Day 941. Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE GEORGE EDWARD WARNES 11/1320. Born in Fort William, Inverness George was living in Hull when war broke out and enlisted at City Hall joining the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, The Tradesmen, 2nd Hull Pals. Details of his birth and early life are unavailable as Scottish census records are not listed, and with his military records absent too I am working as I am often forced to and telling his story through the history of the battalion. A veteran of Egypt, the Somme, Oppy Wood and Vimy Ridge George was killed in action on 12th April 1918 during the darkest hours of the German Spring Offensive when the line was broken and enemy soldiers, fresh from the Eastern Front, stormed through aiming to take Paris and end the war. Field Marshall Haig issued his infamous To the last man statement to British forces in a desperate bid to restore some order to the retreat and to allow the Allies chance to dig in and hold a new line. In the coming days he would come to praise the Pals for their actions in holding up the German forces at this pivotal moment, but it was at the cost of hundreds of lives and George, like so many of his fallen comrades, was simply never seen again alive or dead; his name is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 19:22:42 +0000
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