Joseph Mooney

The Battalion arrived at Boulogne on the 14/08/1914 as Lines of Communication troops. They were part of the 98th Brigade, 33rd Division who Joseph died. Joseph was posted missing on the 19/08/1916. His death was not confirmed until May 1917. The Battle of Delville Wood, 15th July - 3rd September 1916 : Delville Wood, which is within sight and today and easy walk of High Wood, was also fought over countless times for similar reasons and became a charnel house, choked with the dead of both sides. It is perhaps most remembered for the sustained attack mad by the South African Brigade of the 9th (Scottish) Division, a formation which was to all intents and purposes destroyed during its valiant efforts. On the 18th August during the British attack, the German line from Prince's Street to the Flers road was bombarded by trench mortars. On the left, two Battalions of the 41st Brigade attacked Orchard Trench and the south end of Wood Lane; keeping touch with an attack by the 33rd Division on High Wood. The Battalion on the right advanced close up to the creeping barrage, found Orchard Trench nearly empty and dug in beyond, with the right flank on the Flers road. The left-hand Battalion was enfiladed from the left flank, after the 98th Brigade of the 33rd Division was repulsed but took part of Wood Lane. This was 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. Joseph was initially buried at the crossroads of the Bazentin / Longueval Rd and was reburied in Flatiron Copse Cemetery Special Memorial 2 (see reburial photos). I personally took the main photo of Joseph's Grave on a fundraising walk in 2012. Joseph is also remembered on the Paisley Roll of Honour. See photos for Joseph's Medal Index Card, his Newspaper clippings x 2, his Army Register of Soldiers Effects, his Service Medal and Award Rolls x 2, his CWGC Grave Registration x 2, his Headstone Report x 3, his Service Records x 9, Flatiron Copse Cemetery, Joseph's Pension Records x 2 and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Cap Badge. Joseph's grave inscription reads "THEIR GLORY SHALL NOT BE BLOTTED OUT".