PRIVATE 39318 FRED HAWKINS, 2/8th BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT.


PRIVATE 39318 FRED HAWKINS, 2/8th BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 22nd NOVEMBER 1917, AGED 28


The Battle of Passchendaele had drawn to a wet and muddy close in the middle of November 1917, but weeks before the British High Command had already begun planning for the next offensive. Tanks had become an established part of British attacks and planners believed that there use en-mass could provide an opportunity to breach the German defenses. Under conditions of great secrecy the British gathered hundreds of tanks behind the lines near to the lines at Cambrai north of the old Somme battlefield. On 20th November an attack was launched spearheaded by the British tanks followed by thousands of infantry. The attack was successful beyond expectations as the enemy defences crumbled in front of this mechanical onslaught. British celebrations included the ringing of church bells back in Britain but the joy was premature as in subsequent days the attack became bogged down as the tanks were either destroyed or pulled out of the battle because of mechanical problems.


The 2/8th West Yorkshire Regiment had gone 'over the top' on the opening day of the battle and following the tanks had easily obtained their objectives with a minimum of casualties. However, by the 22nd of November the default of attritional trench warfare returned. At 7.05 the Germans launched a a major counterattack supported by a heavy artillery barrage, against the battalion The West Yorkshires defended their  lines all day and even sought to employ their own counter offensive. However, the casualty rate was high as the West Yorkshire lost many men including Private Fred Hawkins who was killed.

Fred Hawkins was born in Ilkley in 1889 the son of William, a stone mason and his wife Alice. The eldest of five children he lived at the family home at 82 Ash Grove. Before the war he appears to have worked as a labourer and married Leonora May Roberts from Menston on the 7th June 1909. At some stage Fred and his new wife moved to York with there 4 children, although, the eldest son died in 1915. It appears that he enlisted into the West Yorkshire Regiment in York and arrived on the Western Front in early 1917 when he was attached to the 2/8th Battalion.

Private Fred Hawkins has no known grave and is commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing at Cambrai and remembered with pride on our war memorial in Ilkley.




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