Pte. E. Windress

FIRST NAMES: Ernest

UNIT: 2nd Yorkshire Regiment

NUMBER: 30461

STATUS: Killed in Action

DATE OF DEATH: 22nd March 1918

CEMETERY OR MEMORIAL: The Pozieres Memorial

AGE: 31

Private Windress was born in Brompton and enlisted in Northallerton, though he was living in Brompton at the time. His parents were William and Isabel Windress of High End, Brompton.

He originally joined the 4th Yorkshires and was wounded in the face while serving with them in November 1916. He recovered from his wounds and subsequently joined the 2nd Battalion.

He was killed, aged 31, when the 2nd Yorkshires were forced to make a fighting withdrawal from their positions around the village of Roupy, in front of and to the South of a position known as Stanley Redoubt, a few kilometres South East of the town of St. Quentin.

On the previous day the Germans had launched a series of huge attacks on the Allied lines. They hoped to gain a decisive victory on the Western Front before the influence of America's entry into the War tipped the balance of power against them. Using new infiltration tactics, which were greatly helped by a heavy mist on the morning of the attack, the Germans broke through the Allied lines in several places and began an advance, the like of which had not been seen since the early months of the War. In front of Roupy, however, the Germans did not have things so easy. The mist cleared earlier than in other places and No-Mans Land was particularly wide in this area of the Line. Despite heavy fighting all day, in which the 2nd Yorkshires lost some of their positions and then regained them in a counter-attack, the Germans were unable to break through.

Unfortunately the following day, German advances on either side forced the battalion to abandon their positions and withdraw down what is now the D930 from Roupy, through Fluquieres and Aubigny to Ham, from where they were sent to rest billets at Muille-Villette.

Ernest Windress was killed during this withdrawal and his body was never recovered. His name is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial to the Missing.