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War Memorial
Australia

From Francois Somme

Pte 6829 John Hehir,
23rd Australian Infantry Battalion,
6th Brigade, 2nd Australian Division
 
More than a hundred years ago, the Somme, so peaceful today, was for a whole generation of men then in the prime of their lives, a hell on earth never seen before, a nightmare made of fire and steel who transformed once silent landscapes into fields of death and execution in which were heard the howls of agony of horses and men, of friends and brothers who side by side bravely did their duty and who, in spite of their fears , despite the death that awaited them lurking behind the barbed wire, went over the top with the utmost determination and who, for what was right, in the name of peace and freedom, for their country, for their loved ones, for the people of France, for a better world, bayonets forward, faced their destiny and united in camaraderie, alongside men who watched over each other with loyalty and fraternity, in the mud, in the eternal shroud of poppies, gave their lives but even in death, remain today standing and proud behind the rows of their white graves which tell us the stories of the life of these men, of these heroes who, for each of us, gave their everything and over whom I will watch forever with care, with love and gratitude to be forever remembered so that they may live forever.

Today, it is with the utmost respect and with the deepest gratitude that I would like to honor the memory of one of these men, one of my boys of the Somme, who, at the call of duty, came from the other side of the world and who, in France, on the sacred grounds of a friendly country, gave his today for our tomorrow. I would like to pay a very respectful tribute to Private number 6829 John Hehir who fought in the 23rd Australian Infantry Battalion, 6th Brigade, 2nd Australian Division, and who died of his wounds 105 years ago, on May 20, 1918 at the age of 46 on the Somme front.

John Hehir was born in 1872 in Trawalla, Pyrenees, Victoria, Australia, and was the son of Patrick and Margaret Hehir, first of 32 Parade, Ascot Vale, Melbourne then lived at 430 Toorak Road, Toorak, Victoria. He was educated at Sailors Gully State School, Victoria then, after graduation, worked as a labourer until the outbreak of the war.

John enlisted on January 18, 1917 at Melbourne, Victoria, in the 23rd Australian Infantry Battalion, 19th Reinforcement, which was raised in March 1915 at Broadmeadows, north of Melbourne to form the third battalion of the 6th Brigade under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Morton. After a training period of just under four months at Broadmeadows Camp, John embarked with his unit from Melbourne, on board HMAT A11 Ascanius on May 11, 1917 and sailed for England.

On July 20, 1917, John arrived in England and was disembarked in Devonport then the same day, marched for Rollestone where he joined the 6th Training Battalion and completed his training on Salisbury Plain, in conditions approaching combat fought on the Western Front and here followed exercises such as bayonet fighting, hand-to-hand combat and trench attacks. A few months later he was sent to the town of Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, where, from November 5, 1917, to February 2, 1918, he attended a course of instruction at the school of Farriery and was qualified as a Cold Shoer then on April 7, proceeded overseas from Southampton for the battlefields of northern France.

On April 8, 1918, after a quick trip down the English Channel, John finally arrived in France and was disembarked at Le Havre where he joined the Australian Infantry Base Depot, marched out to unit on April 10 and was taken on strength on April 19 in the 23rd Battalion west of Millencourt, in the Somme, to stop the powerful German offensive of the spring of 1918 which had been launched a month before, on March 21 and which crumpled the British 5th Army in its path.The AIF, less the 1st Division, was rushed on the Somme to plug gaps in the collapsing British line in the face of the "make or break" German offensive aimed at dislocating the French and British line and cutting Paris off from the Channel Ports before the Americans arrived in decisive numbers.

In the Somme, one of the main objectives of the German offensive was to take the vital railway junction of the town of Amiens which, if captured, would have cut off and considerably slowed down the supply of men, ammunition, especially shells and the Allied lines would have been definitively broken, leading the Kaiser and his army to victory but in the Somme, they faced the determination and bravery of the Australian troops.

On May 1, 1918, John and the men of the 23rd Battalion were relieved by the 1st/17th London Regiment and marched to Mericourt-Sur-Somme via Henencourt, Warloy-Baillon, Pont-Noyelles and Villers-Bretonneux where the Australians finally stopped the German offensive on April 25 but the war did not stop and after a period of rest and training at Mericourt-Sur-Somme, on May 15, the 23rd Battalion relieved the 24th Australian Infantry Battalion on the front line at Ville-Sur-Ancre, near the Ancre River, with the support of the 21st Australian Infantry Battalion on their left flank and the 6th Northamptonshire Regiment on their right flank. Very quickly, John and his comrades fortified their positions with many strong points defended by machine guns. Unfortunately, it was here, in Ville-Sur-Ancre, on May 20, 1918, that John met his fate and during a German bombardment, he was seriously injured by shrapnel which fractured the joint of his left knee. He was immediately evacuated to the 5th Australian Field Ambulance in Querrieu, where despite the greatest care, he died of his wounds a few hours later, he was 46 years old.

Today, John Hehir rests in peace alongside his friends, comrades and brothers in arms at the Querrieu British Cemetery, Somme, and his grave bears the following inscription: "We hold you still in memory as the years may come and go. Mother."

John, Sir, more than a hundred years ago, it was with conviction and the greatest of courage that you responded to the call of duty in the name of just causes which brought together a whole generation of men who, animated by the deep desire to do what was right, by the pride of fighting alongside their comrades, driven forward by a spirit of unfailing courage and mateship, guided by the southern cross, left the sunny shores of beautiful Australia, the warmth and love of their homes in which so many mothers prayed each day with hope and anxiety knowing that their sons, far from home, were fighting on the soils of a land they did not know and that in the rain , in the mud, in an abominable hell, they gave their today to make the light of peace prevail and followed in their letters, their steps on the battlefields of the Somme and through trembling words, saw the horrors and the pains that their sons and their husbands went through in the muddy trenches of Pozieres, Amiens and Villers-Bretonneux in which the courage and determination of the whole Australian nation were seen and whose sons, in the front line, under fire, through bullets and shells, meter by meter in courageous and deadly attacks, served side by side with pride united in the ANZAC spirit which led them beyond their duty, beyond their limits and their courage to face the shadows of death that awaited them in the furious hand-to-hand combat that took place across the poppies of the Somme that tirelessly grew on the blood of a whole generation of young boys who were annihilated by the brutality of a terrible war and beyond the barbed wire, on the parapets, were swept away by storms of bullets and lead spat furiously by the machine guns which rained down despair under skies streaked by the thunder of thousands of artillery cannons which buried alive, mutilated and crushed so many men who came to the aid of France thinking that war would be the greatest adventure of their lives and who, in this apocalypse, stood tall and so brave but in this cataclysm, their innocence , the beauty of their youth was forever shattered by what they saw and endured in these open-air mass graves in which they sacrificed so much and had to live alongside the dead bodies of their brothers, their friends who paid the supreme sacrifice in fields in which the voices of these men still resonate today as well as the ghostly music of bugles and bagpipes which followed the whistles and then the howls of waves of attacks which, in the barbed wire, in the shell holes, were wiped out for the gain of a few meters of land for which the Diggers fought with relentlessness and determination, with the courage of real lions who, without regard for their own lives, gave their today and their all for their comrades and for the future generations who today, thanks to the bravery and sacrifices of these heroes, grow up and live in a peaceful world that cost so many lives. This world, this peace so precious, dearly acquired, always fragile is the heritage bequeathed to us by these young boys who lived so long ago and their courage, their dedication, their sacrifices must inspire us to protect this torch so that their wishes who was "never again" be respected, so that we, our children and our children's children live forever in a world at peace.

More than a hundred years after the end of the war, in the Somme, on the old battlefields and in the serene cemeteries, behind the shadows of their white tombs and in the midst of the poppies, walk the souls of these boys who, young forever, stand for eternity alongside their comrades who did not have the chance to return home but who here, in the north of France, will always be remembered with respect and love, not only as men, but like our sons to whom we will be forever grateful and over whom I will forever watch so that they are never forgotten and so that their faces, their stories and their names, through the light of remembrance and in the friendship that unites the Australia and France live forever. Thank you so much John, for all you have done for my country, for all of us. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember him,we will remember them.