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#2414  George Edwin WILLIAMS  41st Battalion

Son of  Elizabeth Ann Williams, Torbanlea via Maryborough, Queensland
 
George Williams reported that he had been born in Derbyshire, England. At some time, George and his family members emigrated to Queensland. Given that George is commemorated on the Howard memorial, it is likely that he worked for some time as a coal miner on the Burrum fields. His mother was a resident of Howard.
 
When George presented himself for enlistment on 26th June 1916 at Mount Morgan, he stated he was a 34 year old widower without dependent children. George’s name on the Mount Morgan Gold Mining Company Roll of Honour indicates that at the time of his enlistment, he was working as a miner at Mount Morgan. George gave his age as 34 and he named his mother, Elizabeth Williams of Howard, as his next of kin. George completed his enlistment in Rockhampton on 24th July 1916 and then proceeded to Bell’s Paddock Camp at Enoggera where he was placed temporarily into the 11th Depot Battalion before being assigned as a reinforcement for the 41st Battalion.
Once sufficient men had been allocated to the 4th reinforcements, they departed Brisbane on the “Boonah” on 21st October 1916. George had allocated three shillings and sixpence from his overseas pay of five shillings to a Commonwealth bank account in Maryborough.
The journey from Australia to England took some time as by that stage of the war, troop transports were not using the shorter route via Suez due to submarine activity, but rather taking a much longer voyage via South Africa and Sierra Leone. As a consequence, when George and the rest of the reinforcements arrived in Plymouth on 10th January 1917, the 41st Battalion, part of the 11th brigade of the 3rd Division AIF, had already departed from the divisional camp at Larkhill for the western front.
 
The reinforcements spent three months with the 11th Training Battalion at Durrington before being sent to join the battalion. Since arriving in France in November of 1916, the entire 3rd Division under the command of Major General John Monash was involved in fatigue and salvage work while spending time in the support lines and front line on a rotational basis. When George was taken on strength by the 41st, the battalion had been withdrawn from front line duties to complete training for a coming battle.
 
The thrust of the British strategy in 1917 moved from the Somme in France north into Belgium and the ancient city of Ypres. The plan called for the removal of the enemy from the heights of a ridge which stretched south from Ypres to the village of Messines, followed by a step by step advance eastwards from Ypres along the line of the Menin Road towards the village of Passchendaele. The Battle of Messines was timed to commence on 7th June 1917 with the firing of 19 underground mines beneath the Messines Ridge, followed by concentrated artillery and closely advancing infantry. The 41st Battalion was tasked with holding the front line prior to the 7th June while the units that would be involved in the advance assembled in the support trenches. Messines was the first major action in which George was involved.
 
After Messines, the 41st was withdrawn to regroup and reequip prior to the next action at Broodseinde Ridge and Passchendaele. By November of 1917, the Flanders campaign which had begun with such promise had slowly ground to a halt in the mud in front of the village of Passchendaele. The exhausted Australian divisions went into winter quarters around Poperinghe and enjoyed intra and inter battalion sports, hot baths and leave. George was granted two weeks leave to England in late February and he may have returned to his home town in Derbyshire to make contact with distant relatives.
 
The much anticipated German spring offensive, code named Operation Michael, began on 21st March 1918. General Haig had anticipated that the main thrust of the offensive would be in Flanders and he had kept the five Australian divisions close to the Ypres salient to meet the threat. The main thrust however was directed at the British 5th Army along the valley of the Somme in France. The German advance was so sudden that all the gains made by the British on the Somme in 1916 were lost in a few days and the vital communication hub of Amiens was threatened. Haig would eventually move four of the five Australian divisions to the defensive line in front of Amiens but the first troops to arrive were brigades from the 3rd and 4th Divisions; including the 11th Brigade and the 41st Battalion.
 
The situation on the Amiens defensive line was finally stabilised on 25th April when the 13th and 15thBrigades executed a pincer movement around the village of Villers Bretonneux. For the next two months, the 41st was engaged in what Monash called “peaceful penetration” which actually amounted to aggressive patrolling of no mans land and raids to gather intelligence. On 8th June, George was promoted to Lance Corporal.
 
The first time that Monash’s brigades went on the offensive was in the brilliantly planned and executed attack at Hamel on 4th July. So successful was the the coordinated employment of tanks, aircraft, artillery, infantry and diversion that a much greater offensive was planned for the 8th August in which all five AIF Divisions as well as three Canadian divisions and two British divisions would be engaged. The ensuing battle was named the Battle of Amiens and the outcome changed the dynamic on the Somme. Advances of several miles were made and thousands of the enemy were taken prisoner. The 8th August, which the German commander called the “blackest day for the German army” began an almost relentless pursuit of the German armies east towards the Hindenburg Line.
 
By the beginning of September, the Australians had reached the fortress town of Peronne and the hill which defended it, Mont St Quentin. The Mont was taken by a greatly undermanned 2nd Division of the AIF while other units from the 3rd Division took Peronne. Monash kept pushing his exhausted and depleted battalions towards the Hindenburg Line, some 15 miles to the east. On 6th September, the 41st battalion was advancing towards the village of Tincourt which the Germans had abandoned. Squadrons of Light Horse scouted up to two miles behind the German lines. The 41st battalion war diary described the scene as “ a lovely summer’s day, with very few shell holes and the woods are in full leaf.” As the 11th Brigade moved on from Tincourt towards Roisel on 7th September, the battalion encountered resistance from machine guns and artillery firing over open sights. During this encounter, George was seriously wounded receiving gunshot wounds to his back and shoulder. He was taken to the 9th Field Ambulance by stretcher but died the following day from his wounds.
 
George was buried in a temporary grave marked by a wooden cross close to the Field Ambulance. At war’s end, the Graves Registration Unit located George’s temporary grave. His remains were exhumed and reinterred in the Tincourt new British Cemetery. George shares the row in the cemetery with a number of unknown Irish Fusiliers.
 
George’s mother was most concerned about having a number of gold and diamond rings that had been in George’s possessions returned to her. The rings may well have been those belonging to his late wife. The rings were eventually sent to her along with some other personal items which included four razors. Elizabeth was the sole beneficiary of her son’s will which included the money set aside in the bank account in Maryborough. She also, being his closest blood relative, accepted George’s medals, memorial plaque and scroll.

WILLIAMS.—In proud and loving, memory of my dear son and brother, Corporal George Edwin Williams, 41st Battalion. A.I.F., killed in action at Somme  Valley, France, on 8th September, 1918.
Just a cable to say he had fallen
Just a notification so short;
But ah! in the hearts of his loved ones,
What grief and what anquish it wrought.
Farewell, my dear soldier one,
Sleep on with your comrades brave;
For our loss we've this great consolation,
" You sleep in a soldier's grave."
(Inserted by his loving mother, sisters and brothers, "Greenfield," Torbanlea

WILLIAMS.—In loving memory of our dear brother, Corporal Edwin George Williams, who died of wounds on September 8th.
Jesus while our hearts are bleeding,
O'er the soil that death has won;
We would at this solemn meeting.
Humbly say: Thy will be done.
(Inserted by his sorrowing brother and sister-in-law).