2nd Battalion, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment)
Killed in action on Thursday, 4th October 1917, aged 20
Personal Information:
Leonard Frederick Rattle was born on 2 April 1896 at Rumburgh Suffolk, the youngest son of John Rattle (1856-1899) and Emma Fisk (1859-1938). He had three brothers and three sisters; Belinda, Anna Marie, Robert John, Arthur, Frederick Albert and Ellie. After John’s death Emma lived at Weston Beccles in Suffolk. Leonard enlisted at Beccles.
Historical Information:
The assault on Tyne Cot began on 31 July 1917 and slogged on for 14 weeks. The area was finally taken on 4 October, but the Germans reoccupied it from April to September 1918 during the Spring Offensive.
Late on 3 October 1917, the Second Battalion moved up the line via Shrapnel Corner, Warrington Road and Hooge arriving at a position between Chateaux Wood and Tank Gun Post around 02:00. Over the next three days a series of attacks took place and there was very heavy shelling of the troop locations.
Memorial:
Panel 14 to 17 Tyne Cott Memorial, Zonnebeke, West Vlaanderen, Belgium
Tyne Cot is the largest British war cemetery in the world. Aerial views show it to have a remarkable resemblance to a great church or cathedral. There are 11,871 graves registered here of which around 70% are unidentified, witness to the vile Passchendale mud that sucked into its morass a man and all means of identity.
Inscribed around the memorial wall at the rear of the cemetery are the names of about 35,000 men who died in the area and do not have a known grave.