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Australia

From Francois Somme 

Pte 2244 Robert Edmund Smith
51st Australian Infantry Battalion,
13th Brigade, 4th Australian Division
 
Today on the Somme, peaceful and silent, rises beyond a morning fog, the solemn light of a radiant spring sun whose rays, gently, like a serene veil, spread their warmth through the eternal poppies, symbols of the courage and sacrifices of a whole generation of men who here, more than a hundred years ago, gave their today and their lives to give us the chance to have a bright tomorrow made more joyful by the laughter of children, of our loved ones. These men, in the strength and prime of their lives were Australian and while France was sinking into the darkness of war, together, united in brotherhood, bound by camaraderie, came from the other side of the world from Wellington Mill, Brisbane, Hobart, Launceston, Sydney and Ballarat to save us, to free us, to give us hope in a better future. Together, young and proud, strong and determined, animated by a spirit of loyalty and bravery, in the mud and blood of Pozieres, in the barbed wire and shell holes of Villers-Bretonneux, in the dust and furnace of Amiens, they fought and paid the price of peace by the sacrifice of thousands of them who sometimes, did not even have the chance to have a tomb but only the solitude and silence of a mud grave, their souls joining those of unknown heroes but here, in the fields of the Somme, we never forget them, we honor their names and will always commemorate their memory with love and care so that their stories may live forever. In the Somme, none of them will ever remain unknown.

On this day, as ANZAC Day approaches, it is with the deepest gratitude and the utmost respect that I would like to honour the memory of one of these young men, one of my boys of the Somme, who, for Australia and for France, two great and beautiful nations forever united in brotherhood and remembrance, for us all, gave his life.I would like to pay a very respectful tribute to Private number 2244 Robert Edmund Smith who fought bravely in the 51st Australian Infantry Battalion, 13th Brigade, 4th Australian Division of the Australian Imperial Force, and who was killed in action 108 years ago, on 2 April 1917 at the age of 31.

Robert Edmund Smith was born in 1885 in Busselton, Western Australia, and was the son of James Smith (1861-1946) and Annie Maria Smith (née Warner, 1864-1936) who both rest in peace today at Karrakatta Cemetery and Crematorium, Nedlands City, Western Australia, and lived at Wellington Mills via Dardanup, Western Australia. He had three brothers, James Smith (1883-1947), John Aubrey Smith (1892-1961), Leonard George Smith (born and died in 1894) and four sisters, Alma Frances Smith (1887-1915), Agnes Theresa Smith (1889-1959), Annie Eva Smith (1899-1967) and Norah Frances Lucy Smith (1900-1970). Robert, after graduation, worked as a hand mill until the outbreak of the war.

Australia’s involvement in the First World War began when Britain and Germany went to war on 4 August 1914, and both Prime Minister Joseph Cook and Opposition Leader Andrew Fisher, who were in the midst of an election campaign, pledged full support for Britain. The outbreak of war was greeted in Australia, as in many other places, with great enthusiasm.

The first significant Australian action of the war was the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force’s (ANMEF) landing on Rabaul on 11 September 1914. The ANMEF took possession of German New Guinea at Toma on 17 September 1914 and of the neighbouring islands of the Bismarck Archipelago in October 1914. On 9 November 1914 the Royal Australian Navy made a major contribution when HMAS Sydney destroyed the German raider SMS Emden.

On 25 April 1915 members of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) landed on Gallipoli in Turkey with troops from New Zealand, Britain, and France. This began a campaign that ended with an evacuation of allied troops beginning in December 1915. The next year Australian forces fought campaigns on the Western Front and in the Middle East.

In turn, pushed forward by a strong patriotic spirit and by the hope of a great adventure, Robert enlisted on March 27, 1916 at Blackboy Hill, Western Australia, in the 51st Australian Infantry Battalion, 4th Reinforcement. The 51st Battalion, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Ross, was raised in Egypt in the first week of March 1916, as part of the "doubling" of the AIF. Approximately half of its recruits were Gallipoli veterans from the 11th Battalion, and the other half, fresh reinforcements from Australia. Reflecting the composition of the 11th, the 51st was predominantly composed of men from Western Australia. The battalion became part of the 13th Brigade of the newly-formed 4th Australian Division.
After a training period of just over four months during which Robert learned how to handle a rifle and bayonet charges, he embarked with his unit from Fremantle, Western Australia, on August 9, 1916, on board HMAT A28 Miltiades and proceeded to England, arriving in Plymouth on September 25 and then the next day, marched to Rollestone where he joined the 13th Training Battalion with which he completed his training on Salisbury Plain. After that, finally ready to join the battlefields of the Western Front, he embarked on December 12 from Folkestone on the troop transport ship "Arundel" and left for France and the hell of war.

On December 13, 1916, after a short and uneventful journey across the Channel, Robert arrived in France and was disembarked at Etaples where he joined the 4th Australian Divisional Base Depot and was then taken on strength in the 51st Battalion on December 19 in the small village of Vignacourt, in the Somme, behind the front lines and there followed a period of training with his comrades including musketry exercises interspersed with moments of relaxation such as sport exercises. During his stay, perhaps Robert, alongside his comrades, met two local figures from the village of Vignacourt in the persons of Mr Louis and Mrs Antoinette Thuillier, a French couple of farmers passionate about photography who, on their farm, improvised a photo studio and took thousands of pictures of Australian soldiers stationed there.

On 3 January 1917, Robert and the men of the 51st Battalion left Vignacourt and marched through Cardonette, Buire-Sur-l'Ancre, Fricourt and arrived at Bazentin Camp B, nicknamed "Bendigo Camp" on 8 January. Shortly after, they were mainly employed in working and carrying parties, building roads consisting of Duckwalks between Bazentin-Le-Petit and Flers where the 51st relieved the 50th Australian Infantry Battalion on 27 January, occupying several positions and trenches in this sector including the "Gap Trench", the "Switch Trench", the "Hay Reserve" and "Forage Avenue". Very quickly, Robert and his comrades set about reinforcing their positions, improving the condition and fortifications of their trenches, building numerous strong points defended by machine guns and laying numerous lines of barbed wire, a dangerous job mainly carried out of nights to avoid being spotted by the numerous enemy machine guns and snipers in the sector. This very tiring work was also made very difficult because Flers, at that time, was only a sea of ​​deep and dangerous mud that the winter of 1916-1917 made almost impassable for the men and horses who frequently had to supply the men on the front lines and got bogged down, drowned in this clay which was a real nightmare. In addition, the water there stagnated and, cold, caused many cases of trench foot. Worse still, the Flers sector was pounded daily by the German artillery, causing many losses among the ranks of the 51st Battalion, this was the first glimpse of the hell that Robert went through alongside his unit who, despite everything, served there with courage and dedication until February 6.

On 6 February 1917, at the end of the day, the men of the 51st Battalion were relieved by the 49th Australian Infantry Battalion and were placed in support lines and then ten days later, on 16 February, marched to "Perth Camp". Here, Robert and his unit were employed in the improvement of the camp, building several shelters including one for field kitchens. On 25 February, the 51st Battalion moved to Buire-Sur-l'Ancre and underwent a period of training there. After their first period on the front line at Flers, the 51st had suffered 4 men killed in action, 23 wounded including 1 who died of his wounds and 2 men evacuated to the rear due to illness.

On March 26, 1917, after a period of rest, the units of the 51st Battalion left Buire-Sur-l'Ancre and marched to Mametz where they bivouacked for the night and then the next day, moved to Vraucourt, in the Pas-De-Calais, following in the footsteps of the German army which at that time, was retreating in good order behind the Hindenburg Line. A few days later, on April 1, Robert and his comrades arrived in front of the village fortified by the German troops of Noreuil and received the order to be ready to attack, take and hold the village the next day.

In late February of 1917, the German Army in northern France retreated to the Hindenburg Line in order to shorten its line and thereby establish a more defensible position. British and dominion troops immediately followed-up this withdrawal. In order to delay their advance, and provide time for the Hindenburg Line defences to be fully prepared and manned, the Germans fortified numerous villages and towns on the approaches to the Hindenburg Line and established rearguards in them. Noreuil was one of these villages. It was attacked by the 50th and 51st Battalions, with the 49th and 52nd in support, on the morning of 2 April. Attacking to the north of the Noreuil, the men of the 51st advanced quickly past it and discovered a previously unknown, but unoccupied, trench between them and their objective,a sunken road to the east of the village. Encountering machine-gun fire from Noreuil, now behind them, they halted in the trench. The 50th, hooking through the village from the south, had encountered much heavier opposition. The parties detailed to "mop-up" the village proved too weak and were captured, allowing the Germans to attack the troops that had passed beyond it from the rear. Only after the battalion reserves were committed to the battle was the 50th able to secure positions to the south of the 51st. The sunken road, however, remained in German hands and was not occupied until they withdrew in the early hours of 3 April.

Sadly, it was during the attack on Noreuil on 2 April 1917 that Robert met his fate and was killed in action, most likely by a burst of machine gun fire. Following this furious and confused engagement, his body was never recovered and his name is today remembered and commemorated with respect and honour on the walls of the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, in the Somme, alongside the names of 11,000 Australian soldiers who, in the Somme and in the north of France, have no known graves. He was only 31 years old.

Robert, on this day, more than a hundred years ago, you made the supreme sacrifice for your country, for Australia and for France, but beyond that, you gave us all the privilege, the happiness and the chance to have a tomorrow without war, a future full of peace and unity between the people of nations gathered today under the flame of remembrance and who, hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, as you were with your comrades, your brothers in arms in the trenches of the Great War, stand respectfully and with humility before your name and the white graves of your mates to honor their memory, to tell their story, your story, the story of a whole generation of heroes who, in the Somme, among the poppies and in the barbed wire, sacrificed their youth, gave their today. You were young when, in 1916, you answered the call of duty and pushed forward by the ardent desire to serve your country, to defend your beliefs, you marched to wear the uniform, your head held high under your slouch hat, your heart beating to the rhythm of the drums in the union of a youth who gathered in the four corners of Australia and proudly, eyes turned towards their future, embarked towards the distant horizon of an unknown day, towards the shores of northern France, a country they knew so little but for which they were ready to give everything. In endless lines, singing, their rifles on their shoulders, it was all of Australia that came bringing the hope of better days, it was all the Australian people who came to our aid to free us by fighting for common values, for peace and freedom, for justice but also for the children of France who, seeing the young Diggers, shed tears of happiness. Very quickly, these young boys who had crossed the seas of the world were welcomed with love and tenderness into French families and found adoptive mothers, little boys, young girls who found brothers and, in this solemn moment, was born the friendship between France and Australia and beyond their innocence, the young Australian soldiers saw why they were going to fight and that is what they did like lions, with ardor, with bravery, with determination and camaraderie in the fields and mud of Pozieres, Flers, Dernancourt, Villers-Bretonneux then Amiens without ever retreating, without ever taking a step back despite what they endured and the terrible losses they suffered from Mouquet Farm until the last battles which led the entire Australian Imperial Force to enter history and who wrote here, on these sacred fields, the most glorious pages of Australian history and together, in blood and guts, in the dedication, in surpassing themselves, in gallantry, on the battlefields, also wrote the strong and still living legend of the ANZAC spirit, a spirit that brought these heroes together in courage and sacrifice, a spirit that I wish to make known to future generations and that I want to perpetuate so that Australia and the Diggers are never forgotten, so that what they endured and went through for us, the murderous attacks, the rain of bullets, the poison gas, the storms of steel, the hurricanes of flames, the noise and the fury in which they lived are never forgotten by us and who, like me, feel honored every day to stand where they fought and fell and to watch over them, over their names and over their white tombs which today bear as epitaphs, all the life and destiny of these heroes to whom we owe so much and for whom I I will always be there, like a silent and solemn guardian wanting to bring these men back to life so that their courage and their sacrifices inspire us to build the world together and preserve peace as they did with so much bravery more than a hundred years ago, through the sacred poppies of the Somme among which the great and beautiful Australian nation, my adopted country, will live forever.Thank you so much Robert, for everything you have done for my country, whose love, gratitude and respect will forever be yours. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember him,we will remember them.