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War Memorial
Australia

Son of Anthon George Larsen and Anna Petersen

From Francois Somme

Pte 3354 George Larsen,
15th Australian Infantry Battalion,
4th Brigade, 4th Australian Division, AIF
 
More than a hundred years ago, in the fields of the Somme, a terrible war raged and marked in blood, the beginning of the bloodiest century in history. This conflict which was to put an end to all wars was in fact a hell on earth in which fought and died a whole generation of young men who, in the mud, through barbed wire, were pushed into real slaughterhouses, meat grinders which, during four horrible and sad years, pushed so many men to kill each other in furious hand-to-hand combats during which bayonets and uniforms were tinged with red, with the blood of men who, while they were in the prime of their lives, had for youth only chaos, death and despair and who, side by side, among their brothers, alongside their friends, shed their blood on old green valleys where today, millions of poppies grow, silent but eternal symbols of the courage and sacrifices paid by so many heroes in the name of peace and freedom so far from home, on the sacred grounds of northern France where even today, row upon row, stand immaculate the rows of their white graves on which are written the stories of these boys who sacrificed so much for us and over whom I will always watch with respect to honor their memory so that they are never forgotten after all they did for us, so that their names, in the light of remembrance, in our hearts can live forever.

On this day, it is with the deepest gratitude and the utmost respect that I would like to honor the memory of one of these young men, one of my boys of the Somme who, for Australia and for France, paid the supreme sacrifice. I would like to pay a very respectful tribute to Private number 3354 George Larsen who fought courageously in the 15th Australian Infantry Battalion, 4th Brigade, 4th Australian Division of the Australian Imperial Force, and who died of his wounds 108 years ago, on 9th August 1916 at the age of 19 during the Battle of the Somme.

George Larsen was born on August 26, 1896 in Nobby, Queensland, Australia. It is a small rural town about 40kms south of Toowoomba, but notable for two of its one time residents, Arthur Hoey Davis who under the pen name Steele Rudd wrote the humorous and popular book On Our Selection about small struggling farmers Dad and Dave; and Sister Kenny who was a pioneer in the treatment of polio.

His parents were Anthony George Larsen (1856-1930), a farmer from Helsingor in Denmark, and Anna Larsen (née Petrea "Petersen", 1866-1950), also from Helsingor.Anthony and Anna had married in Maryborough in July 1886. George had three brothers, Charles Larsen (1891-1970), Christian Larsen (1900-1989), Malcolm Edgar "Mick" Larsen (1909-1989) and two sisters, Caroline Margaret Larsen (1905-1996) and Estelle Elsie Larsen (1910-1913). After attending Nobby State School George took up farming, and that was his occupation when he enlisted, aged 18, on 31 July 1915 in Toowoomba, Queensland, as a Private, in the 15th Australian Infantry Battalion, 11th Reinforcement under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James Cannan, who later rose to become Quartermaster General during the Second World War. 

As he was under 21 written parental consent was necessary and forthcoming, then,with another recruit were farewelled at Nobby on 10 August by "a representative gathering". There were speeches and a number of toasts, and both men were presented with a gift. George’s was a silver-mounted pocket wallet. After a training period of just over two months during which he learned to fight with his rifle and bayonet, he embarked with his unit from Brisbane, Queensland, on board HMAT A48 Seang Bee on October 21,1915 and sailed for Egypt.

On arrival in Egypt the reinforcements were merged with the surviving veterans from Gallipoli and underwent training as well as a period guarding the Suez Canal. This was an interrupted time for George as he spent two periods in hospital.First when he was disembarked on 16th January 1916 at Abbassia where he was admitted to No 4 Auxiliary Hospital suffering from mumps and then a second time when he was admitted to the 4th Australian Field Ambulance at Serapeum this time suffering from Influenza on 21st April but after recovering quickly, rejoined his unit on 29th April. In May 1916 speculation mounted among the troops that a move was imminent, and that proved accurate and on 1st June 1916, the 15th Battalion embarked on board "SS Transylvania" from Alexandria and proceeded to France.

On June 8, 1916, after less than a week of an uneventful voyage on the Mediterranean Sea, George arrived in France and was disembarked in Marseilles. From there they traveled by train to the north of France. After detraining in Bailleul on 10 June the 15th Battalion went to billets at La Maison Blanche where, the Battalion history noted, "for the first time since leaving Australia, straw lay beneath our blankets in the open airy shed where we were billeted".

The Australians from rural areas, including in all probability George Larsen, engaged with the local farmers about their intensive farming techniques. The Battalion history noted that:
"The middens at the back of all the farm houses astounded the Australian born, who, unfamiliar with this method of conserving animal manure for field purposes, admitted its economy, but disliked intensely its close proximity to the residential quarters. Many of these men declared themselves stronger adherents than ever to the artificial manures in general use in Australia."

On 17th June 1916, the men of the 15th Battalion left Bailleul and marched to "Jesus Farm", near Erquinghem-Lys where they underwent a period of training including musketry and hand-to-hand combat exercises and then on 30th June, moved to the reserve line at Bois-Grenier, a relatively quiet sector of the front but very useful because, nicknamed "nursery sector", it allowed Australian troops without combat experience to acclimatise to the conditions of trench warfare. There they relieved the 20th Australian Infantry Battalion and fought alongside the 13th and 14th Battalions of the AIF who were in the firing line.

During the days that followed, without major actions carried out on either side of the front, George and his comrades were employed in the improvement of their trenches and were relieved on the night of 11th to 12 July by the 31st Australian Infantry Battalion and moved back into billets at La Maison Blanche, near Bailleul from where they embarked by train for the Somme on July 13.

Later that day on 13th July 1916, George and the men of the 15th Battalion arrived in the Somme and were detrained to the village of Candas. From there they marched to St Ouen and then moved to Naours on 16th July where they trained hard, often to the point of exhaustion, which gave the troops a sense that a major engagement lay ahead in the mud and blood of the already battered fields of the Somme. On 25th July they marched to Herissart and then reached their new billets at Warloy-Baillon two days later where the young Australian soldiers, exhausted from the long march and suffering from sore feet, were given some rest and were able to wash and clean their uniforms.

The Diggers placed great importance on washing their clothes, firstly because it added a little comfort but also, according to veterans' accounts, "to have clean clothes on the battlefield allowed, in the event of injury, that it would not become infected as quickly as with uniforms stained with mud and blood". After this more than deserved period of rest, each man in the battalion, including George, was taught how to throw grenades and dig relatively secure positions at night, quickly and silently then, as the 4th Division moved forward to the front line from the town of Albert on the evening of 5 August 1916, they ran into immense enemy barrages. Casualties were high and most units found it impossible to reach their objective. The history of the 15th explained that:
"It was impossible to penetrate this devastating curtain of fire in platoon or any other form of close formation without suffering heavy casualties, so throughout the early morning the Battalion filtered through in small parties".

Finally, on August 6, 1916, under the murderous fire of the German artillery, George and his unit arrived at a place of pure horror, Pozières:
"The greater part of the front line system occupied by the Battalion was shallow and in parts it was nothing but a shambles. The dead lay everywhere, partly buried within the parapet or parados, or lying exposed within the trench and the open country to the immediate front. Narrow, shallow dugouts with galvanised iron roofs or no roof whatever, were the only shelters for the men".

The attack on Pozieres was launched on the 23 July. The battle saw the Australians fight hard for an area that comprised a first rate observation post over the surrounding countryside. The area also offered an alternative approach to the rear of the Thiepval defences.

The Australian divisions of the 1 Anzac Corps were given the task of capturing the Pozieres Ridge, which had in fact been intended for capture on the first day of the offensive. The Australians succeeded in doing this by 4 August, having launched their offensive almost two weeks earlier at 1.30am on 23 July, two days following their arrival on the Somme.They were assisted in the attack by the British 48th Division attacking from Ovillers towards the German left flank.

The Australians succeeded in capturing Pozieres village within an hour and then rushed across the main road towards Gibraltar, a German strongpoint. A mere 200 yards separated the Australians from Pozieres Ridge, the attack’s main objective, heavily defended by the securely entrenched German troops. Two lines of trenches (OG1 and OG2) needed to be overcome before the ridge could be completely claimed.

Later on that first day, 23 July, the Australians were joined to the north-west of Pozieres village by the British 17th Warwickshire Regiment. Still the ridge remained firmly in German hands and the 2nd Australian Division subsequently relieved their comrades and continued the attack on the ridge for a further four days before they too were relieved. Allied casualties at this stage were running at a costly 3,500.

The ridge finally fell on 4 August after almost two weeks of bitter fighting. However, Mouquet Farm and Thiepval remained in German hands. Failed attempts, directed by Hubert Gough, to push further north-west from the height towards Mouquet Farm and Thiepval were repulsed by German artillery fire, with the loss of some 23,000 Australian troops.

Gough came under heavy Australian criticism for his persistence in pushing the advance for five weeks; their growing scepticism of the quality of British leadership was already low following the notable failure of an earlier diversionary attack at Fromelles on the 19-20 July by the Australian 5th Division.

Australians suffered 5,708 casualties at Fromelles of which total 4,000 were fatalities; a further 400 were captured and marched through Lille as prisoners of war.

Sadly it was during the Battle of Pozieres that George met his fate. On 7th August 1916 at 4:30am the Germans launched a fierce attack on the 14th Australian Battalion on the right flank of the 20th Battalion, which under the daring command of Lieutenant Dunworth attacked the Germans who were crushed and mowed down under the precise and heavy fire of rifles and machine guns and lost about 100 men and captured 20 but it was during this courageous action that George was seriously wounded by a shell fragment to the head and several in the body. He was immediately evacuated from the front line and admitted to the 13th Australian Field Ambulance the following day and then transferred to No 3 Casualty Clearing Station located at Puchevillers on 9th August but died of his wounds a few hours later. He was only 19 years old.

Today, George Larsen rests in peace alongside his friends, comrades and brothers in arms at Puchevillers British Cemetery, Somme, and his grave bears the following inscription: "No life is short that's nobly spent."

George Larsen had a brother who, like him, fought bravely during the Great War. He was Private number 667 Charles Larsen who served in the 25th Australian Infantry Battalion. He fought at Gallipoli and then at Pozieres, in the Somme, where he was wounded on July 29, 1916. Charles survived the war and returned to Australia on January 2, 1919 and died peacefully on November 12, 1970 at the age of 79 in Charter Towers, Queensland, Australia. He now rests in peace at Charters Towers Monumental And Lawn Cemetery.

George, you who were so young, too young to die, it was with exceptional dedication and admirable courage that you answered the call and served your country in the trenches of northern France in which, with you, the sons of the great Australian nation fought courageously under the bullets and shells spat on them, ferociously, implacably, by machine guns thirsty for life and which, at an infernal rate, poured out, burst after burst, rains of lead splitting the air asphyxiated by the heat of the metal and which, without any mercy, swept the no man's land, riddling with overheated steel the bodies and uniforms of young men who, in the mud, in the middle of the barbed wire, mutilated, disfigured, fell heavily with their rifles in their hands, protecting beyond their death the sacred grounds of the Somme strewn with poppies in the midst of which, so far from home, they sacrificed their youth and had as their only world, the fury, the torments, the pain of darkness which swallowed up a whole generation of sons and fathers in the brutality of an insane war which they endured with such bravery and lived each day as if it were their last, trembling with each step, with each explosion awaiting death carried by a stray bullet or by a shell which reduced them to pieces. This world was theirs and yet, in these dark hours, the ANZAC spirit was born, a spirit of courage, camaraderie and fraternity which guided the steps and the hearts of the young Australian soldiers who, despite deadly battles, despite catastrophic losses, always kept their good humor and a fighting spirit which nothing broke and, behind the parapets, shoulder to shoulder, knee to knee, they held the front line with incredible endurance, with invincible perseverance and for every metre, for every trench conquered paid the sacrifice of their lives.

They thought they were just ordinary men doing what was right but without knowing it, became heroes who, even if they did not all receive medals, were deeply admired, not only in Australia but also by the French families who, in Amiens, in Villers-Bretonneux, welcomed these young boys with such warmth, with deep love and were quickly adopted into the homes of our villages who, seeing the Australians, understood that the war would soon end but in the north of France, after so much horror, so much carnage endured, offered us much more than what these men fought so hard for in the trenches because in 1918, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh months, the Diggers climbed into the bell towers of our churches and proudly carried the flag of our beautiful France for which they had given and lost so much during battles which, for the Australian Imperial Force, were the hardest and deadliest of the entire war as at Pozieres and at Mouquet Farm where 23,000 of them fell but they never retreated and fought like proud lions carrying in their hearts the colours of the Southern Cross which guided their destinies until their last breath in the killing fields and in the shadow of the cathedral of our beautiful Franco-Australian city of Amiens that the cobbers defended with the greatest bravery who today still in our hearts, make us feel the greatest admiration, a deep respect and an even greater gratitude for these boys, for their families but also for all the Australian people with whom I fell in love through the values ​​carried by the Diggers, our sons, our boys over whom I would watch always with care and love so that their stories never fall into oblivion, so that their memory can be perpetuated, so that their names, beyond their white tombs and marble memorials, can live forever.

Thank you so much George, coming from the heart of a young French man who, today, more than ever, feels proud to be an adopted Aussie.At the going down of the sun and in the Morning,we will remember him,we will remember them.

I would like to wholeheartedly, most respectfully and warmly thank the Saint Andrew’s Uniting Church Heritage Committee and Mr Ian Carnell for their invaluable assistance without which I would not have been able to write this tribute.