PRIVATE 103569 HARRY BELLERBY, 36th BATTALION MACHINE GUN CORPS. KILLED IN ACTION 21st MARCH 1918, AGED 21 YEARS.


PRIVATE 103569 HARRY BELLERBY, 36th BATTALION MACHINE GUN CORPS. KILLED IN ACTION 21st MARCH 1918, AGED 21 YEARS.


At 4.40am on the morning of the 21st April 1918 German artillery began to bombard the British lines. In little over 5 hours they fired over 1.000.000 gas and high explosive shells into the front held by the British Fifth Army to begin what was called the Kaiserschlacte, the Kaisers Battle. The barrage was on a momentous scale and had been carefully planned to hit not only units in the front line but also those further back such as heavy artillery positions. As the barrage subsided crack German 'Stormtroops' using infiltration tactics advanced against the British trenches. The British battalions in the undermanned front line took the full force of the assault and whole units would effectively cease to exist. As the aggressive German attack progressed the British front began to crumple and then collapsed forcing the defenders to retreat. The Germans poured men into the breach and it would take a month of hard fighting to stabilise the front.


Harry Bellerby was in the front line with the 36th Battalion Machine Gun Corps near to the village of Hapencourt in the Somme area, when the enemy barrage began. The battalion war diary records that mist along with smoke from the artillery bombardment meant that visibility was reduced to less than 100 yards. It was out of this mist that the Stormtroops emerged to attack the bewildered defenders. Young Harry was with his comrades in a trench at the height of the bombardment when a shell landed nearby killing both him and his friends.

Because of the extreme confusion caused by the German attack Harry's parents were only told that their son had been reported missing. In normal circumstances unless any other news was forthcoming they would have to wait for 6 months until he could be officially declared dead. However, a few weeks later harry's mother received a letter from a young woman in Leicester which included with it a photograph of Harry. The woman explained that her fiance who was a prisoner of war in Germany had sent her the photograph with a request to forward it to Harry's family. She explained that her boyfriend was a stretcher bearer with Harry's unit and had found him dead. He had retrieved the photo from Harry's pocket and noticing an address on the rear vowed to return it to his family.

Harry was only 21 years old when he was killed. Born in Addingham to William Bellerby, a carter, and his wife Annie they had moved to Ilkley and lived at 10 Brewery Road. After leaving school he had been employed as a parcel van driver at Ilkley Railway Station. Conscripted into the army in 1916 he arrived on the Western Front in August the following year.

Private Harry Bellerby has no known grave and is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial to the Missing. He is also remembered with pride on our war memorial here in Ilkley.

Photo of Harry courtesy of James Cooper.

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