page_title: 92nd Brigade (United Kingdom)
section_title: Oppy Wood
hierarchical_section_title: 92nd Brigade (United Kingdom) / Service / Oppy Wood
context_page_description: The 92nd Brigade was an infantry formation of the British Army during World War I. Composed of battalions of volunteers raised in the city of Kingston upon Hull for 'Kitchener's Army', it formed part of 31st Division, It first served in Egypt defending the Suez Canal between January and March 1916. It then left for the Western Front where it was at Serre on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916, though its battalions escaped the worst of the disaster. It continued to serve on the Western Front for the rest of the war, including hard fighting at Oppy Wood, against the German Spring Offensive and in the final Hundred Days Offensive.
context_section_description: On 8 April 1917, 92 Bde left the Ancre and moved to the Arras sector where the Battle of Arras began the next day. After a period of training and trench-holding, the brigade moved into assembly trenches opposite Oppy during the night of 2/3 May, under shellfire. The British creeping barrage started at 03.45 and the brigade set off in four waves, in the dark and mist, into severe machine gun fire from Oppy Wood. All three attacking battalions, 10th, 11th and 12th, were held up. The officers, including 2nd Lieutenant Jack Harrison, reorganised their men for a second attempt. This too failed, but Harrison dashed on alone to try to silence the machine gun that was holding up his men. He was killed and later awarded a posthumous VC.
  Casualties in 12th Bn had been so severe that it was temporarily reduced to two composite companies attached to the 10th and 11th Bns respectively. A fresh attack on Oppy Wood was arranged for 28 June. This time the attack was to be made by 94 Bde with 92 Bde in support. 10th Battalion was the brigade reserve, two companies of 11th Bn were to hold the front line, and 13th Bn was to provide carrying parties. Before the attack, each battalion of 92 Bde supplied a detachment for a trench raid to reconnoitre the objectives (Cadorna Trench, Wood Trench and Windmill Trench). 94 Brigade made its attack in the evening of 28 June and successfully took the trenches, completing the Capture of Oppy Wood.
  31st Division was not committed to the Third Ypres Offensive, which culminated in the dreadful Battle of Passchendaele, possibly because it was not considered to have recovered from its ordeal on the Somme a year before.
  When the BEF's brigades were reorganised on a three-battalion basis in February 1918, 12th Bn East Yorks was drafted to the 6th and 7th Bns (11th (Northern) Division and 17th (Northern) Division respectively), to 11th Bn in 92 Bde and the remainder to the 4th Entrenching Battalion. 13th Battalion was also drafted, the residue going to 4th Entrenching Bn. The two remaining Hull Pals battalions were joined in 92 Bde by the Accrington Pals (11th (Service) Bn East Lancashire Regiment) from the disbanded 94 Bde (which had absorbed the whole of 8th Bn East Lancs from 37th Division).
caption: Oppy under shellfire, May 1917.
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