Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Here is a story about a soldier who fought during the battles around Pozieres in WW1.
He enlisted 19th August 1915, Service number 4454. He was part of the 14th reinforcements for the 15th Battalion. He had not long turned 21. And left Australia 31/1/16
He was taken on strength 2/4/16 with the 15th Battalion at Serupeum Egypt to train further.
He arrived Marseilles France, 8/6/1916 with the 15th Battalion and headed to the Western front in the Somme Valley.
This soldier saw his first real fighting at the front line on the 5th August 1916 around Pozieres.
On August 8th, the 15th Battalion joined the 4th division and along with a British battalion from the Suffolk Regiment, engaged in an attack on Mouquet Farm.
The 4th Division was to seize the approaches to the farm and the plan was by 14 August capture the Farm itself. The 4th advanced along the western slope of the ridge on 8th August.
On the night of 8th August 1916, the 15th Battalion led by Lieutenant Colonel James Harold CANNAN launched an attack on the German trench in front of Mouquet Farm known as Park Lane. A “lifting barrage of artillery shelling in three waves was planned but failed as it focussed on the only objective for the operation. The Australian troops were stuck and then ordered to take the Park Lane Trench in a single rush of three waves of men. All three waves were destroyed by machine gun fire. From approximately 720 men, only one officer, one NCO and 12 unwounded men came back.
Diary of Lieutenant Thomas James Richards said about the 8th of August 1916 at the battle of Mouquet Farm,
“The men don’t get a dog’s chance with the ground churned up to resemble a wild and stormy sea.”
“Day and night there was no relief, the carnage and toll was more than man could ever realise. Dante and his inferno is a huge joke. Here is the real hell.”
The soldier I have been speaking about was listed as missing in action on the 8th August 1916.
His sister Maggie wrote numerous letters to the AIF seeking information as to his whereabouts and was still holding onto the hope that he was safe.
A letter and parcel were received by the family back in Australia on March 16th 1917. The parcel contained a small bible and some cards which the sender, a returned serviceman, had found on a deceased soldier near Pozieres. The items were identified as belonging to this particular soldier as his nephew had given them to him before he embarked.
A military court of enquiry was held on 1st May 1917, and on 8/5/17 – formally reported him as killed in action.
His name was Private William John Lyons, My Great Uncle.
He is remembered with honour at the Villers-Brettonneux Memorial and has no known grave.