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Born & Enlisted-London

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 20th September 1914 and after some heavy fighting, the1st South Wales Borderers battalion of 3 Brigade, 1st Division moved to trenches on the Vendresse spur where they were still subjected to shell and sniper fire and where they remained until the end of the month. The battalion diary entry for the 24th September, the day on which Ernest Smith was killed, recorded that their positions were heavily shelled.