Centenary of the Somme – Four Battalions at Montauban

The Twelve Days of the Centenary Christmas

On the 1^st Day of July – our family returned to Montauban
On the 2nd Battle of Ypres – we searched for a cousin
On the 3rd day  we review 3 War Memorials

On the 4th day we  seek four Battalions at Montauban

Very few of the casualties of the 90^th Brigade have known graves from the 1^st July 1916. The 16^th, 17^th & 18^th Battalions of the Manchester Regiment and the fallen men of the 2^nd Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers are mainly commemorated at Thiepval.  Others died of wounds in Casualty Clearing Stations or Hospitals.  This leaves a small group with known graves in concentration cemeteries.  Using their original burial records on the Montauban battlefield and numerous other resources, I’m seeking to build a picture of the time and place where the men fell.  The current draft is amorphous and inconclusive, yet some themes are arising.  More to follow in 2017.

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