Lives of the First World War

known 4th July 1916

The Regimental History publish just after the War is tight lipped about the operation in which William was killed saying only, '... it was a dismal failure, and it has long been a forbidden topic of conversation in Civil Service Rifles circles.' Gill Knight has been able to piece more information together and tells a fuller story in her book (see pp75-76). A raid of around 100 men had been organised to assault the German lines in two parties. Unfortunately the enemy worked out that an attack was coming and it was met with heavy fire with only the northern party getting close enough to the German lines to bomb it. The southern party was unable to get through the wire. An eye witness, Arthur Arnfield wrote, 'The raiding party ... equipped with Mills hand grenades, rifles and fixed bayonets, coshes, wire-cutters, etc, each man's faced blackened with charcoal, moved forward as silently as possible to the front line trench and took up position ... The night was particularly dark, still and silent, accentuating the all-round tension. At zero hour our guns open up with a heavy barrage ...Immediately the German artillery replied with an equally heavy barrage on their own front line, across no man's land and around us ... a terrifying inferno ... We were all pinned down on the firestep or flatten against the wall of the trench.'

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