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Born & Enlisted-London

The Battle of the Aisne 13th September -28 September, 1914

After the Germans were defeated on the Marne they fell back to the River Aisne, closely pursued by both the British and the French. The new German line was a very formidable defensive position. To attack it meant having to cross the Aisne and then climb up a 500 foot high ridge on top of which was the Chemin des Dames, a road that gave the Germans an easy way to move troops along the top of the hills. On 13th September the Aisne was crossed by both British and French troops but after that progress became slower, until there was no progress at all. Both sides dug in and the fighting settled down into trench warfare. The fighting on the Aisne continued for two weeks at the end of which both sides realised that frontal attacks on entrenched positions were both costly and non-productive, not that this deterred them from continuing with this tactic throughout the war.

On 26th September, 1914, the 2nd South Lancashire battalion of 7 Brigade, 3rd Division were relieved from the trenches on the Aisne front and moved back to billets in Augy. They were still out of the line on 29th September, the day on which William Plummer was killed. The battalion diary makes no mention of any casualties so either he was attached to another unit at the time or his date of death was wrongly recorded.