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Born-Clerkenwell

Enlisted-London

The Battle of Neuve Chapelle

Between 10th and 13th March, 1915, the Indian Army Corps and IV Corps attacked the village of Neuve Chapelle in the Artois region of France. During the winter of 1914-1915, reinforcements had arrived from Britain and this was seen as an opportunity to use them to break through the German lines.

It started well. At 7.30am on 10th March, a 30 minute hurricane bombardment destroyed the German wire and front line trenches and at 8.05am the infantry went in. Neuve Chapelle was captured and over a mile of the German line taken. But that was the end of the success.  The British chain of command was weak and their communications poor, which was hardly surprising given that many of the troops had no previous experience of battle. The Germans re-organised and reinforced during the night and no further gains were made. British casualties mounted to 12,000 by the time the offensive petered out on 13th March.

7th Division attacked at Neuve Chapelle but 22 Brigade were not directly involved. However, in the afternoon of 12th March, B Company of the 2nd Warwickshire battalion was sent forward towards Moulin du Pietre to take over a section of trenches there. Their progress was held up by machine-gun fire and the men dug in for the night after sustaining nearly 50 casualties. One of these was Frederick Todd who was killed.