HAWORTH soldier Joseph Martin was just one of the 566 men posted dead or missing during the battle at Grande Bois on April 25, 1918.

And like many of the others, Private Martin’s body was never found following the massive German attack on the Allied lines.

There is no known burial place for the 23-year-old house painter who had signed up for the army the previous September.

Joseph, born in Oakworth in 1994, a former Haworth Church choir boy, was living in the Coldshaw area of Haworth and working for painter and decorator Heaton Whitaker when he enlisted.

Within a month he had been charged twice for not complying with a regimental order, each time confined to barracks for three days.

He entered France in March 1918, lasted just over a month on the frontlines before the “significant” enemy attack.

The assault began with an early-morning gas barrage, an hour-long bombardment and the cutting of the British telephone lines before the enemy attacked from the front and both flanks.

With communications down and groups of men fighting rearguard actions or retreating, two reserve platoons were sent to form a defensive flank to the north of Grande Bois.

Fighting continued well into the evening, with Scottish, Australian and Newfoundland soldiers joining the fighting, and the Germans advancing along the Wytschaetbook valley.