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Born-Stratford

With an end to the fighting on the Eastern Front after the Russian Revolution, Germany was able to bring its troops from there to France and launch a series of offensives in the Spring of 1918, designed to bring the war to a swift conclusion. Four times between March and July they attacked in strength and on each occasion they broke through the British and French lines and made spectacular gains but in each case they over extended themselves and without adequate supplies keeping up with their rapid advances, they could go no further.

The first of these attacks, Operation Michael, was made on 21st March by 63 specially trained divisions, attacking along a 60 mile front held by 26 British divisions, many of them in a weakened state At 4.40am the German artillery opened up with the most ferocious and concentrated bombardment of the war, the likes of which the British had never experienced before. The Forward Zone, consisting mainly of individual posts was blown away. Very few of the men there made it back. Many were killed and many more were taken prisoner. The Battle Zone was also battered as were the British guns, firing from positions just to the rear. Brigade and Divisional HQs were targeted as well and then, from out of the thick mist came the German storm troopers. Moving fast, they skirted round the few remaining strongholds and penetrated deep into the British lines, including those of the Battle Zone, causing the utmost confusion. There were many cases of heroic stands being made but the relentless pressure forced the British back everywhere and there then began a general retreat that went on for two weeks and which ceded to the Germans a huge amount of territory, including all of that that had been won at such great cost during the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

On 21st March, 14th Division were in the line a few miles south of St. Quentin. 43 Brigade was on the right of the divisional line with the 6th Somerset battalion in the Forward Zone in front of the village of Benay. When the German attack was launched at 4.40 am, those in the outpost positions were overwhelmed or surrounded, often before they were able to pass back any information, after which the full ferocity of the attack fell upon  those immediately behind them. Around 9am the whole line was lost and by 11am the Battle Zone had been reached. Remarkably, one of the posts held by 6th Somerset managed to hang on until 6pm but by the evening only one officer and three men out of nearly six hundred had made it back to Brigade HQ in the rear of the Battle Zone. John Gosland was one of those who did not return.