We will remember them…
September 1915
saw little change in the two theatres in which men from Alderley Edge were engaged. After the costly failure of the attempts to break out from the allied bridgeheads in August, the Gallipoli campaign descended into stalemate. Conditions for the soldiers in the trenches were dreadful: the summer heat and poor sanitation led to a dysentery epidemic.
There was stalemate on the Western Front throughout the summer, too. On 25th September, however, the allies began a large-scale offensive. In the Battle of Loos (25 September - 8 October), the British forces suffered heavy losses but failed to break through the German front.
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LONDON GAZETTE, 15 SEPTEMBER, 1915. Distinguished Conduct Medals 32025 Driver Smith, G., 61st Battery, Royal Field Artillery For conspicuous good work throughout the months of April and May, 1915, in the severe fighting east of Ypres. On the 27th April he displayed great bravery and resource in saving horses from a burning barn under a very heavy shell fire, and at great personal risk. His devotion to duty was most marked. |
George Smith was the son of the Caretaker at the Church Institute. In a letter printed in the Advertiser he explained what happened:
Well, Dad, I will tell you what happened. Ten of us were sleeping in an old barn over the top of our horses, when at two o’clock in the morning a German shell came through the roof, killing outright five horses and wounding four more, but I am glad to say never hit me or my chums. We only received a few bricks and slates on the head as they fell from the roof. Well you never saw what a mess we were in. We were already dressed, so I slipped down the side of the wall to where the horses were, and succeeded in saving six that were able to walk. Shells were dropping all round the barn at the time, and I was lucky not to get hit.
If you know of Alderley Edge men who served in the war
and returned home afterwards, we should be glad to hear of them
Inside YPRES Cathedral.
Ypres Town Center.