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The 9th Battalion Royal Fusiliers went to France in May 1915 as part of 36th Brigade 12th (Eastern) Division.
On the 8th August `1918 the Allied forces launched the surprise attack that heralded the end of the First World War with the Armistice on the 11th November 1918, often described as the Battles of the 100 days.
The 12th Division, on the 8th August, was in III Corps in the Fourth Army and remained in that Corps until the end of September 1918.
On the 22nd August 1918 the Fourth Army recommenced its advance the 12th Division reaching a line to the East of the road from Albert South to Bray (now the D329). By the 25th August the line had been advanced to a position just East of Pozieres (Divisional Boundary with the 18th Division) to just to the West of Carnoy , with the Division on Carnoy Ridge, North East of Carnoy. By 8.30 a.m. on the 26th August the 3rd Australian Division had captured Suzanne, south of Carnoy and on the North bank of the River Somme with the 58th Division, south of the 12th) being directed on Maricourt and Support Copse, the 12th Division on the Malt Horn Farm knoll (north of Hardecourt-aux-Bois), and the 18th Division on Trones Wood.
On the 27th August, against an opposition which was never inconsiderable, the 58th and 12th Divisions pressed forward some 4,000 yards, the 58th division capturing Maricourt and the 12th Division the important Maltz Horn Farm knoll after strenuous fighting. The operation on the 27th began at 4.55 a.m. and all attempts by units of the 12th Division to advance came under heavy German fire from the heights of Maltzhorn Farm Ridge, Faviere Wood and the Briqueterie (a brickyard about 250 yards South of Bernafay Wood. During the morning the British artillery brought fire to bear on these points and the 6th Battalion The Buffs (37th Brigade) got into Favieres Wood: the 18th Division by “conspicuous gallantry and tenacity” had captured Trones Wood and also Bernafay Wood and the 6th Royal West Kent Regiment with its objective being the line of the Briqueterie-Maricourt road , going on to capture the Briqueterie with two German field guns after hard fighting and gaining ground beyond, the final Divisional line ending up running North East from Maricourt Wood to Favieres Wood and then North to join up with the 18th Division holding Trones Wood.
On the 28th August 1918 the attack was to be renewed the 12th Division using the 36th and 35th Brigades to storm the Hardecourt aux Bois – Maltz Horn Farm ridge A deep and fairly steep valley lay in front of it, so that the 12th Machine Gun Battalion was able to bring direct over-head fire to bear for a considerable time whilst the battalions were advancing, a material aid to their progress. Keeping close up to the artillery barrage the 9th Battalion Royal Fusiliers from 36th Brigade on the right and the 1/1st Cambridgeshire and 9th Essex from 35th Brigade on the left pushed on capturing prisoners and machine guns and bayoneting the detachments at their posts. By 8.30 a.m. the 35th Brigade units had secured Maltzhorn Farm Ridge taking over 100 prisoners.
The 9th Battalion Royal Fusiliers had first to skilfully clear Faviere Wood and then began the advance to occupy the village of Hardecourt aux Bois. Considerable fighting took place in the village so that it was not until 11 a.m. that the Fusiliers could report they were on the objective, having captured many prisoners and 16 machine-guns. The action of the 9th Battalion was particularly creditable as that battalion had 350 recruits in its ranks whose ages varied from eighteen and a half to nineteen and a half and who had only been in France a week and was opposed by the German Fusilier Battalion of Kaiser Francis Guard Grenadier Regiment.
During the afternoon the Germans shelled the Hardecourt ridge and the valley west of it heavily and machine-gunned the forward slopes making further movement impossible but between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. this fire had died down. By then the 18th Division had established touch with the 12th Division near Maltz Horn Farm, the III Corps having achieved what had been ordered. Soon after it became evident that a further German withdrawal was taking place and by dawn on the 29th the enemy was moving back rapidly so that by 12.30 p.m. the 9th Fusiliers were on the outskirts of Maurepas. On the 29th August the village of Guillemont was captured by the 18th Division .German resistance then began to stiffen and a line was finally take up on the 30th August 1918, when the 47th (London) Division continued the advance to the East, the 12th Division being on the top of Maurepas Ridge from a position near Savernake Wood south of Combles south to the hamlet of le Forest some 2,500 yards East of Maurepas touch being maintained with the Australian Division to the south. The 12th Division had been fighting since the beginning of August and had made a continuous advance from Morlancourt, south west of Albert, to Le Forest, a distance of 15,000 yards. The 35th Brigade moved back to the Briqueterie, the 36th to Carnoy and the 37th to Faviere Wood, where the units were re-equipped, re-organised and reinforced.
In the attack on the 28th August 1918 the 9th Battalion Royal Fusiliers lost 26 Other Ranks killed in action and 2 officers. The number of wounded is not recorded.
Eight Other Ranks, Thomas Bell, Henry Claus, George Death, George Durrant, Charles Goode, Albert Puttock, Percy Saunders and Archibald Turnbull are buried in Guillemont Road Cemetery, Guillemont, Somme. This Cemetery was closed in March 1917 but greatly increased after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the surrounding battlefields and from small cemeteries including Hardecourt French Military Cemetery. The 9th Battalion Royal Fusiliers buried in this French Cemetery casualties of the 1918 fighting almost certainly including these eight men.
Eight Other Ranks, William Brown, Frederick Pellett, Henry James Redgrave, Edward Richards, James Richardson, James Sharpless, Charles Warren and William Woodhead are buried in Delville Wood Cemetery, Longuval, Somme. This Cemetery was made after the Armistice when graves were brought in from a few small cemeteries, isolated sites and the battlefield.
Five Other Ranks, Arthur Dorling, George Goldsmith, John Parslow, Edgar Roberts and John Underwood and Captain Ernest Cruzick Dupres are buried in Peronne Road Cemetery, Maricourt, Somme. At the Armistice there were just 175 graves in the Cemetery, then known as Maricourt Military Cemetery No. 3, but subsequently there was a concentration of graves from the battlefields in the immediate neighbourhood of Maricourt and certain smaller burial grounds.
Private John Reay and 2nd Lieutenant Laurence Wade are buried in Meaulte Military Cemetery. This Cemetery was made in December 1915 and used until February 1917. There were a few burials made after the 22nd August 1918 but then again a number of graves were brought in after the Armistice from battlefields and smaller cemeteries.
Finally Harry Harris, George Mann, Harry Mason and Adam Robinson have no known grave and are commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing at Vis-en-Artois, Haucourt.
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