page_title: 23rd Division (United Kingdom)
section_title: Somme
hierarchical_section_title: 23rd Division (United Kingdom) / Unit history / 1916 / Somme
caption_attribution_description: Drawing of Essex Farm, RAMC/603 (Vol. 2). Text on facing page&#160;: Essex Farm, Description: Built about 800 yards to the left of Duhallow (?) and on the banks of the same stream. Concrete has been largely used with sand bags over all to a depth of 5 feet (?). Some of them have been pierced by shells and are not in use. From RAMC/602-603. Two volumes of sketch plans by Lance Corporals S.T. Smith and A.R. Watt, RAMC, of Advanced Dressing Stations occupied by Field Ambulances of the 23rd Division in Flanders during the Battle of the Somme, 1916-1917, with ms. description Archives &amp; Manuscripts
context_page_description: The 23rd Division was an infantry division of the British Army raised in 1914 in the Great War as part of Kitchener's Army. The division was sent to France in August 1915 under the command of Major-General Sir James Melville Babington C.B. C.M.G.. During the war the division fought on the Western Front until October 1917 when it moved to the Italian Front. It remained in Italy and was disbanded by March 1919.
context_section_description: Ordered to relieve the 34th Division the 23rd entered the Somme battle on 3 July, and subsequently advanced toward and captured Contalmaison by 10 July. The divisions second V.C. was won by 2nd Lt Donald Bell of the 9th Yorkshire Regiment on 5 July when he and two others (who both won the D.C.M.) rushed a machine gun nest. The division was relieved on 11 July, except for the 68th Brigade which joined the 34th Division on 11 July and took part in an abortive attack on Pozières on the night of 16/17 July, the artillery remained in action supporting the 1st Division. Indicative of the high morale of the division, the sick list for 14 July was one man. By 20 July the division once again had its three original brigades, the 70th Brigade returning from 8th Division where it had suffered heavy losses in the first day of the Somme battle and the 68th returning from the 34th Division.
  On 25 July the division began to relieve the 1st Division east of Contalmaison, and began with each brigade in turn fighting along a trench called "Munster Alley" towards Martinpuich. The division's third V.C was won by Pte William Short of 8th West Yorkshire Regiment on 5 August. The division was relieved on 8 August by the 15th Division, and was sent to the relatively quiet sector of Ploegsteert Wood near Armentières.
  Returning to the Somme in mid September the division was placed in reserve for the early part of the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, and over 18/19 September relieved the 15th Division and took over part of the 50th Division's line. Here they held the line and conducted raids, until advancing on 25 September at the request of the Canadians on the division's left to support their advance. The position, a trench called '26th Avenue' was occupied by 70th Brigade on 27 September after a German withdrawal, after an earlier attack failed when it was occupied, the subsequent advance and occupation of Destremont Farm on 29 September just outside the village of Le Sars was heavily contested. On 3 October in the initial advance on Le Sars, the division's fourth V.C. was won by 2nd Lt Henry Kelly. The village and positions around it, were captured by 68th and 69th brigades on 7/8 October, earning praise from III Corps, 50th and 15th division commanders. On 9 October the division was relieved by 15th Division, and was transferred to X Corps in the Ypres Salient.
  Arriving at Ypres between 17 and 20 October the division relieved the 2nd Australian Division around Sanctuary Wood and the Menin Ridge Road. While there they conducted patrols and trench raids and were in turn subjected to occasional artillery bombardments. On 10 December 1916 the Division was required to execute one its commissioned officers, 2/Lt. Eric Poole, of the 11th (Service) Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment, who had been sentenced to death by a court martial for desertion from his unit during the Somme Offensive. The Division was relieved by the 38th Division in the Ypres sector on 25 February 1917.
caption: Drawing of Essex Farm Advanced Dressing Stations by Lance Corporals S.T. Smith and A.R. Watt, RAMC, of the 23rd Division Field Ambulance
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