Daniel Boyle

Killed in Action on the 20/07/1916 at the attacks on High Wood (part of the Battles of the Somme)

The Battalion arrived at Le Havre aboard the S.S "Caledonia" as Lines of Communication troops on the 15/08/1915 and were part of the 19th Infantry Brigade, 33rd Division when Daniel fell. Daniel is listed as CAMERON HIGHLANDERS on the Memorial. Daniel was Killed in Action 20/07/1916 in one of the many attacks on High Wood during the Battle of the Somme. The attacks on High Wood, 20th - 25th of July 1916 : The fight for High Wood, which had begun on the 14th of July, went on until mid-September. The wood sits on ground that gives the occupier militarily vital observation south to the Montauban ridge, east to Delville Wood and north east towards Flers and Guedecourt. The first British units entered the wood late on the 14th of July 1916, but the Germans had recovered from the British breakthrough at Bazentin earlier that day and were now manning the "Switch Line" trench system which ran through the back of the wood. Both sides fought tenaciously to possess the wood. It became an epicentre of the bloody attack and counter-attack attritional fighting that characterised much of the Somme offensive after the 14th of July. SEE PHOTOS x 7 FOR THE BATTALION WAR DIARY JULY 1916. The War Diary states the casualties for the 20/07/1916 were : 5 Officers Killed, 4 Wounded, 4 Missing, 52 Other Ranks Killed, 160 Wounded and 157 Missing. This was part of the Battles of the Somme, 1st July ' 18th November 1916 : A Franco-British offensive that was undertaken after Allied strategic conferences in late 1915, but which changed its nature due to the German attack against the French in the epic Battle of Verdun, which lasted from late February to November. Huge British losses on the first day and a series of fiercely-contested steps that became attritional in nature. For all armies on the Western Front it was becoming what the Germans would call "materialschlacht" : a war not of morale, will or even manpower, but of sheer industrial material might. The 15th September 1916 saw the first-ever use of tanks in the step known as the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. The British army in France is now approaching its maximum strength in numbers but is still developing in terms of tactics, technology, command and control. The 33rd Division took part in the opening phase of the Battle of Albert, 1st - 13th July 1916 and the Battle of Bazentin (or the Bazentin Ridge), 14th - 17th July 1916. SEE PHOTOS x 14 FOR THE 33rd DIVISION ARRIVAL and ORGANIZATION and PHOTOS x 11 FOR THE 33rd DIVISION BOOK 1st JULY -1st AUGUST 1916. Daniel is also remembered on the St. Augustine's Church and Parish (book) Rolls of Honour (see photo) and on the Diamond War Memorial in Londonderry x 4 (see photos). See photos for Daniel's Medal Index Card, his listing on the Ireland Casualties WW1, his Army Register of Soldiers Effects, his Service Medal and Award Rolls, his Reburial Form, Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) Cap Badge and Daniel's Pension Records x 3. Finally, see photos for another one of Daniel's grave, Caterpillar Valley Cemetery taken by myself in July 2023, another one of Daniel's grave with Poppy Cross placed by myself in July 2023, Newspaper clippings x 3 (Coatbridge Express x 1, Coatbridge Leader x 1 and Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser x 1), the 33rd Division Order of Battle x 14 (the Division he was with when he died), the Londonderry Memorial Register x 2 and 2 more photos of Daniel's grave kindly donated by my friend in France, Thierry Dericbourg.