Military History

Sidney is listed as being killed in action on 25th September 1915. The 10th Battalion war diary entry for the 25th September is transcribed below.

Trenches - 25 Sep 1915: The Battalion was ordered to deliver an assault on the first line system of German defences, which included three lines of entrenchments with the primary objective Hulluch and Puits No 14 B.15. The assault was carried out in 3 lines, frontage being Bois Carree inclusive to Point 39 in G.17.d. The attack was delivered at 6.30am on 25/9/1915 with the accompaniment of gas and smoke. The wind was not quite favourable with the result that from the start several men were affected. Notwithstanding this drawback the three lines moved forward punctually to the moment machine guns accompanying.

The German wire entanglement which had been torn into gaps by bombardment proved a considerable obstacle. The wind proving more favourable to the enemy than ourselves, in the smoke direction was not properly maintained but deflected to the right. Heavy resistance was encountered at the support and reserve German works. At the first. At the first the enemy eventually evacuating these positions and retreating towards Hulluch.

Our bombers suffered severely, their bombs in the main refusing to explode, the Brock lighter having got wet with the rain, which fell in the early morning. Nevertheless the assault was pushed home with the utmost resolution over the 2^nd German line into the third and up the flanking communication trenches to eastwards. In this phrase the Camerons and Black Watch co-operated .

The officers fell as the position of their bodies showed, leading their men, and 16 out of 21 officers were lost. The bodies of our dead indicated how they died with their faces to the enemy. One of our machine guns was put out of action on coming over the parapet, but two other guns reached a point in advance of Point 89, constructed later.

The action resulted in many German surrenders, and their flight from the position they were forced to evacuate by the rapid and continuous push of the assault. During night, under heavy rain, unit was reformed, some 60 survivors assembling, increased by 3^rd day to 130.