Sheffield City Battalion (12th York and Lancasters) Memorial on outskirts of the village of Serre.

Soissons Memorial Aisne

The Memorial is in the centre of Soissons, a town on the south bank of the River Aisne about 62 miles North East of Paris.  The Memorial commemorates the missing of the British IX and XXII Corps – comprising the 8th, 15th, 19th, 21st, 25th, 34th, 50th, 51st and 62nd Divisions which fought during the May-July and July-August 1918 battles of the Aisne and Marne alongside the French Army and who have no known grave. 

There are 3,879 names inscribed on the panels at the back with a stone pillar at the front inscribed 1914-1918 and with sculptured figures below.

The Memorial was designed by Gordon Holt and Vernon Owen Rees with the sculptured group of three soldiers in their greatcoats, in front of the middle soldier is a rifle butt planted in the ground with a helmet on it by Eric Kennington.  The Memorial was unveiled on the 22nd July 1928 by Lieutenant General Sir Alexander Hamilton Gordon

Commemorated here

No. 62600 Private Harold Wiseman 2/4th Battalion King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry killed in action 22nd July 1918.  He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Soissons Memorial to the Missing, Aisne.

Harold Wiseman was born in the last quarter of 1899.  In March 1901 he was living with his parents James Wiseman (31) a Machine Moulder and Elizabeth Wiseman (29) at 376 Skipton Road, Keighley, West Yorkshire.  Harold had an elder sister Christiana (9) and a brother James (8).  Harold was baptised on the 24th October 1900.  All three children were born in Keighley.  By 1911 the family had moved to Ethel Street, Beachcliffe, Keighley, Yorkshire, Christiana had moved away, Harold’s brother James (18) was a Moulders Apprentice, Harold himself was 11 and at school.  He then had two sisters and 2 more brothers, Lizzie born on the 29th March 1901, Annie aged 7, Albert aged 4 and Fred aged 2 years.  These four children were also all born in Keighley.

The 2/4th Battalion was a Second Line Territorial Battalion, formed at Wakefield on the 30th September 1914 and with 2/5th Battalion King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, and the 2/4th and 2/5th York and Lancaster Regiment formed 187th Infantry Brigade in the 62nd (West Riding) Division.

Early on the 16th January 1917 the Battalion disembarked at Havre to join the rest of the 62nd Division units in the area of Frevent, which is about 21 miles West of Arras and about 7 miles South of St.Pol.

At that date, and in fact from 1914, the age limit for service overseas was 19 years and for enlistment 18 (although many enlisted under age).

The situation changed on the 25th March 1918 as a consequence of the German offensive which began on the 21st March 1918 when following an overwhelming Artillery bombardment of the positions held by the British 5th and 3rd Armies, German storm troopers led an attack over a 50 mile front advancing nearly 40 miles and approaching the key rail junction of Amiens. There was an urgent requirement for new troops and the age limit for service overseas was reduced to 18 years and 7 months, and later to 18 years 6 months which remained the position until the end of August 1918 when the limit for overseas service was put back to 19 years.

On the 9th April 1918 the Germans launched their second offensive on a narrow front against the Allied line from the La Bassee Canal to the south, east of Armentieres, across the Lys River and north  towards Messines Ridge. The tactical objectives were the key supply line of the railway from Calais through Hazebrouck, the Cassell-Poperinghe-Ypres road and the Flemish hills south of Poperinghe, Mont Noir, Scherpenberg and Kemmelberg.  The rail centre of Hazebrouck was probably the most important as the British front in Flanders depended upon it. If this was a bid for the Channel ports, it failed as by the 30th April 1918 when the attack was abandoned the enemy line gained was still well to the East of Hazebrouck, whilst Mont Kemmel had been taken, the more important feature Mont des Cats remained in Allied hands and whilst ground to the East of Ypres had been abandoned, Ypres itself remained in British hands. The Allies’ rail communications remained intact, the ports continued inviolate, no substantial groups of Allied troops had been isolated and overwhelmed leaving the enemy established in low wet land and overlooked by Allied forces.

German High Command held stubbornly to the view that the British line had to be broken round Ypres and Bailleul where there was the greatest chance of exploiting success but some action had to be taken first to induce movement of reserves away from Flanders and with this in mind the enemy prepared for an offensive in Champagne, primarily against the Chemin des Dames ridge, which runs above the Aisne River between Soissons and Reims.  At 1 a.m. on the 27th May 1918 a German barrage of high explosives and gas from more than 4000 artillery and mortar pieces fell on a 30 kilometre length of the Chemin des Dames. After over 2 hours bombardment two German armies advanced on the four French and three British divisions packed well forward and with their backs to the Aisne River, the French Commander General Denis Duchene ignoring the policy of organising a defence in depth. The German artillery shell and gas bombardment was followed by the infantry advance and the Allied front collapsed almost in its entirety.  By nightfall the Germans had crossed the Aisne and reached the river Vesle on a 9 mile front, that river running North West from Reims to join the Aisne East of Soissons.  The River Marne blocked any attempt by the enemy to advance south but on the banks of the river they were just over 50 miles from Paris and so the line of advance turned west but were held again by stubborn Allied resistance notably by the American divisions at Chateau Thierry and Belleau Wood.

The fourth German attack was on the 9th June when the German 18th and 7th Armies attacked the French front on a line south of Montdidier (to the west) to Noyon, west of the River Oise.  The Oise runs towards Paris from the north-east and to its west the River Matz runs parallel to it before turning east to join the larger river and the confluence of the Aisne and the Oise was at Compiegne, always in Allied hands.  General Ferdinand Foch, the Allied Commander in Chief, had concluded that the next German attack would be made in that area and a system of defence in depth awaited the enemy.  Even so the enemy advanced 6 miles but on the 11th June a surprise French counter-attack fell on the unsuspecting Germans who were cleared from the open plateau and the counter-attack was halted on the 12th June.  For the Germans, the results of their great offensives on the Aisne, the Marne and the Matz had been unsatisfactory.  Whilst inflicting heavy losses on the Allies the Germans had not succeeded in forcing the Allies to concentrate their forces on the southern front in sufficient quantity to endanger the Allies hold on the northern front, Flanders, and had in addition lost many of their finest troops.

In the Summer of 1918, Harold was 18 years and 6 months and went with a draft to France.  He had enlisted earlier and served initially with a Territorial Reserve Battalion.The new recruits would probably have been sent first to the camps and training ground at Etaples before joining their Battalions at the front, Harold joining the 2nd/4th Battalion in about June 1918, his Great Nephew understanding that Harold Wiseman had served at the Front for only 6 weeks before his death on the 22nd July 1918.  By the 24th June 1918 187th Brigade H.Q. was at Couin in the Somme sector when Four British Divisions, 15th, 34th, 51st and 62nd, were warned of a move south to join the French 5th Army.  The reason was that following the great German offensive south of Arras on the 21st March and then similar operations in April 1918 on the Lys  front, and May and June on the Aisne front, which had involved the British 8th, 21st, 25th and 30th Divisions sent there to rest, it was accepted as a certainty that a further attack on the French positions would follow.

On the 14th July 1918 the 62nd Division entrained for its move south, the 187th Brigade leaving from Doullens North. The 187th Brigade reached its billeting area, Aulay-sur-Marne (10 miles North West of Chalons-sur-Marne) on the 16th July.

The four British Divisions moved south were placed unreservedly under French control and on the 17th July the 62nd Division was moved from the French 4th Army area to the adjacent French 5th Army area.

This was in anticipation of the fifth (and final) German offensive in 1918.  This was to be directed both to the East and the West of Rheims (the city had been occupied for a short period in September 1914 by the enemy but for nearly four years had remained under German fire).  The objective was to complete the encirclement of Rheims, carry the hills surrounding the city, crush the French 4th Army and reach Chalons-sur-Marne.  This would continue to threaten Paris and the strategic object still remained, to draw British forces from Flanders so weakening that front for the final German attack in Flanders to reach the Channel ports. Described as the Counter-attack in Champagne, also as the Battles of the Marne 1918, it was divided into the Battle of the Soissonais and the Ourcq which involved the British 15th and 34th Divisions and the Battle of Tardenois, mainly the fighting for the Ardre Valley which involved the 51st and 62nd Divisions.

In broad terms, the scheme of the attack in which the 62nd and 51st Divisions were to take part was up the valley of the Ardre river to an objective some 5 miles from the starting point, in the Bois de Courtagnon just to the north of the village of that name.  The 62nd Division was to attack on the right of the river, with the 187th and 185th Brigades in the front line and the 186th in support some 2 miles in the rear to leap-frog the leading brigades when they had captured the first objective.  The 51st was on the left of the river, the river being in its upper course only 6 to 8 feet wide and fordable but the valley was 2,000 to 3,000 yards wide, open arable land with standing corn which concealed the German defences with soft marshy patches on both sides of the stream but the valley was bounded on both sides by ridges crowned by dense woods with very few rides in them and with undergrowth so thick that soldiers had the greatest difficulty in forcing their way through whilst the spurs on the edge of the woods afforded ideal positions for the German machine gunners to rake the valley.

After a horrendous march forward along tracks  and through the woods, with muddy paths and the foul stenches of gas and the decaying bodies of horses, the attacking troops were in position the 187th Brigade on the right with the 2nd/4th Battalion in reserve.

At 8 a.m. on the 20th July the assaulting brigades moved forward to the attack.   It was a brilliant morning, full of sunshine which flooded the cornfields over which part of the attack was moving forward. But these and the slopes leading up to the heights and the dense woods and the vineyards on the slopes concealed from view hostile positions of great strength and death lurked in the haze covering the fields and uplands.

The Battalion had to endure heavy shell fire for over an hour before 8 a.m. and had already lost one Company Commander and several other ranks before going forward 500 yards behind the 2/4th Yorks and Lancs. Though swept by machine-gun fire causing many casualties, the advance continued machine-guns being captured until a defensive flank was formed along the Courmas-Bouilly road and with the village of Courmas held their were good positions for continuing the attack on the following day. Quite unlike anything the Division had hitherto experienced in France, was the desperate fighting which took place on the 20th July.  The enemy clung tenaciously to his positions. His machine guns were skilfully concealed and handled and his snipers were everywhere where vantage ground could be made use of.

On the 21st July the 187th Brigade received orders to capture the Bois de Petit Champ and the Boulily ridge but the advance came to a halt because the creeping barrage was 600 yards in front of the 9th Durham Light Infantry, the attacking force, who came into a perfect inferno of “hundreds of machine-guns” and no troops could withstand that murderous fire so consolidation was ordered of the ground gained.  An equally unsuccessfull attack had been made by the 24th York and Lancs. Regiment on the Chateau de Commetreuil and with no fresh troops available the 187th Brigade was ordered to consolidate the ground gained, with the 9th Durham Light Infantry to be pulled out of the line as soon as possible.

On the 22nd July the 62nd Division only had the 5th Duke of Wellingtons involved to capture a salient which involved desperate fighting and the eventual capture of 41 German machine-guns and over 200 prisoners.

For the 187th Infantry Brigade, the 22nd July was a comparatively quiet day, the 9th Durham Light Infantry attacking towards Courmas with the 2/4th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry co-operating to protect the left flank of the attackers.  When the attack was brought to a standstill, the Battalion dug in on the line they had reached.  It was in the course of that operation that Private Wiseman was killed.

He was one of seven from the Battalion killed in action on the 22nd July 1918 all, with one exception, having no known grave and being commemorated on the Soissons Memorial to the Missing.

No. 39344 Private Horace Kenyon is buried in Jonchery-sur-Vesle British Cemetery, 10 miles West of Reims and created after the Armistice from isolated graves and cemeteries in the battlefields of May to August 1918.

Private Harold Wiseman was awarded the Victory and the British War Medals.

Commemorated here

The following were all killed in action on the 22nd July 1918 serving with the 2/4th Batttalion King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.

No. 16344 Private James Edward Dingley,
No. 41154 Private Bernard Leslie Morrell,
No. 62565 Private Harry Nutton,
No. 242885 Private Arthur Southam,
No. 51876 Private Ernest Telford.