Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

#2093 MOY Francis Michael
 
Frank Moy was born in Dalby to parents John and Julia Moy. Frank attended Booroonby School and then presumably worked on the family’s grazing selection. By the time of his enlistment, Frank had acquired his own selection block.
Frank attended the Darling Downs Recruiting Depot in Toowoomba on 26th October 1915. He informed the recruiters that he was 18 years old and was a selector of Jimbour. He named his father, John, as his next of kin. Frank reported to Enoggera where after a brief time in a depot battalion was drafted into the 13threinforcements of the 5th Light Horse Regiment. The reinforcements embarked for overseas on the “Wandilla” in Brisbane on 31st  January 1916 and disembarked a month later in Alexandria on the Egyptian Mediterranean coast. The embarkation roll shows that Frank had allocated 4 shillings of his 5 shillings a day pay to be held in trust. Frank and the rest of the Light Horse reinforcements went into camp at the Light Horse remounts camp at Moascar awaiting reassignment.
 
The early months of 1916 were a time of reorganisation and expansion for the AIF. The Gallipoli force had been evacuated and returned to the camps in Egypt. The Gallipoli veterans would in many cases form an experienced core for new battalions to be created from the large number of reinforcements that had enlisted during 1915 and were then in Egypt. Once reorganised, the new expanded AIF effectively doubled in size prior to being sent to the Western Front.
 
The Light Horse was to remain in Egypt to act as a defensive force against a possible Turkish advance on the Suez Canal. Unlike the infantry though, there were no plans to expand the size of the Light Horse; there was however, an increased need for men with horse handling skills in artillery, ammunition trains and general logistics when the AIF moved to the Western Front. It would appear that although not required by the Light Horse, William’s experience with horses during his training in Australia made him a candidate for transfer to the field artillery.
 
The field artillery during the first world war relied exclusively on horses and mules to pull the 18 pounder field guns and howitzers, as well as horse teams that pulled the general service wagons which delivered ammunition from the dumps behind the firing lines. There was great demand for blacksmiths, farriers, harness makers and drivers to keep the gunners supplied.
 
On 11th March 1916, Trooper Frank Moy was transferred from the Light Horse Remounts at Moascar in Egypt to the 14th Field Artillery Brigade as a gunner but two weeks later was transferred to the 5th Division Ammunition Column as a driver. In the last days of June, the 5th DAC boarded transports at Alexandria for the voyage across the Mediterranean to Marseilles.
 
In the middle of July, the 5th Division Ammunition Column supporting the 14th Field Artillery moved into the gun lines at Fleurbaix. The war diary of the brigade records daily notation of rounds fired, as well as weather and casualties. The gunners remained in that area, although undergoing some minor changes in battery positions to avoid enemy counterbattery fire, for the next three months. On 24th September, Frank was transferred back to the 14th Field Artillery which had relocated to the Somme for the winter.
 
On 15th January 1917, Frank reported sick to a field ambulance. He was diagnosed as suffering from influenza and pneumonia and was transferred via hospital ship to the Reading War Hospital outside London. After over a month in hospital, Frank was discharged and granted a two week furlough before reporting to the AIF Depot at Perham Downs on Salisbury Plain. On 11th April, Frank crossed the English Channel once more to the transit depot at Etaples on the northern French coast. On 6th May, Frank rejoined his unit which was preparing for the opening battle of the Flanders Campaign in Belgium. The Battle of Messines Ridge began on 7th June 1917. The general in charge had three and a half million artillery shells at his disposal and the guns of the British, Australian, Canadian and New Zealand artillery ran red hot for the week prior to the 7th June.
 
After Messines, the 14th FAB supported Australian and British operations at Menin Road, Polygon Wood and Broodseinde leading up to the failed assault on Passchendaele. The efforts of the British forces were undone by the mud and the gunners had a particularly tough time dragging their pieces up to the battery lines and then preventing the guns from sinking into the mud after firing only a few rounds.
 
Exhausted by their efforts in Flanders, the gunners were finally relieved and went into comfortable billets around the Belgian town of Poperinghe in November 1917 where equipment could be repaired, cleaned or replaced. The horses particularly welcomed comfortable stabling. On 6th December 1917, Frank was promoted to the rank of Acting Bombardier (the artillery rank equivalent to corporal). The rest period during the winter allowed for men to be granted periods of leave and Frank enjoyed three weeks leave in England during February and returning to his unit on 19th March 1918. Two days later the Germans launched the Spring Offensive.
 
The later part of 1917 produced a change in the strategic situation as far as the German command was concerned. The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia brought about the end to fighting on the Eastern Front. A peace treaty between Germany and Russia released up to sixty German divisions which, once re-equipped and re-trained, could be used to press home a distinct advantage on the Western Front. The window for exploiting this advantage was however rather small as the entry of the United States into the war and an expected surge in troop numbers from July 1918 onwards would swing the advantage back to the Entente. The German commander, Ludendorff had only a short time to press home his advantage.
 
The British Commander, General Haig, was fully expecting a German assault in the spring of 1918 but he guessed incorrectly that the main thrust would be aimed at the Ypres salient in Belgium. When Operation Michael began on 21st March, the main assault was aimed along the line of the Somme River, the scene of so much fighting and hard won victories in 1916.
The British 5th Army, which was holding the line astride the Somme was unable to hold the German onslaught which in some places amounted to a five time numerical advantage. As the British retreated, often in disarray, the German Stormtroopers retook all of the gains made by the British in the Somme campaign and were within a few days of capturing the vital communication city of Amiens. If Amiens fell, Haig might well have lost the war; the situation was deadly serious.
 
Haig ordered his most successful and battle hardened troops, four of the five divisions of the AIF in Belgium to race south to establish a defensive line in front of Amiens. The 14th FAB set off on the 1st April and after negotiating roads clogged with military traffic, fleeing French refugees and British stragglers began to construct gun pits along a defensive line near the village of Corbie, only a few miles to the east of Amiens. The situation was extremely uncertain and the men of the 53rd Battery of the 14th FAB, Frank’s battery, were firing almost constantly at numerous targets. On the 11th April, Haig issued his famous “backs to the wall” order which was conveyed to every British and Dominion unit: “Every position must be held …to the last man…. with our backs to the wall…... each one of us must fight to the end.”
 
The German advance continued to press westward but the positions occupied by the Australians held, although there were a few close run encounters. On 21st April, German storm troopers drove the British defenders out of Villers Bretonneux, just to the south of Corbie across the Somme River. It was retaken by Australians on 25th April; Anzac Day.
 
The war diary of the 14th FAB records that on the evening of the 24th April, the 53rd Battery was heavily shelled and had to move back from their position after suffering heavy casualties; 6 KIA, 39 Wounded and 82 mules and horses killed outright or later put down. One of those killed was A/Bombardier Francis Moy. He was 21 years old.
 
Frank was laid to rest in the Military Cemetery at Bonnay, just to the north of Corbie. His personal belongings were parcelled up by Australian Headquarters in London and despatched to Frank’s father. Unfortunately, the “Barunga” which was carrying a number of wounded and returning Australians as well as the personal effects of some 5,000 fallen destined for grieving relatives was sunk by a German submarine just off the Scilly Isles. No lives were lost but the ship and its cargo went to the bottom.
 
When permanent headstones were erected after the war, the Moy family chose the following inscription: DEAR IN MEMORY TO ALL AT “SHANDON” JIMBOUR QUEENSLAND
 
The last entry in Frank’s file is a request from his sister Mrs Cooper enquiring about her brother’s will. The letter is dated 1942.