Military History

William is listed as missing presumed killed on the 1st April 1918 during the Action at Rifle Wood during the German Spring Offensive. The following description of events of that day comes courtesy of the website of the Museum of the Queens Royal Hussars.

3rd Hussars - Rifle Wood - 1 April 1918

Between the 21st of March and the 2nd of April, as the Germans pushed almost to the gates of Amiens, the 3rd Hussars had already paid a terrible price, 6 officers and 122 other ranks, killed and wounded. But the bloodiest battle was yet to come at Rifle Wood, on April the 1st, after the 2nd Cavalry Division had received an urgent call to join the Fifth Army in front of Amiens.

Rifle Wood was the last of a series of brilliant small actions in the Avre and Luce valleys, undertaken by units of British cavalry and the Canadian Cavalry Brigade. The Germans had been advancing steadily-as much as five miles a day and by the 29th of March, they had gained a footing in Moreuil Wood, only twelve miles southeast of Amiens. It is doubtful if the exhausted infantry could have saved the town, but for the arrival of the cavalry.

On the 30th of March, the 3rd Brigade and the Canadians restored the infantry line with a splendid attack on Moreuil Wood, and the 12th Lancers were especially distinguished near Hangard Wood, north of the Luce; but on the 31st, after the Germans had again driven the infantry from most of Moreuil Wood and, even more important, from the commanding heights of Rifle Wood and the ridge running towards Hangard, the entire 2nd Cavalry Division was alerted for the great counter-attack that began at 8.56 next morning.

Picture - The 3rd Hussars with Bayonets Fixed Charging at Enemy Lines at Rifle Wood - Courtesy of The Queen's Royal Hussars Museum

One observer wrote, ‘It was a wonderful sight to see the waves go forward.’ Led by the 3rd Hussars and the Oxford Hussars, the steady lines of men swept up the cover-less, grassy ridge, bayonets glinting in the pale sunshine, never pausing as the enemy machine-guns tore savagely at their ranks.

During fourteen minutes of silent agony, not a shot was fired by the attackers, until they reached the top of the slope: then, all hell broke loose as the Germans turned and ran from the hail of bullets and the lunging bayonets.

As successive waves of the 4th, 5th and Canadian Brigades passed through to their objectives, the enemy were everywhere driven from their positions, and by 3 o’clock in the afternoon, the battle was won.

The next day, the 2nd of April, when the 3rd Hussars were relieved, they carried their dead and wounded down from Rifle Wood, among them the body of their young adjutant, Lieutenant Dilberoglue.

Of the 103 officers and men of the regiment who had formed the leading wave, barely half were unscathed; but they earned eight immediate awards for their gallantry, and they had proved they were worthy descendants of ‘The Devil’s Children’.