Military History

Fred is listed as bring killed in action on 16th Feb 1916 having originally being reported as missing. Unfortunately the war diary report about the action he was killed in is almost impossible to read. We do know from it that the Battalion suffered other ranks casualties of 15 killed, 84 wounded and 32 missing (including Fred)

The following description of the battle is taken from Wikipedia (link above):

Actions of the Bluff 14–16 February

By 5:45 p.m. the British front parapet had been demolished and a mine detonation buried the party sheltering in The Tunnel, killing all but three men; two mines were blown on the left of the 10th Sherwood Foresters (10th Sherwood) on the left of the 51st Brigade. The German Infantry Regiment 124 (IR 124) attacked the British lines on a 0.5 mi (0.80 km) front from the canal to a feature known as the Ravine, a stream parallel to the canal. The British front line was captured by 6:05 p.m. and by 6:32 p.m. all objectives had been taken, apart from a machine-gun post at the junction of trenches 31 and 32. A platoon sent to replace the men trapped in The Tunnel was killed and the Bluff was captured, as were the front trenches of the 10th Sherwood. Some German troops pressed on to the British support trenches but were repulsed. Parties of IR 124 also got into trenches and the Ravine on the left, held by the 8th South Staffordshire. The Germans were also quickly forced back but the two companies reserved for an instant counter-attack on the Bluff were delayed by a command mix-up, the men went forward piecemeal and conducted an indecisive bombing fight with the Germans for the rest of the night.

By 7:30 a.m. IR 124 held the Bluff and the 51st Brigade line from the canal to the Ravine. During the afternoon the 52nd Brigade was relieved of responsibility for the north bank and two battalions of the 50th Brigade were sent forward for a counter-attack against the Bluff. During the night bombing attacks were made but attempts to follow up with infantry failed; at 6:00 a.m. on 16 February, the British commanders accepted that the counter-attacks were futile and that it would take a set-piece attack to dislodge the Germans. Plumer gave the task to troops who knew the ground and on the night of 16/17 February the 76th Brigade (Brigadier-General Ernest Pratt) of the 3rd Division, which had been resting out of the line, took over with attached artillery and engineers from the 51st Brigade and began to consolidate a new line. The ground had been smashed up by artillery-fire and was cut with derelict trenches; the Bluff was enclosed by the canal and a stream on the north side which made the ground swampy. The terraces adjoining the canal limited a frontal approach to an embankment 80 yd (73 m) wide but which tapered to 30 yd (27 m), with no cover and visible from the German defences on the south side of the canal.