Hugh Plunkett

The Battalion arrived at Boulogne on the 22/08/1914 and were part of the 19th Brigade, 4th Division. Hugh arrived in France on the 27/05/1915. Hugh was killed at the Battle of Le Transloy, 1st - 18th October 1916 : A period of fighting in terrible weather in which the heavy, clinging, chalky Somme mud and the freezing, flooded battlefield became as formidable an enemy as the Germans. The British gradually pressed forward, still fighting against numerous counter-attacks, in an effort to have the front line on higher ground from which the offensive could be renewed in 1917. This was a 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. Hugh is listed as PRIVATE on the Coatbridge Memorial. Hugh is also remembered on the St. Mary's Roll of Honour (see photos). See photos for Hugh's Medal Index Card, his Newspaper clipping, his Army Register of Soldiers Effects x 2, his Service Medal and Award Rolls x 2, his CWGC Grave Registration, his name on the Menin Gate Memorial Panel List, his name on the Menin Gate Memorial, his listing in the Ireland Casualties WW1, his Pension Records x 4 and the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Cap Badge.