Key dates over November 1917
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Lives lost on this day: 20
20th November 1917 - Battle of Cambrai. Using tanks, aircraft and artillery a major advance is made into the Hindenburg Line.
Rolling casualty count: 8163
War Front:
1st Batt. Holding muddy shell holes. Captured prisoners past Passchendaele
4th Batt In assembly positions between Gouzeaucourt and Villers Plouich. Following tank assault, the Battalion advanced across captured trenches towards canal crossing at Masnieres. A tank leading the Worcestershires south of the town mounted the bridge which collapsed into the canal, halting the advance. Battalion Commander, Colonel Linton was killed by a sniper.
Yeomanry Rode to Deir Ayub guarding Wadi Aly in pouring rain
Home Front:
This afternoon, about 3.10, John Crosby Johns (68), shoemaker, of 17, Copenhagen Street, Worcester, was found hanging by a rope from a railing at the top of some steps near his house. Mrs. Johns immediately reported her discovery to the police and Sergt. Wilkes cut down the body and commenced artificial respiration, but without avail. The man had been dead about a quarter of an hour.
Pte. Arthur Sanders, son of Mr. Matthew Sanders, an employee of Mr. Maddocks, farmer, Martin Hussingtree, is reported as being in hospital at Bradford, in a bad condition. In France he underwent a serious operation.
City Police Court: Henry George (12), Archibald George (9), 31 Little Boughton Street and George Edward Cox (12), 23, Powell’s Row, all schoolboys, were charged with stealing from the Pavilion, Boughton Cricket Ground, one cricket bat, three cricket stumps and two golf balls, valued 16s., the property of William Souch. Cox did not appear. Mr. Souch (caretaker of the Pavilion) said that on the 6th November he saw the articles safe and later saw that a board had been broken off the Pavilion. D.S. Penlington said that he recovered the articles from a wood in Boughton Park. The Chief Constable said that these boys had been in the habit of sleeping out at nights. Mrs. George asked that the boys might be birched. Her sister would take one of the boys. The elder boy was ordered to receive six strokes of the birch and the younger four strokes.
Food Economy: Miss Edith Taylor, of the Ministry of Food, addressed a meeting of the Angel Street Sisterhood on Monday evening on the subject of food economy. There was a large attendance. Miss Taylor said she was not there to ask them to make any sacrifices above those which God would give them strength to make, but rather to take up their privileges to help those who were dear to them. She did not ask them to stint themselves of food necessary for the upkeep of their bodies but to see that in their homes there was no waste. She explained the difficulties of importing food owing to the enemy’s action and said that if there had been any extravagance and waste before the war it was very wrong, but today it was criminal, because it meant literally wasting the lives of men.
Information researched by The Worcestershire World War 100 team
Casualties
- Pte. Bertram George Allum 235264 - 1st Bn Worcs Reg
- Pte. Joseph Badman 41172 - 4th Bn Worcs Reg
- Pte. George Percy Carter 38275 - 4th Bn Worcs Reg
- Lt. Sidney Thomas Dixon 4th Bn Worcs Reg
- Pte. George Gerald Frank Fisher 38584 - 4th Bn Worcs Reg
- Pte. Charles Edward Gardner 46858 - 4th Bn Worcs Reg
- Pte. Frank Greaves 235093 - 4th Bn Worcs Reg
- Pte. Richard Joseph Griffiths 40661 - 4th Bn Worcs Reg
- L/Cpl. William Bell Heskey 40743 - 4th Bn Worcs Reg
- Pte. Victor Horton 27228 - 1st Bn Worcs Reg
- A/Lt.-Col. Charles Strangways Linton 4th Bn Worcs Reg
- Pte. Thomas Painter 19196 - 1st Bn Worcs Reg
- 2/Lt. Ben Harry Steele 1st Bn Worcs Reg
- Gunner Albert Edward Foskett 91645 - Royal Tank Corps
- Pte. Albert Hawkins 65388 - Machine Gun Corps
- Pte. Frederick Ford 201202 - Kings Shropshire Light Infantry
- Pte. James Espley 21469 - Kings Shropshire Light Infantry
- Pte. John Cecil Septimus Minnett 203422 - Princess Charlotte of Wales's (Royal Berkshire) Regiment
- Pte. William Hayton 37719 - Princess Charlotte of Wales's (Royal Berkshire) Regiment
- Pte. Albert Shakespeare 201227 - Royal Tank Corps