Military History

John is listed as being killed in action on 6th September 1917. The 2nd/6th Battalion war diary entries for the period 4th to 11th September are transcribed below.

Pommern Castle [SE of St. Julien] – 4.9.17: A quiet day except for occasional heavy shelling of line Pommern Castle – Bank Farm. During night B Coy moved up and relieved A Coy in Pommern Castle. C Coy moved back into Support and A Coy remained in the neighbourhood of Bank Farm, our most forward troops having to be evacuated before dawn to allow the heavies to bombard Hill 35. 2/Lt A.W. Johnson was slightly wounded but remained at duty.

Pommern Castle – 5.9.17: 5” and 8” howitzers shelled Hill 35 all day and harassing fire was brought to bear on the gun emplacements by 18 pdrs. It was determined to make another attempt to capture the gun emplacements on Hill 35 shortly after dark. A creeping 18 pr. Barrage was to be employed this time.

Before zero B Coy (Capt B.A. Saunders) deployed into assault formation to the east of Pommern Castle. At Zero the 18 pr barrage opened on a line roughly half way between Pommern Castle and the gun emplacements.

At zero + 5 the barraged lifted on to the emplacements and B Coy followed it.
At zero +10 the barrage lifted off the objective and remained on its protective line till zero 2 hours.

On the barrage lifting off the objective B Coy assaulted. The assault was much broken up by machine gun fire but some portions of the 2^nd & 3^rd waves actually reached the emplacements. Severe fighting ensued which lasted an hour, when, in response to the second S.O.S sent up by the enemy a heavy barrage was put round the northern and western sides of the emplacements and about 50 yards from them. `This barrage was additional to the one invariably put down on the line Pommern Castle – Bank Farm and made the sending up of assistance to B Coy extremely difficult.

Small parties of B Coy still persisted in trying to effect an entrance into the emplacements and pill-boxes in rear, but the machine gun fire of the enemy prevented this. B Coy was eventually withdrawn to Pommern Castle about 11.30pm.

Our casualties were: Other Ranks – killed 13, wounded 56 and missing 7.

Pommern Castle – 6.9.17: Commencing about 1am relief by the 2/5^th R War R was carried out. Relief was complete about 4am.

Battalion moved back to right support.

Pommern Castle  – 7.9.17: The battalion was in right support and was relieved by the 2/4^th Oxford & Bucks on the night of 7/8^th. Relief was complete by midnight and the battalion proceeded by train from St. Jean to Query Camp (Vlamertinghe).

Query Camp (Vlamertinghe) – 8.9.17 – 11.9.17: The Battalion remained at Query Camp and re-fitted.