reached a point about two hundred yards or so beyond the Hulluch-Lens road where it was definitively checked. At 5 p.m. the right flank began to give way. For three hours the centre held on to the road, and during that time the flanks, coming under a heavy machine-gun fire from the direction of Hulluch, was forced back. Here most of the 9th Battalion’s casualties occurred.
At seven o’clock that evening a party consisting of three officers and about a hundred men, under Captain Packard, was ordered to hold the old German second line against counter-attack, remaining there until relieved. During the night no attacks were made, and at 2 a.m. - the party having been relieved by a company of the Coldstream Guards - Captain Packard withdrew his men towards Vermelles. Just before leaving, he got into touch with another party of the 9th Battalion, under Lieut. Church, both these detachments rejoining the battalion at Sailly-Labourse.’ (The History of the Suffolk Regiment 1914-1927, by Lieutenant-Colonel C. C. R. Murphy refers)
During the course of the action the 9th Battalion suffered 135 casualties, of which one officer - Lieutenant T. T. Stevens - was killed. Stevens was Day’s commanding officer, and he had been badly wounded during the attack. Day saw that his officer was in need of help, and lifted him onto his shoulder in an effort to carry him to a place of safety. As he was in the process of doing this a German sniper killed Stevens.
Day, wounded himself, took three days to return to his Battalion, by which time he had been given up for dead. Another man of the 9th Battalion was to be awarded the Victoria Cross for his gallantry near Loos on the 26th September - Sergeant Arthur Saunders. The latter was awarded the Regiment’s first Victoria Cross. Lieutenant Stevens’ family later presented Day with an inscribed cigarette case for his efforts in trying to save their son’s life.
1916: The Somme - the attack on The Quadrilateral and four bullet wounds
After a period of recuperation in the UK, Day rejoined the 9th Battalion in time for service on the Somme. His Battalion served as part of the 71st Brigade, 6th Division for the attacks on The Quadrilateral, which they undertook on 13 and 15 September 1916. Barely recovered from the wound of the previous year, Day suffered another four bullet wounds during the course of the first attack. One bullet pierced his breast pocket just above his heart, only to be deflected into his side by a packet of postcards and a small book held in his pocket. Exhausted and incapacitated by his wounds, Day lay in a shell-hole from 7 a.m. until dark. The Regimental History gives the following for the attack on 13 September 1916:
‘On September 13 the battalion took part in an attack by the 6th Division on the Quadrilateral, the 71st Brigade being on the left and the 16th on the right. The 9th Battalion attacked with three companies in the front line and one in support, zero being at 6.20 a.m. The battalion got through the German outpost line quite easily, but on gaining the open ground, which stretched for about four hundred yards to the enemy’s wire, came under a terrific machine-gun fire from the formidable strong point known as the Quadrilateral. Across this bare expanse the men struggled bravely forward, Lieut. Macdonald with others getting close enough to throw a bomb into the German stronghold before being wounded. No further progress could, however, be made. At 7.30 a.m. another attack, in which ‘A’ Company participated, was launched; and in the evening a third. Still no entrance could be effected. The battalion therefore, in touch with units on both flanks, dug itself in on a line about half a mile in front of the jumping-off trenches of the morning.
www.dnw.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212 |
Page 213 |
Page 214 |
Page 215 |
Page 216 |
Page 217 |
Page 218 |
Page 219 |
Page 220 |
Page 221 |
Page 222 |
Page 223 |
Page 224 |
Page 225 |
Page 226 |
Page 227 |
Page 228 |
Page 229 |
Page 230 |
Page 231 |
Page 232 |
Page 233 |
Page 234 |
Page 235 |
Page 236 |
Page 237 |
Page 238 |
Page 239 |
Page 240 |
Page 241 |
Page 242 |
Page 243 |
Page 244 |
Page 245 |
Page 246 |
Page 247 |
Page 248 |
Page 249 |
Page 250 |
Page 251 |
Page 252 |
Page 253 |
Page 254 |
Page 255 |
Page 256 |
Page 257 |
Page 258 |
Page 259 |
Page 260 |
Page 261 |
Page 262 |
Page 263 |
Page 264 |
Page 265 |
Page 266 |
Page 267 |
Page 268 |
Page 269 |
Page 270 |
Page 271 |
Page 272 |
Page 273 |
Page 274 |
Page 275 |
Page 276 |
Page 277 |
Page 278 |
Page 279 |
Page 280 |
Page 281 |
Page 282 |
Page 283 |
Page 284 |
Page 285 |
Page 286 |
Page 287 |
Page 288 |
Page 289 |
Page 290 |
Page 291 |
Page 292
