Sheffield Park - map of the battleground at the time of the Somme
Two battalions, part of 31st Division, attacked Serre from the east edge of this wood (the modern Wood is an amalgamation of Mark and Luke Copses). Formally they were 12th Battalion The York and Lancaster Regiment and 11th Battalion The East Lancashire Regiment, but they prided themselves on their more familiar titles of the Sheffield City Battalion and the Accrington Pals.
The attackers went forward into heavy machine-gun and artillery fire. The Official History records how the German shellfire was so accurate and consistent that its explosions gave the impression of being 'a thick belt of poplar trees'.
The Sheffield City Battalion lost 17 officers and 495 men, and the Accrington Pals 21 officers and 564 men. A few British soldiers actually managed to get into Serre: their bodies were found there when the British briefly entered the village that autumn. It was not finally taken till the Germans pulled back from the whole area in early 1917.
