Current Information:

Age-34

9, College Road, Isleworth

Tank Cemetery, Guemappe, France

The Battle of Arras was a series of offensives by the British Army between 9th April 1917 and 16th May 1917. It had been planned in conjunction with the French who would attack in Artois and between them the Allies would force the Germans out of the large salient they had held since the line of trenches was first established. But the Germans had spoiled this plan by falling back to the new and very strong Hindenburg Line in January 1917 and the salient no longer existed.  For the want of an alternative plan the attack went ahead anyway. It all started well for the British who made substantial gains on the first two days but then the offensive ground to a halt and by the end their losses amounted to over 150,000.

The first stage of the Battle of Arras had petered out by 14th April, 1917 and before further attacks could be made there was much logistical work to be done. Supplies of all sorts had to be moved forward across the battle torn ground that had been won to the new front line. New roads had to be built to bring everything forward and the front line itself had to be consolidated and strengthened, not only so that the offensive could be renewed but also to deal with the German counter attacks that were bound to come. 29th Division had been in reserve at the start of the battle but on 12th April they had moved forward to the captured area around the village of Monchy. 16th Middlesex of 86 Brigade, were not involved in their attack there on the following day but on the night of 14th April they moved forward to the Monchy defences where they spent four days working on improving the defences there until relieved on the night of 18-19th April and moving back to the Ronville chalk mines. Then, on the night of 22nd-23rd April, they moved forward once more to positions between Orange Hill and Monchy to take part in the Second Battle of the Scarpe which began on 23rd April. During this two day battle 29th Division attacked and gained the rising slopes of Infantry Hill. Not directly involved in this attack, 16th Middlesex supported it with fire from their entrenched positions in Spring, Pick, Shovel and Shrapnel trenches and the Lewis gun of B Company played an important part in beating off a counter attack on a small copse just in front of their position. They were relieved on the night of 24-25th April and moved back to Arras. There had been casualties for the battalion during this operation and one of them was James Stewart.