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Pte. Daniel Exley
British Army 18th Btn. West Yorkshire Regiment
from:Bradford
My Great Grandad Daniel Exley enlisted in the 2nd Bradford Pals, travelling initially to Egypt in 1915, before heading to France in 1916. He participated in a night raid on the night of 29th/30th June which was a disaster .... of the 4 Officers and 38 Men which took part in the raid, 13 were killed and 12 wounded. My Great Grandfather received a hand written commendation for his participation in this raid, and he survived the Somme battle, being wounded sometime in 1916 and medically discharged in 1917
Editor's Note – The war diary for the 18th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment contains a report of the above incident, completed by Lieutenant M.Clough. The report states: -
Party left our front line trenches, as scheduled, 12.28am, 30/6/16. Advance was slow owing to numerous shell holes and flares. Apparently our party was seen almost as soon as we had left our own trenches, for they seemed prepared for us, & we were met by bombs when between 25 and 30 yards from their trenches. They sent up a single green rocket & formed a barrage of hand grenades in front of us and trench mortars and artillery behind us. The trenches seemed fairly knocked about, and the wire was cut, where we were, in sufficient quantity to allow the passage of troops. Their trenches seemed very full of men and, apparently, very deep.
Finding we could not get forward, I brought my party back as well and as soon as possible as I could. This took some two hours. As far as I can judge my casualties, at present, are about 10 killed and 12 wounded out of 38 men and 4 officers. At present 2 officers, Lieut. F.Watson and 2/lt Worsnop, are missing. I have been slightly wounded myself in two places.
Our H.E. shells were all dropping a little over half-way between our line and the German line, quite 20 yards short of their wire, and this was taking place during our scheduled hour for the raid. My watch was synchronised with an artillery officer sent by Col. Craven.
That report was signed by Lieutenant Mclough, following which there was the following addition: - Casualties as verified later : Missing: 2 officers (Lt F.Watson & 2/lt J.W.Worsnop), O.R. 9; Killed – O.R. 1; Wounded 18 (of whom 2 d. Of w., 1 S.W. at duty) 1 officer (Lt M.Clough)
Lieutenant Clough may be Morris Clough who reached the rank of Captain and was killed in action on 25th April 1918. He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial.
