Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

# 3639 TAYLOR Ernest                                    31st Battalion
 
Ernest Taylor was born on the family farm at Biarra, a farming community on Cressbrook Creek south west of Toogoolawah. His parents were George and Harriet Taylor. Ernest probably attended school at Esk where his academic success earned him a place as a pupil-teacher. Queensland had no formal teacher education institutions at that time. The pupil teacher scheme allowed for head teachers to identify likely candidates who would study under the head teacher’s guidance performing small teaching tasks. Success in an examination conducted by the Department of Public Instruction would allow the candidate to become a fully fledged teacher. It is likely that Ernest trained as a pupil teacher at Esk and then may have continued for some years at the school before being posted to a one-teacher school at Gilligulgul, between Miles and Wandoan on the Western Downs.
 
Ernest presented himself for enlistment at Enoggera on 13th December 1915. This date roughly coincides with the end of the school year, indicating that Ernest probably waited for school to end before travelling to Brisbane. Ernest told the recruiter he was 25 year old school teacher. He named his mother, Harriet Taylor of Biarra as his next of kin. One month after Ernest enlisted, his younger brother, Edgar, enlisted. Edgar was placed into the 6th reinforcements of the 31st Battalion but Ernest was not assigned until 31st March 1916, placing him in the 8th reinforcements of the 31stBattalion. The reason for the delay may be due to the fact that Ernest’s employer required him to return to teaching at Gilligulgul for a period of time while a replacement teacher was sought.
 
Ernest was re-attested on 31st March and reported to Fraser’s Paddock at Enoggera where he was assigned to the 8threinforcements of the 31st Battalion. Edgar in the 6th reinforcements departed for overseas in June but the 8threinforcements, who would go directly to England, did not embark until August. The embarkation roll for the 8threinforcements shows Ernest Taylor, aged 26, embarked on the “Boorara” in Brisbane on 16th August 1916. Ernest allocated 4/- of his daily pay of 5/- to his mother.
 
The “Boorara” sailed via Fremantle, South Africa and Sierra Leone on the way to England. There was an outbreak of cerebro spinal meningitis on board the “Boorara” and Ernest had to stay in isolation in the ship’s hospital as it was suspected he had come in contact with a meningitis case. When the ship berthed at Devonport, Ernest was sent to the Southern General Hospital with a case of mumps on 13th October. In November, Ernest was discharged and reported to the 8th Brigade Training Battalion at Perham Downs and on the last day of 1916 boarded a cross channel ferry for the trip to the Australian Base Depot at Etaples on the French Coast. Ernest was quickly moved on from Etaples and marched in to the 31st Battalion billets on 4th January 1917. Ernest was able to catch up with his brother, Edgar, and cousin, Len Smith, as both men were in the 31st.
 
The 31st Battalion was part of the 8th Infantry brigade of the 5th Australian Division. The 5th Division had suffered terribly at Fromelles in July 1916, sustaining 5,500 casualties. The 31st Battalion, after only having been in the trenches for three days, incurred 572 casualties; more than half its strength. The entire 5th Division, all 12 battalions, was finished as a fighting force for the immediate future and was taken out of any offensive actions for the next ten months while the division’s numbers were replaced and morale was rebuilt.
 
In the lull in fighting of the winter of 1916/17, the Germans constructed a 150 kilometre long defensive barrier, which the British labelled the Hindenburg Line, some distance to the east of their positions astride the Somme. Once the spring thaw made roads passable, the German forces began a strategic withdrawal to this new position. The British forces, which included the AIF, cautiously followed. By the first week in April, elements of the 5th British Army under General Gough, which included two Australian divisions, came up against the Hindenburg defences. The 31st Battalion was in the line supporting a frontal attack by other battalions at Beaumetz south of Bullecourt where the main battle would be fought. Successive battles at Bullecourt in April and May 1917 failed to break through the Hindenburg defences.
 
The failure of operations against the Hindenburg Line heralded the end of the British campaign on the Somme. The British Commander, Field Marshall Haig, turned his attention to Belgian Flanders and the Ypres salient. The 31stBattalion performed fatigue duties in support of two AIF divisions involved in the Battle of Messines and its aftermath in June 1917. Success at Messines allowed the British to move eastwards along the line of the Menin Road which ran from Ypres across the flat land towards the Broodseinde Ridge and the village of Passchendaele. After the success of the battle of Menin Road on 20th September, the 5th Division re-entered the fighting at Polygon Wood.
 
The plan called for the 4th and 5th Divisions to advance side by side with British brigades advancing beside them to cover the flanks. The battle began on 25th September with the 8th Brigade of the 5th Division in reserve. When the advance was stalled by machine gun pillboxes, a second attempt was made at dawn the following day. The 31stBattalion along with two other battalions had been added to the attacking force and once the initial resistance was cleared had a fairly straight forward line to the final objective. Two days later, the 31st Battalion was relieved and took no further part in the fighting that was to follow in the battle of Passchendaele. During the winter, the western front was effectively closed down and the Australians spent time in billets at Poperinghe in Belgium. On 17th January 1918, Ernest enjoyed a two week leave in England.
 
The latter half of 1917 produced a change in the strategic situation as far as the German command was concerned. The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia brought about the end to fighting on the Eastern Front. A peace treaty between Germany and Russia released up to sixty German divisions which, once re-equipped and re-trained, could be used to press home a distinct advantage on the Western Front. The window for exploiting this advantage was however rather small as the entry of the United States into the war and an expected surge in troop numbers from July 1918 onwards would swing the advantage back to the Entente.
 
When Operation Michael began on 21st March, the main German assault was aimed along the line of the Somme River, the scene of so much fighting and hard won victories in 1916.
The British 5th Army, which was holding the line astride the Somme was unable to hold the German onslaught which in some places amounted to a five time numerical advantage. As the British retreated, often in disarray, the German Stormtroopers retook all of the gains made by the British in the Somme campaign of 1916 and were within a few days of capturing the vital communication city of Amiens. If Amiens fell, Haig might well have lost the war; the situation was deadly serious. Haig ordered his most successful and battle hardened troops, the AIF in Belgium, to race south to establish a defensive line in front of Amiens. The 31st Battalion boarded trains at Godewaersvelde to be transported to Doullens in France on 28th March. The Australians established a defensive line in front of Amiens anchored on Villers Bretonneux and which stretched across both banks of the Somme. The German advance was held in most places but the Germans were far from beaten.
 
On 25th April, two AIF brigades mounted a daring pincer movement in the dark to retake Villers Bretonneux and to thwart any further German advances. The Australian Commander Lieutenant General John Monash urged his troops to harass the enemy through what he called peaceful penetration. The 31st Battalion was occupying the line at Corbie on the confluence of the Somme and Ancre Rivers throughout April 1918. Patrols went out into no man’s land each night to scout the enemy positions, take hostages and disrupt communications. The 8th Machine Gun Battalion strafed the enemy positions with concentrated fire and British and Australian aircraft patrolled above the front occasionally attacking headquarters positions.
 
By July, the 31st had progressed a few kilometres east to the village of Ville sur Ancre where outposts had been established in front of the Australian line. The outposts provided a ready jump off point for the nightly patrols which so un-nerved the enemy that it was reported that they remained at “stand to” for most of the hours of darkness. On 27thJuly, Ernest was reported killed in action. His body was carried from the battlefield and buried at what would become the Ribemont Communal Cemetery. The official files contain no information surrounding Ernest’s death. His family chose the following inscription for his headstone: THE LORD GAVE AND THE LORD HATH TAKEN AWAY.
 
Ernest’s brother Edgar survived the war and returned to farming at Biarra. Cousin Len Smith was killed eight days before Ernest in the same area.