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My father (Leslie James BELL, Private WX3823) was 25 years old when he joined the 2/16th Battalion in June 1940, serving with the Battalion for over 5 years until his discharge in October 1945.

It was well known to the family that Dad had been named after his Uncle, and my Great Uncle – Leslie James BELL – who had died as a result of wounds received at Gallipoli, but other details have been lost over the years. Researching his history has proven to be a sobering experience.

Leslie James BELL was born in 1891 in Moama, a small town in the Riverina District of Southern New South Wales. The name “Moama” is derived from a local indigenous word meaning ‘burial ground’, and the town is located directly across the Murray River from the larger town of Echuca in neighbouring Victoria. At the time of his birth, Moama’s population was recorded as being 716 people, and even now the town only has a permanent population of some 3,700 people.

Uncle Les was the 6th of the 7 children of Alexander BELL, a Mounted Police Constable. He attended Moama Public School, and while being apprenticed to a blacksmith in Echuca for two years, his last employment was recorded as Assistant Surveyor.

Uncle Les must have been very much a simple country lad with limited, if any, experience of life outside Moama (at the time of his enlistment, he was single and still living at home). The decision to enlist must have been heavily influenced by the actions of his younger brother, Archibald Augustus Bell, who joined the AIF some three weeks earlier than did Uncle Les.

Liverpool, then a town 30 km to the west of Sydney, was the site of the main camp for the reception and basic training of recruits for the AIF in New South Wales during the First World War. As someone wrote “Out in the bush, men were setting out on the trek to the city by train, by horse and with their swags on their backs”. It is not known how Uncle Leslie travelled from Moama to Liverpool – a distance of nearly 400 miles – but, for a bloke from the bush, that journey must have been an exciting adventure in itself.

At that time Australia had a population of some 4.9 million people – of which 420,000 enlisted in the armed forces, a huge commitment representing some 38.7% of all males aged between 18-44 years. Records are that 75 men from tiny Moama served in the AIF – an astounding number that must have represented over 10% of the total population of the town. The country paid a very heavy price for its patriotism, suffering a casualty rate of nearly 65% of the 332,000 enlistees who embarked overseas.

On 30 January 1915, at the age of 23 years 7 months, Uncle Les enlisted as a Private in the 1st Australian Infantry Battalion (Regiment Number 1921) – his brother Archie (Regimental Number 1707) having enlisted in 1st Battalion on 9 January 1915 [Archies’ story has close links to that of the Old 16th Battalion, and is best left for another time].

Along with every enlistee, the Bell brothers vowed “I swear I will well and truly serve our Sovereign Lord the King in the Australian Imperial Forces until the end of the War and that I will resist his Majesty’s enemies and cause His Majesty’s peace to be kept and maintained”.

A handsome, wiry lad (standing at a height of 5ft 8 ¼ in and a weight of 134 lbs – or 1.73 m and 60.8 kg in metric measures), Uncle Les had a dark complexion, blue eyes and brown hair.

I can imagine the pride both Uncles Les and Archie would have felt in joining the 1st Australian Infantry Battalion – which along with 2nd, 3rd and 4th Battalions comprised the 1st Brigade Australian Imperial Force – the first infantry units recruited for the AIF in New South Wales during the First World War.
1st Battalion was raised within a fortnight of the declaration of war in August 1914 and embarked just two months later. Although 1st Battalion was not technically established until 1914, the unit takes its lineage from units that were raised in Sydney sixty years before then. The 1st Battalion was the oldest infantry battalion from New South Wales and is a successor unit of the Sydney Volunteer Rifles which were raised in 1854 in the then colony of New South Wales, in response to concerns about possible threats posed by Russian naval forces in the Pacific during the Crimean War.

1st Battalion took part in the Anzac landing on 25th April 1915, landing at about 7.40am as part of the second and third waves [16th Battalion landed in the late afternoon], and both Battalions served there until the evacuation in December.
Less than 5 months after enlistment and having just turned 24 years, Uncle Les was one of the 142 men in the 5th Reinforcements to 1st Battalion, sailing from Sydney on 25th June 1915 on-board HMAT A40 Ceramic. He would not see his 25th birthday.

5th Reinforcements arrived in Egypt on 25th July 1915, and joined the 1st Battalion at Gallipoli on 5th August 1915 – landing at 2.am, and just in time to participate in the ferocious battle of Lone Pine less than 36 hours later.
One of the most famous assaults of the Gallipoli campaign, the Battle of Lone Pine was originally intended as a diversion from attempts by New Zealand and Australian units to force a breakout from the Anzac perimeter on the heights of Chunuk Bair and Hill 971 [16th Battalion took part in this attack during which the Hill was taken at great cost, but after which Turkish reinforcements forced the Australians to withdraw].

As recounted in the History of The First Battalion AIF ”The assault on Lone Pine on the afternoon of August 6th 1915, takes its place as one of the most gallant Australian adventures in the history of the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign. It tested to the full the courage and the fighting qualities of the city and country men who formed the 1st Battalion. It involved days and nights of slaughter; of fierce hand-to-hand encounters; of men struggling through dark tunnels towards the enemy; of inspired heroism as Turkish counter-attack after counter-attack was flung back as violently as it was launched; of screaming shells and blinding flashes; of nerve-racking nights and red dawns shot with blood”.

The action commenced at 4.30pm on 6th August 1915 with a continuous and heavy bombardment of the Lone Pine and adjacent trenches. The assault had been entrusted to the 1st Brigade, and at 5.30pm the assault was commenced by the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Battalions with the 1st Battalion forming the Brigade reserve.

The men of the 1st Brigade faced the enemy at Lone Pine in trenches only 50 to 70 metres apart – the frontage for the attack amounting at the most to some 200 metres, and the approaches lay open to heavy enfilade fire, both from the north and the south.

In a paragraph from “Description of Operations” from General Sir Ian Hamilton’s Despatch entitled “The Invincibility of The Australians Two lines left their trenches simultaneously and were closely followed up by a third. The rush across the open was a regular race against death, which came in the shape of a hail of shell and rifle bullets from front and from either flank. But the Australian had firmly resolved to reach the enemy’s trenches, and in this determination they became for the moment invincible. The barbed wire entanglement was reached and was surmounted. Then came a terrible moment, when it seemed as though it would be physically impossible to penetrate into the trenches. The overhead cover of stout pine beams resisted all individual efforts to move it. And the loopholes continued to spit fire. Groups of our men then bodily lifted up the beams and individual soldiers leaped down into the semi-darkened galleries amongst the Turks. By 5.47pm the 3rd and 4th Battalions were well into the enemy’s vitals, and a few minutes later the reserves of the 2nd Battalion advanced over their parados and driving out, killing, or capturing the occupants, made good the whole of the trenches. The reserve companies of the 3rd and 4th Battalions followed, and at 6.20pm the 1st Battalion (in reserve) was launched to consolidate the position.

At 7pm a determined and violent counter-attack began, both from the north and from the south. Wave upon wave the enemy swept forward with the bayonet. Here and there a well-directed salvo of bombs emptied a section of a trench, but whenever this occurred the gap was quickly filled by the initiative of the officers and the gallantry of the men”.

The fighting was continuous by day and night, with large-scaled and sustained counter-attacks occurring over 6 days but especially on 7th August (1.30am to 8.30am; and 1.30pm to 5pm); 8th August (midnight to dawn) and 9th August (5am to 7.45am). After three days the area was littered with thousands of corpses and the Australians held the ground. Over 2,000 Australian casualties were sustained during the intense hand-to-hand fighting at Lone Pine between 6th and 9th August 1915.

As described in another paragraph in the Despatch from General Sir Ian Hamilton, this one entitled “Men who were a Glory To Australia
Thus was Lone Pine taken and held. The Turks were in great force and very full of fight, yet one weak Australian Brigade, numbering at the outset but 2000 rifles, and supported only by two weak battalions, carried the work under the eyes of a whole enemy division, and maintained their grip upon it like a vice during six days of successive counter-attacks. High praise is due to Brigadier-General N. M.Smyth and to his battalion commanders. The irre-sistible dash and daring of officers and men in the initial charge were a glory to Australia. The stout-heartedness with which they clung to the captured ground in spite of fatigue, severe losses, and the continual strain of shellfire and bomb attacks, may seem striking to the civilian; it is even more admirable to the soldier. From start to finish the artillery support was untiring and vigilant. Owing to the rapid, accurate fire of the 2nd New Zealand Battery, under Major Sykes, several of the Turkish on¬slaughts were altogether defeated in their attempts to get to grips with the Australians. Not a chance was lost by these gunners, although time and again the enemy's artillery made direct hits on their shields. The hand-to¬-hand fighting in the semi-obscurity of the trenches was prolonged and very bitterly contested.

The bombing and sniping continued thereafter, although less in volume, throughout 9th August and lasted until 12th August when it at last became manifest that the Australians had gained complete ascendency.

The 1st Brigade attacked Lone Pine with 2,000 men but was reduced to 900 at the end of the battle. The Turks losses were estimated at over 5,000 men. Seven Victoria Crosses were won for valor shown at Lone Pine – two by members of the 1st Battalion (Capt Alfred Shout [posthumously] and L/C Leonard Keysor)
The strenuous period continued for the 1st Battalion, from 12th August up until its embarkation for Lemnos on 8th September 1915 – at regular intervals during that time being in and out of the front line; with fairly heavy casualties being suffered due to sudden sorties, hard-fought counter-attacks, very heavy shelling and bomb attacks.

As for Uncle Les, he was to spend only 30 days at Gallipoli and did not get to enjoy the rest at Lemnos.

On 2nd September 1915, he was wounded in action, suffering a bomb wound to the head. He was admitted to No. 3 Field Ambulance on 3rd September, then moved to 1st Casualty Clearing at Anzac and evacuated to No. 1 General Hospital at Heliopolis Egypt, where he was admitted on 7th September. He was placed on dangerously ill list on 14th September, struck off that list on the 17th September and died on 18th September 1915 as a result of those wounds. His namesake – my Dad - was 5 months old at that time.

The personnel effects sent back to his family in Moama were very modest indeed, consisting of ‘one brown-paper parcel containing pocket book, pipe, knife, rosary beads, brush, purse, amulets and letter’

To make this tale even more tragic, his widowed mother (Margaret Ellen Bell) only became aware of her son’s death when reading a notice in the Argus Newspaper dated 12 October 1915. What a terrible shock that must have been for her. This was due to Uncle Les nominating his brother William (my Grandfather) as his next of kin, and only providing his address as simply ‘Western Australia’. Not surprisingly, no prior notification of his death ever reached William].

Uncle Les is buried in the Cairo War Memorial Cemetery, along with 2,053 other Commonwealth casualties of the First World War. He is resting in very good company - being buried together with another 490 fallen comrades of the AIF, including 15 soldiers of 16th Battalion in addition to 12 of his brothers from the 1st Battalion.

I was very lucky to be able to visit his grave last year – the Cemetery is indeed beautifully maintained and is a real credit to the work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The ground staff seemed more than a little bemused when I played recordings of ‘The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”, “Last Post” and “Advance Australia Fair”. Sitting next to Uncle Les’ grave, and with the sounds of the music echoing amidst the rows of white crosses, I was reminded of Paul Keating’s powerful Eulogy given at the 1993 funeral of the Unknown Soldier at the War Memorial in Canberra - paraphrasing a few sentences from that Eulogy:
Here lies some of 324,000 Australians who served overseas in World War 1….some of the 60,000 Australians who died on foreign soil. Some of the over 100,000 Australians who have died in wars last century. They are all of them. And each is one of us.
LEST WE FORGET

Phil Bell

Grateful acknowledgments include: 1st Battalion Association; Australian War Memorial; Wikipedia; “Description of Operations” from General Sir Ian Hamilton’s Despatch; ‘The History of the First Battalion AIF’