The "C" Battery, 87th Brigade Royal Field Artillery were part of the 19th (Western) Division. William arrived in France on the 17/07/1915. The Division took part in the attacks on High Wood, 20th - 25th July 1916 : The fight for High Wood, which had begun on the 14th 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 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 July. They were also involved in the Battle of Pozieres Ridge, 23rd July - 31st July 1916. SEE PHOTOS x 16 FOR THE BATTALION WAR DIARY FOR JULY 1916. The actions at High Wood and Pozieres Ridge were 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. SEE PHOTOS x 9 FOR THE 19th (WESTERN) DIVISION BOOK 20th - 31st JULY 1916. Word reached Coatbridge of William's death from a sister of a nurse in a French Casualty Clearing Station. See Directory for William's brother Corporal Alexander Clunie's page. Grave photo kindly donated by Mick McCann at the British War Graves website who supply photos FREE OF CHARGE
here. William shares his resting place with Private D. Reynolds (17280) of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. William is also remembered (with his brother Alexander) on the Middle United Free Church and he is also remembered on the Kipps Rolls of Honour (see photos). See photos for William's Medal Index Card, his Newspaper clippings x 2, his CWGC Grave Registration x 2, his Headstone Report, his Army Register of Soldiers Effects, his Service Medal and Award Rolls x 2, Heilly Station Cemetery, the Royal Field Artillery Cap Badge, William's Pension Records x 2 and another photo of William. Finally, see photos x 4 for Newspaper clippings (Coatbridge Express x 2, Coatbridge Leader x 1 and Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser x 1) and the 19th (Western) Division Order of Battle x 12 (the Division William was with when he died).
