First Name: | Frederick | Last Name: | LOCKE | |
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Date of Death: | 05/08/1917 | Lived/Born In: | Putney | |
Rank: | Private | Unit: | Royal Welsh Fusiliers9 | |
Memorial Site: | ||||
Current Information:51, Lacy Road, Putney Born-Tottenham Somer Farm Cemetery, Belgium
Third Battle of Ypres This was a campaign fought between July and November 1917 and is often referred to as the Battle of Passchendaele, a village to the north-east of Ypres which was finally captured in November. It was an attempt by the British to break out of the Ypres salient and capture the higher ground to the south and the east, from which the enemy had been able to dominate the salient. It began well but two important factors weighed against them. First was the weather. The summer of 1917 turned out to be one of the wettest on record and soon the battlefield was reduced to a morass of mud which made progress very difficult, if not impossible in places. The second was the defensive arrangements of concrete blockhouses and machine gun posts providing inter-locking fire that the Germans had constructed and which were extremely difficult and costly to counter. For four months this epic struggle continued by the end of which the salient had been greatly expanded in size but the vital break out had not been achieved. On 1st August, 1917, after their involvement on the opening day of Third Ypres on the previous day, the 9th Royal Welsh Fusiliers battalion of 58 Brigade, 19th Division, were relieved and moved back into brigade reserve before returning into the front line on 3rd August for two days. Frederick Locke was killed here on 5th August, the day the battalion was relieved. |
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