2nd Lieutenant William Clifford Hales
2ND ROYAL BERKSHIRE REGIMENT
DESPITE THE EFFORTS OF WILLIAM Dexter and the 2nd Rifle Brigade on 23rd October, the main objective, Zenith Trench, north of Lesboeufs, that had been allocated to their division remained outstanding. On the 24th it was decided that the 2nd Royal Berkshire Regiment and an Irish battalion would make another attempt on it. Needless to say, attacking the same objective in the same manner a few hours later, the battalion stood little chance of success.
2nd Lieutenant William Hales. (Authors’ collection)
One of the officers who would be sent into action with his men regardless was William Hales, the only son of a solicitor from Wimbledon. Educated at King’s College Wimbledon and subsequently at the University of London, William followed his father into a law career, articled to a firm of solicitors and passing his final exams just as war was declared. He enlisted within three weeks at St Paul’s Churchyard and was sent to one of the New Army battalions of the Norfolk Regiment before being given a commission in the Royal Berkshires in March 1915.
At 8:30pm on 22nd October, William’s Battalion vacated the front line and went into support trenches at 11pm ready for the attack the following day. As the likes of William Dexter advanced on the 23rd, William Hales and his men moved up to occupy assembly trenches that they had vacated on their way towards Le Transloy. On their way up they were harassed by enemy artillery fire and then forced to sit still and await orders while the bombardment continued around them. Just after 3pm instructions finally arrived to go and support a battalion of the Lincolns, who were trying to seize its first objective, Zenith, and the Rifle Brigade, who were similarly still poised to try to storm its first target.
When the advance broke down, William Hales and his men were instructed to attack again on 24th October. At 8pm verbal orders arrived to send two companies forward in the early hours of the morning. Zero hour was set for 3:50am, but the weather had now turned again. A deluge of freezing cold rain had been drenching the Royal Berkshires since the onset of darkness. With commanding officers realising that it meant the troops were going to be slower, they left early, William was ordered to lead his company out before zero hour to attempt to make sure they were close behind their barrage. It made no difference. Wading through the mud they lost the protective artillery fire because they could not keep up with it. The mud was so thick that the bursting shells crept away from them as they attempted to drag themselves through it. Targeted by heavy rifle and machine-gun fire, they got no further than 70 yards as William was cut down leading his men. In less than an hour, the battalion had been ordered to withdraw to its original positions in the British support trenches.
Their failed attacks on Zenith Trench had cost the 2nd Royal Berkshires more than 200 men as they attempted to attack through a quagmire towards a heavily reinforced German position. William’s commanding officer was stung by the loss of the 25 year old. ‘He was an excellent officer in every way and I could ill afford to lose him.’ Second Lieutenant Hales was originally buried at Sunken Road Cemetery No.1 near Le Transloy. In the aftermath of the war, the graves in the area were concentrated and with forty-nine other servicemen who were killed in October 1916, William was exhumed for reburial at another site. He was finally laid to rest at Bancourt British Cemetery. His headstone is a special memorial, plot C5, as the exact site of his reinterment within is unknown.