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Born-St Pancras

The Battle of Festubert (15–25 May 1915)

This followed quickly on the heels of the Battle of Aubers Ridge and was an offensive operation by the British Army in the Artois region of France in conjunction with a French attack further south.  Initial success soon ground to a halt and although there had been an advance of two miles in some places the end result was not the hoped for breakout but merely more muddy trenches which became the front line. British casualties over the ten days amounted to nearly 17,000, three times as many as inflicted on the Germans.

The Battle of Festubert was preceded by a three day bombardment of the enemy positions and at 11.30pm on 15th May 2nd Division and the Meerut Division from the Indian Corps attacked with mixed results. The first attack by the Garhwal Brigade was made by 2nd Leicestershire and the 39th Garhwalis and soon came to grief when confronted by overwhelming machine-gun fire but unperturbed by this setback the command ordered another attack to go in at 3.15am, this time using the 3rd London and the 2/3 Gurkha battalions. By now the enemy had had even more time to reinforce and strengthen their position and their leading lines lost so heavily that no more men were committed. 3rd London remained in these trenches south of Neuve Chapelle with their HQ on the Rue du Bois and Charles Stocker was killed here on 18th May, most likely by shell fire which was a constant danger.