Virtual
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Australia

Guy Erroll de la Poer Beresford (1889-1944) enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) for service abroad on 19 May 1915 at Mitcham, South Australia. He was 24 years old and had served for 1 year in St Peter’s College school cadets (perhaps conditioning him for later service). Five feet eleven inches and weighing 148lbs, he was passed as medically fit by a Capt C Corbin at Keswick. (The author can relate to all this, as he weighed exactly the same in his mid twenties, was close friends at that age with a Tim Corbin, and lives in Mitcham).

Why a 3rd generation South Australian wanted to fight in a European war thousands of miles away must be understood in terms of the jingoistic attitudes about the British Empire at the time, repression of information about the brutality of the war, perhaps misguided ideas about male heroism, and probably the prospect of an overseas adventure of sorts. Another possible reason is that Guy’s cousin Charles Clement Beresford (1885-1919) also fought in the 1914-18 war, but (since he was in Canada seeing his brother at enlistment) as an officer in the Canadian Navy, who was in the explosion at Halifax, Nova Scotia and crawled out to safety, and died unmarried shortly after the war ended.

Formally inducted on 31 May 1915, Guy left Australia on 21 September 1915 and appears to have been training at Mudros until 10 January 1916, then Alexandria, in Egypt. On 16 March 1916 he joined the British Expeditionary Forces, and was shipped to southern France, disembarking at Marseilles on 21 March .

Australian troops had started arriving in France on the 19th March, and their reputation as wild men in Cairo had created (unfounded) fears of riots amongst the French! They were transported by train through wet and snowy weather to the north, arriving in the area of St Omer and Hazebrouck in French Flanders. In this region the explosions of shells could be heard, and the gun-flashes and flares seen in the distance.

The AIF were billeted in barns (soldiers) and houses (officers), so it is uncertain whether Guy (who was a Lance Corporal from 1 January that year) was sleeping in hay or on a bed.

The region was known as the “nursery” as the reinforcements were being trained there before postings to the trenches. Lectures and other training were intense and non commissioned officers like Guy went to schools to learn about new trench mortars, sniping and bombing. Other training included prevention of frostbite, bathing and disinfection.

The Australian divisions were posted to the front line on 1 and 7 April, to a place called Fleurbaix, south of Armentieres. Guy briefly transferred as sick to Armentieres on 19 & 20 April 1916. Armentieres is a sizable town and was also used for recreation of the troops during breaks .

In the year before, there had been surprise German attacks at Ypres to the north-east, using gas for the first time, followed by a major British offensive along Vimy Ridge and at Loos, which had brought immense losses and been largely a failure. A feeling was developing that neither side could break through, and British General Haig took over as commander in chief. In early 1916 bombardment of previously unheard of intensity preceded an attack by the Germans at Verdun, clearly intended to break this deadlock.

Trench warfare in this region was less intense and more comfortable than had been for Australians at Gallipoli. Food was brought up on tramways by nightly ration parties, and water was piped in. The trenches were approached by mile long, winding communication trenches, with farms and villages behind to which troops regularly withdrew for rest. There they could use large British canteens, reading and writing rooms, and army baths where underclothing could be freed of fleas and lice. Despite their training, Australian soldiers could not be induced to salute every officer they met, particularly off duty.

The Australians also had better weapons available than had been the case at Gallipoli - they now had some Lewis guns, several types of trench mortars, and each division’s artillery had more field guns and howitzers. However the field guns were restricted to 3 rounds daily, unlike the German. They also now had oval, saucer-shaped steel helmets, and cloth gas helmets or box respirators. Some aeroplanes flew overhead by day and occasional searchlight beams cut the sky at night.

The trenches were actually breastworks built of sandbags above ground level, since excavated trenches were at once filled with water. This meant there was no safe shelter against medium high-explosive shells in the whole area. The Australians were also often careless about exposing themselves to view.

The British were planning a major offensive along the Somme River to the south from 1 July 1916, and General Haig was concerned that the Germans might shift their troops from the north to block it, so on 28 May he ordered as many raids as possible to be carried out in the north between 25 and 30 June .

Accordingly, under the British General Richard Haking, a series of raids were made along Auber’s ridge in the north during that period . This ridge of hills includes the towns of Auber and Fromelles. Two quick raids on 29 June had far-reaching consequences; reaching the German trenches, capturing prisoners including a German Captain, causing significant enemy consternation and forcing them to augment defences . Guy was apparently involved in one of the raids on 29 June, as that was the date he received shell shock (a mental disturbance caused by explosions) and a severe gun shot wound to the left shoulder .

The raids were later followed by the full Battle of Fromelles on 19-20 July, now acknowledged as a terrible blunder, in which there were 5533 casualties in 27 hours . However, Guy was not in this as he had already been admitted to the Australian Military Hospital at Wimereux (on the coast between Calais and Boulogne). The raids in which he was involved between 25-30 June recorded 773 casualties, compared with 563 for other Army corps or 522 for the Germans . What would Guy have thought when he saw his friends and acquaintances mowed down? Given the intense physical and mental trauma he experienced in such a foolhardy campaign , his trust in humanity must have been shaken.

Guy’s Battalion (27th) was subsequently transported down to Amiens, where they took part in the Somme offensive towards Bapaume. On 5 August 1916 they captured a significant site called Windmill, east of Pozieres . Again, Guy was not involved as he had been shipped to England on the Hospital Ship “Jan Breydel” from Boulogne on 1 July, and admitted to Shorncliffe War Hospital at Westgate-on-sea. He apparently stayed there until 18 November 1916, when he was transferred to the Pay Corps.

Guy was admitted to Southall hospital, London with lumbago (a rheumatic condition in the lower back) from 5-12 December 1916. He was promoted to 2nd Corporal on 1 February 1917, and a year later to the day, was again admitted to Southall hospital with severe pharyngitis which lasted 25 days.

On 15 November 1918 Guy was promoted to full Corporal, and by 24 June 1919 was in Manchester doing a motor engineering course for a month. On 9 August he was granted a month’s leave, and on 28 September he left for Australia on the “Port Sydney” arriving in Adelaide on 10 November 1919. He was discharged on 13 February 1920 .

During his time in England Guy saw wealthy family friends and visited his uncle Alexander McCulloch’s brother George’s house at 184 Queens Gate, London where there were a set of six spectacular Morris and Co tapestries The Quest for the Holy Grail, each measuring 2.6 metres high by some 8 metres wide. This must have seemed a very marked contrast to the squalor he had experienced at the front .

There was no treatment for the psychological impacts of the new forms of industrialised murder Guy had witnessed in northern France, and the war probably changed him forever, leaving personality scars as well as significant physical scars on his shoulder and arm. It is believed he was also exposed to mustard gas as he suffered a chest problem for the rest of his life, which was cut short prematurely at the age of 55 years. It seems quite likely he suffered post traumatic stress disorder, which was not understood or recognised at the time. He married Dorothy McCoy in 1922 and they had a son (Richard 1922-2014) and daughter (Bunty 1925-2010). He spent most of his working life at CSR in an office position. A friend of his who had also been in the war was manager at the Adelaide offices of CSR, and probably helped him.

Marcus Beresford, 15/1/2015

Notes and references
1. The Halifax explosion was the largest explosion ever caused by humans prior to nuclear bombs, in which a ship loaded with explosives collided with another, killing 2000 people and injuring 9000 others – see Wikipedia
2. Service records and enlistment forms GE Beresford, National Archives of Australia
3. J Laffin, Guide to Australian battlefields of the Western Front 1916-1918 Kangaroo Press 1992 pp20,56
4. CEW Bean Anzac to Amiens Penguin 1993 pp201-5,211,214-6 for information in preceding paragraphs.
5. P Barton The Lost Legions of Fromelles Allen & Unwin Crows Nest NSW 2014 pp128-9
6. There had already been two tactically “chillingly similar” Battles of Fromelles in 1914 and 1915, in which thousands of British and French were killed, and public outrage led to the fall of the Asquith government - see P Barton The Lost Legions of Fromelles Allen & Unwin Crow’s Nest NSW 2014 pp22-56,58-60