Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Edward (Eddie) James BISHOP #6546 49th Battalion

Eddie Bishop was born in the Beenleigh / Tamborine area to John and Louisa Bishop. When Eddie presented himself for enlistment at Miles on 7th July 1916, he stated his occupation as stockman and gave his address as Chinchilla. Eddie named his father, John, of Moore, Brisbane Valley Line as his next of kin.

After a period in camp at Enoggera, Eddie boarded the “Boonah” in Brisbane on 21st October 1916 and arrived in Plymouth on 10th January 1917. Upon disembarking, he was hospitalised with influenza and mumps. By June of 1917, Eddie had joined his battalion in the line at Ploegsteert on the French Belgian border. In the later months of 1917, Eddie took part in the battles for Menin Road and Polygon Wood.

The 49th Battalion would spend the remainder of 1917 and early months of 1918 in rest camps in Belgium with brief interludes at the front. With the coming of spring in 1918, the German commander Ludendorff took advantage of a brief numerical superiority of troops to launch an offensive against the British on the Somme. So successful was this offensive that in a few days the Germans had retaken all of the ground surrendered earlier in the war during 1916 and 1917; and were even threatening the vital communication hub of Amiens.

In response, Haig, the supreme British Commander in France ordered units of the 3rd and 4th Australian Divisions to be rushed south. The first units to be mobilized were battalions of the 12th and 13th Brigades; which included the 49th Battalion. The battalion boarded buses and trucks for the journey south on 25th March.

The Australian battalions were ordered to make their way to Dernacourt, a small village on the railway line between Amiens and Albert. This deployment required a forced march of almost 30 kilometres through the night with the entire German army somewhere out on the left. There were reports that German armoured cars were on the roads but the cars proved to be French farm machinery.

Upon arrival at the assigned position, the 49th were ordered to take up positions on a ridge facing the gathering Germans on the other side of the railway line. There were no trenches and the men had to dig shallow pits while under enemy artillery fire. Over the next four days, the men of the 12th and 13th Brigades established a forward defensive line on the railway embankment.

On 5th April, two entire divisions of German stormtroopers equipped with automatic weapons attacked the Australian positions. Initially, the Australians holding the railway embankment were overrun and many men were killed or captured. Later in the day, the 49th and 48th Battalions were ordered to counterattack to push the Germans back across the embankment. During this counterattack, Eddie Bishop was charging an enemy position with a Lewis gun when he was shot in the head, killing him instantly.

Eddie’s body lay in no man’s land and by the time that Australian forces could safely move into the area beyond the railway embankment, there was no trace of Eddie.

Eddie Bishop is commemorated on the memorial tablets of the Australian National Memorial at Villers Bretonneux. His name is among over 10,000 Australians who gave their lives in France and have no known grave.