Current Information:

Age-24

Military Medal

397, Beckton Road, Silvertown

Lijssenthoek Military 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 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 4 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.

The Battle of Langemarck

This took place between 16th-18th August, 1917 and was the second general attack of 3rd Ypres. Although it did not rain during the two days of the battle itself there had been plenty of it in the preceding days and in many places the battlefield was a quagmire. On the left of the attack in the north-west of the Ypres salient there was considerable success,  especially for the French Army which attacked on the left of the British, but the attack on the Gheluvelt Plateau, due east of Ypres, met determined German resistance and the early gains were soon reversed.

On 22nd August, 1917, as part of a general attack by Fifth Army and close on the heels of the Battle of Langemarck, 184 Brigade of 61st Division attacked from their positions near St Julien with the 2/1st and 2/4th Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry battalions in front, 2/5th Gloucestershire in support and 2/4th Royal Berkshire providing five platoons for ‘mopping-up’ purposes. The attack went well and within half an hour the leading waves were digging in close to the cross roads near the Winnipeg and Kansas strong points. Here they came under heavy fire from the Schuler Galleries. At noon an attack on  Pond Farm was unsuccessful but later, after heavy fighting, both Pond Farm and Hindu Cottage fell to 2/5th Gloucestershire. The enemy defended their positions well and there were many casualties among 184 Brigade one of whom was Arthur Turner of 2/4th Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry who died from wounds on 27th August.