Current Information:

Age-37

11, Sun Lane, Blackheath

Coxyde Military Cemetery, Belgium

Operation Hush

To exploit the hoped through breakout from Ypres resulting from the Third Battle of Ypres in the summer of 1917, the British planned to land troops on the Belgian coast and support them by an attack from Nieuport. In the event the breakout from the Ypres did not happen and the landings on the Belgian coast, code named Operation Hush, were cancelled. However, extra units were sent to Nieuport to prepare for this possibility.

George Lines was killed on 3rd September, 1917, while serving with the 233rd Siege Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery during Operation Hush but the exact circumstances of his death are not known. Artillery men faced many dangers and during the course of the war nearly 50,000 of them were killed. Their gun batteries were targeted by the enemy’s guns which accounted for many of their casualties. Others were sent forward to act as ‘spotters’ which meant going forward to the front line and signalling back to the guns necessary changes in target and other vital information. Keeping the batteries supplied with ammunition was a dangerous task as the enemy guns would target the known supply routes, especially at night. Battery Diaries rarely shine any light on casualties sustained, unless of course they were officers and even then information is sparse.

The Royal Garrison Artillery operated larger and less mobile guns than the Field Artillery and the Siege Batteries operated the largest guns and howitzers. These were either mounted on concrete emplacements or on railway carriages and consequently they usually remained in the same sector of the line for long periods, coming under the orders of a Heavy Artillery Group.