Current Information:

Age-30

18, Ramsgate Street, Dalston

The Battle of the Aisne 13th September -28 September

After the Germans were defeated on the Marne they fell back to the River Aisne, closely pursued by both the British and the French. The new German line was a very formidable defensive position. To attack it  meant  having to cross the Aisne and then climb up a 500 foot high ridge on top of which was the Chemin des Dames, a road that gave the Germans an easy way to move troops along the top of the hills. On 13th September the Aisne was crossed by both British and French troops but after that progress became slower, until there was no progress at all. Both sides dug in and the fighting settled down into trench warfare. The fighting on the Aisne continued for two weeks at the end of which both sides realised that frontal attacks on entrenched positions were both costly and non-productive, not that this deterred them from continuing with this tactic throughout the war.

On 13th September on a  cold, wet morning, the 4th Middlesex battalion of 8 Brigade, the advance guard of 3rd Division marched on Vailly via Chassemy. They met heavy German artillery as they advanced and when they arrived at Vailly they found that the bridge there had been destroyed. Undeterred 8 Brigade crossed on a single plank with shells bursting all around.  Frederick Frost was one of the casualties suffered by 4th Middlesex on this day.