Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From Francois Berthout

Pte 2903 Oscar Hyles,
60th Australian Infantry Battalion, B Company,
15th Brigade, 5th Australian Division AIF
 
In the silence of the fields of the Somme, stand, eternal and solemn, the white graves of a whole generation of young men who, on the other side of the world, answered the call of duty and gathered to do what was right, to fight alongside their friends, their comrades in the name of peace and freedom and who, in the prime of their young lives, driven by the greatest courage and by the most beautiful spirit of camaraderie, fought shoulder to shoulder on the battlefields of northern France and who, in the mud and the trenches, in the fury of a world gone mad, through the barbed wire and in heroic battles, watched over each other as brothers who lived side by side and fell among the peaceful shroud of poppies through which the blood of so many young and innocent men was shed but who, with honor and courage, gave their today, their lives, their everything and who today, forever young, standing proud and great, rest in peace on the hallowed grounds of a friendly country that owes them so much and which, with respect and the utmost care, will perpetuate the memory of those young boys on whom , in the Somme, I will always watch with the deepest gratitude to keep their stories alive so that they 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 young men, one of my boys of the Somme, who, for our tomorrow, gave his today, his life.I would like to pay a very respectful tribute to Private number 2903 Oscar Hyles who fought in the 60th Australian Infantry Battalion, B Company, 15th Brigade, 5th Australian Division, and who was killed in action 106 years ago, on April 26, 1918 at the age of 29 on the Somme front.

Oscar Hyles was born in 1889 in Adaminaby, New South Wales, Australia, and was the son of Oscar Hyles and Alice Hyles (née Filler) of "Wood Glen", Adaminaby, Rhine Falls, New South Wales. He was educated in the Adaminaby Public School, and after graduation, worked as a labourer until the outbreak of the war.

Oscar enlisted on 10 September 1916 at Goulburn, New South Wales, in the 60th Australian Infantry Battalion, B Company, 7th Reinforcement. The 60th Battalion was raised in Egypt on 24 February 1916 as part of the "doubling" of the AIF. Half of its recruits were Gallipoli veterans from the 8th Battalion, and the other half, fresh reinforcements from Australia. The majority of both groups were Victorians. After a training period of just over a month, Oscar embarked with his unit from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A19 Afric on November 3, 1916 and sailed for England.

On January 9, 1917, Oscar arrived in England and was disembarked at Plymouth, then the next day marched to Hurdcott where he joined the 15th Training Battalion at Hurdcott Camp.

Hurdcott Camp was built on land requisitioned from Naishes Farm and the Hurdcott Estate.The first regiments at Hurdcott consisted of several British Units, mostly from the North of England plus some from London. What we know so far:
25th September-19th December 1915:11th East Lancashire Regiment (known as the Accrington Pals).
October-December 1915:12th, 13th and 14th York and Lancaster Regiment (12th known as the Sheffield Pals, 13th and 14th known as the Barnsley Pals).

October-December 1915:10th, 11th, 12th and 13th East Yorkshire Regiment.
January-May 1916:1st, 2nd, 11th and 12th Wessex Division Training Army Service Corps.
January-Autumn 1916:London Regiment.
January-March 1917:Notts and Derbyshire Regiment (known as the Sherwood Foresters).

Although some Australian Battalions had been at Hurdcott Camp since 1916, it was not until 12th March 1917 that the camp was officially taken over by the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF). During the Gallipoli Campaign (19th February 1915-9th January 1916), thousands of wounded Australian soldiers were sent to English hospitals, but then the question came as to where to send them to convalesce as they could not be sent home.

Command Depots were set up to solve this problem, somewhere where soldiers discharged from military hospitals could recuperate and then get "fighting fit" again. The AIF had four Command Depots based in Wiltshire and Dorset:
No. 1-Perham Down near Tidworth, Salisbury Plain, then transferred to Sutton Veny, Salisbury Plain in October 1917.

No. 2-Monte Video Camp, Weymouth from June 1915, then expanded to include Westham and Littlemoor Camps.

No. 3-Bovington Camp, Dorset to receive overflow from Perham Down following the devastating Somme battles, then at Hurdcott from March 1917.

No. 4-Wareham, Dorset then moved to Codford, Salisbury Plain June 1917, then moved to Hurdcott in November 1917.

The official AIF War Diaries contain some fascinating detail about life at Hurdcott Camp in 1916-1917 as follows:
"The Depot is situated on the main Salisbury Shaftesbury Road at Hurdcott, midway between the villages of Barford St. Martin and Fovant, and at its conception consisted of two camps, Nos. 5 and 6. The situation is an ideal one for a Convalescent Depot; the neighbouring country is rolling and well-wooded and watered with several small rivers, these providing the necessary drainage. Running parallel with the road fronting the camps on the south side and less than a half-mile away is a range of hills rising to 300 ft above the road level, know as Compton and Fovant Downs."

"There are several thriving villages within easy distance of the Depot; Compton-Chamberlayne, Fovant, Tisbury, Dinton, Barford St. Martin and Wilton are all less than four miles distant, whilst Salisbury, the county city of Wiltshire is 7 ½ miles away. The main London and South Western Railway line runs about one mile north of the camp and Dinton and Wilton Stations are those most used by the troops in the Hurdcott and Fovant area. Each of these stations has ample storage and yard accommodation, and the former is well provided with shunting facilities, making it well adapted for the handling of large bodies of troops."

"The Camps are of the hutment type and each has, in round figures, accommodation for 1000 men. They are well laid out and drained, and each is quite self-contained, possessing shower-baths, ablution-huts, cookhouse, dining-rooms, recreation rooms, concert hall, Officers and Sergeants Messes, stabling, barber’s shop etc. Each camp has sufficient ground for training purposes and also covered sheds for use in inclement weather."

"The huts are of corrugated iron, lined and floored with wood; each accommodates 30 men and has ample window space. The lighting of the camps is by electricity, supplied from a central power house, which serves the whole of the area; heating is by coal fires, each building having one or more stoves, according to its size. Specially worthy of mention are the camp kitchens. These are splendidly equipped, 12 large ovens and 3 boilers making it an easy matter for four thousand meals per day to be cooked in each."

After a training period of just under three months at Hurdcott Camp and finally ready to join the battlefields, Oscar proceeded overseas to France from Folkestone on April 5, 1917.

On April 7, 1917, Oscar arrived in France and was disembarked at Etaples where he joined the 5th Australian Divisional Base Depot, marched out to join unit the next day and was taken on strength in the 60th Battalion on April 15 at Beaulencourt (Pas-De -Calais) but the same day, the battalion received an intelligence report telling them that a few kilometers from them, the Germans, with 23 battalions, launched a large attack on Lagnicourt and to stop them, the 60th moved to Villers-Au -Flos where they built a line of main and intermediate trenches protected by barbed wire and defended by numerous positions of Lewis guns but the Germans did not attack this sector and on April 20, the 60th was relieved by the 6th Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment and marched for the Mametz Camp, in the Somme, via Longueval and Montauban and were engaged in a period of training but also in working parties consisting in improving the camp then, to improve their comfort, received new clean uniforms and were also able to enjoy moments of rest and relaxation including concerts and football matches and stayed here until 8 May.

On May 8, 1917 at 9:15 a.m., the men of the 60th Battalion left the Mametz Camp and marched for Albert from where they embarked by train for Favreuil (Pas-De-Calais) and the following day, moved for Noreuil to consolidate the positions won during the second battle of Bullecourt which took place a few days earlier, on May 3. Ten days later, on May 13, they were relieved by the 2nd/4th Battalion of the London Regiment and marched for Bullecourt then for Vaulx-Vraucourt where they were billeted until May 20. The following day they were sent to a camp at Biefvillers-Les-Bapaume and here followed many tactical exercises including trench attacks and assaults under barrage fire but also musketry exercises followed by a rest period until June 14th.

On June 14, 1917 at 8:15 a.m., Oscar and the men of the 60th Battalion left Biefvillers-Les-Bapaume and at 10:00 a.m. embarked by motorized busses for the Somme then at 3:00 p.m. arrived at Rubempre and here,followed a new training period including military marches, musketry drills, bayonet fighting, bomb practice, and on 24 June arrangements were made for a field firing competition at Thiepval followed by divisional assault drills in the woods at the East of Rubempre followed by moments of rest until July 15th.

On July 16, 1917, the 60th Battalion marched into billets at Mailly-Maillet where they relieved the 55th Australian Infantry Battalion and on their arrival, a medical inspection took place and many men, suffering from trench feet, were sent for medical treatment but Oscar, although tired, was declared fit for service, and alongside his comrades, once again followed a period of physical and tactical exercises in conjunction with the men of the 58th and 59th Australian Infantry Battalion then on July 30, moved to Sercus ( Hauts-De-France) for a period of general training until September 17.

On September 18, 1917, the 60th Battalion marched to Dominion Camp, Steenvoorde, marched to Hooge, the Ypres Salient on September 24 and two days later fought their first major battle at Polygon Wood.

Polygon Wood was the second of three battles between 20 September and 4 October 1917 in which "step by step" or "bite and hold"tactics were used to batter down the formidable German defensive positions. After an opening bombardment the infantry would advance for a prescribed distance behind a "creeping" barrage of shells. This barrage would keep the Germans in their pillboxes until British soldiers were almost upon them. The enemy positions would then be captured consolidated and protected from counter-attack by artillery. Artillery would be brought forward and the next "bite" attempted. In this way the British aimed to work their way from their start lines near Ypres to the heights of the ridge ten kilometres away at Passchendaele village.

At Menin Road on 20 September 1917, in the first use of the "bite and hold", the Australians sustained 5,000 killed and wounded but the tactics had been proven and, combined with the allied superiority in artillery, showed that, with fine weather, the allies were now in a superior position. Both the British and the Germans suffered similar casualties, but while the British were elated at the results, the Germans were crushed by the defeat.

The next battle was Polygon Wood and Charles Bean, the Australian Official Historian described the opening barrage on 26 September as the most perfect that ever protected Australian troops and that it rolled ahead of the troops roaring "like a Gippsland bushfire".

The name Polygon Wood derived from a plantation forest that lay along the axis of the Australian advance. Shelling had reduced the wood to little more than stumps and broken timber. Seven divisions, five British and two Australian, advanced behind the screen of shells,the "creeping barrage" as it was known,and seized most of their objectives. The Germans launched several counter-attacks but these were thwarted by the heavy defensive artillery barrages used to protect the infantry consolidating their objectives. However, despite the success, 5,770 Australian were killed or wounded.
On September 30, 1917, after the victory at Polygon Wood, Oscar and the men of the 60th Battalion, who suffered 280 casualties, moved back to Dominion Camp at Steenvoorde, but after a medical examination, it was declared that Oscar was exhausted and on 2 October, was sent for a period of rest to the 2nd Army Summer Rest Camp and joined his unit on October 14 at "Belgian Battery Corner", near Ypres and fought in an area called "Anvil Wood", under heavy fire from the enemy artillery and on October 16, were relieved by the 56th Australian Infantry Battalion and marched to "Canal Dugouts" then to the Micmac Camp, near Ouderdom on October 18 for reorganization. Ten days later, on October 28, they moved to Reninghelst where they remained until 11 November.

On November 12, 1917, the 60th Battalion marched for Locre and occupied the camp of "Birr Barracks" then the Ramillies Camp, near Kemmel where Oscar and his comrades followed a period of training including musketry exercises, hand-to-hand combat , battles with bayonets, then on November 28, still at Locre, joined the front line near Torreken Farm, a particularly calm sector then, on December 15, were relieved and moved back to Kemmel from where they embarked by train for Devres (Pas-De-Calais) where they were billeted until December 17.

On December 18, 1917, Oscar and his unit marched to Beussent for a period of rest and exercises then on February 1, 1918, the 60th Battalion moved back to Kemmel, Belgium and on February 23, were sent to Wytschaete and fought there with courage, repelling many enemy raids in this sector and also had to face violent enemy artillery bombardments which caused many casualties but the Diggers of the 60th held their position with determination and on March 16, moved back to Ramilies Camp but Less than a week later, on March 21, the Kaiser's army launched its last offensive of the war across the Somme, also known as "Operation Michael", in a desperate attempt to break through Allied lines and had as its main objective to take the rail junction of Amiens which, if it was captured, would have cut off all supplies of shells and ammunition to the Allied troops and would have allowed the Germans to rush on Paris before the massive arrival of American reinforcements still too few in France at that time and on March 29, the Australian divisions, including the 60th Battalion, were rushed into the Somme to stop them.

On March 29, 1918, the 60th Battalion arrived in the Somme, at Doullens and marched to Varennes then to La Neuville, Corbie, and moved into Bonnay the next day and were employed in working parties and musketry exercises.More than a week later, on April 10, they moved to Blangy-Tronville and on April 24, were heavily involved in the Australian counterattack as part of the second battle of Villers-Bretonneux.
On 21 March 1918, reinforced with divisions from the Eastern Front, the Germans launched a great offensive against the British forces which withdrew across the 1916 Somme battlefield towards the major city of Amiens. The Australian units were hurried south to help hold back the German advance north of the Somme at Dernancourt and Morlancourt. However German engineers had extended rail communications south of the Somme towards Villers-Bretonneux, close to the key city of Amiens. If the Germans could capture Villers-Bretonneux and reach the edge of a plateau, Amiens would be within range of their artillery.

On 4 April 1918, Australian units helped the British defend Villers-Bretonneux. The Germans attacked from the north east forcing the British out of the village of Le Hamel. An Australian battalion had to swing back to avoid being enveloped but the German advance was stopped by British cavalry working with Australian infantry. In the afternoon, the Australians withdrew to the outskirts of Villers-Bretonneux but at the crucial moment, the Australian 36th Battalion (New South Wales) dashed forward in a spectacular charge. Supported by other British and Australian infantry, and later by British cavalry, the 36th threw the Germans back to old trenches nearly two kilometres from the town, stabilising the line.

On 24 April, British troops were defending Villers-Bretonneux. The Germans attacked at dawn, and with the aid of 13 tanks, which they were using for the first time, they captured the town. A British counter-attack commenced at 10 pm the same day led by Australians to the north and south. The Australian brigades enveloped Villers-Bretonneux and attempted to join forces to the east of the town. They were unable to join up in the dark and many Germans managed to escape. After dawn, the gap was gradually closed and Australians entered the town from the east and British from the north and west. Villers-Bretonneux was cleared of enemy troops on 25 April 1918, the third anniversary of the Anzac landing at Gallipoli. This action marked the effective end of the German offensive that had commenced so successfully more than a month earlier.

Unfortunately, it was during the second battle of Villers-Bretonneux that Oscar met his fate and was killed in action on April 26, 1918, he was 29 years old.

Today, Oscar Hyles rests in peace alongside his friends, comrades and brothers in arms at Crucifix Corner Cemetery, Villers-Bretonneux, Somme, and his grave bears the following inscription: "In memory of our dearly loved son and brother sadly missed."

Oscar Hyles had a brother who also served gallantly in the Great War. His name was Elliott Hyles, Private Service Number 2910, and fought alongside his brother in the 60th Australian Infantry Battalion, but unfortunately he was killed in action on the 26th September 1917 at the age of 20 during the Battle of Polygon Wood. Sadly, his body was never found and his name is today remembered and honored with respect and gratitude on the walls of the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Belgium.

Oscar, Elliott, brothers in life, brothers on the front line, and brothers even in death, shoulder to shoulder, it was with honor and with straight shoulders that you answered the call of duty to do your part with your brothers in arms, your friends, who, together, with a determined step, for their country and for all freedom-loving peoples, left behind them the hopes of lives full of promise, the love of their families, the sweetness of their homes to fight together in the trenches and despite their young age, despite the fear of death and never to return home, they took a step forward and walked united in camaraderie towards their destinies and wearing their slouch hat with pride, they sailed across the world to the villages and battlefields of northern France and driven forward by a deep desire to do what was right, to the sound of their boots and drums, marched with faith beyond the red fields of poppies and entered, under the thunder of artillery, into the trenches of the great war, towards another world made of darkness and despair and, rifles on the shoulder, saw for the first time the horrors they would face when they came across poor boys in the prime of life being transported by stretcher-bearers and who, in silence, with their faces closed, mutilated, disfigured, bleeding to death but not complaining, were directed to health centers or to cemeteries made of wooden crosses in which there were already thousands of men who, in abominable battles, paid the supreme sacrifice.In this hell on earth, no escape, no shelter protected them from the madness and the fury which took place on these devastated, lunar fields, turned over and plowed by the shells which, in long funeral moans, rained down in terrible deflagrations whose the devastating waves pulverized everything in a few seconds and which, on the battlefields of Pozieres, reduced to pieces so many young men who rushed through the no man's land which was nothing more than a vast field of execution and death which, in torrents of blood, became open-air slaughterhouses on which a whole generation of young boys were relentlessly mowed down by rains of bullets spat out with rage by hundreds of machine guns, insatiable beasts thirsty for blood and flesh in the face of which charged the steel of the bayonets which, under the sun of the Somme, fell like waves of silver soaked in blood but day after day, in an apocalypse never seen before, in the howls, friends and enemies killed each other in terrible melee in which clashed the butts of rifles, the shovels, the points, the steel and the bullets in the bodies of men whose uniforms were stained with blood and who, in the mud and the shell holes, fell together.Despite this hell of fire, blood and steel, the Diggers, with perseverance and valour, stood tall and determined, and in the ANZAC spirit, united in camaraderie, watching over each other day and night like brothers and in Villers-Bretonneux, Amiens, Dernancourt, Flers, fought tirelessly with the most exceptional bravery and showed the courage of the whole Australian nation which stood behind them and which, in this insane nightmare, kept them united and strong and kept in them a faith, hopes of peace that nothing broke despite what they endured.Through the barbed wire, during battles that were among the deadliest of the Great War, the Australians, our brothers, our sons, our heroes, fought to the end with determination and bravery witnessed by the poppies and their French brothers who, together, fought and fell in the name of peace and freedom and who today, more than a hundred years after the war, rest in peace standing proudly in eternal camaraderie behind their white graves and among the waves of poppies.With care and love,with gratitude, for them, for their families, I would give the time of my life to watch over them so that they are never forgotten and so that their names, in our thoughts and in our hearts, live forever. Thank you so much Oscar, Elliott, for all you have done for my country and for all of us who will be eternally grateful to you.At the going down of the sun and in the morning,we will remember them.