Current Information:

Born-Mortlake

Enlisted-Kingston-on-Thames

The Battle of Hill 60 (17 April – 7 May 1915)

Hill 60 is at the southern end of the Ypres Salient and is a man made mound from earth excavated from the nearby railway. It was an important vantage point for whoever controlled it which at the beginning of 1915 was the Germans. In April 1915, 5th Division took over the line in front of it and prepared to capture it. On 17th April six mines were blown beneath it which so discombobulated the defending Germans that 13 Brigade was able to capture it, sustaining only seven casualties. However, holding it was a much more difficult task. German artillery began to pound the position and early next morning they launched three counter attacks which were only repelled after heavy losses and only after the British had been forced back to the crest of the hill. Later that evening British counter attacks retook all of the hill The next three days saw intense German shelling of the position and numerous counter attacks until it was a mass of shell holes and mine craters. Between 1st and 5th May the Germans launched a series of attacks preceded by gas and eventually after desperate fighting, took back the hill.

After the initial attack by 13 Brigade on 17th April and the heavy fighting over the following two days, 15 Brigade, with the 1st East Surrey battalion of 14 Brigade attached, took over the captured positions on the hill during the night of 18th April. Throughout 19th April, a day spent clearing the trenches of dead and wounded and improving the defences, the position was shelled continuously by the Germans with their fire being directed mainly on the support and communication trenches in rear of the hill. The 20th April was a day of ferocious fighting. At 11am a extremely heavy bombardment of the British positions on the hill commenced. Trenches were obliterated and many men were buried alive. An even fiercer shelling of the British positions began at 4pm which cut all communications to the rear. There were two German infantry attacks that evening and they continued to batter at the British positions all night. Some ground was lost in the desperate and confused fighting but Hill 60 remained in British hands. At dawn on 21st April 1st East Surrey and 1st Bedfordshire, sorely depleted in numbers, were relieved. One of the many casualties sustained by 1st East Surrey was William Collis who was killed on 20th April.