25th September 1918

You may or may not know that periodically I've tried to write what my Grandfathers were doing 100 years ago. Both were in the trenches, one a cavalryman one an infantryman. L/Cpl Alfred Gowers MM  2nd Bn The Middlesex Regiment was invalided out of the army in March 1918, my other Grandad was compulsorily transferred from the 1st (Kings) Dragoon Guards to the 15th Bn The Royal Warwickshire Regiment in September 1917 so for the past year he had been an infantryman, although they were sent to the Italian front to help bolster the Italian army from German and Austrian attack  the 15/Warwick's along with many other units were rushed back to the Western front in March 1918 when the Germans  launched Operation Michel. So devastating attack was it that the Allies were forced back to their positions of 1914. Eventually their attack lost impetus and stalled. The British got their collective act together and started to push the Germans back  and continued to do so  though not without loss. 100 years ago today his battalion had practised  for a forthcoming attack and the prepared to relive the 1st Bn The Devonshire Regiment from the trenches at Haplincourt in Northern France ready for an attack on the 27th.