Current Information:

Age-36

4, St. Augustine's Mansions, Vauxhall Bridge Road, Pimlico

Serain Communal Cemetery, France

October 1918 was a month which saw the Allies pushing the Germans back all along the Western Front and liberating towns, villages and whole areas, which had been under German occupation for four long years.  At 5.10am on 8 October, 1918, the British launched an offensive on a 20 mile front between St Quentin and Cambrai when three British Armies, backed by 82 tanks, advanced 3 miles and captured 10,000 prisoners and 150 guns. After 24 hours of fighting the Hindenburg Line was overrun in its entirety and the enemy were in full retreat.

25th Division were in the line just south of Beaurepair with American troops on their right and the South African brigade to their left and as the Germans had shelled their assembly positions during the night there were casualties before the battle began. The 9th Devonshire battalion began the attack made by 7 Brigade. They made good progress behind an artillery barrage but met heavy shelling and machine-gun fire near the village of Poncheux. Tanks helped to deal with this opposition and by 8.10am 9th Devonshire had reached their objective and were consolidating a line through Sonia Wood. At this stage the other two battalions of the brigade passed through and continued the attack. Among the battalion’s casualties was Albert Jones.