William Joseph Simmons was born on the 11th of September, 1919 in Stourbridge, Staffordshire. Before the War he was a Driller's Labourer in an Iron Foundry.

1st KOSB War Diary for the date of his death

At 0730 hrs the Lincolns passing through the RUR put in an attack on the wood at 751294. The enemy DF came down on top of them, and the MGs fired on them from their objective and after suffering some casualties they had to withdraw to the RUR positions.

The enemy put down a large amount of fire on the Bde area for the rest of the day, quite a large proportion of which was from Nebelwerfers.

At 1400 hrs with heavy supporting Arty and MG fire the Lincolns again attacked the wood (751294) with two Coys of the RUR under command, and secured a foothold, and at 1630 hrs pushed on to the line 746286 - 752286.

The Bn had three killed and twelve wounded, from shelling and mortaring.

A and D Coys exploited further to the South and B Coy to the West corner of the wood, two MG posts being destroyed on the way killing six of the enemy and wounding others.

A Coy sent out a recce patrol, which established that there were enemy in the wood at the South at 741293, and reported movements of vehicles in that area, and that the stream at 741294 was a tank obstacle.

B Coy fighting patrol ascertained that there were no enemy in Wood at 737298.