Great War Lives Lost

Edward Stanley Ashcroft

At a point approximately midway between Guernsey and Portland Bill the German submarine UB-72 is observed at 04:30 while on patrol by the British submarine D4.  The German is traveling on the surface in a southerly direction some two miles away. At 04:50 Lieutenant Claud Barry of the D4 fires a torpedo and after lowering periscope for a few moments he releases a second torpedo. Ten seconds later the crew of the D4 hears an explosion and feels a violent concussion. Barry brings his boat to the surface and heads towards three men swimming in a batch of oil. He succeeds in picking up these men who are the only survivors of UB-72’s crew of three officers and thirty-one men.

Today’s losses include:

• A 7-victory ace
• Multiple families that will lose two and three sons in the Great War
• A man who has a brother and step-brother killed in the Great War

Today’s highlighted casualties include:

• Lieutenant Edward Stanley Ashcroft (Liverpool Regiment) dies of wounds as a prisoner in the hands of the Germans received 29^th His brothers were killed in March of this year and April 1917.
• Lieutenant Henry Eric Dolan (Royal Air Force) is killed in action near Wulverghem at age 21 when his SE5a is shot down by German ace Raven von Barnekow. He is a seven-victory ace.
• Private Miles Gill (Northumberland Fusiliers) is killed in Salonika at age 42. His brother was killed last October while his step-brother was killed in September 1915.
• Private William George Russell (London Regiment) dies as a prisoner of war in Poland at age 22. His brother will be killed one week before the Armistice is signed.