Current Information:

Born-Sydenham

It was very cold, with snow and sleet, during the night of 26th-27th March, 1916, when 1st Northumberland Fusiliers and 4th Royal Fusiliers, both of 9 Brigade, 3rd Division, took up their positions ready to attack the salient at St. Eloi in the southern part of the Ypres. Just behind them were the 2 support battalions of 9 Brigade, 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers and 12th West Yorkshire. This part of the front line, which included the Mound a large heap of earth that had been excavated from the nearby canal, had long been a thorn in the flesh of the British and to capture it would bring many advantages.

At 4.15am on 27th March, 1916, 6 mines were exploded as an artillery barrage of the German positions began. 4 of the mines exploded under the German trenches, wrecking their defences, whilst the 2 outer mines were blown under no-man’s land so that the craters formed could be used as cover by the attacking troops. The men of the two battalions moved forward straight away, not even waiting the half minute required for all the debris to fall and as a result, 1st Northumberland Fusiliers on the right reached their objectives with the loss of only one man. On the left, 4th Royal Fusiliers were not so successful. They were hit by a machine gun to their left whist crossing their own parapet and suffered many casualties especially among their officers. The German artillery then opened up on the British line and no-man’s land adding to the confusion especially to 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers who were trying to reach the forward troops with supplies. The Russian Saps, shallow tunnels which prepared explosive charges should have turned into trenches, failed so new communication trenches had to be dug in the midst of all the chaos. At the end of the day 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers took over the newly captured forward positions and held them until relieved for 3 days.