Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Archibald Herbert HUGHES was born on 11th August, 1897 in Mundalla near Bordertown, South Australia

His parents were Herbert Edward HUGHES and Catherine McNICOL

# 3657 (B)  HUGHES Archibald Herbert                     25th Battalion
 
Archie Hughes was born at Mundalla, Bordertown, South Australia to parents Herbert and Katherine Hughes. The family relocated to Yalangur near Goombungee, Qld in time for young Archie to attend the Gowrie Little Plains State School nearby. After leaving school, he probably worked on the family farm.
 
Archie travelled to Toowoomba to the Darling Downs Recruiting Office at the beginning of May 1917 to pick up an application form to join the AIF. This form provided space for his parents to sign giving their permission for Archie to enlist. His enlistment was formalised on 15th May 1917. Archie’s enlistment papers show his age as 19 years and 9 months. He stated he was a farmer and named his mother, Katherine Hughes of Yalangur, Goombungee, as his next of kin.
 
Archie made his way to the Enoggera Camp where he was placed in a depot battalion for initial training and issue of uniform and equipment. He was granted five days home leave in July and on his return to camp was allocated to the 10th reinforcements of the 49th Battalion. The reinforcements travelled to Sydney by train and on the 1st August, embarked on the “Medic” for the voyage to the training camps in England.
 
From the middle of 1916, troop transports carrying reinforcements to the English camps took the long route across the Indian Ocean to South Africa and then out into the Atlantic taking a wide route to one of the westernmost ports such as Plymouth. Such a circuitous route was deemed necessary to avoid German submarines which operated in the Mediterranean and the approaches to the English Channel. Oddly, the voyage of the “Medic” took her well away from the U-Boat haunts across the Atlantic to Halifax, Nova Scotia where the reinforcements were transferred to the SS “Orissa”. The journey was completed when the Orissa docked in Liverpool on 3rd October, two months after departure from Australia.
 
The reinforcements made their way to the 13th Training Brigade at Codford where Archie spent some time in the camp hospital with influenza. On 29th November, Archie went AWL for 13 hours. He was fined six days pay and given five days of Field Punishment #2; which meant he had to spend two hours a day in shackles. The punishment was excessive but it is likely that Archie’s cohort were about to be deployed overseas to France and going AWL could have been construed as avoidance. Archie was reassigned to a reinforcement draft for the 25th Battalion. He sailed for the continent from Southampton on 16th January 1918 and was with the battalion five days later.
 
 
The 25th was at that time rotating in and out of the front line near Warneton in Belgium. Even though winter was a relatively quiet time at the front, the battalion war diary records that several forward posts were constantly under fire by minnenwerfers (heavy trench mortars). This would have been a rude awakening for Archie who had no experience of this type of warfare.
In February 1918, the 25th were relieved from front line duties and the men enjoyed being in comfortable billets where they could rest, visit the divisional baths for clean underwear and take part in a variety of sports. After a month of recuperation, the battalion was back in the line providing working parties for trench repair, salvage and road making.
The British Commander, General Haig, was fully expecting a German assault in the spring of 1918 but he guessed incorrectly that the main thrust would be aimed at the Ypres salient in Belgium. When Operation Michael began on 21st March, the main 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 outnumbered the defenders by a factor of five. As the British retreated, often in disarray, the German Stormtroopers retook all of the gains made by the British in the Somme campaign 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.
 
 In response to the German offensive, Haig ordered the bulk of the AIF (four of the five divisions) that was in Belgium to take up positions to defend Amiens 150 kilometres to the south. The 25th was warned to prepare for a move in late March and began to relocate to the south in early April, taking up positions near Ribemont. During this period, the 25th Battalion as part of the 2nd Division AIF acted as corps reserve. In May, the 25thbegan to spent time in the front line, harassing the enemy during daylight with accurate sniping and aggressive patrolling of no man’s land during the hours of darkness.
 
Lieutenant General John Monash was appointed as the Australian Corps overall field commander in June 1918 and he wasted no time in planning a series of offensive operations. The first was at a small but highly successful cutting out operation at Morlancourt on 10th June. Archie did not take part in this offensive as he was in hospital with an undiagnosed illness; probably trench fever. At the urging of the Supreme Commander on the Western Front, General Foch, Monash planned a more ambitious operation in front of Villers Bretonneux at Hamel in July.
 
Tanks had been used on the Western Front since 1916 but they had a checkered reputation. By 1918, Britain was turning out hundreds of Mark V tanks, a vast improvement on previous models and Monash was convinced he could use these weapons at Hamel. For a week before the planned attack, brigades of Australian infantry were withdrawn from the front to train with the tank crews. Artillery barrages during the preparation period strafed the German positions with a mixture of high explosive and gas shells. At the last minute, an American infantry company from the Illinois National Guard was included in the battle plan which was timed to start at 3:10 am on 4th July, American Independence Day.
 
Low flying aircraft flew over the battle field to mask the sound of the tanks and the artillery barrage switched from gas shells to smoke. Ammunition and water supplies were dropped to the advancing infantry from aircraft or were delivered by supply tanks. Monash planned for the entire battle to take 90 minutes; it in fact took 93!
 
Hamel, by the standards of the Western Front, was a resounding success which laid the groundwork for even larger offensives. There were, however, casualties but no where near the scale experienced during 1916 and 1917. The 25th Battalion lost 21 men killed and 72 wounded, one of whom was Archie Hughes.
 
Archie had received wounds to his leg and abdomen caused by a shell splinter. He was evacuated by the 6thField Ambulance to the 47th Casualty Clearing Station. Archie died of his wounds two days later. He was buried at the Crouy British Cemetery with the Reverend Harris in attendance. Archie’s mother received a parcel of her son’s personal effects which included souvenirs, letters, cards, writing pad, a wallet and a hymn book.
 
When permanent headstones were erected by the War Graves Commission, the Hughes family chose the following inscription: CALLED TO HIGHER SERVICE BY CHRIST, THE MASTER.