Posted 18 June 2012 - 06:53 PM
The quote below is from my forthcoming book on 1/Northumberlands.
1170 Pte Albert Chatfield is listed in the War Diary as wounded on 9 September.
Hope this is some help
Regards
Bayne (John Sneddon)
The 3rd Division reached the Marne two days behind schedule. The
Northumberlands were instructed to secure the crossing at Nanteuil
and to proceed with caution as the crossing could be defended and the
Brigade was unable to provide artillery support. In the darkness “W”
and “Z”, the assault companies, took up their in the woods along the
top of the valley overlooking the river and when there was just enough
light to see each platoon, in steady lines ten yards apart, stepped out
from the wood and onto the grassy slope. As they moved into the open
the men shook out, five paces apart and stared into the abyss for before
138
The Devil’s Carnival
them lay over 1000 yards of open slope, stretching to infinity in the pale
dawn towards the river. They were without cover and in full view of
any enemy concealed on the northern bank and as they moved steadily
down the hill to the sound of the tramp of boots on the damp grass
and their own rasped breathing they were painfully aware that a single
traversing machine gun could wipe them from the face of the earth but
from the enemy there was nothing; no artillery; no machine guns. At
the bottom thy separated, “W” moving on Nanteuil, and “Z” on Citry,
a hamlet about half a mile to the southeast unable to believe that they
were going to be allowed to reach their objectives unmolested. In the
village there were no sign of the enemy and even the bridge was intact
and the excited inhabitants, who crowded around them, told them
that during the previous day exhausted columns of German infantry,
cavalry and artillery had passed rapidly through the village and across
the river, not even stopping to loot the houses as they passed.
As they crossed the bridge and passed over the top of the ridge on the
northern bank the nature of the countryside changed and they found
themselves in a tangle of small roads and lanes that threaded through
woods choked with a dense undergrowth of brambles, bracken and small
bushes through which they pushed with difficulty. It was in this wood that
Lieutenant Cogan’s platoon came to grief. They were in the wood covering
the flank of “Z” Company when they pushed out of the undergrowth
onto a small rise leading to a clearing. Moving cautiously forward to
reconnoitre, Cogan, using his field glasses, could just make out the spiked
helmets of a well-concealed machine gun crew across the clearing and
although invisible to the naked eye he called forward his best six shots
and ordered them to fire at the base of a tree just behind the machine gun.
Unfortunately the enemy must have laid their gun on their exact position
for no sooner had they opened fire when the enemy retaliated with a single
burst which wounded Lieutenant Cogan and all six men.
Casualties 9th September
Killed
‘X’ Company . 692 Pte Connor.
‘Z’ Company. 8811 Pte Cawthery, 963 Pte Lucker.
Wounded:
‘X’ Company. 740 Pte Barron, 1170 Pte Chatfield, 925 Pte Lumerton,
703 Pte Morris.
‘Z’ Company. 1066 Pte Bestwick, 8707 Pte Lough, 1574 Pte Demain,
1606 Pte Wheeler, 1307 Pte Gandon, 1375 Pte Williams, 9310 L/C Udal
Lieut. C.T.S. Cogan.
10 September. Thursday
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