47012. Private Alfred Thomas John Hobbs

25th. (Service) (Tyneside Irish) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. Formerly 2513. Private, (Territorial) (Hampshire) Royal Engineers. Born 1891 in Portsmouth. Enlisted in Portsmouth. Lived in 73 North End Avenue, Portsmouth. Killed in Action on the first day of The Battle of Arleux, on Saturday 28th. April 1917, aged 26. Lost Without Trace. No Known Grave. Known unto God. Commemorated on Bay 2 and 3 of The Arras Memorial to The Missing, in the Faubourg-d'Amiens Cemetery. Son of Mr. A. S. and Mrs. C. C. Hobbs. 

Alfred is also commemorated on Panel 8 of The Guildhall Square Cenotaph in Portsmouth City Centre.

THIS MEMORIAL WAS

ERECTED BY THE

PEOPLE OF PORTSMOUTH

IN PROUD AND LOVING

MEMORY OF THOSE

WHO IN THE GLORIOUS

MORNING OF THEIR DAYS

FOR ENGLANDS SAKE LOST

ALL BUT ENGLANDS PRAISE

MAY LIGHT PERPETUAL

SHINE UPON THEM

THIS WAR MEMORIAL WAS UNVEILED BY

FIELD-MARSHAL HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS

THE DUKE OF CONNAUGHT K.G.

ON THE 19TH OCTOBER 1921

THIS MEMORIAL WAS ERECTED

BY PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION

IN HONOUR OF PORTSMOUTH'S SONS

WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR 1914 - 1918

COUNCILLOR JOHN TIMPSON K.S.T. J.P.

MAYOR 1918 - 1921

A staggering total of 83 of Alfred’s Comrades from the Battalion also Fell on this day, together with the following 5 Officers, all of whom were Killed in Action:

Second Lieutenant Arthur Henry Ayling

Second Lieutenant Percy Cyril Cox 

Second Lieutenant William Mitchell 

Second Lieutenant Thomas Pearson Prudham 

Second Lieutenant Hugh Graham Wheeler

Erich Ludendorff on the Second Battle of the Aisne and Third Battle of Champagne, Official Announcement 28 April 1917.

A very heavy drum fire, which was begun before daybreak over the whole front from Lens as far as Queant, was the prelude to a battle by which the British for the third time hoped to pierce the German lines near Arras.

By midday the great battle was decided by a heavy defeat of the British.

At dawn, on a front of about thirty kilometres, British storming columns followed curtains of steel, dust, gas, and smoke, which had been advanced by degrees. The weight of the enemy thrust north of the Scarpe was directed against our positions from Acheville as far as Roeux, where the battle raged with extraordinary violence.

The British forced their way into Arleux-en-Gohelle and Oppy and near Gavrelle and Roeux, occupied by us as advanced positions. They were met by a counter-attack by our infantry. In a severe hand-to-hand struggle the enemy was defeated. At some points he was driven beyond our former lines, the whole of which, with the exception of Arleux-en-Gohelle, is again in our hands.

South of the Scarpe, in the lowlands, a desperate battle also raged. In their wrecked positions our brave troops withstood the British charges, repeated several times. Here also the British attacks failed. On the wings of the battlefield enemy attacking waves broke down under destructive fire. The British losses were extraordinarily heavy.

April 28th was a new day of honour. Our infantry powerfully led and excellently supported by its sister and auxiliary arm, showed itself fully equal to its tasks.

Unfortunately, the violence of the enemy fire prevents us from repairing our trenches. Any attempt to do so merely exhausts the fighting force of our men prematurely. From the outset of a battle another method of construction must be applied.

A defensive zone extended in depth must be substituted for the old system of positions which can be destroyed by the enemy. This system, with its organizations concealed as far as possible from the enemy's observation, and with the troops holding it echeloned in depth so that their numbers, scanty in the front, increase progressively towards the rear, should enable us to pass from the defensive to the offensive with the troops from the rear.

During the battle all idea of having a continuous front-trench line must be abandoned. This must be replaced by shell crater nests, held by groups of men and isolated machine guns, disposed like the squares on a chess-board. The shelter provided by the shell-craters will be extended by tunnelling into the sides, or by linking them to adjacent craters by means of tunnels, supported by timber props.

The earth dislodged should be thrown into unoccupied craters near by, or, if the nature of the position permits it, should be spread over the ground between them. If timbered galleries cannot be built owing to the wetness of the ground, one must be content with very simple organizations to afford protection against shrapnel.

For this purpose old shelters, dug before the new order of things, may be used, but if none are available the men must obtain shelter as best they can on the open ground. There should be a line of barbed wire in front of the first line of shell-craters, and the empty craters in front of it should be girdled with wire to prevent the assaulting infantry from occupying them.

Barry Jenkins