We did what was asked of us.

Corporal John Joseph Graffham of the 2^nd Battalion The Queens, Royal West Surrey Regiment had been serving on the Western front since arriving with the rest of his regiment from South Africa on the 4^th October 1914 and had been in the thick of the some of the heaviest fighting of the War. The night of the 15^th and 16^th May was no exception.

Battalion War Diary for 15th / 16th May 1915

During the night of the 15^th & 16^th May there were several showers of rain. At 2.30am there was an issue of rhum. At 2.45am the bombardment of enemy’s trenches & wire commenced & continued till 3.15am.

At 3.15am precisely the leading platoons of A coy scaled the ladders and rushed towards the German trenches to their front. It was now just daylight. As soon as our men showed their heads above our parapet the enemy opened intense rifle fire and seemed in no way affected by the artillery bombardment.

The Queens successfully took the first trench and two more trench lines before reaching their objective the communications trench at around 6am but were heavily counter attacked and eventually had to withdraw to the first captured German Trench by 7.30pm

The battalion war diary lists 435 casualties, 11 officers killed and 8 wounded and 147 other ranks killed, 237 wounded, 42 missing, 6 died of wounds, 2 missing believed killed and 1 wounded and missing.

The diary entry concludes

The battalion had done what was asked of it but at great cost.

One can only imagine what my Great Grand Uncle in Law went through that night and had already gone through since October the previous year. But despite the heavy number of casualties John Graffham survived to fight another day.

Tony