14th sept 1914
at 2am Lt scully with half of C.coy,moved out of the wood to take the village,after reaching a german trench about ten yards away,they came under very heavy machine gun fire,men began to drop all around and we were caused to retire back to our support line in the wood,we lost eight men killed and several wounded,we took up positions to watch the village and the ridge beyond,on our left,the rest of the battalion also made an advance,but were stopped by heavy machine gun and artillery fire.
L/cpl 8887 sylvester lord,56 horsedge st,oldham
pte 8909 john mccabe,1 ledge st,ancoats
L/cpl 8885 william donovan,kew rd,patricroft
pte 2846 john cummings,back drake st,rochdale
cpl 1972 george appleton,32 howard st,city rd,hulme
pte 8067 percy bell,12 hall st,moston
pte 8123 john,thomas wood,28 bury st,salford
L/cpl 9723 arthur smith,17 ivy st,patricroft
the following day had us making improvements to our line,during which time,we were under constant sniper fire and occasional shelling,two men were killed by shell fire,cpl 226 edward searle of ashton,and later in the afternoon while issueing rations,cpl 2027 william,james marsh,19 barnardo st,stepney,london.
on 16th we were still being constantly sniped along with the occasional shelling,one shrapnel shell accounted for ten of our men
pte 8670 joseph walkden,7 anglesea ave,harpurhey
pte 7989 richard metcalf,4 cavendish st,salford
pte 63 reuben mckew,12 gorton place,longsight
L/cpl 386 william massey,of salford
pte 2657 john flannery,33 perserverance st,sale
L/cpl 9893 william burns,83 king edward st,salford
cpl 8545 george leadson,18 kirkmanshulme lane,longsight
csm 8731 james,gust morris,12 adam st,ashton
pte 410 arnold hilton,hawthorne grove,manchester rd,ashton
pte 7984 richard,edwin furnival,8 furnace st,dukinfield
cpl leadson had only been promoted today,for his previous gallantry on the field
pte 1274 walter barden,10 winter st,hurst,was hit in the back later in the day,by a shell splinter
we later heard that sgt rothwell had died of his wounds in hospital
sgt 9594 percy rothwell,14 robinson st,ashton
