SKELTON - IN - CLEVELAND
IN HISTORY
"WE WILL REMEMBER THEM"

Private GEORGE VINTER.

27904, 3rd Bn, Grenadier Guards

who died, age 19, on the 17th November 1917.

Son of George and Mary Vinter, of 59 Red Lion St, Redcar, N Yorks.


Cambrai Memorial, Louverval.
16k SW of Cambrai.

Private Vinter is remembered on the plaque in Skelton Church.
Any other connection with Skelton not yet found.

The 3rd Battalion of the Grenadier Guards were formed in August 1914 in Wellington Barracks, London District. Private Vinter lost his life 3 days before the launch of the Battle of Cambrai.
Sir Douglas Haig described the object of the Cambrai operations as the gaining of a 'local success by a sudden attack at a point where the enemy did not expect it' and to some extent they succeeded.
The proposed method of assault was new, with no preliminary artillery bombardment.
Instead, tanks would be used to break through the German wire, with the infantry following under the cover of smoke barrages.
The attack began early in the morning of 20 November 1917 and initial advances were remarkable.
However, by 22 November, a halt was called for rest and reorganisation, allowing the Germans to reinforce.
From 23 to 28 November, the fighting was concentrated almost entirely around Bourlon Wood and by 29 November, it was clear that the Germans were ready for a major counter attack.
During the fierce fighting of the next five days, much of the ground gained in the initial days of the attack was lost.
For the Allies, the results of the battle were ultimately disappointing but valuable lessons were learnt about new strategies and tactical approaches to fighting.
The Germans had also discovered that their fixed lines of defence, no matter how well prepared, were vulnerable.
On a terrace at one end of the Louverval Military cemetery stands the Cambrai Memorial, which commemorates more than 7,000 servicemen of the United Kingdom and South Africa who died in the Battle of Cambrai in November and December 1917 and whose graves are not known.