Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

James Angus McCONCHIE was born in Richmond, Victoria in 1883

His parents were David McCONCHIE and Mary BORLEY

He enlisted in Melbourne on 14th July, 1915 and embarked with the 6th Infantry Battalion, 10th reinforcements on the ship HMAT Osterley on the 29th September, 1915

James was Killed in Action in France on 15th August, 1916 and is buried in Bapaume Post Military Cemetery

Medals:  1914-15 Star, British War Medal & Victory Medal

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From Francois Somme

Pte 3070 James Angus McConchie,
6th Australian Infantry Battalion,
2nd Brigade, 1st Australian Division, AIF
 
More than a hundred years ago, under the flames of war, bruised and at the gates of an abyss of death, France called for help and on the other side of the world, on a population of five million,416 809 young Australians volunteered and answered the call of duty to save us from darkness and with them brought through the villages of northern France the hopes of freedom and peace that guided them to the battlefields of the Somme, in a hell in which the Australian Imperial Force suffered catastrophic losses of which over 40,000 were killed and over 100,000 were wounded. In the prime of their lives, the sons and daughters of the great and beautiful Australian nation , in the trenches and in the hospitals fought without respite with an exceptional bravery, with an exemplary dedication and loyalty and side by side, served with pride under their slouch hats, eternal symbol of courage and sacrifices, which, united in the ANZAC spirit, fought and gave their lives for my country which owes them so much.

They were young, loved and hoped so much from life, a love, a family, a future but they decided to give their today alongside their comrades, to do their part so that from their courage a better world is born and in Pozières, in Amiens, in Villers-Bretonneux, thousands of them fell leaving their families behind but they will never be alone because I will always be there to watch over these men whom I consider and love as my sons and I feel honoured, for almost five years, to watch over them and keep their memory alive, to express my gratitude and admiration to them, but also to honor and perpetuate the friendship which unites the people of Australia and the people of France in love and in the light of remembrance that brings us together around the graves and the memory of these heroes who will always have the love, gratitude and love of France.

Today, it is with the deepest gratitude and with the utmost respect that I would like to honor the memory of one of these young men, of one of my boys of the Somme who, in France, gave his today for our tomorrow.I would like to pay a very respectful tribute to Private number 3070 James Angus McConchie who fought in the 6th Australian Infantry Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 1st Australian Division of the Australian Imperial Force, and who was killed in action 109 years ago, on August 15th, 1916 at the age of 34 during the Battle of the Somme.

James Angus McConchie was born in 1883 in Richmond, Victoria, Australia, and was the son of David McConchie and Mary Ann McConchie (née Borley), of 28 Kelso Street, Richmond. He was educated at Richmond State School and after graduation worked as a jeweler until the outbreak of the war.

James enlisted on 14 July 1915 at Melbourne, Victoria, in the 6th Australian Infantry Battalion, 10th Reinforcement, which was raised at Broadmeadows Camp, north of Melbourne as the second battalion in the 2nd "Victorian" Brigade of the 1st Division, under command of Lieutenant Colonel James Semmens and after a training period of just over two months, he embarked with his unit from Melbourne, on board HMAT RMS Osterley on September 29, 1915 and sailed for Egypt where he was taken on strength from reinforcements in Tel-El-Kebir on January 1, 1916 then joined the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) in Alexandria on March 25 and proceeded overseas for France.

On March 30, 1916, James arrived in France and was disembarked at Marseilles, then sent to the trenches of Fleurbaix where the 6th Battalion experienced its first action during a successful raid on enemy lines on June 12 and on July 1, while the battle of the Somme began under a deluge of bullets and shells under which fell 60,000 British soldiers for that single day of hell, the 6th Battalion moved to Bulford Camp, near Neuve-Eglise then less than a week later, on 6 July, relieved the 26th Australian Infantry Battalion at Messines, Belgium, where they fought with the support of the 8th Australian Infantry Battalion and were relieved by the 1st Battalion of the North Staffordshire Regiment on 8 July then moved back to Neuve-Eglise,into billets at Aldershot Camp and the next day marched to Bailleul from where they embarked by train for the Somme.

On July 11, 1916, James and the 6th Battalion arrived in the Somme, at Doullens then marched through Candas, Berteaucourt-Les-Dames, Flesselles, and arrived in billets at Cardonette, near Amiens, where they remained until July 19. The following day they marched through Lealvillers,Senlis and arrived at Albert on the 22nd July and took position in the old British front line and consolidated their positions but on the 25th July were thrown into the hell on earth of the Battle of Pozieres which began two days earlier under a deluge of enemy shells which was the deadliest of the whole war for the young Australian soldiers who, here, in mud and blood, fought their first major engagement and which would become the deadliest battle of the whole Australian Imperial Force in the Somme, a battle which became the symbol of the bravery and the sacrifices paid by the Diggers during the Battle of the Somme.

Pozières was an important German defensive position; the fortified village was an outpost to the second defensive trench system, which had become known to the British as the OG (Old German) lines. This German second line extended from beyond Mouquet Farm in the north, ran behind Pozières to the east, then south towards the Bazentin ridge and the villages of Bazentin le Petit and Longueval. On 14 July, during the Battle of Bazentin Ridge, this southern section of the German second line was captured by the British Fourth Army of Lieutenant General Sir Henry Rawlinson. The possibility of "rolling up" the German second line by turning north now presented itself if Pozières could be captured.

The British Commander-in-Chief, General Sir Douglas Haig, lacked the artillery ammunition immediately to execute another broad-front attack after 14 July. Believing that Pozières and Thiepval would become untenable for the Germans as the British continued their eastward advance, Haig ordered Rawlinson to concentrate on the centre between High Wood and Delville Wood as well as the villages of Guillemont and Ginchy. The plan was to maintain the pressure and take Pozières by a "steady, methodical, step-by-step advance". Between 13 and 17 July, the Fourth Army made four small attacks against Pozières which were costly failures. In this period the village was subjected to a heavy bombardment and was reduced to rubble. On two occasions the attacking infantry got into the trench that looped around the south and western edge of the village, known as "Pozières trench" but were driven out both times. Attempts to get east of the village by advancing up the OG Lines also failed.

Rawlinson planned to deliver another attack on a broad front on 18 July, involving six divisions between the Albert-Bapaume road in the north and Guillemont in the south. Haig decided to transfer responsibility for Pozières to the Reserve Army of Lieutenant General Hubert Gough which had been holding the line north of the road since shortly after the opening of the offensive on 1 July. The attack was postponed until the night of 22-23 July. To Gough's army were attached the three Australian divisions of the 1st Anzac Corps, which had begun moving from the Armentières sector.

The Australian 1st Division reached Albert on 18 July and despite the postponement of the offensive, Gough, who had a reputation as a "thruster", told the division's commander, Major General Harold Walker, "I want you to go in and attack Pozières tomorrow night". Walker, an experienced English officer who had led the division since Gallipoli, would have none of it and insisted he would attack only after adequate preparation. Consequently, the attack on Pozières once more fell in line with the Fourth Army's attack on the night of 22-23 July.

The plan called for the Australian 1st Division to attack Pozières from the south, advancing in three stages half an hour apart, while north of the Albert–Bapaume road, the 48th (South Midland) Division (10th Corps), would attack the German trenches west of the village.The village and surrounding area was defended by elements of the 117th Division. Early on 22 July the Australian 9th Battalion attempted to improve its position by advancing up the OG Lines towards the road but was repulsed. The preparation for the attack involved a thorough bombardment of the village and the OG Lines lasting several days. The bombardment included phosgene and tear gas. The infantry were scheduled to attack at 12:30 a.m. on 23 July, with the Australian 1st and 3rd Brigades. The infantry crept into no man's land, close behind the bombardment and when it lifted the German trenches were rushed. The first stage took the Pozières trench that ringed the village to the south.

The second stage saw the Australians advance to the edge of the village, amongst what remained of the back gardens of the houses lining the Albert-Bapaume road. The third stage brought the line to the Albert-Bapaume road. The few survivors from the German garrison retreated to the northern edge of the village or into the OG Lines to the east. It was also intended that the OG Lines would be captured as far as the road but here the Australians failed, partly due to strong resistance from the German defenders in deep dugouts and machine gun nests and partly due to the confusion of a night attack on featureless terrain. The weeks of bombardment had reduced the ridge to a field of craters and it was virtually impossible to distinguish where a trench line had run. The failure to take the OG Lines made the eastern end of Pozières vulnerable and so the Australians formed a flank short of their objectives. On the western edge of the village, the Australians captured a German bunker known as "Gibraltar".During 23 July, some Australians went prospecting across the road, captured a number of Germans and with minimal effort occupied more of the village. That night the 8th Battalion of the Australian 2nd Brigade, which had been in reserve, moved up and secured the rest of the village. The attack of the 48th Division on the German trenches west of Pozières achieved some success but the main attack by the Fourth Army between Pozières and Guillemont was a costly failure.

Success on the Somme came at a cost which at times seemed to surpass the cost of failure, and for the Australians, Pozières was such a case. As a consequence of being the sole British gain on 23 July, Pozières became a focus of attention for the Germans. As a critical element of their defensive system, the German command ordered that it be retaken at all costs. Three attempts were made on 23 July but each was broken up by the British artillery or swept away by machine gun fire. Communication was as difficult for the Germans as it was for the British, and it was not until 7:00 a.m. 24 July that they discovered that Pozières had been captured. With British activity now declining elsewhere on its front, the German 4th Corps opposite Pozières, was able to concentrate most of its artillery against the village and its approaches. Initially the bombardment was methodical and relentless. The western approach to the village, which led from Casualty Corner near the head of Sausage Valley, received such a concentration of shellfire that it was thereafter known as "Dead Man's Road". The German bombardment intensified on 25 July, in preparation for another counter-attack.

The German 9th Corps relieved the 4th Corps and the commander cancelled the planned counter-attack, choosing to concentrate on the defence of the OG Lines, which were the next objective of the British. The bombardment reached a climax on 26 July and by 5:00 p.m. the Australians, believing an attack was imminent, appealed for a counter-barrage. The artillery of the 1st Anzac Corps, the 2nd Corps and the guns of the two neighbouring British corps replied.

This in turn led the Germans to believe the Australians were preparing to attack and so they increased their fire yet again. It was not until midnight that the shelling subsided. At its peak, the German bombardment of Pozières was the equal of anything yet experienced on the Western Front and far surpassed the worst shelling previously endured by an Australian division. The Australian 1st Division suffered 5,285 casualties on its first tour of Pozières.

On 24 July, once Pozières had been secured, General Gough pushed for immediate moves against the OG Lines north and east of the village. The first task was to take the lines up to the Albert-Bapaume road; the original objectives which had not been captured.

Attacking in the dark, only the Australian 5th Battalion found either of the OG trenches and it was counter-attacked by the German 18th Reserve Division. Simultaneously on the Australian's right, the British 1st Division made an attempt to capture Munster Alley, the section of the Switch Line where it intersected the OG Lines. A tumultuous bomb fight developed but only a small section of trench was held.
Before it was withdrawn, the Australian 1st Division had attempted to prepare a jumping-off line for the assault on the OG Lines. The Australian 2nd Division took over the sector on 27 July and General Gough, eager for progress, pressed for an immediate attack. The division's commander, General Gordon Legge, lacked the experience and confidence of General Walker and succumbed to pressure from Gough. On the night of 28-29 July, in conditions far less favourable than those experienced by the 1st Division on the night of 22-23 July, the 2nd Division was expected to attack. The remorseless German bombardment made effective preparations virtually impossible. The dust raised by the shelling prevented the Australian artillery observers from directing their field guns which were tasked with cutting the barbed wire entanglements. An attack by the British 23rd Division on Munster Alley dragged in the Australian 5th Brigade,the ensuing bomb fight saw the British and Australian infantry expend over 15,000 grenades. The main attack went ahead, scheduled to start at 12:15 a.m. on 29 July but the Australian 7th Brigade was late in reaching its start line and its movement was detected by the German defenders; when the attack commenced, the Australians were met by a hail of machine gun fire. South of the road the 5th Brigade remained pinned down, unable to even get started. On their left, north of the road, the 7th Brigade encountered uncut wire. On the northern flank some minor progress was made by the 6th Brigade but everywhere else the attack was a failure. Including the attack and the preceding day of preparation the 2nd Division lost over 3,500 men; the 7th Brigade had to be withdrawn to reserve, so great were its losses.

General Haig was disparaging of the division's failure, telling Lieutenant General William Birdwood, the 1st Anzac Corps commander, "You're not fighting Bashi-Bazouks now." General Legge and the 1st Anzac staff resolved to do the job properly. To avoid the confusion of a night advance, the plan was to attack at 9:15 p.m. just before dark at which time the crest of the ridge and the mound of the Pozières windmill would still be discernible. However, to attack at dusk meant assembling by day which was only possible to do in the protection of trenches. Therefore, a system of approach and assembly trenches had to be dug at night. Whenever the Germans detected digging parties, they mistook them for troops assembling to attack and called down a barrage. Originally the attack was to be made at dusk on 2 August but the trenches were as yet incomplete, the digging either being disrupted or the completed trenches demolished by shellfire. The attack was first postponed to 3 August and then to 4 August when the trenches were finally deemed ready. This careful planning and preparation delivered success and when the 2nd Division went in, both OG Lines were captured. South of and astride the Albert–Bapaume Road the OG Lines had been so thoroughly obliterated by prolonged shelling that the Australians ended up advancing beyond their objectives. From their vantage in the OG Lines on the eastern edge of the Pozières ridge, the Australians now looked over green countryside, the village of Courcelette close by and the woods around Bapaume 5 miles (8.0 km) distant. The German commander ordered "At any price Hill 160 Pozières ridge must be recovered."

By 5 August the brigades of the 2nd Australian Division were exhausted and were to be relieved by the 4th Australian Division. While the relief was underway on the night of 5-6 August the Australians were subjected to an extreme bombardment, because the salient they occupied could be shelled by the Germans from all directions, including from Thiepval which lay to the rear. On the morning of 6 August, a German counter-attack tried to approach the OG Lines but was met by machine gun fire and forced to dig in. The bombardment continued through the day, by the end of which most of the 2nd Division had been relieved. From its twelve days in the line, the division had suffered 6,848 casualties. At 4:00 a.m. on 7 August, shortly before dawn, the Germans launched their final counter-attack. On a front of 400 yards they overran the thinly occupied OG Lines, catching most of the Australians in shelters in the old German dugouts and advanced towards Pozières. For the Australians, the crisis had arrived. At this moment, Lieutenant Albert Jacka, who had won the Victoria Cross at Gallipoli, emerged from a dugout where he and seven men of his platoon had been isolated, and charged the German line from the rear. His example inspired other Australians scattered across the plateau to join the action and a fierce, hand-to-hand fight developed. Jacka was badly wounded but as support arrived from the flanks, the Australians gained the advantage and most of the surviving Germans were captured. No more attempts to retake Pozières were made.

On August 8, 1916, after furious fighting at Pozieres, James and the 6th Battalion marched into billets at Vadencourt for a period of rest then on August 15, moved back to the front line and occupied the trenches "OG1" and "OG2" , near Bapaume Road but during the day, these positions were heavily shelled by German artillery and James was killed by a shell. He was 34 years old.

Today, James Angus McConchie rests in peace alongside his friends, comrades and brothers in arms at Bapaume Post Military Cemetery, Albert, Somme, and his grave bears the following inscription: "Greater love hath no man.Mother and Father."

James had two brothers and a cousin who also fought bravely in the Great War. His first brother was Private Number 17353 Owen Ross McConchie who served in the Australian Army Medical Corps. Owen survived the war and returned to Australia on June 23, 1919 then served again during the Second World War in the 2nd Battalion of the Volunteer Defense Corps and died peacefully in 1965 at the age of 80.

James's second brother was Sapper number 40 Albert Thomas McConchie who served with the 8th Field Company Engineers of the Australian Engineers and was sadly killed in action on October 27, 1917 at the age of 36 near Ypres, Belgium, and today rest in peace at the Menin Road South Military Cemetery, and his grave bears the following inscription: "In sacred memory of my dear husband."

James' cousin was Sapper number 118 Arthur Raymond McConchie who fought in Divisional Signal Company 1 and was awarded the Military Medal during the Battle of Polygon Wood with the following citation:
"During the attack on Polygon Wood on September 20th, 1917, Sapper McConchie displayed conspicuous gallantry in carrying out his duty as linesman, effecting repairs on Cables which were being buried to the Brigade Forward Station. While the working party of 300 men was sheltering from a heavy barrage, Sapper McConchie repaired the Cables with the result that when the barrage lifted the working party was enabled to bury the cable and withdraw. He later went out repairing telephone wires connecting two important stations and remained some considerable time in a very heavy barrage."

Arthur survived the war and returned to Australia on October 8, 1918.

James, on this day of peace for which you fought and for which you gave your life, we remember your courage and your sacrifice but also the sacrifices that all the young Australian soldiers paid in the north of France where they served side alongside with pride and bravery after answering the call of duty with their heads held high and despite the horrors they endured in the trenches, among rats and under fire, they held their position with determination alongside their mates and of their brothers who, together, in the prime of their lives, sacrificed their innocence and their youth in the mud and the barbed wire which bruised in deep scars the once green and serene fields of the Somme which turned into a hell never seen before and into which a whole generation of young men were thrown not knowing what awaited them but, proud and animated by valiant hearts, pushed forward by the deep desire to do what was right, marched towards their destinies and towards the nightmare of battles which were the deadliest of the great war which, in madness, sent thousands of young boys to their deaths, to appalling bloodbaths which were spilled during bayonet charges and hand-to-hand combat of a exacerbated brutality engendered by the savagery of the war which swept away a whole lost youth which was guided by the love of their country and despite the inhumanity of the battlefields, despite the pain and death, these men kept their good humor which characterizes the Australian soldier and faced with rains of bullets, kept their smiles and their hopes intact because they were not fighting alone and found in camaraderie, in brotherhood, in the ANZAC spirit, the strength to hold the front line despite storms of shells which were fired at their positions at a frantic pace and which, in deflagrations similar to earthquakes, swallowed men and horses under the ground or which, caught in these bites of steel spat out by the artillery, were thrown into the air but despite this nightmare, these heroes never backed down and gave everything they had to make this war end all wars, so that future generations were not sacrificed and to the sound of whistles, the young Diggers came out of the trenches and rushed into no man's land with the same courage that their brothers showed before them on the red sands of Gallipoli and in the clay of Fromelles and, pushed forward by an exceptional courage which was admired by their French brothers in arms, charged towards the enemy lines of Pozières, in the blood red mud of the Somme and, in minutes that seemed like hours, their hearts beating to the rhythms of frantic drums, went forward but their heroic line , like fragile ears of wheat, were taken and mowed down by the fire of the machine guns which in a few moments silenced the voices of thousands of men who, after so much fury and pain, found behind their white graves, silence and the eternal peace in which they stand young forever on these sacred grounds on which their memory and their stories will always be remembered and maintained on with love and care and whom I will always watch over with gratitude and respect so that their names live on forever.Thank you so much James, for all you have done for each of us, for France and Australia which will always be united in friendship and remembrance. At the going down of the sun and in the morning,we will remember him, we will remember them.