Military History

Theatre of War	Medals	Commonwealth War Grave or Memorial
France and Flanders	British War & Victory Medals	Soissons Memorial
Arrived in Theatre	Medal Citation (if app)	SWFHS Area Memorials
After March 1917	~	Ettington
Action, Battle or Other Reason Killed	Date and Place Enlisted	Other War Memorials
Third Battle of the Aisne	March 1917 at Warwick	~
Place of Death	Previous Regiments or Units
Berry au Bac

Circumstances of Death

William is listed as being killed in action on the 27 May 1918 after he was initially reported missing in action. The war diary for that day briefly states:

What we do know is that the 2nd Battalion, Royal Berkshire were in the front lines at Gernicourt Wood just south of the River Aisne when the whole brigade/division front was attacked by the German army on the first day of the Third Battle of the Aisne, part of the German Spring Offensive. Two days later the battalion had been pushed back more than 10km to a position near Ventelay.

Between the 27th and 29th May the battalion suffered casualties of 623 men. On the 1st June the whole of 8th Division was so depleted that it was withdrawn from the lines and during the battle the allies were forced in som places to retreat some 55km before various counter attacks drove the Germans back.

In the wider battle on the morning of 27 May 1918, the Germans began a bombardment of the Allied front lines with over 4,000 artillery pieces. The British suffered heavy losses, because French General Duchene was reluctant to abandon the Chemin des Dames ridge, after it had been captured at such cost the previous year, and had ordered them to mass together in the front trenches, in defiance of instructions from the French Commander-in-Chief Henri-Philippe Petain. Huddled together, they made easy artillery targets. The Germans were successfully halted by the Allies at the Marne on 6 June 1918. Duchane was sacked for his defiance and failure to follow orders.