On the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, the 46th Division was tasked with capturing Gommecourt Wood and then linking up the 56th (London) Division which had been allocated the objective of Gommecourt Park, to the south. This was a diversionary attack, designed to draw German forces away from the battlefield further south. Beginning its advance at 7:25 am, the Sherwood Foresters had great difficulty moving forward due to heavy machinegun fire coming from Gommecourt Wood. Green, at the rear of the battalion, came across Captain Frank Robinson, who had been wounded and become entangled in barbed wire. Under heavy machinegun fire, Green extracted Robinson to a nearby shellhole and performed initial treatment on the wounds before carrying him back to British lines. Robinson was wounded again during this process and Green was killed by gunfire to the head while attending to his latest wound. Although Robinson was taken to hospital for treatment, he died of his wounds two days later.