From 19 to 20 July, XI Corps conducted the much bigger Battle of Fromelles, where British and Australian troops suffered an even greater number of casualties.

The divisions of XI Corps had plans for eight raids, to involve gas, smoke and wire-cutting bombardments each day, from 26 June until 10 July.

[1] During March 1916, the month that the 39th Division (Major-General Gerald Cuthbert) arrived in France, Haking ordered divisional commanders to make lists of soldiers, NCOs and officers worthy of promotion, since quick advancement on merit encouraged efficiency and boosted morale.

[2][3] Haking was also ready to remove officers and in April wanted the three brigadier-generals of the infantry brigades sacked and replaced with younger men.

On the night of 20/21 June, a party of 32 men of A Company, 2/5th Gloucestershire Regiment crossed no man's land to identify units opposite.

The British wire was found to be insufficiently cut, the troops were caught by German machine-gun fire in the bottlenecks and were forced back with many casualties.

[8] On 6 July, the 2nd/1st Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (OBLI) near Ferme du Bois found that men of the Royal Sussex were still straggling back over no man's land.

[12][13] In less than five hours, the three Southdowns battalions of the Royal Sussex Regiment lost 17 officers and 349 men killed, including 12 sets of brothers, three from one family.

It was begun in November 1914 by the Indian Corps (in particular by the 2nd Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment), remaining in use until the end of the war (barring a time in German hands from April–August 1918); the Le Touret Memorial is part of the cemetery.