Current Information:

10, Garner Street, Bethnal Green

Born-Hoxton

The Battle of the Aisne  (13th September - 28 September)

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 21st September, 1914, the day Charles Haynes died, 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers of 9th Brigade, 3rd Division were in billets at Courcelles-sur-Vesles having been relieved from the trenches the day before. Private Haynes has no known burial ground and is commemorated on the La Ferte-sous-Jouarre Memorial to the Missing which suggests that he was killed in action and that probably means that he was killed on 20th September, when the battalion was still in the fighting line and that his death was not recorded until the following day.