Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: Who led the British forces in the Battle of Morval?
At the beginning of August, optimistic that the Brusilov Offensive would continue to absorb German and Austro-Hungarian reserves and that the Germans had abandoned their offensive at Verdun, Sir Douglas Haig advocated to the War Committee in London, that relentless pressure be kept on the German armies in France for as long as possible. Haig had hoped that the delay in producing tanks had been overcome and that enough would be ready to be used in September. Despite the small numbers of tanks available and the limited time for the training of crews by September 1916, Haig had committed them in the Battle of Flers–Courcelette, in view of the importance of the general Allied offensive being conducted on the Western Front in France, by Italy against the Austro-Hungarians and by Brusilov in Russia, which could not continue indefinitely. Haig had believed that the German defence of the Somme front was weakening and that by mid-September might collapse altogether.[2]
During the Battle of Flers–Courcelette the Germans were forced back from Flers and the survivors retired to , a defence line which ran in front of Gueudecourt. At the Battle of Morval (25–28 September), the first attack by the 21st Division on 25 September, was stopped short of the village. Next day a combined infantry, tank and aircraft operation inflicted many casualties on the defenders and forced the survivors to surrender, after which the village was occupied and consolidated. To exploit the success, British cavalry went forward to probe the area around the village but were repulsed by machine-gun and artillery-fire from improvised German defences on Transloy Ridge.
The Battle of Morval, 25–28 September 1916, was an attack during the Battle of the Somme by the British Fourth Army on the villages of Morval, Gueudecourt and Lesbœufs held by the German 1st Army, which had been the final objectives of the Battle of Flers–Courcelette (15–22 September). The main British attack was postponed, to combine with attacks by the French Sixth Army on the village of Combles south of Morval, to close up to the German defences between Moislains and Le Transloy, near the Péronne–Bapaume road (N 17). The combined attack from the Somme river northwards to Martinpuich on the Albert–Bapaume road, was also intended to deprive the German defenders further west near Thiepval of reinforcements, before an attack by the Reserve Army, due on 26 September. The postponement was extended from 21–25 September because of rain, which affected operations more frequently during September.[lower-alpha 1]
Combles lies north-east of Amiens and east of Albert, on the D 20 Rancourt–Guillemont road, south of Bapaume, in the Combles valley a hollow between outcrops of Bazentin Ridge, between Morval to the north, Ginchy to the north-west and Falfemont Farm to the west. North of the village the valley widens into a basin, which forks north-east around the Morval Spur. In late September 1914, military operations took place in the vicinity, when the II Bavarian Corps was engaged by French Territorial divisions in an encounter battle. The French divisions were forced back and the two divisions of the II Bavarian Corps, advanced westwards on the north side of the Somme, eventually being stopped around Maricourt, Montauban and Fricourt. Combles became a backwater until the Battle of the Somme in 1916, when it was used as a shelter for reserves, supplies and engineer stores and a staging area for reinforcements. the German third defensive position being built as the battle began, ran close behind the village.
Vandavasi was the scene of a decisive battle in the 18th-century war between France and the United Kingdom for the control of South Asia. The Battle of Wandiwash was a watershed in Indian history as it cemented British supremacy in South Asia. On 22 January 1760, a British force led by Eyre Coote defeated a French force led by General Thomas Lally.
The Battle of Queenston Heights was the first major battle in the War of 1812. Resulting in a British victory, it took place on 13 October 1812, near Queenston, Upper Canada (the present-day province of Ontario). It was fought between United States regulars and New York militia forces led by Major General Stephen Van Rensselaer, and British regulars, York and Lincoln militia and Mohawk warriors led by Major General Isaac Brock, and Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe, who took command when Brock was killed.
Combles, Morval, Lesbœufs and Gueudecourt were captured and many casualties inflicted on the Germans. The French made slower progress near the inter-army boundary, due to the obstruction of St Pierre Vaast Wood to the French attack north towards Sailly and Sailly-Saillisel. The inter-army boundary was moved north from 27–28 September, to allow the French more room to deploy their forces but the great quantity of German artillery-fire limited the French advance. The Fourth Army advance on 25 September was its deepest since 14 July and left the Germans in severe difficulties, particularly in a salient which developed to the north-east of Combles. Tiredness and lack of reserves prevented the Fourth Army exploiting its success beyond patrolling and cavalry probes. The Reserve Army attack began on 26 September, at the Battle of Thiepval Ridge. Deteriorating weather and the shorter days, greatly increased British and French transport difficulties; rain and fog grounded aircraft and impeded artillery observation. Mud reduced the blast effect of shells and immobilised infantry, which was an advantage to the defenders. A small number of tanks joined in the battle later in the afternoon, after having been held back because of the later start and reduced a number of German strong points which had withstood earlier attacks.
An advance on the main front of the British attack of 1,200–1,500yd (1,100–1,400m) was to be made in stages. The first step was an advance to the third of the objective lines set for 15 September and to the Gird Trenches (Gallwitz Riegel) south of Gueudecourt, beginning at 12:35 p.m. The second objective was a line along the sunken road running from Combles to Gueudecourt, west of Morval and Lesbœufs, then over a spur south-east of Gueudecourt and through the centre of the village, beginning at 1:35 p.m. The final objective was on the east side of Morval, Lesbœufs and Gueudecourt, the advance to begin at 2:35 p.m., with the objectives to be reached by 3:00 p.m.[13]
The 6th Division attacked from north of Morval, to the road through the middle of Lesbœufs, on the left of the 5th Division. The first objective was taken by a battalion of the 16th Brigade on the right and two battalions of the 18th Brigade on the left. The final objective east of the Morval–Lesbœufs road was captured by two battalions leapfrogging through on the right and one on the left, to clear the south end of Lesbœufs, where the Guard Division was met as it occupied the north end. The attack benefitted from good weather, which led to a good preliminary bombardment and an accurate creeping barrage, 500 prisoners being taken. The 5th and 6th divisions consolidated on spurs east and north-east of Morval. At 6:00 p.m., the adjoining brigades advanced another 200yd (180m) east of Morval and also put posts on a line from Morval Mill north to Lesbœufs.[30]
The Battle of Magdala was the conclusion of the British Expedition to Abyssinia fought in April 1868 between British and Abyssinian forces at Magdala, from the Red Sea coast. The British were led by Robert Napier, while the Abyssinians were led by Emperor Tewodros II.
The Battle of Morval was an attack by the Fourth Army on Morval, Gueudecourt and Lesboeufs held by the German 1st Army, which had been the final objectives of the Battle of Flers–Courcelette (15–22 September). The attack was postponed to combine with attacks by the French Sixth Army on Combles, south of Morval and because of rain. The combined attack was also intended to deprive the German defenders further west, near Thiepval of reinforcements, before an attack by the Reserve Army, due on 26 September. Combles, Morval, Lesboeufs and Gueudecourt were captured and a small number of tanks joined in the battle later in the afternoon. Many casualties were inflicted on the Germans but the French made slower progress. The Fourth Army advance on 25 September was its deepest since 14 July and left the Germans in severe difficulties, particularly in a salient near Combles. The Reserve Army attack began on 26 September in the Battle of Thiepval Ridge.
Monday 25 September, was bright and cloudless, with a ground haze but reports from observers in contact patrol aircraft were notably accurate, as the infantry advanced to their objectives on the Fourth Army front, from Morval to Gueudecourt and around Flers. Observers in reconnaissance aircraft located 124 German artillery batteries; 47 were engaged and 21 silenced by zone calls.[45][lower-alpha 4] At 2:35 p.m., observers watched the advance to the final objective and after twenty-one minutes, almost all of it was reported captured. A map compiled from air reports was later shown to be more accurate than infantry progress reports. The ground not taken near Morval fell in the evening, completing the capture of the ground on the main ridge, making Combles untenable, although British balloon observers were able to see that the French advance from the south had been delayed. There was extensive German air activity during the day but most aircraft flew above 14,000ft (4,300m), which few British aircraft could reach.[46]
Lesbœufs () is a village on the D 74 between Gueudecourt and Morval, about north-east of Amiens; Le Transloy lies to the north-west and Bapaume is to the north. French Territorials fought the II Bavarian Corps on the north bank of the Somme in late September 1914, after which the front line moved west past Lesbœufs. Little military activity occurred round the village until the beginning of the Battle of the Somme, when German troops passed through the village in the first weeks of the battle. During the Battle of Flers–Courcelette advances by the right flank corps of the British Fourth Army, brought the front line forward to the trenches west of Lesbœufs but exhaustion prevented the British from reaching their third objective, a line east of Morval, Lesbœufs and Gueudecourt.
The British plan was for an advance to the final objective set for the attacks of 15–22 September, during the Battle of Flers–Courcelette. The ground to be taken was on the east side of Bazentin ridge, which ran north-west from the Somme to a hollow facing north-east with Combles at the west end, the hollow running towards Rocquigny beyond the Péronne–Bapaume road. North of the hollow the ridge continued through Morval, Lesbœufs and Gueudecourt, then the Albert–Bapaume road, west of Le Sars to Thiepval. Spurs ran down the eastern slope, generally to the north-east in the direction of the Péronne–Bapaume road, before the ground rose again from St Pierre Vaast Wood to Sailly-Saillisel, Le Transloy, Beaulencourt and Thilloy.[12]
In 1780 and 1781, the British largely halted reconquest of the northern states, and concentrated on the south, where they were told there was a large Loyalist population ready to leap to arms once the royal forces arrived. The British took control of Savannah and Charleston, capturing a large American army in the process, and set up a network of bases inland. There were many more Loyalists in the South than in the North, but they were concentrated in larger coastal cities and were not great enough in number to overcome the revolutionaries. Large numbers of loyalists from South Carolina fought for the British in the Battle of Camden. The British forces at the Battle of Monck's Corner and the Battle of Lenud's Ferry consisted entirely of Loyalists with the exception of the commanding officer (Banastre Tarleton). Both white and black Loyalists fought for the British at the Battle of Kemp's Landing in Virginia. Led by Nathanael Greene and other generals, the Americans engaged in Fabian tactics designed to wear down the British invasion force, and to neutralize its strong points one by one. There were numerous battles large and small, with each side claiming some victories. By 1781, however, British General Cornwallis moved north to Virginia, where an approaching army forced him to fortify and await rescue by the British Navy. The British Navy did arrive, but so did a stronger French fleet, and Cornwallis was trapped. American and French armies, led by Washington, forced Cornwallis to surrender his entire army in Yorktown, Virginia in October 1781, effectively winning the North American part of the war.
In 1745, the regiment took part in the Battle of Fontenoy in the Austrian Netherlands between a British and Allies force and the French. The British and Allied force were under the command of the Duke of Cumberland while the French force was commanded by Maurice de Saxe. The British and their Allies, despite performing valiantly, lost the battle to the French with both sides losing many men. The battle was quite fierce, and the 3rd Foot Guards suffered quite badly, losing over 100 officers and men during the engagement. The regiment subsequently had a brief period back in Great Britain during the Second Jacobite Rebellion which was led by Bonnie Prince Charlie who claimed the throne of Great Britain, aided by France. The regiment was soon back in the Low Countries though, and in 1747 took part in the Battle of Lauffeld which ended in a defeat for Britain and her Allies who had been outnumbered by the French. The long War of the Austrian Succession would finally end the following year.
On 3 September, during the Battle of Guillemont (3–6 September), 12th Battalion lost 328 men in an attack that succeeded in occupying the German second line from Wedge Wood to the southeastern edge of Guillemont. After the village was captured the battalion pushed on to Leuze Wood, nearly east of Guillemont, completing an advance of by 95th Brigade during the battle. The battalion was in action again during the Battle of Morval (25–28 September) when, along with 2nd Battalion King's Own Scottish Borderers, it captured the southern half of Morval.
The Battle of Morval, a British offensive action, occurred as part of the larger Battle of the Somme in September. It destroyed Morval and nearby villages.
The British plan was for an advance to the final objective set for the attacks of during the Battle of Flers–Courcelette. The ground to be taken was on the east side of Bazentin ridge, which ran north-west from the Somme to a hollow facing north-east with Combles at the west end. North of the hollow, lay Morval, Lesboeufs, Gueudecourt and the Albert–Bapaume road. Spurs ran down the eastern slope generally to the north-east, in the direction of the Péronne–Bapaume road, before the ground rose again from St Pierre Vaast Wood to Sailly-Saillisel, Le Transloy, Beaulencourt and Thilloy. An advance on the main front of the British attack of , was to be made in three stages. The first stage was an advance to the third of the objective lines set for 15 September and to the Gird Trenches () south of Gueudecourt, beginning at The second objective was along a line along the sunken road from Combles to Gueudecourt to the west of Morval and Lesboeufs, then over a spur south-east of Gueudecourt and through the centre of the village, beginning at . The final objective was on the east side of Morval, Lesboeufs and Gueudecourt, the advance to begin at with the objectives to be reached by 
The cavalry patrols which moved past Gueudecourt to scout the ground towards Ligny Thilloy and Le Transloy had been forced to dismount but the German defence was in disorder, suggesting that an opportunity to exploit the situation with cavalry was close. The depth of advance and relatively light British casualties during the Battle of Morval was partly due to the improvement of the tactical methods in the Fourth Army, particularly in infantry–artillery co-operation. Prior and Wilson called the battle an "outstanding success", although they attributed this to accident more than design. The German defenders had been forced out of their prepared defences and had to fight in improvised positions but had still managed to withdraw all but two field guns. The Fourth Army divisions were so tired, that they could do no more than advance to regain contact with the Germans 
Anglo-French attacks had been expected on 23 September, rather than 25 September and the timing of the attack for the afternoon, also wrong-footed some of the defenders. The 51st and 52nd Reserve divisions of the XXVI Reserve Corps were quickly pushed back, part of the 236th Reserve Regiment being "destroyed" at the tram line north of Bouleaux Wood. Parts of the 235th Reserve Regiment west of Combles and the 234th Reserve Regiment in the village, were threatened with encirclement by the British from the north and the French in the south. A battalion of the 239th Reserve Regiment of the 52nd Reserve Division was cut off in Morval and part of the regiment was overwhelmed north of the village near Lesbœufs. The rest of Lesbœufs, held by the 240th Reserve Regiment from the same division fell easily. Parts of the 51st and 52nd Reserve divisions counter-attacked Morval but were only able to advance a short distance and cover the withdrawal of their artillery, eventually forming new a line along the Le Transloy road 1,000yd (910m) east of Morval.[49]
25 September dawned bright and cloudless, with a ground haze but reports from contact patrol observers were notably accurate, as the infantry advanced to their objectives on the Fourth Army front, from Morval to Gueudecourt and around Flers. Ground at the south-east edge of Morval was captured in the evening, completing the occupation of the ground on the main ridge and making Combles untenable, although British balloon observers could see that the French advance from the south had been delayed at Frégicourt. After a captured German officer disclosed that Combles was to be evacuated during the night, British artillery bombarded the valley to the east of the village. In the early hours of the morning, British troops entered the north end of Combles as French troops advanced from the south. The position of the ground forces was reported at noon by a reconnaissance crew, who returned at to observe the position of the new line but at were hit by an anti-aircraft shell and blown up.
The Battle of Cowan's Ford was a battle in the Southern Theater of Cornwallis's 1780–1782 Campaign that eventually led to the British Army's surrender at Yorktown during the American Revolutionary War. It was fought on at Cowan's ford on the Catawba River in northwestern Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, between a force of about 5,000 British and fewer than a thousand Americans who were attempting to slow the British advance across the river. The American general William Lee Davidson was killed in this battle.
On 1 July 1916, the first Battle of the Somme began, and on the very first day of the offensive, over 57,000 British soldiers became casualties. In September, the Scots Guards got involved in the Somme Offensive for the first, taking part in the subsidiary Battle of Flers–Courcelette, which saw the first introduction of the tank, and at another subsidiary battle, at Morval, where the Guards captured Lesboeufs. On 15 July, Lance-Sergeant Frederick McNess of the 1st Battalion, led a bombing party under very heavy shell and machine-gun fire. The party successfully reached the first enemy trench but found the left flank to be exposed, and the enemy were lobbing bombs. Sergeant McNess duly led a counter-attack, being badly wounded in the jaw and neck in the process. Despite the severe wounds the Sergeant subsequently made a 'block', encouraged his men and continued to throw grenades until eventually succumbing to the loss of blood.
In July 1917, the regiment began its involvement in the Third Battle of Ypres, which lasted into November. The regiment took part in the subsidiary engagements at Pilckem, Menin Road, Poelcapelle, Passchendaele, experiencing very severe fighting which saw the British suffer very heavy casualties against stiff German defenders in terrible fighting conditions. In November, the regiment took part in the Battle of Cambrai (1917), most famous for the first large-scale use of British tanks, eventually 476 tanks in total, in battle.
On 9 July 1755, a force of British Army regulars and the Virginia militia under General Edward Braddock advancing into the Ohio river valley was almost completely destroyed by the French and their Indian allies at the Battle of the Monongahela. Johnson, who had the task of enlisting the League Iroquois on the British side, led a mixed Anglo-Iroquois force to victory at Lac du St Sacrement, known to the British as Lake George. In the Battle of Lake George, a group of Catholic Mohawk (from "Kahnawake") and French forces ambushed a Mohawk-led British column; the Mohawk were deeply disturbed as they had created their confederacy for peace among the peoples and had not had warfare against each other. Johnson attempted to ambush a force of 1,000 French troops and 700 Canadian Iroquios under the command of Baron Dieskau, who beat off the attack and killed the old Mohawk war chief, Peter Hendricks. On 8 September 1755, Diskau attacked Johnson's camp, but was repulsed with heavy losses. Though the Battle of Lake George was a British victory, the heavy losses taken by the Mohawk and Oneida at the battle caused the League to declare neutrality in the war. Despite Johnson's best efforts, the League Iroquois remained neutral for next several years, and a series of French victories at Oswego, Louisbourg, Fort William Henry and Fort Carillon ensured the League Iroquois would not fight on what appeared to be the losing side.