Current Information:

Born-Deptford

Quatre-Vents Military Cemetery, Estree-Cauchy, France

Served as Frank Clarke

The Battle of the Aisne 13^th 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 13^th 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 13th September, 1914, the 1st Royal West Kent battalion of 13 Brigade, 5th Division reached the Aisne at Missy where they found the bridge well defended. Moving forward to the river several men were hit by eenemy rifle and machine gun fire The bridge, a three span, iron girder structure, had its northern span blown up and the passage strongly held by the Germans and being somewhat exposed the advanced detachments of 1st Royal West Kent were pulled back. The British artillery came into action and in the early afternoon the Germans withdrew. That night 1st Royal West Kent crossed the Aisne by means of the bridge and in five small rafts built by the engineers. One of their casualties during this day of fighting was Francis Shillibeer who is unexplainably buried in a cemetery west of Arras, many miles from the Aisne.