Clifford HEATON

333542, Private. b. 1897, Clayton d. Mon. 14th October 1918 (aged 21).

Another Clayton soldier in a Scottish regiment, Clifford had enlisted on the 28th September 1916 (his 19th birthday) into the 9th Battalion (the Glasgow Highlands) of the Highland Light Infantry leaving his job in the office at Messrs. John Kennan and Co. of Chapel Lane behind him. He had lived at home until his time of enlistment at 20, Bradford Road with his parents Fred and Emily.

He arrived in France in early 1917 and spent over eighteen months serving in the trenches throughout various campaigns and battles. Clifford’s death finally came when the Allies were within sight of victory and within a month of the end of the war. From about June 1918 the Allies had realised that the German Spring Offensive, although costing them many thousands of lives and many square miles, had slowed to a halt. There are many complex and confusing factors which contributed to this, but in essence the German Army had virtually run out of supplies, whilst at the same time did not have an adequate supply route to move its remaining food up to the front line soldiers. When this was combined with the fact that many of the troops did not believe in what they were fighting for any more and just wanted to go home to their families, it equated to a very precarious situation for the German Army.
The Allies took advantage of this, and organised a counter-offensive which was not only to reclaim the ground that they had lost, but also to push the Germans out of France for good. This offensive began in the August of 1918 and continued throughout the remainder of the war until the Armistice.

The region where Clifford was stationed was originally a German held trench from 1914 to 1917, when the German retreat to the Hindenburg line in May 1917 had allowed the Allied Forces to occupy it. The Hindenburg Line was effectively a fall back position built by the Germans where the trenches were especially deep and fortified, and was virtually impregnable to attacking forces. After heavy losses in early 1917, this is where the German’s effectively re-grouped and planned their next step. After the Allies had taken the German trenches around Rocquigny and Equancourt they stayed there until March 23rd 1918 when the German Spring Offensive reclaimed them. It took the Allies nearly eight months to reclaim these again, and it was only just as they were being reclaimed that Clifford was killed in action. His comrades buried him that evening in the local cemetery.

Clifford is buried at ROCQUIGNY-EQUANCOURT ROAD BRITISH CEMETERY, MANANCOURT, France.