John O'Hare

Killed in Action on the 28/04/1917 at the Battle of Arleux (part of the Battle of Arras)

The Battalion arrived at Boulogne on the 14/08/1914 and were part of the 5th Brigade, 2nd Division. John arrived in on the 26/05/1915. John was Killed in Action at the Battle of Arleux, 28th - 29th April 1917. This was part of the Arras offensive, 1917 (Battle of Arras), 9th April -16th June 1917 : Once again the British are called upon to launch an attack in support to a larger French offensive: the Battles of the Chemin des Dames and the hills of Champagne. The opening Battle of Vimy and the First Battle of the Scarpe are very encouraging, but once again the offensive - often known as the Battle of Arras - bogs down into an attritional slog. Final attempts to outflank the German lines at Bullecourt prove terribly costly. The cemetery contains over 2,650 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 10 of which are unidentified. The graves in the French military cemetery were removed after the war to other burial grounds and the land they had occupied was used for the construction of the Arras Memorial and Arras Flying Services Memorial. The adjacent ARRAS MEMORIAL commemorates almost 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918, the eve of the Advance to Victory, and have no known grave. The most conspicuous events of this period were the Arras offensive of April-May 1917, and the German attack in the spring of 1918. John is also remembered in the St. Augustine's Parish (book) Roll of Honour. See photos for John's Medal Index Card, his Newspaper clipping, his Service Medal and Award Rolls x 2, his CWGC Grave Registration, John's Pension Records x 3, his name on the Arras Memorial, his name on the Arras Memorial Panel List, the Highland Light Infantry Cap Badge and his listing in the Ireland Casualties WW1. Finally the Wellington Quarry Museum, Arras - From the arrival of the British in the Arras sector in March 1916 New Zealand Tunnelling Companies dug a network of tunnels in the ground underneath the Ronville and Saint-Saveur districts of Arras. They dug new tunnels and rooms and joined them up with the existing ancient tunnels and quarries or pits already under the city, quarried out hundreds of years before. The tunnels were fitted with running water and electricity supplies. Accommodation in the underground city was available for the soldiers to live and sleep in, and there was a large hospital for treating the wounded in a labyrinth of rooms with enough space to fit 700 beds and operating theatres. John wrote his name and address on the wall when he was there (see photos x 3). Also see photos for a map. The shaded area on the map shows the ground captured during the Arras offensive.