Walter Jenkins
No / Rank: 36279 Private
Regiment: Welsh Regiment
(Formerly 18809 South Wales Borderers)
Battalion: 1st Battalion
Born: Machen, Mon.
Enlisted: Newport, Mon.
Residence: Machen, Mon.
Date Died: 02.10.1916
How Died: Killed in Action
Theatre of War: France and Flanders
Brigade: 84th Division: 28th (Regular Army)
Commemorated
at the Loos Memorial.
Private Walter Jenkins joined his battalion in France on May
5th 1915, having previously served with the South Wales Borderers. He
is commemorated on the Loos Memorial to the Missing, Dud Corner, 5 kms
west of Lens. The memorial lists over 20,000 British troops who have no
known grave and is located almost on the site of a German strongpoint,
the Lens Road Redoubt.
The Battle of Loos (25th September – 4th November 1915) was
one of the first major British Offensives of the Great War. After the
initial success of the first day of the battle in September a bloody
stalemate ensued.
The 1st Battalion of the Welsh Regiment was to attack a trench
- Little Willie - adjacent to a strongpoint known as the Hohnzollern
Redoubt (see later entry). during the night of 1st October 1915. The
attack began well with the Battalion getting to within 100 yards of
their objective before being discovered.

‘Then from both flanks machine guns opened fire. The
commanding officers voice rang out “forward the 41st, get at ‘em Welsh”
In 20 seconds there were 250 men and a proportion of officers on the
floor the remainder were in the trench bayoneting those in the trench
and firing at the retreating Prussian Guards……………It was a gallant
little affair.
The confusion brought about by the poor state of the trenches
left the battalion cut off from food, water, ammunition and
reinforcement. The battalion attempted to link their isolated position
with the British line by digging towards the front line trenches. At
one point the regimental history describes an incident where 14 men in
succession were killed whilst attempting continue trench digging in an
exposed position, the area so small that only one person at a time
could work. The battalion was under almost continual artillery fire and
suffered numerous grenade attacks.
‘The whole night and morning was spent in bombing battles
on each flank. The Welsh had the best of these battles wounding and
taking prisoners – by 10 am the bombs were finished – the enemy’s
supplies were unlimited. The situation was serious. Having no bombs the
enemy moved up gradually from both flanks. The enemy opened up with a
minenwerfer shell this is what the soldiers call “sausage up”. The
shell, having reached the distance it is regulated for, drops down
perpendicularly and can be seen all the way and can be dodged – the men
were now so congested it was impossible to get out of the way. – When
one lands in a trench six men in the vicinity disappear.
The diary goes on to say that ‘These operations were
carried out with tired troops who had been in the trenches and moving
from one position to another as reserve troops for eight days and eight
nights’. All officers behaved magnificently but the casualties were
very severe 370 N.C.O.’s and men 15 officers.
On the 3rd of October the 1st Welsh were relieved and moved
back to Vermelles after being without food or water for 48 hours. The
attack failed to meet any of its key objectives.
Walter Jenkins is
commemorated at the Loos Memorial.

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