Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

'Was a grandson of the late Colonel Abraham Simon, of the 'Caches', St Saviour's, Guernsey. Was interested in church matters and acted as a [sidesman] at St Barnabas' Church, Rosewater, SA.' (details from mother, Eliza Simon, of Paddington, South Australia).

Mother - Eliza Simon

Roll of Honour - Circular. 

From Francois Somme

Pte 1516 Victor George Simon
32nd Australian Infantry Battalion, A Company,
8th Brigade, 5th Australian Division, AIF
 
Today, 109 years ago, near the Somme, between July 19 and 20, 1916, the Battle of Fromelles took place which, in a few hours of fury and hell, became one of the deadliest battles of the great war for the young Diggers of the Australian Imperial Force who, under the fire of German machine guns, suffered 5,500 casualties of which 2000 were killed in action.This battle, which was only intended as a diversion to support their brothers-in-arms entangled in the Battle of the Somme beginning on July 1, 1916, sadly became the deadliest day in the history of the Australian nation, whose sons, only a few days later, on July 23, 1916, were thrown into the open-air slaughterhouse at Pozieres, on the Somme.

A little over a year ago, with my family, traveling from Amiens, I went to the sacred grounds of Fromelles to see and understand what the Cobbers endured during these two murderous days in the summer of July 1916 under which so much blood was shed but beyond the death that they passed through among the bullets, beyond the sacrifices that they paid Fromelles is for me one of the eternal symbols of courage, of endurance, of perseverance, tenacity, solidarity, camaraderie and brotherhood of the Australian soldiers who fought and fell in the north of France in the name of peace and freedom for which they gave their lives and today, I feel honored and proud to watch over them in the cemeteries of the Somme in which they rest in peace and in which I will always stand with respect to honor and perpetuate the memory of these heroes who came from the other side of the world and who, under the flame of remembrance, will live forever.

On this day, it is with the deepest gratitude and utmost respect that I would like to honor the memory of one of these young Australian men, one of my adopted Diggers who, for my country and for all of us, gave his life.I would like to pay a very respectful tribute to Private number 1516 Victor George Simon who fought in the 32nd Australian Infantry Battalion, A Company, 8th Brigade, 5th Australian Division of the Australian Imperial Force, and who was killed in action 109 years ago, on July 20, 1916 at the age of 23 during the Battle of Fromelles.

Victor George Simon was born on 20 January 1893 in Rosewater, South Australia, and was the son of John Blondel Simon and Eliza Simon, of Charles Street, Paddington, South Australia. He was educated at Alberton Public School South Australia and after graduation he got his first taste of military life serving in the Naval Cadets for three years and then transferred as an Able Seaman Signaller in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve for a period of three years and nine months before working as a storeman until the outbreak of the war.Victor was a grandson of the late Colonel Abraham Simon, of the "Caches", St Saviour's, Guernsey.He was very interested in church matters, a deep believer and acted as a sidesman at St Barnabas' Church, Rosewater.

Australia was in the middle of a double-dissolution election when Britain declared war against Germany in August 1914. With Britain now at war, all dominions of the British Empire were also at war with Germany, including Australia. The Prime Minister, Joseph Cook as well as opposition leader, Andrew Fisher,who would win the election and become the Prime Minister,both pledged Australia’s full support. The campaign to recruit volunteers for the Australian Imperial Force began straightaway.

Deeply driven by the desire to do his duty and fight alongside his comrades, Victor responded to the call with enthusiasm and enlisted on July 13, 1915 in Keswick, South Australia, as a Private in the 32nd Australian Infantry Battalion, 1st Reinforcement.

Shortly after, on 1 September, he was promoted to the rank of Serjeant. The 32nd Battalion was raised at Mitcham, on the outskirts of Adelaide, on 9 August 1915 under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Donald Coghill, a citizen soldier without any combat experience who was formerly the Headmaster of Woodville High School. His Second in Command was Major Hughes. A and B companies were raised from South Australian enlistees, another two, C and D companies, were formed in Western Australia and joined the battalion at the end of September. After an initial period of training, Victor embarked with his unit from Adelaide, South Australia, on board HMAT A2 Geelong on November 18 and sailed for Egypt, arriving in Suez on December 18 then on March 1, 1916, was taken on strength in A Company and reverted to the rank of Private the same day.

In Egypt, the main role of the 32nd Battalion was the defense of the Suez Canal against Ottoman forces but also followed an intensive period of training in the suffocating heat of the desert. A period which was particularly difficult for Victor and his comrades who suffered against to the lack of water and sandstorms but still had some pleasant moments such as visiting the pyramids and camel rides then on June 17, 1916, proceeded overseas to France from Alexandria on board HMT Transylvania.

On June 23, 1916, Victor finally arrived in France but without knowing it, his life was soon to end. With his unit, he was disembarked in the port of Marseilles and in the afternoon, proceeded by train to Morbecque where they followed a period of training including musketry exercises, bayonet fights and practice with gas masks. Shortly after, on July 9, they marched to Estaires, Erquinghem the next day, moved to the trenches of Fleurbaix on July 15 and relieved the 58th Australian Infantry Battalion on a front line called "Cellar Farm Avenue" and were employed to improve their positions which were damaged by German shells then on July 19, were pushed to attack the German trenches during what was the first major engagement of the battalion but also the deadliest during one of the most catastrophic battles in terms of human lives lost for the entire Australian Imperial Force, the hell of the Battle of Fromelles.

The diversionary attack on German positions at Fromelles was the first major battle fought by Australian troops on the Western Front. It was planned to stop the Germans from reinforcing their unit on the Somme, where the Allies had launched a major offensive earlier that month. The feint was unsuccessful. The attack was a disaster for the British and the worst 24 hours in Australian military history.
Australia suffered over 5500 casualties in a night, almost equivalent to the country's combined losses in the Second South African (Boer) War, Korean War and Vietnam War.

On 19 July 1916, the Australian 5th and British 61st Divisions tried to seize 4000 yards (3.7km) of German front. The German positions centred on the "Sugar Loaf", a heavily fortified strongpoint bristling with machine-guns, with clear fields of fire over much of the ground that an attacking force on that part of the line would have to cross. The Germans spotted the troops as they moved into position. They shelled the Allied positions, causing hundreds of Australian and British casualties before the attack commenced.

The assault began at 5:30pm with 3.5 hours of daylight remaining. The Australians quickly crossed no-man’s-land, seizing the German front, and then pushed on for another 140m in search of a third and last line of the German trench system. No third line existed. The Australians began forming a thin disjointed series of posts in the the German line. Other Australians attacked opposite the Sugar Loaf, where the Germans had survived the British shelling. Within 15 minutes, the Germans had destroyed the attacking waves of Australians, as well as the British soldiers attacking to the south of the Sugar Loaf.

The British planned a second attempt to capture the Sugar Loaf and asked for Australian help. The plan was cancelled, but the Australians didn't receive notice. They mounted another attack with equally disastrous results. The next morning the Australians who had breached the enemy’s lines withdrew.
The battle was an unmitigated disaster for the British.
In 2008, 92 years after the battle, a mass grave of Australians killed at Fromelles and buried by the German was located. The soldiers were reburied in the Fromelles Pheasant Wood Military Cemetery with full military honors.

Unfortunately, it was on July 20, 1916, during the Battle of Fromelles that Victor met his fate and was killed in action. Unfortunately his body was not found after the battle and was declared "missing" then, following a court of inquiry, was finally declared as "killed in action" on August 12, 1917. During that fighting the 32nd Battalion suffered 718 casualties, a third of the battalion's total casualties for the entire war, which equaled roughly 90 percent of its effective strength.

Initially after his death, Victor was remembered and commemorated at the VC Corner (Panel No 6), Australian Cemetery, Fromelles but subsequently (2010) identified, and buried in the Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery where he rests in peace alongside his friends, comrades and brothers in arms. His grave bears the following inscription: "Much loved son and brother.Never forgotten by his family."

Victor George Simon had a brother who also fought courageously during the Great War. He was Trooper number 1892 Edgar John Simon who served in the 3rd Australian Light Horse. Edgar survived the war and returned to Australia on June 6, 1918. He died peacefully on October 13, 1945 at the age of 54 and today rests in peace in Cheltenham Cemetery, South Australia.

Victor, more than a hundred years ago, when the world sank into the darkness of a terrible war, sweeping away people and destroying countries in flames, it was with exceptional courage and loyalty that you responded to the call to fight in the name of values ​​which brought together young Australian soldiers and their French brothers in arms who, together, shoulder to shoulder, fought in the hell of the trenches of the great war then made of blood which was shed during terrible battles which forever marked once peaceful landscapes which were transformed into terrible slaughterhouses, open-air mass graves bruised by tons of shells which, implacably, hammered, plowed the earth, burying, mutilating an entire generation of young men who believed in a great adventure but who, in Fromelles and in the poppies of the Somme, found only death and the despair of a conflict which marked the bloodiest century in the history of humanity.

In the prime of their lives, while they had so much to accomplish, so many hopes in life, so many dreams to make real, they sacrificed their today and had as their only youth the battlefields and the hell of attacks that ended in bloodshed but for them it was the right thing to do, not only for them because they fought together and endured the same horrors for their country but they did it above all for the men who stood by their side with whom they volunteered and who, behind the parapets, under their slouch hats, under the shells, became brothers who looked after each other and who, linked by an unwavering brotherhood, united in the ANZAC spirit, gave the best of themselves so that others could live and in their hearts, there was no nobler, no greater sacrifice, no more beautiful proof of love and in the middle of the barbed wire, under the shrapnel, under the grenades, under the skies streaked with the thunder of the artillery, they fought like lions with exceptional determination, each step forward bringing them closer to a return to their homes but also to the death which awaited them through hail of lead spat with fury by the machine guns that the Australian soldiers bravely charged across a sea of ​​mud that had turned blood red above which could be heard the screams of agony of their friends who, wounded, called for help or who, mowed down, collapsed in the barbed wire from which it was impossible to escape and were mercilessly decimated by murderous sniper fire.

However, as so many young men were wounded again and again, the Diggers refused to stay behind, they refused to return to their trenches and followed their friends to the end of hell because to them, their comrades were their world then, finding the strength to get up, bayonets forward, their eyes turned towards the burning horizon line, they moved towards their destiny so that from the ashes of war, a better world could be born, so that their children could live in peace then all together, beyond their strength, they gave their all until death took them in the fields of Fromelles, Pozieres, Amiens, Villers-bretonneux where thousands of them rest in peace today behind the rows of their white tombs on which they fell, not to die but to be forever remembered by the people of France who are proud and honored by the friendship which unites us with Australia. For me who lives on these sacred fields, they are not only men but they are and will forever be my heroes, my boys of the Somme, my adopted Diggers over whom I will always watch over with care and love by perpetuating their memory so that their names and stories will never be forgotten, so that the ANZAC spirit, through the red fields of poppies, may live forever.Thank you so much Victor, for everything you did and gave for my country which will never forget Australia and the Diggers for whom our gratitude, our admiration and our love will remain eternally. At the going down of the sun and in the morning,we will remember him,we will remember them.