Easter Sunday (8th April) 1917

Here for the following two weeks they were occupied in wire-cutting and bombardments on the Hindenburg line with 106 fuses. There is no specific entry on the 8 April concerning 140 SB just a general wire-cutting and bombardment continued. 

Tactical: Bombardment of the Hindenburg line 3-11 April. Casualties: (for the month) 8 Killed. 2 Officers and 26 OR’s wounded.

He was seriously wounded on Easter Sunday (8th April) 1917.  The battery he was with moved forward for a surprise attack at dawn.  They were having breakfast in the kitchen of an old farmhouse when a German spotter plane came over and saw them.  The Germans then shelled them first.  The farm suffered a direct hit and he was standing by a window and was blown out of it.  He was the only survivor of his party.  He had a piece of shrapnel go through the top of his right thigh and into his left. 

  He was seriously wounded and could not walk.  The piece of shrapnel was later removed and he kept it on his bedside table in hospital until someone pinched it. 

No:3 CCS records state. 12 casualties that day.  3 KIA, 5 DOW and 4 survived. 

The three killed were.   Corporal Edward Brittan (8028), from Wolverhampton, age 30,  Thomas Carter (70697), from London, age 30  and Walter Haylett (79091), also from London.   They are all buried together at the Achiet-le-Grand cemetery, 19km south of Arras [grave refs I C 6, 7 & 8].   

One report states.  Guns in action, 9 (for the whole group). 2 Gunners of 194 SB injured by shellfire’. [2 killed Martin & Kay].