Pozieres
Page 35
After the war, the surrounding fields were thought to be so contaminated that nothing would ever grow there again. Slowly, the peasants cleared them. Within a few years, they had cleansed the fields and hidden Pozières’s scars beneath ‘crops of grain and nodding poppies’.53
Visitors now lose themselves in these fields. Out among the vegetable fields or up dirt tracks, they try to figure out from their bundles of maps where the German or British front lines once were. Occasionally, they stumble upon a spent cartridge or a lump of jagged iron. The French farmers leave them be as long as they don’t disturb the crops. The relationship is, at times, symbiotic. Visitors will follow the path of the farmer’s ploughs in the hope of unearthing some relic from the past; the farmers are happy to have their fields cleared before sowing.
Monsieur Vandendriessche, Mouquet Farm’s tenant, returned to his ruined farm after the war. He rebuilt the homestead and cleansed the fields of its iron harvest. The farm remains in the family, and his grandson Jose now runs it. Occasionally, Jose notices a solitary figure standing quietly on the edge of his farm. It is often an Australian whose grandfather or great-uncle was killed in his fields. ‘It’s normal, it’s memory,’ he explained.54 Vandendriessche takes the time to describe what happened all those years ago, showing them the pile of shells, grenades, and rifles that he finds in the fields.
Grandchildren and great-grandnephews and -nieces of soldiers killed on the Somme research the location of their graves and pay their respects. There are 242 military cemeteries, or, as Kipling called them, ‘Silent Cities’, dotted around the Somme region.55 Some are in the middle of ripening vegetable fields; some are located down back lanes; some are in the folds of valleys or on the brow of hills; some are in small woods shaded by trees; and others, adjacent to motorways. Where the fighting was most intense, around Thiepval, Pozières, and Beaumont-Hamel, the cemeteries are more concentrated and contain thousands of graves. Those dirt mounds with temporary white crosses that John Treloar had seen scattered among the fields on his evening walks were transformed into beautiful and immaculately maintained cemeteries. Uniform rows of Portland limestone headstones replaced the temporary wooden crosses. Lush green lawns replaced the stooked hay and poppy fields. Brick and sandstone walls, bordered by beautiful rose gardens, replaced the temporary picket fences. Today, it is difficult to reconcile the fact that such a terrible war spawned these cemeteries, so serene and peaceful, dotted in the middle of fields of maize. Although separated by generations, visitors still feel a personal connection with a long-lost relative. Their handwritten notes are scribbled in the green visitors’ books located at each cemetery. ‘At last to see where my grandfather lies; thank you for caring for this special place,’ reads one.
Another simply says, ‘Please never again.’
The gnarly concrete footings of the old Pozières windmill still remain, and standing on its stumps allows visitors an eerie appreciation of the magnificent views that the Germans had from the OG lines. Some visitors leave laminated postcards at the base of the windmill. One, a faded and grainy picture of Private William Tynan, commemorates his death, not far from there, on 4 August 1916. His mate remembered him being carted away on a stretcher. ‘I’ve got a “blighty”’, he said. He was never seen again.56
At the Pozières roadside café, Le Tommy, you can pay a few euros to visit its backyard museum. It’s a mishmash of old weapons, piles of mud-crusted shells, rolls of rusted barbed wire, and store mannequins dressed in weathered uniforms. Otherwise, you can enjoy the eclectic mix of war artefacts adorning its walls, separated by the occasional fly strip.
Outside the café, on the narrow pavement adjacent to the rebuilt Bapaume road, are a few plastic tables and chairs. B-double trucks occasionally thunder by, swirling loose papers and napkins up in their wake. They roar through Pozières, into the distance, grinding through the gears, passing by the old windmill footings, over the Pozières ridge, and out of sight.
Bécourt Château, which served as a dressing station, was rebuilt and converted, fittingly, into a community centre. Instead of its halls being crowded with broken soldiers, they are now filled with laughing children.
Behind the old front line at Contay, you can still get a beer at the estaminet, near the old church, where Australian staff officers were billeted. Rickety wooden floors, a rotund madame pouring beers, and a farm dog resting at the feet of a few local drinkers gives a feeling of yesteryear. The majestic Contay Château remains unchanged, although John Treloar’s tent offices are long gone.
The most striking thing about the battlefields is their eerie stillness. It’s as if the Great War has drained them of noise forever. Only the corn rippling in the breeze breaks the silence; only the occasional hare or startled deer disturbs the stillness. Standing in the open fields, you cannot help but wonder whether it was all worth it. What would Alec Raws, Leo Butler, or George Drosen think? What about their mothers?
Veteran John Edey reflected on the Pozières legacy whenever he examined old photos of past comrades. While studying the character of their faces, he considered the children. They were different from their parents. ‘Whereas their forebears believed that Australia was a country worth dying for, these youngsters will prove that Australia is a country worth working for, and living for,’ he said.57
And maybe that’s the legacy of Pozières. It’s one of which Alec Raws would have been proud.
Abbreviations
Conversions
1 inch 2.54 centimetres
1 foot 0.3 metres
1 yard 0.91 metres
1 mile 1.6 kilometres
1 acre 0.4 hectares
Formations in the British Expeditionary Force
Body Commanded by Approximate Infantry Number
Army General 100,000 to 150,000
Corps Lieutenant-General 50,000
Division Major-General 12,000
Brigade Brigadier-General 4,000
Battalion Lieutenant-Colonel 1,000
Company Captain 250
Platoon Second-Lieutenant 60
Section Lance-Corporal 15
Divisions of the Australian Imperial Force, Western Front, July 1916
For operations on the Somme in 1916, I Anzac Corps consisted of the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Australian divisions. For operations at Fromelles in July 1916, the 5th Australian Division was part of XI British Corps.
1st Australian Division
Major-General Harold Walker
1st (New South Wales) Brigade
(Brigadier-General Nevill Smyth)
1st Battalion
2nd Battalion
3rd Battalion
4th Battalion
2nd (Victoria) Brigade
(Brigadier-General John Forsyth)
5th Battalion
6th Battalion
7th Battalion
8th Battalion
3rd Brigade (Brigadier-General
Ewen Sinclair-MacLagan)
9th (Queensland) Battalion
10th (South Australia) Battalion
11th (Western Australia) Battalion
12th (South and Western Australia, and Tasmania) Battalion
Pioneers
1st Australian Pioneer Battalion
1st Division Artillery
1st Division Engineers
1st Divisional Medical Services
1st Divisional Train
1st Mobile Veterinary Section
1st Sanitary Section
2nd Australian Division
Major-General James Gordon Legge
5th (New South Wales) Brigade (Brigadier-General William Holmes)
&nbs
p; 17th Battalion
18th Battalion
19th Battalion
20th Battalion
6th (Victoria) Brigade
(Brigadier-General John Gellibrand)
21st Battalion
22nd Battalion
23rd Battalion
24th Battalion
7th Brigade (Brigadier-General
John Paton)
25th (Queensland) Battalion
26th (Queensland, Tasmania) Battalion
27th (South Australia) Battalion
28th (Western Australia) Battalion
Pioneers
2nd Australian Pioneer Battalion
2nd Division Artillery
2nd Division Engineers
2nd Division Medical Services
2nd Divisional Train
2nd Mobile Veterinary Section
2nd Sanitary Section
4th Australian Division
Major-General Sir Herbert Cox
4th Brigade (Brigadier-General Charles Brand)
13th (New South Wales) Battalion
14th (Victoria) Battalion
15th (Queensland, Tasmania) Battalion
16th (South and Western Australia) Battalion
12th Brigade (Brigadier-General Duncan Glasfurd)
45th (New South Wales) Battalion
46th (Victoria) Battalion
47th (Queensland, Tasmania) Battalion
48th (South and Western Australia) Battalion
13th Brigade (Brigadier-General Thomas Glasgow)
49th (Queensland) Battalion
50th (South Australia) Battalion
51st (Western Australia) Battalion
52nd (South and Western Australia, Tasmania) Battalion
Pioneers
4th Australian Pioneer Battalion
4th Division Artillery
4th Division Engineers
4th Division Medical Services
4th Divisional Train
4th Mobile Veterinary Section
4th Divisional Sanitary Section
5th Australian Division
Major-General James McCay
8th Brigade (Brigadier-General Edwin Tivey)
29th (Victoria) Battalion
30th (New South Wales) Battalion
31st (Queensland, Victoria) Battalion
32nd (South and Western Australia) Battalion
14th (New South Wales) Brigade (Brigadier-General Harold Pope)
53rd Battalion
54th Battalion
55th Battalion
56th Battalion
15th (Victoria) Brigade (Brigadier-General Harold Elliott)
57th Battalion
58th Battalion
59th Battalion
60th Battalion
Pioneers
5th Australian Pioneer Battalion
5th Division Artillery
12th Light Horse Regiment
5th Division Cyclist
5th Division Engineers
5th Division Medical Services
5th Divisional Train
5th Mobile Veterinary Section
5th Divisional Sanitary Section
References
Archives
Australian War Memorial, Canberra
AWM 4, Australian Imperial Force unit war diaries, 1914–18 War
1st Infantry Brigade, 23/1/12, July 1916
3rd Infantry Brigade, 23/3/9, July 1916
5th Infantry Brigade, 23/5/14, August 1916
4th Infantry Battalion, 23/21/17, July 1916
4th Infantry Brigade, 23/4/11, August 1916
6th Infantry Brigade, 23/6/12, August 1916
7th Infantry Battalion, 23/24/17, July 1916
15th Infantry Brigade, 23/15/5, July 1916
20th Infantry Battalion, 23/37/12, July 1916
23rd Infantry Battalion, 23/40/10, July 1916
51st Infantry Battalion, 23/68/7, September 1916
52nd Infantry Battalion, 23/69/6, September 1916
Administrative Staff, Headquarters, 1st Australian Division, 1/43/18, July 1916
General Staff, Headquarters, I Anzac Corps, 1/29/6, July 1916
General Staff, Headquarters, 1st Australian Division, 1/42/18, July 1916
General Staff, Headquarters, 2nd Australian Division, 1/44/12, July 1916
General Staff, Headquarters, 4th Australian Division, 1/48/4, July 1916
General Staff, Headquarters, 4th Australian Division, 1/48/5, August 1916
Intelligence, Headquarters, I Anzac Corps, 1/30/6, July 1916
AWM 8, Unit embarkation nominal roll, 1914–18 War
AWM 9, Nominal rolls, 1914–18 War
AWM 38, Papers of Charles Bean
3DRL/606, war diaries, folders, and notebooks
AWM 131, Roll of Honour Circulars
Private records
PR87/215 7th Battalion AIF Association
2DRL/0007 Matthew Abson
1DRL/0013 James Aitken
1DRL/0053 Harold Armitage
PR85/111 Edith Florence Avenell
3DRL/3376 William Riddell Birdwood
1DRL/0139 John Bourke
2DRL/0619 Philip Browne
PR87/237 Frederick Callaway
2DRL/0512 Ben Champion
2DRL/0240 Walter Claridge
3DRL/2578 Thomas Cleary
2DRL/0204 John Cohen
2DRL/0209 John Denis Condon
2DRL/0948 Frank Robertson Corney
1DRL/0227 Herbert Crowle
1DRL/0237 Charles Dawkins
PR01054 Kenneth Day
1DRL/0240 Apcar Leslie de Vine
2DRL/0209 Leonard Elvin
3DRL/0895 Richard Gee
1DRL/0337 Hubert Richard Joseph Harris
1DRL/0338 John Harris
PR88/161 Fred Hocking
1DRL/0359 Douglas Horton
1DRL/0411 Allan Leane
2DRL/0001 Harold Malpas
1DRL/0428 Lewis Winchester Marshall
1DRL/0455 Albert McLeod
1DRL/0463 Archibald Joseph (Joe) McSparron
3DRL/7253 Eric Moorhead
PR03407 Henry Palmer
1DRL/0540 Leslie Parsons
PR90105 Daniel Scanlon
PR00626 Frank Shoobridge
PR88/058 Robert Smith
3DRL/2206 Arthur Thomas
Australian Red Cross Society Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau files, 1914–18 War, 1DRL/0428
Note, officer files do not contain numbers.
3003 Private Robert Beattie Allen
3002 Private Stephen Charles Allen
1880 Sergeant David Gibson Jude Badger
Captain Francis William Samuel Bailey
Captain Francis Maxwell Barton
Second-Lieutenant Alexander Beatty
3270A Sergeant Philip Gerald Browne
Lieutenant Frederick William Berni Callaway
Captain Norman David Cumming
4173 Private George Drosen
Captain Ralph Ratnevelu Raymond Ekin-Smyth
Second-Lieutenant Alfred John Hearps
Lieutenant Walter Joseph Host
119 Sergeant Lewis Winchester Marshall
Captain Daniel McCullum
Lieutenant Robert Goldthorpe Raws
1995 Private Noel George Sainsbury
1781 Private Wisbey Harrington Sinclair
Second-Lieutenant Ernest George Smythe
6567 Private Arthur Thomas
3601 Private William Patrick Tynan
Lieutenant Lennard Lewis Wadsley
Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney
Battalion Newsletter, 1918
MSS 1493/1 Archie Barwick
National Archives of Australia
Series B2455 First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914–1920, Canberra
Note, officer files do not contain numbers.
3002 Stephen Allen
Francis Maxwell Barton
Lieutenant Percy Blythe
3270A Philip Gerald Browne
Lieutenant William Percy Clemenger
Lieutenant Albert George Clifford
4762 John Condon
3806 James Connelly
3815 John Cotter
Second Lieutenant Herbert Walter Crowle
4173 George Droser [sic]
79 Henry Eggington
3090 Arthur John Foxcroft
Major John Harris
739 William Hatcher
Second Lieutenant Alfred John Hearps
5715 4863 Ernest Victor Lee aka Ernest John Jefferies
Lieutenant-Colonel Leslie Francis Strong Mather
1168 Leslie Parsons
1441 John Pearce aka Alexander Taylor Pearce
2358 John Thomas Rowan
Lieutenant Ernest George Smythe
8232 Sydney Alfred Stredwick
2219 John Arthur Charles Stuart
Lieutenant George Robert Stewart Walters
Captain Howard de Nyst Williams
Series J34 Department of Veterans’ Affairs First World War Pension Case Files, Brisbane
Robert Smith
Series C138/1 Personal Case Files, 1914–1918, Repatriation Department, Sydney
John Redford Oberlin Harris
State Library of Victoria, Melbourne
MS 10434 William Shaw Clayton
MS 10345 Albert E. Coates
MS 10167 Stanley Cocking
MS 10511 John F. Edey
MS 9613 Arthur Foxcroft
MS 9640 Vic Graham
MS 1565 Harold Morris
Articles and journals