Great Anzac Stories

by Graham Seal

  Officially, the Great Ocean Road runs for just over 240 kilometres (estimates vary) between Torquay and Allansford, though for most people it is the 75 kilometres of stunning sea and coast between Apollo Bay and Eastern View that constitutes the road. In 1917, this area was no more than a scattering of fishing villages accessible only by sea or a rough bridle track along the top of the cliffs. In partnership with the Victorian government, Hitchcock and others formed the Great Ocean Road Trust and surveying of the route began the next year.

  To build the road it was necessary for the returned soldiers to live in camps. It was a hard and hazardous job and a number of workers died or were injured in accidents, mainly involving the explosives needed to push the road through the rocky terrain. A former worker on the road, Frank Fletcher, recollected that the men had to carry the detonators for the explosives on their knees as they bumped across the rough ground in carts, as this was the gentlest and least dangerous way to carry them. In the case of the returned soldiers who suffered from shell shock, the explosions brought back the trauma of war. Battlefield memories also played a role in the names the workers gave various parts of the road, including Shrapnel Gully and Sausage Gully.

  Most of the work was done with pick and shovel and other hand tools, with very little mechanical assistance. The going was so hard that the labourers were only able to cut around three kilometres of road a month, and the workforce is said to have turned over twenty times during the thirteen years of building. This may have been related to the harshness of the supervision. According to folklore, if a man let a wheelbarrow fall down the steep cliffs he would be made to climb down and retrieve it. Certainly much of the work depended on the labourers hanging from the dangerous cliffs on ropes.

  Not only was the work dangerous, but there was also little opportunity for recreation after work, and appeals were made for donations of reading materials for the men. By the time the road was finished in 1932, around 3000 returned soldiers and depression ‘sustenance’ or ‘dole’ workers had laboured on the project. There were justified celebrations when it was over, though Hitchcock did not live to see his vision fulfilled, suffering a fatal heart attack in 1931. His chauffeur is said to have driven Hitchcock’s car with his seat left empty in the cavalcade that drove along the road at the opening.

  The Great Ocean Road has been progressively widened and improved, although landslides remain a danger. Today it is one of the world’s great scenic drives, featuring a number of commemorative features, including a memorial to Hitchcock. The imposing Memorial Arch at Eastern View is a reminder to motorists that they are passing along a unique Anzac memorial.

  The lone pines

  Perhaps the most revered symbols of Gallipoli are the ‘lone pines’ and the many trees that have since been grown from their seeds. Today, trees grown from and descended from the seedlings brought back home can be found in parks, gardens, schools and in the vicinity of memorials all around Australia. The trees gain their powerful significance from their relationship to the battle that raged between 6 and 9 August 1915 around the single pine tree remaining on a plateau at the southern end of Anzac.

  During this battle, the 1st Brigade AIF initially attacked the heavily fortified Turkish trenches, parts of which had been roofed with pine logs. Although the first attack succeeded very quickly, it took another four days of bloody hand-to-hand fighting before the Turks were finally routed, resulting in 2000 Australian casualties. Turkish dead or casualties were estimated at 6000 to 7000. Seven Victoria Crosses were won during the battle. One of the survivors, Hugh Anderson of the 1st Brigade, wrote home about his part in the battle a few months later. Like many young men, he had enlisted, as he wrote, ‘for the adventure’.

  We knew several days before that we were to charge the Lone Pine trenches. I was glad as I had come over for the adventure and this seemed what I was looking for.

  We were issued with a white strip of calico to sew on to each arm and a big patch for the back, this was for the artillery to show where our men were, and also made a good mark for Johnnie as we soon found to our cost. We were then told what we were to take over with us and our officer gave us a rough sketch of the trenches and told us what was expected of us, and what we had to do.

  On August 6th we paraded just after 3 o’clock in battle order and marched round to our trenches opposite the Lone Pine. The whole of the first division was to do the job, the 1st Battalion formed the first line and were in our advanced firing line, the 2nd Battalion were in the main firing line in the firing positions, and the 4th Battalion were in the bottom of the trench just behind them. The 3rd Battalion were the reserves and came over twenty minutes after we started. The brigade went in a little over 3000 strong and came out something over 400, so the casualties were very heavy.

  We got to our positions about 4 pm and the artillery commenced bombarding the Turkish trenches and they returned the compliment and the crash and scream of shells was deafening for a little over an hour, the smell of explosives was very strong and the suspense of waiting tried our nerves. I was nervous I can tell you and put up many a prayer for courage. I bet others did also.

  About 5 pm the officers were all there with watch in hand calling 3 minutes to go, 2 minutes to go, 1 minute to go half a minute to go and shut his watch and three shrill blasts of a whistle. Out scrambled the boys from advanced line up through holes in the ground, the trench being a tunnel. Over the parapet go the 2nd Battalion and we are close behind. I will never forget that picture, I was well up with the rest racing like mad, all nervousness gone now. The shrapnel falling as thick as hail, many a good man went down here although I never noticed it at the time.

  We reached the Turkish lines and found the first trench covered in with logs and branches and dirt heaped on top. There was a partial check, some men fired in through the loop holes, others tried to pull the logs apart. Out runs our officer, old Dickie Seldon, waving a revolver, ‘This won’t do men! On! On! On!’ and running over the top of the trench he came to the second trench and down into it the crowd followed.

  I got alongside of Captain Milson of Milson’s Point. I slid down into the trench, the Turks ran round a corner and got into a large cave place dug in the trench side as a bomb proof shelter. The first man to follow was shot dead, here we were checked. Captain Milson took command. A bomber came on the parapet and commenced throwing bombs round the corner among the Turks. Very soon he was shot in the arm, and said he was useless and threw his bags of bombs down to us, several rolled away and out rushed a Turk to try and get them. I shot at him but never hit, and he got back quick.

  Milson started throwing, and I was next to him lighting bombs for him. He then proposed getting a party the other side of this possie and bombing from both sides and asked if we would follow him. We all said ‘yes’ so he threw a bomb and dashed across. A dozen Turks shot him and he fell dead the other side. I was next and as I ran I threw my rifle into the possie and pulled the trigger. I suppose they had never got time to load as I never got hit, but no one followed and I was there alone with no bombs and only my rifle. I shouted to them to come on but they were not having any.

  I felt a little dickie I can tell you, but I kept firing into the possie from where I was, some of the Turks were firing at me, and I knew it but I could not get away. Wack! Like a sledge hammer on the head and down I went across Milson’s body and several Turks, some of whom were only wounded, and groaned and squirmed from time to time. I bled pretty freely and then I got a crack on the shoulder from a shrapnel pellet which hurt badly but did not do much damage.

  Our men meanwhile were still bombing away and one bomb went off near my head, and I got bits of it in the hand and face and was knocked unconscious for a while. The next I remembered is a rush of feet and being trampled on. I lay very still and there was a big shooting and bombing match going on all round and back rushed the Turks over me leaving a heap of dead and wounded. I was very dry and tried to get Milson’s water bottle, my own being empty, but could n
ot. I tried to get my rifle but it was jammed between the bodies. Milson’s revolver was handy, and I ought to have used that as I had a good view of the Turk’s possie from where I was, but I did not have brains enough at the time.

  Soon I heard someone call behind me ‘Hullo Australia’ and I crawled down the trench and found Seldon with one eye shot out, but still going, leading a party and I explained the position to him and he sent me away to a temporary dressing station while he went and fixed up the Turks. They captured 15 Turks and 1 German Officer for that position.

  I got my head bandaged and a drink of rum and felt better, I picked up a rifle and was going round to the firing line when I came across Crichton’s body with a frightful gash in it, further on our Corporal’s with a bayonet hole through his back and chest. I went on and was set to dig in the now captured trench. There was only a man every 20 yards or so and we had to pass messages to head quarters for reinforcements and sandbags. They were still fighting on the flanks, the right most especially under Captain Scot, he got a DCM for this. I was taken off to collect arms and ammunition from the dead and it was heavy work.

  As darkness come on reinforcements arrived, and I went into the firing line and stood on guard with them. While I was working and hot my head did not trouble me, but when it was cold it started to ache, and I had a bad time all night. I left the trenches on Saturday and how I was sent to Lemnos you already know.

  Anderson was badly wounded during the fighting but recovered to fight on the western front. On 5 May 1917 he was killed in the second battle of Bullecourt. His grave is unknown.

  It seems that the Turks may have used both native Turkish pines (Pinus brutia) and Aleppo pines (Pinus halepensis) to construct their fortifications. The two Australian soldiers said to have carried seeds from the battleground back to Australia brought different species. Lance Corporal Benjamin Smith brought a seed or seeds of the Pinus halepensis, which were eventually propagated at Inverell in New South Wales in 1931, while a Sergeant Keith McDowell brought a Pinus brutia, which was propagated at Warrnambool in Victoria in 1930. A lone pine also grows on the Paeroa Golf Course in New Zealand, thought to be descended from the Warrnambool Pinus brutia seed. Other New Zealand lone pines are said to grow at Te Mata in the North Island and in the South Island at Dunedin.

  The significane of the ‘lone pine’ lies in its symbolic importance for Australians, New Zealanders and Turks. On Gallipoli itself, the large Lone Pine Cemetery contains the graves of 986 men. The memorial within the cemetery bears the dedication:

  To the Glory of God and in lasting memory of 3,268 Australian soldiers who fought on Gallipoli in 1915 and who have no known graves, and 456 New Zealand soldiers whose names are not recorded in other graves on the Peninsula but who fell in the Anzac Area and have no known graves; and also of 960 Australians and 252 New Zealanders who, fighting on Gallipoli in 1915, incurred mortal wounds or sickness and found burial at Sea.

  Mrs Kim’s commemoration

  The Korean War was fought between North and South Korea from 1950 to 1953. It was a hard and bitter war involving not only Koreans but also British, American and Australian troops. Casualties were high, including 339 Australians. One of these, Sergeant Vince Healy of the 3rd Royal Australian Regiment, was killed in action during ‘Operation Woodbine’ on 7 March 1951. The 25 year old was buried in Tanggok War Cemetery at Pusan, South Korea, and became another statistic of another war.

  Also a casualty of the fighting was a member of the South Korean forces. Lieutenant Kim In-Hyung was killed near Pusan on 18 September 1950. The night before, his wife dreamed she and her husband were walking together towards a pond. When they reached it, she went to the left and he went to the right. She called out to him but he did not answer. Mrs Kim later discovered that her husband had died the next day. With two children to support, she worked hard in the difficult years of South Korea’s postwar reconstruction. In 1961 she chanced to read a newspaper report about an Australian woman who had saved for years so that she could visit her son’s grave at Pusan. The woman had carried some Australian soil with her to place on the grave and had returned home with some Korean soil. She was the mother of Sergeant Vincent Healy.

  Mrs Healy could never afford to return again to visit her son’s last resting place, but her story so touched Mrs Kim that she began to visit Sergeant Healy’s grave twice a year. She took fresh flowers and prayed for all young men killed in war, making an 800-kilometre round trip between her home and Pusan. Mrs Kim also made efforts to locate and contact Mrs Healy. These were eventually successful and the two grieving mothers wrote frequently to each other. In 1998, after seeing a documentary about the death in action of Lieutenant Colonel Charlie Green, commander of the Australian forces in Korea, Mrs Kim also began to visit his grave and started a correspondence with his widow.

  This seemingly extraordinary story came to the attention of the Australian authorities. At the Australian War Memorial and in Sydney on Anzac Day, 1999, Mrs Kim was honoured as a special guest of the Australian government. She was officially thanked for her selfless devotion to the memories of two Korean War diggers who did not come home.

  The long aftermath of Fromelles

  One recent aftermath of the Battle of Fromelles in France (19–20 July 1916) is a reminder that wars do not end when the fighting stops. An unnamed ‘Sergeant of machine guns’ wrote down his experience of the attack and recorded his hope that the event would not be forgotten.

  The general opinion of the boys was that we were attacking to relieve pressure on the Somme—that is, to make a demonstration and get the Huns to rush men and guns up and so weaken the other parts of the front. In this, I believe, we were very successful. Our bombardment opened at roughly ll a.m. and gradually increased in violence until the air was filled with a tornado of flying missiles spreading death and destruction among the enemy opposite. Mind, we never had this our own way, for the enemy also opened out with a terrible fire on our line and communications. Of the next few hours, waiting in the front line, waiting for the word to go over, I will say little, but the boys lived a lifetime during those hours. Men endured, suffered, and died. God! shall one ever forget of the multitude of brave men? Some were mere boys, some were older, but all faced death and mutilation, cheerfully singing favourite music-hall songs and ‘Australia Will Be There’.

  We received the order to go over about 6 p.m., and with a wild, ringing, hearty Australian cheer over the boys went. Personally I had to go over with the guns half an hour later to consolidate and hold ground won, and had the opportunity of watching the progress of the boys on my left. Two of our brigades made rapid progress across No Man’s Land, and with fine dash soon captured the front line, but unfortunately, owing to the long distance across No Man’s Land, and also a terrific barrage and enfilade machine-gun fire, my brigade was pressed back. Line after line went out into that land of death. What a thrill went through me to see them! Darkness set in and all night the battle ebbed and flowed. Our troops on the left did great work and captured three lines of trenches, and had established good communication, but owing to the reasons I gave our brigade was not so fortunate. The individual acts of bravery that night it would be impossible for me to relate, but I leave them to the reader’s imagination.

  Early next morning, owing to the Huns flooding one part of the captured line, our troops had to fall back to our original line, and thus ended one of the most daring and self-sacrificing demonstrations ever made during this war. When I say ended, I mean the offensive part of the action. For days brave men were going out into No Man’s Land rescuing our wounded. I feel that in writing this I can only, in a small way, bring before our home folk the bravery of our boys on the glorious 19th of July, and I should like to assure those who lost loved ones during that action (and our casualties were heavy) that they can feel proud of their boys who so cheerfully and bravely laid their lives on the altar of sacrifice for the great fight for freedom which we are now waging. Australians, don’t forget July 19, for
on that day another great chapter was written in the glorious book of Australia’s glorious history in the Great War. Of the success of the action I will say little. We captured some hundreds of prisoners and inflicted very heavy casualties on the enemy. We never held the ground won, but if it was for the purpose of drawing troops and guns from another part of the line, then the action was successful; but we probably shall never know. It was officially described as a raid on a large scale, but in reality it was a battle, in which, on both sides, there must have been 60,000 troops engaged. I trust July 19 will not be forgotten, but that it will be a day kept up in some way as a tribute to the fallen—lest we forget.

  The sergeant and his comrades were right in their speculation that their role was a diversionary one. Although not forgotten, the action at Fromelles was often overlooked due to its location away from the main fighting at the Somme and the fact that it was quickly overshadowed by the fighting at Pozières. The bodies of the Allied soldiers killed at Fromelles were buried by the Germans in mass graves, which were discovered after the war. The bodies were exhumed and reinterred in cemeteries including the VC Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial established close to Fromelles in the 1920s.

  But in 2007 a previously unknown burial site was discovered through the research of Lambis Englezos and subsequently excavated in 2009. The remains included those of 203 Australians, many identified through DNA testing. A new cemetery was established in which the bodies were individually reinterred. The final digger, identity still unknown, was buried on 19 July 2010 with full military honours and in the presence of the governor-general, British dignitaries and clergy. Descendants of those soldiers who had been identified were hosted at the ceremony by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, some of them reading letters sent by the soldiers before the battle. Many of these letters were heavy with foreboding about the outcome of the day.