OXENHOPE soldier Bertie Robert Ayers endured horrendous conditions in the trenches in the days before he died.

The suffering on the frontlines at Zonnebeke was graphically described in the battalion’s war diary for those autumn days of 1917.

Dover-born Bertie, living in Lowertown with his wife and seven children and working as a spring finisher with George Emmott’s at Wadsworth Mill in Oxenhope before the war, died with four comrades during the onslaught.

For the West Riding Regiment’s 1st/5th battalion, October 7 began with a long night of shelling followed by even more persistent daytime barrages.

Troops hid in shell holes as the trench was “practically destroyed” and shrapnel burst across the sky. C Company had its headquarters blown in with the captain killed.

The diary stated: “The foremost company reported at 7pm that its frontline platoon had been blown out of the trenches and the men and equipment buried.

“The right platoon commander sent up the SOS first when he saw the enemy massing for a counter-attack.

“The men were very exhausted, tired, and weary under the very exacting and trying conditions. Many were waist deep in mud and water.”

The night passed “fairly quietly beyond the usual shelling” – but by then Private Ayers was dead.