Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From Francois Berthout

Pte 3064 Ernest Lytton Johnstone,
42nd Australian Infantry Battalion,
B Company, 5th Platoon,
11th Brigade, 3rd Australian Division, AIF
 
On the fields of the Somme, today silent and serene, are nevertheless heard, through the breeze of the wind and under the rays of a spring sun, the murmurs and the almost ghostly voices of thousands of young men who, more than a hundred years after the end of the great war, still walk side by side under red waves of poppies on which so much blood was shed and which here, remind us every day what the price of peace and freedom was in which we live and for which so many young men fought and paid the supreme sacrifice in the mud and through the barbed wire, in the hell of the trenches and the fury of the battles but alongside their comrades, in brotherhood and guided by their hearts, by their convictions, moved forward under the bullets for what was right, so that their children could grow up and have a future in a world in peace, so that future generations could say "never again" and, in the prime of their young lives, with determination and the utmost bravery, emerged from the trenches and went over the top on the sacred grounds of northern France on which so many of them now rest in peace and over whom I will always watch with the greatest respect, with love and admiration, with care and honor so that they will never be forgotten.

Today, it is with the utmost respect and with infinite and deep gratitude that I would like to honor the memory of one of these young men, of one of my boys of the Somme who came from Australia and who ,for us, in France, gave his life. I would like to pay a very respectful tribute to Private number 3064 Ernest Lytton Johnstone who fought in the 42nd Australian Infantry Battalion, B Company, 5th Platoon, 11th Brigade, 3rd Australian Division, and who died of his wounds 106 years ago, on the 18th April 1918 at the age of 24 on the Somme front.

Ernest Lytton Johnstone was born in 1894 in Erewood, near Inglewood, Goondiwindi, Queensland, and was the son of Osborne and Eliza Ann Johnstone, of Erewood, Oman-ama, via Warwick, Queensland. He was educated in Oman-Ama State School and after graduation worked as a stockman.

Ernest enlisted on November 2, 1916 at Longreach, Queensland, in the 42nd Australian Infantry Battalion, B Company, 7th Reinforcement, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Woolcock and after a three-month training period at Ennogera Camp, near Brisbane, Queensland, he embarked with his unit from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A18 Wiltshire on February 7, 1917 and sailed for England.
On April 11, 1917, Ernest arrived in England and marched to Fovant where he joined the 11th Training Battalion,then on April 23, moved to Durrington Camp, between Larkhill and Bulford and completed his training period here under realistic war conditions. Three months later,on July 2, 1917, ready to join the battlefields, he proceeded overseas from Folkestone to France.

On July 3, 1917, after a quick trip without inconvenience on the English Channel, Ernest arrived in France and was disembarked at Rouelles and joined the 3rd Australian Divisional Base Depot then a month later, on August 2, marched out to unit and was taken on strength in the 42nd Battalion on August 4 at the "Woodlands Hutments Camp", near Steenwerck. A few days later, on August 8, they moved to the "Waterlands Farm Camp" with a strength of 812 men who, here, were employed in working parties and tactical exercises then on August 22, marched for Remilly-Wirquin (Pas-De-Calais) where they were engaged for a period of special training for the Ypres offensive until September 24.

On September 25, 1917, Ernest and the 42nd Battalion left Remilly-Wirquin and marched through Blaringhem, Eecke, and two days later,on September 27, arrived at Poperinge, in the Ypres Salient, Belgium,then a little over a week later,on October 4, were involved in the Battle of Broodseinde Ridge.

The battle of Broodseinde Ridge, east of Ypres on 4 October 1917 was a vast operation launched by British General Sir Herbert "Daddy" Plumer, commander of the British Second Army. It involved twelve divisions, including those of both 1st and 2nd Anzac Corps armed with Lewis guns advancing on a front of thirteen kilometres. The attack was planned on the same basis as its predecessors; a step-by-step approach of limited advances preceded by heavy artillery bombardment. Once each attack had obtained its objective, the attacking troops were to be protected by further barrages whilst they consolidated their positions.The battle was supposed to begin shortly before dawn at 6am yet the Germans had also chosen that same morning to launch an aggressive defensive strike. Forty minutes before the planned allied assault, the Australians, who formed the vital centre of Plumer’s twelve Division offensive were unexpectedly assailed by a mortar barrage which fell on the shell-holes where they were nervously waiting in the pre-dawn drizzle. It was a devastating stealth assault and twenty officers and a seventh of the 1st Anzac Corps were killed or wounded before their own attack had even begun.

Despite the unexpected early onslaught, the Australians advanced and forged on through the barrage from the German 212th Regiment. Despite some very savage hand-to-hand fighting around enemy concrete pillboxes, the allied forces eventually gained all their objectives on the ridge. In the end they captured a total of 6,000 German prisoners and drove the enemy in front of them back more than 1,000 metres.Along the whole line the attack had been successful, thereby giving the British their first glimpse of the Flemish lowlands since May 1915. It was a battle that the official Australian War Historian Charles Bean noted as "the most complete success so far won by the British Army in France."However, it was not without great loss on both sides; the Australian divisions had suffered a devastating 6,500 casualties and German General Enrich Ludendorff wrote of 4 October 1917 that "we came through it only with enormous losses." Der Weltkrieg, the official German war history, similarly deeply lamented "the black day of October 4th."

During the battle of Broodseinde Ridge on October 4, 1917, the men of the 42nd Battalion captured 100 German prisoners as well as 9 machine guns but the price of this success was heavy and lost 223 killed in action and wounded.

Exhausted, on October 6, 1917, the men of the 42nd Battalion were relieved by the 6th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment and marched for the "St Lawrence Camp", in Brandhoek, where they had a few days of rest but on October 12, they received the order to join the front line and were plunged into the fury of the battle of Passchendaele also called "Third Battle of Ypres".

The Third Battle of Ypres opened on 31 July 1917, but bad weather in August partially flooded the battlefield and a further British attack on 16 August gained little ground. The next attack did not take place until the ground had dried out. A new strategy known as "step by step" or "bite and hold" was adopted, which called for an advance that would not extend beyond supporting artillery that could assist in defeating the expected enemy counterattacks. The Australians were brought into the battle as part of General Plumer’s 2nd Army, and were given the task, on 20 September, of advancing along the Menin Road towards Gheulevelt. With good planning and efficient artillery the Battle of the Menin Road was a great success. Further successful advances followed at the Battle of Polygon Wood on 26 September and at the Battle of Broodseinde, on 4 October although casualties were heavy.

The weather again broke and the constant rain turned the battlefield into a quagmire so that further attacks on 9 October at Poelcappelle and on 12 October at Passchendaele failed with heavy loss. The Canadian Corps was now given the task, and in five attacks between 26 October and 10 November, succeeded in capturing Passchendaele. Over 38,000 Australians were killed or wounded in the Ypres battles. The stone lions that marked the Menin Gate in the Ypres ramparts during the war now flank the entrance hall at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

Even though the 42nd battalion was in a reserve role, the battle of Passchendaele proved particularly costly. It lost over a third of its strength, principally from German gas attacks, and trench foot caused by the sodden condition of the battlefield.

After a long period of fierce fighting at Passchendaele, the men of the 42nd Battalion, exhausted and broken by the hell they endured, were relieved by the Canadians and moved back to Remilly-Wirquin on October 22 where after a period of rest and reorganization, followed a period of training but suffered at the same time an epidemic of Influenza caused by the cold and a particularly humid weather and remained here until November 11th.

On November 12, 1917, Ernest and his unit left Remilly-Wirquin and marched through Steenwerck, Boeseghem, La Becque, and arrived at Kortepyp, near Neuve-Eglise, Belgium, on November 15 and soon after began to follow a new training period near the river Lys where they remained until the end of the month.

On December 1, 1917, the 42nd Battalion marched for Ploegsteert then on December 8, moved to Tilques, in the north of France where they followed an eight-day period of musketry exercises. After that, they were sent to Locre on December 16, moved back to Waterlands Farm Camp the following day, then after a quick stop at Le Menagate on December 20, moved to the trenches of Bois Grenier and fought alongside the 44th Australian Infantry Battalion but were also supported by the 35th Battalion of the AIF on their left flank and by the 113th Brigade of the British Expeditionary Force on their right and fought here until 27 December then returned to Waterlands Farm Camp then to "Birr Barracks Camp 2", at Locre, on 31 December for a period of training which ended on January 26, 1918.

On January 27, 1918, the men of the 42nd Battalion left Locre and marched for the "Ingerson Camp", at Kortepyp then the following month, on February 25, Ernest was granted a furlough and moved back to his unit on March 13 at Fromentel, near Calais where they were billeted in good conditions but a little more than a week later, in a last desperate attempt to break through the Allied lines, the Germans, on March 21, launched Operation "Michael" also called "Spring Offensive" and threatened to take the railway junction of Amiens, in the Somme which, if it had been captured, would have cut off the Allied troops from important supplies (in reinforcements & ammunition), and would have allowed the Kaiser to advance his troops towards Paris and on March 31, the 42nd Australian Infantry Battalion was sent to the Somme to stop them.

On March 31, 1918, after a quick journey by train, Ernest and the 42nd Battalion arrived in the Somme and took up positions in the trenches of Sailly-Le-Sec, north of the Somme river and on April 11, the Germans threw themselves on the Australian positions with ferocity but, with the support of the artillery, were violently repulsed but at the cost of many casualties in the ranks of the 42nd which, in the days which followed, held their positions firmly despite being heavily pounded by the German artillery. Unfortunately, it was here on April 16, 1918 that Ernest was seriously injured by shrapnel in the abdomen while he was part of a fatigue party carrying water for his comrades and was immediately evacuated and admitted to the 11th Australian Field Ambulance in "Shrapnel Gully" then to the 20th Casualty Clearing Station in Vignacourt where he died two days later, on November 18, 1918 at the age of 24.

The circumstances which led to Ernest's death were described as follows by some of his comrades:
Private number 7589 Albert Robert Smith stated:
"I saw him wounded by a piece of high explosive shell through the left side of the chest in the village of Sailly-Le-Sec at about 2pm on about April 17/18.I had been talking to him just before and was 200 yards off when he was hit.I also saw him taken through the 11th Australian Field Ambulance in "Shrapnel Gully" behind Sailly-Le-Sec and I heard that he died some days later.We called him "Ernie". He was a strongly built darkish man of about 5ft who came with the 7th Reinforcement and belonged to B Company, 5th Platoon."

Private number 2791 Colin Knox Campbell stated:
"He was in B Company, and I saw him wounded at Bonnay (Sailly-Le-Sec), on the Somme,when he was hit by a shell in the thigh and was taken to a dressing station near by, being conscious when taken away. He was wounded about 2 pm being on a fatigue party carrying water with others,several of whom were wounded by the same shell. I knew him well,and he came from Rockhampton, Queensland, I think."

Ernest Lytton Johnstone was buried by the Reverend Causton, attached to the 20th Casualty Clearing Station, and he now rests in peace alongside his friends, comrades and brothers in arms at Vignacourt British Cemetery, Somme, and his grave bears the following inscription: "Though lost to sight to memory dear by his loving mother."

Ernest, more than a hundred years ago, resolute and determined to do your part, alongside your brothers, in the innocence and in the prime of your lives, it is with your head held high and a valiant heart that you answered at the call of duty and that you volunteered to do your part on the battlefields of the great war, to do what was right in the ranks of united men who, together, with heavy hearts but proud, after a final farewell to their loved ones, sailed for the unknown and turned their eyes towards the horizon line, towards the setting sun, towards days filled with the sound of cannons whose flashes streaked the dark clouds of northern France, and side by side, with their friends, in endless lines alongside the horses whose hooves kicked up the dust of roads and bruised landscapes that led them to the blood-red poppies, moved to the trenches and the darkness of a world at war , who, like an insatiable beast, in madness and fury, pushed a whole generation of young boys to kill each other in abominable bloodbaths for the gain of a few kilometers paid for by so many sacrifices.In the mud, paralyzed by a hell never before seen, far from home, for the men who stood by their side in the same suffering, they stood with an exceptional bravery which characterized the men of the Australian army who, in a youth too quickly lost in the fury of the battles, fought with determination and conviction for their country and for the people of France who were deeply touched and moved by the warmth and good humor of these young men who, at the dawn of a life that stretched before their feet, chose to fight on the soils of France for peace and freedom and were deeply loved, admired and adopted as our sons who gave their today, their lives and their all for us on the fields battles of Pozières, Amiens, Villers-Bretonneux whose walls still bear the traces of the war but also carry with pride and love the words "Do not forget Australia", a young nation to whom we owe so much and towards whom we will be eternally grateful, a nation whose sons and daughters wrote the most beautiful pages.Over the parapets, bayonets forward, through the silent poppies, by their courage and deeds, they made their motherland proud and through rains of bullets, through deflagrations and titanic explosions, without ever taking a only one step back despite what they went through, they did not retreat, and driven by the desire to fight for a just cause, without regard for their own lives, they charged again and again through the barbed wire and on their young faces, rained the blood of their mates, of their brothers who, a few meters from them, in a last burst of courage, were stopped in the middle of the attack by bursts of lead or reduced to pieces by the cold and fatal metal of shells which rained all around them and whose splinters tinkled their uniforms and their slouch hats of blood which was shed endlessly and in which were sown the seeds of the hopes of peace for which these young men, these heroes gave their lives and who today, young forever, stand solemn and silent but united in eternal camaraderie and in the ANZAC spirit who here on the Somme, will live forever and where I will always stand with the deepest respect in front of their white graves to tell the stories of these young men, to keep their memory alive so that they will never be forgotten and will always be honored and proud to be their guardian by carrying high the flame of remembrance so that their names will always be remembered and honored in the light.Thank you so much Ernest, for all that you and your comrades have done for us who, thanks to you, have a tomorrow, a life.At the going down of the sun and in the morning,we will remember him,we will remember them.