Rifleman 52039 Edward Woods

 

Edward's service record has not survived but from the available records we know that he enlisted in Liverpool, in about January 1916 (based on the amount of the War Gratuity), as Private 52039, 19th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment. 

The 19th Battalion K.L.R. was heavily involved in the attack on the village of Guillemont at The Somme at the end of July 1916  The 19th Bn took part in the Battle of Arras in April 1917 and in May moved north to the Ypres Salient.  


Edward’s name appeared in the list of Wounded published in Liverpool Daily Post on 10th September 1917 (details not known).  The 6th Bn moved south to Cambrai, and suffered heavy casualties during the surprise German counter attack on 30th November 1917. 

 

Edward was declared Missing, and his death later assumed for official purposes as having occurred on or shortly after 30th November 1917, in action or from wounds.

There is a note concerning a memo dated 20th February 1918 from Lt. James Pilgrim stating that he had recovered and buried Edward's body. The Battalion had left the area where Woods was killed in early Dec 1917, so this memo must have concerned a burial at that time. Sadly this burial place was subsequently lost or destroyed in the battles that followed as Edward is commemorated on the Cambrai Memorial, Louverval, Nord.

The CAMBRAI MEMORIAL commemorates more than 7,000 servicemen of the United Kingdom and South Africa who died in the Battle of Cambrai in November and December 1917 and whose graves are not known.

Sir Douglas Haig described the object of the Cambrai operations as the gaining of a 'local success by a sudden attack at a point where the enemy did not expect it' and to some extent they succeeded. The proposed method of assault was new, with no preliminary artillery bombardment. Instead, tanks would be used to break through the German wire, with the infantry following under the cover of smoke barrages.

The attack began early in the morning of 20 November 1917 and initial advances were remarkable. However, by 22 November, a halt was called for rest and reorganisation, allowing the Germans to reinforce. From 23 to 28 November, the fighting was concentrated almost entirely around Bourlon Wood and by 29 November, it was clear that the Germans were ready for a major counter attack. During the fierce fighting of the next five days, much of the ground gained in the initial days of the attack was lost.

For the Allies, the results of the battle were ultimately disappointing but valuable lessons were learnt about new strategies and tactical approaches to fighting. The Germans had also discovered that their fixed lines of defence, no matter how well prepared, were vulnerable.

The Cambrai Memorial was designed by Harold Chalton Bradshaw with sculpture by Charles S. Jagger. It was unveiled by Lieut-General Sir Louis Vaughan on 4 August 1930.

The memorial stands on a terrace at one end of LOUVERVAL MILITARY CEMETERY. The chateau at Louverval, was taken by the 56th Australian Infantry Battalion at dawn on 2 April 1917. The hamlet stayed in Allied hands until the 51st (Highland) Division was driven from it on 21 March 1918 during the great German advance, and it was retaken in the following September.

Parts of Rows B and C of the cemetery were made between April and December 1917 and in 1927, graves were brought in from Louverval Chateau Cemetery, which had been begun by German troops in March 1918 and used by Commonwealth forces in September and October 1918.

The cemetery now contains 124 First World War burials.