*VIRTUAL TOUR - The Somme Offensive Continued* Sheffield Pals

The Sheffield Pals

In common with other industrial towns in the North of England, Sheffield was quick to form its own ‘Pal’ Battalion in the early weeks of the First World War. On the 1st July 1916, the Sheffield City Battalion fought alongside the Accrington Pals in the heroic but hopeless attempt to capture the heavily-fortified village of Serre. In the memorable words of John Harris:

Two years in the making. Ten minutes in the destroying. That was our history

Within a month of Britain's declaration of war against Germany on the 4th August 1914, the Duke of Norfolk and Sir George Franklin presented themselves at the War Office to propose the formation of a Sheffield Battalion recruited from both the university and commercial Men. The proposal was readily accepted, and on the 10th September enlistment began at the Corn Exchange for the Sheffield City Battalion, the 12th (Service) Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment. The heady atmosphere of the time was caught in placards reading:

TO BERLIN - VIA CORN EXCHANGE

The Battalion's early instructions in drill took place at Bramhall Lane, the famous home of Sheffield United Cricket and Football Club. Other grounds had to be found before long, as the Club's directors took exception to the loss of grass! On Saturday, the 5th December the battalion of 1,131 Officers and Men left Sheffield for Redmires Camp, a windswept camping ground a few miles West of the city. The Battalion trained at Redmires for just over 5 months, a period which saw it placed in the 94th Brigade. Part of the 31st Division, alongside the 13th and 14th York and Lancasters, commonly known as the first and second Barnsley Pals. and the 11th East Lancashires, Accrington Pals.

Preparation for Active Service continued throughout 1915 with spells at Penkridge Bank Camp near Rugeley, Ripon, where training in small arms fire began in earnest, and Hurdcott Camp near Salisbury. On the 28th September, Lt. Col. J. A. Crosthwaite, formerly of the Durham Light Infantry, assumed command. On the 20th December 1915, the Battalion embarked on HMT Nestor at Devonport for Alexandria.

Sheffield City Battalion

The 31st Division had been assigned to Egypt to defend the Suez Canal against the threat of an attack by the Turkish Army. In the event, the threat of attack soon evaporated and the 31st was re-assigned to take part in the planned summer Offensive on the Somme. On the 10th March 1916, the Sheffield Battalion embarked on HMT Briton at Port Said for the five-day voyage to the French port of Marseilles. 18 days after arriving in France, the Battalion took over a stretch of the Frontline opposite the fortified hill-top village of Serre.

The weeks preceding the Offensive were by no means quiet. The Battalion suffered its first fatal casualty as soon as the 4th April when Private. Alexander McKenzie was killed by a rifle grenade. On the night of the 15th/16th May, 15 were killed and 45 wounded as the Germans mounted a trench raid under cover of an Artillery bombardment of such an intensity that in places the Frontline was practically levelled. Meanwhile, preparations for the Offensive continued and by early June the Battalions of the 94th Brigade were practising the attack on Serre. The Sheffield City Battalion would have the dubious honour of being at the extreme left of the 15-mile British Offensive front that stretched South from Serre to Maricourt.