James Coombes - WWI

[candleflame]

This explains all about the MM and the difficulty of finding citations. Two of our family received MM and we have the London Gazette entries but we haven't been able to find out anymore from operational diaries so have simply concluded as it says on the medal ' for bravery in the field.'

http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/research-award-military-medal-mm/

[MaxD]

Candleflame has it in a nutshell.  However, it is always worth having a look at the relevant war diaries some of which are better than others at recording recommendations by name.

James Coombes was in 8th Battalion Devons who fought in 20th Brigade in 7th Division.  The list published in December 1916 was undoubtedly related to the many phases of the Battle of the Somme.  8 Devons were particularly prominent in the fighting in the first month (July 1916) http://www.keepmilitarymuseum.org/history/first+world+war/the+devonshire+regiment/the+eighth+and+ninth+battalions

The war diary for the battalion covering the period from arrival in France in July 1915 to when they went to Italy in 1917 is downloadable from the National Archives at http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7352412.  It is on Ancestry if you have a sub.  The period starting 1 July 1916 is where to begin I'd suggest
Military Museums, although they do not have service records, sometimes have details of men of the regiments awarded honours.  Worth a quick e-mail to the Keep (link above).

MaxD