Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Son of William Henry and Emily Perkins

#1706  PERKINS Horace         3rd Field Artillery Brigade
 
Horace Perkins was born in Rushden, Northamptonshire on 21st March 1890 to parents William and Emily Perkins. In July 1909, the Perkins family, which by that time consisted of both parents and six children, with Horace at age 18 being the eldest, boarded the R.M.S. Oswestry Grange in London as assisted immigrants. The family arrived in Brisbane in October 1909 and made their way to the Wondai district where William Perkins took up a selection at Stalworth near Boondooma.
 
Soon after the declaration of war in early August 1914, Horace made his way to Brisbane to enlist on 28thAugust. Although barely of minimum height, being just 5’3”, he was accepted into the AIF. Horace informed the recruiting officer that he was 24 years old and had served with the Northamptonshire Infantry (Territorials) for 2 years prior to coming to Queensland. Horace stated his occupation as farmer and it appears that he had taken up a selection not far from his parents at Okenden. Horace may have stated he had experience in handling horse teams and on that basis, was drafted as a driver in the 3rd Field Artillery Brigade, which would be loosely attached to the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Division of the AIF.
 
With barely enough time for uniforms and equipment to be issued, as well as the requirement that all AIF enlistees qualify with basic rifle shooting before embarkation, the gunners in the 3rd FAB boarded the “Rangatira” in Brisbane on 25th September 1914. The news that there was a possible German cruiser squadron operating in the Western Pacific forced the ships carrying the first contingent of Australians to seek shelter in Port Phillip Bay until the threat had passed. This stopover at Broadmeadows Camp probably allowed the gunners to see the 18 pounders for the first time.
 
The 18 pounder Field Gun, so called because that was the weight of the shell, was operated by a gun team of between eight and ten men. Three pairs of light draught horses, with a driver mounted on the left hand horse in each pair were hitched to a two wheeled limber which carried ammunition and provided seating for two gunners. Behind the limber came the gun itself. Senior NCOs or officers rode beside or to the rear of the team on spare horses and there was also a general service wagon bringing up the rear, pulled by another horse team, which carried more ammunition, spare parts and the gun team’s baggage.
 
The men of the 3rd FAB finally re-embarked at Port Melbourne and joined the fleet of troopships assembling at Albany in Western Australia before sailing via Columbo to the Suez Canal and on to Alexandria where they disembarked on 10th December. The original plan for the Australian troops had been that they would go directly to England and from there be posted to the Western Front. The entry of Turkey into the war changed that thinking and the three brigades of the 1st Division were kept in Egypt as a counter to a possible Turkish attack on the Suez Canal. The Australians were included in the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force which was being raised as a land based adjunct to a large naval campaign to force the Dardanelles Strait.
 
On 5th April 1915, the 3rd FAB embarked with guns, wagons and horses at Alexandria and sailed to the Island of Lemnos where the expeditionary force was being assembled. The day of the landings by the Australians at Anzac Cove, the men of the artillery remained on board their transports. Reports from the beach indicated that horses and wagons would not be of any use in the steep hills and gullies and consequently the guns alone would be offloaded.
 
All of the Australian Artillery on Gallipoli had been trained for a war of manoeuvre and movement. The situation at Anzac presented problems for which they had not been trained. The 18 pounders had to be manhandled from the beach to a likely firing position, often using ropes and pulleys to overcome the steep slopes. Even when in position, the guns were not very effective as they had a very low level of elevation (a design flaw attributable to the solid draw bar on the gun’s rear) and in most cases were firing up hill. The flat trajectory of their shells meant that targets on the reverse slopes of the ridges could not be reached; which was in direct contrast to the Turkish defenders who were equipped with German howitzers which fired shells in a high arc. In 1915, there was a chronic shortage of artillery ammunition and the British armies on the western front took priority to the Dardanelles which was considered by most senior British commanders as side show and a folly. The three batteries of Australian Artillery which were landed at Anzac were often short of the required number of rounds due to a shortage of supply, and that ammunition had to be carried by either men or mules. The war diary of the 7th Battery of the 3rd FAB records that in the first week of operations at ANZAC, the four guns fired 2000 rounds in three days. This rate of fire was never matched again.
 
On 5th May 1915, the gun crews of guns #2 and #3 of the 7th battery were singled out for their excellent work in engaging a Turkish battery. Horace as part of the crew of #3 gun was mentioned in a diary entry by the Brigade Commander. For the rest of the Gallipoli campaign, the gunners of the 3rd FAB toiled in difficult conditions with their most significant contribution being made in the attack against Lone Pine in August.
 
When the Gallipoli front was closed down, most of the artillery pieces were rendered inoperable and left behind when the troops left in the hours of darkness. The gunners joined the infantry in camps in Egypt in January 1916 where an expansion of the AIF was under way. In March, the Field Artillery sailed from Alexandria to Marseilles. While the infantry went straight to the rear areas of the front near Armentieres, the artillery travelled by train to the British base at Etaples on the Channel coast where they took delivery of replacement 18 pounders, limbers and wagons. The men of the 3rd FAB trained for their new role, supporting infantry during an attack, and becoming reacquainted with the complicated handling of horse teams.
 
In June, the 3rd FAB was stationed near Fleurbaix where the 5th Division of the AIF would be decimated a month later at Fromelles. In July, the gunners moved north to the Belgian border at Ploegsteert (most soldiers called it Plug Street) where they continued to take part in coordinated shoots with British artillery. On the 1st July, the Great Battle of the Somme commenced with General Douglas Haig sending his new battalions of Kitchener’s army out to be mown down by German machine guns; suffering 60,000 casualties on the first day alone. The Somme offensive was not going as Haig had hoped and strategic gains were limited at the cost of many killed and wounded.
 
With successes hard to come by, but committed to pressing on, Haig called up the 1st Australian Division of the AIF. The 3rd FAB, supporting the battalions of the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Division moved their guns up to the firing lines in the chalkpit below the village of Pozieres on 23rd July 1916. Pozieres was the first major engagement that the Australians were involved in. After the 1st Division had secured the village, the 2ndDivision entered the battle on 29th July in an attempt to push from the village towards a line of trenches and an abandoned wind mill.
 
The fighting at Pozieres, and then later at Mouquet Farm only a few hundred metres from Pozieres, continued into August. The war diary of the 3rd FAB records that on 21st August 1916, 9 men from the 7thBattery 3rd FAB were killed in the gun lines during a daylight bombing raid by German aircraft. Driver Horace Perkins was one of the nine. The 3rd Brigade Chaplain and the Commanding Officer of the 7th Battery both wrote to Horace’s parents informing them of the circumstances of their son’s death.
 
Horace was buried beside some of his mates who had been killed that day from the 7th Battery at the Becourt Military Cemetery near Albert. Strangely, there is no mention of his parents or his home town in the cemetery register, simply his name, number and unit. There is no personal inscription on his headstone.
 
When Horace’s estate was settled, his father William Perkins who had moved from Stalworth to Speedwell received his son’s bank book, a pipe and the deeds to the block at Okenden.