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#4293  SLATTERY William Ambrose  9th Infantry Battalion

William Slattery was born in Maryborough to John and Margaret Slattery of Mary Street, Maryborough. He spent his young life in Maryborough, attending school there. 

William enlisted in Maryborough on 19th August 1915. He stated at the time that his occupation was miner. Given that his name appears on the Howard memorial, it is quite likely that William had moved from Maryborough to the Burrum coalfields for work. William would have presented as a perfect candidate for recruitment. He was 24 years old, single and stood 5’10” tall; weighed in at 12 stone and had a 41” chest measurement.

William reported to Fraser’s Paddock at Enoggera for initial training and in the process was allocated as part of the 13th reinforcements for the 9th Infantry Battalion. The 9th was the first Queensland battalion raised at the outbreak of the war and had the honour of being one of the first battalions ashore at Gallipoli. While the 9th continued to defy the Turks at Anzac throughout the latter half of 1915, William and his comrades remained in camp.

William boarded the “Kyarra” in Brisbane on 3rd January 1916 and arrived in Alexandria in Egypt on 19th February. The Australians and New Zealanders had been evacuated from Gallipoli at the end of 1915 and by the time that the 13th reinforcements arrived in Egypt, the entire AIF was going through an enormous expansion program that would in effect double the size of the force. As new or reconstituted battalions were reformed and equipped, they began to be shipped across the Mediterranean to France for eventual deployment to the western front.

William spent a month in Egypt, still classed as a reinforcement, before being shipped to Marseilles on 4th April. Rather than join the battalion which was already at full complement, the reinforcements were sent to the large training and transit depot at Etaples on the French coast near Boulogne.

After spending a few weeks becoming acclimatized to the routine of trench warfare on the western front, the 9th Battalion as part of the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Division was moved to the assembly areas near Albert in the middle of July. The massive Somme campaign had begun on the 1st July 1916 with disastrous consequences for the British; incurring 60,000 casualties on the first day alone, of whom 24,000 were killed. In two weeks the front line had crept forward only a few thousand yards and the fine young “battalions of pals” in Kitchener’s new army of conscripts were being mown down by an entrenched enemy.

The men of the 1st Division AIF were ordered into the battle with the objective of taking the village of Pozieres which stood astride a ridge on the highest part of the Somme. At just after 12:30am on 23rd July, the men of the 1st Division went into action in an assault on the village and a number of trenches nearby. The attack was successful but the casualty figures were such that the battalions of the division would need to be reinforced before being returned to the fight. On 29th July, William and a number of other reinforcements from Etaples marched in to the 9th Battalion lines where they were subjected to a lecture by the Divisional Commander, General “Hooky” Walker about not bathing in the river.

While in the rear, the battalion began to train the reinforcements to a suitable standard with route marches and additional musketry. The weather in the beginning of August was extremely hot and the soldiers were outfitted in heavy woollen tunics. When the weight of a fully loaded pack and rifle were added, some men were unable to sustain the pace. On 9th August, a 6 mile route march in full packs resulted in 32 men, mainly new reinforcements, falling out of the march. The 32 were paraded in front of the Battalion Medical Officer and if passed fit, were given two hours of pack drill. Such was the preparation for battle.

After the successful capture of Pozieres by the 1st Division, the 2nd Division was put in to the battle on 29th July, with the objective of capturing a trench system on the summit of the ridge. This was eventually achieved but at considerable cost in manpower and then the 4th Division was sent in to hold the line and endure a ferocious artillery bombardment, with similar casualties. It was fairly clear to even the British Staff that the number of fresh divisions was not inexhaustible and so after toughening up the reinforcements, the 9th Battalion and the rest of the 1st Division were to be put back into the battle.

The new objective was a ruined farmhouse about one and a half kilometres north of Pozieres on the ridge which ran from the Bapaume Road to Theipval. The farm, which appeared on the maps as “Le Ferme du Mouquet” had long since been pulverised by artillery but the deep cellars had been strengthened and expanded to provide a formidable defensive position. The only approach to Mouquet Farm was up a shallow defile which was enfiladed by machine gun fire on three sides. The approach was so narrow that the infantry could only attack a battalion at a time.

On 17th August 1916, the 9th Battalion was tasked with relieving a battalion from the Australian 4th Division. There was considerable confusion as to where exactly the Australian front line was as the trenches were being continually blown in by German howitzers firing  high explosive. As the 9th moved up to relieve the men of the 47th on 20th August, the Australians were subjected to fire from their own guns firing short or due to inaccurate targeting. The battalion was expected to mount an attack but the men were so exhausted, wet and confused that there was no chance of an attack succeeding at it was called off.

The 9th Battalion was relieved on 21st August, the casualties amounted to 27 killed, 125 wounded and 12 missing (most of whom would be declared killed twelve months later). In the fury that was Pozieres and Mouquet Farm many of those killed, although they may have been hastily buried by their mates, were forever lost. William Slattery was one of those listed as killed but the location of his remains were unknown. Mouquet Farm had been William’s first action, being killed almost exactly a year after he enlisted in Maryborough.

The Australian Government resolved to erect a permanent memorial to the missing in France, much as the British had done at Theipval  and the Menin Gate. The Australian National Memorial was constructed on a wind swept hill near the village of Villers Bretonneux. The stone tablets of the memorial list the names of over 10,000 Australians who lost their lives in France during the Great War and have no known grave. William Slattery’s name appears in a list of 9th Battalion men, many of which went missing on the Somme in the summer of 1916.

William’s father received his son’s war medals and a pension of two pounds perfortnight.