Name
A (Bernard David) Day
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
27/07/1916
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
14355
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 2C
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin War Memorial, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour, Hitchin
Pre War
Son of Solomon George and Martha Day, of 74, Queen St., Hitchin, Herts. He was born at Hitchin and was residing there when he enlisted at Letchworth as a volunteer in August 1914.
Wartime Service
He was sent to France early in 1915 and fought at Ypres, Hill 60, Festubert and on the Somme. He was in the 1st Battalion of the Bedfords and had been allocated Regimental Number 14355.
On the 26th July 1916 at 9.00pm, orders were received to attack Longueval at dawn on the next day. Four miles had to be covered to the assembly position in the pitch dark with gas shells falling thickly. The assembly position was also being heavily shelled. The Bedfords moving to take the 2nd and 3rd objectives found the trenches full of men from the Norfolk Regiment. The shellfire was extremely heavy and shelter almost impossible to find Trench mortars, guns, ammunition and men were buried in the mass of exploding shells and debris. The remnants of the Companies returned to the old German front line. There were several cases of men going temporarily mad. Longueval was reduced from a village to a smoking ruin in a few hours. A leapfrog system of advance with the Norfolk Regiment, created appalling congestion so that the follow-up troops were unable to find cover.
He has no known grave but is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing in France.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, Dan Hill, Janet Capstick, Jonty Wild, David C Baines
