Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

 
# 6822 MUIR William (Bill) George                           26th Battalion
 
Bill Muir was born in Glasgow to James and Elizabeth Muir. When young Bill was seven, the family emigrated to Queensland and took up dairying at Kilkivan. Bill continued to live in Kilkivan and eventually married his wife Mary Ann. The couple stayed in the Kilkivan area and had three children by the time that Bill decided to enlist.
 
Bill took the train on the Mary Valley line to Gympie and then on to Maryborough where he walked in to the recruiting depot on 4th April 1917. If Bill had attempted to enlist twelve months earlier, he would probably have been rejected as he was only 5’2” tall and weighed a diminutive 8 stone; as well as being almost too old at 40. The state of recruitment for the AIF had taken a severe hit in the second half of 1916, due in part to the enormous casualty lists which appeared in daily newspapers acting as a deterrent. The failure of the first of the conscription plebiscites in October 1916 added to the crisis which was in part overcome by relaxing the criteria for acceptance into the AIF.
 
Bill travelled to Enoggera Camp for initial training. He was granted a period of five day’s home leave on 21stMay and soon after returning to camp was allocated to the 20th reinforcements of the 26th Battalion. The reinforcements travelled to Sydney by train and boarded the “Hororata” on 14th June. The embarkation roll shows William Muir, a farmer of Kilkivan, had allocated 80% of his pay to his wife. The haste with which Bill and his companions were trained and sent overseas is indicative of the apparent need for reinforcements on the western front. The Somme campaign of 1916 and early 1917 had inflicted over 23,000 Australian casualties, the equivalent of an entire division, many of whom were listed as killed, missing or severely wounded.
 
The “Hororata” took two and a half months to reach England having sailed via South Africa and Sierra Leone to stay well away from German U-Boats. Upon disembarking in Liverpool, the  reinforcements travelled by train to the 7th Brigade Training Battalion at Fovant. On 8th January 1918, Bill crossed the English Channel to the huge British transit camp at Havre before continuing on to be taken on strength by the 26th Battalion on 13th January. Bill was placed into “B” Company. The 26th at that time was occupying the front-line trenches on the French Belgian border just north of Armentieres. Bill was employed in trench improvement and salvage work for most of that month.
 
In February, the 26th and the other three battalions in the 7th Brigade were relieved and went into rest camp at Henneveux, not far from the seaside town of Boulogne. The men enjoyed visits to the divisional baths to have uniforms cleaned and underwear replaced before engaging a series of sports contests both within their battalion and then at brigade level. As spring approached, activity on the front increased and the 7th Brigade was called up to rotate through front line positions around Ploegsteert Wood where trench raiding resumed.
 
It was expected that the German forces, bolstered by almost 60 divisions of troops released from the Eastern Front after the Bolshevik Revolution and subsequent peace treaty, would mount an offensive on the western front in early 1918. The British command calculated that the offensive was most likely to occur in Belgium and placed the reliable AIF there to meet the threat. Operation Michael began on 21st March, not in Belgium but on the old battle ground of the Somme. Within days of the launch of Operation Michael, the gains made by the British and Australians on the Somme in 1916 were retaken, the British 5th Army retreated in disarray, and the city of Amiens was threatened. If the city fell, the British would be cut off from their French allies and the Germans could march on Paris and win the war.
 
In a desperate move to protect Amiens, General Douglas Haig rushed four of the five AIF divisions that were in Belgium south to take up defensive positions astride the Somme. The 26th Battalion, as part of the 2ndDivision began its journey south on 4th April and took up position on a defensive line at the confluence of the Ancre and Somme Rivers to the east of Amiens.
 
The German advance was finally halted at Villers Bretonneux on 25th April. In order to disrupt any further German incursions, the Australian General John Monash ordered his frontline troops to actively harass the enemy with active night patrols and trench raids; the so called “peaceful penetration.” Monash was worried about a spur of high ground near Morlancourt that was still in German hands and provided the enemy a commanding view of the Australian and British positions. The 7th Brigade was given the task of attacking the heights and the brigade commander chose an unusual time of 9:45pm, giving time in the fading light of 10thJune for the capture of the trenches. During the moonless night that followed, reinforcements and supplies would be carried up without the enemy being aware. The suddenness of the attack confused the German defenders and Morlancourt was deemed a great success and an example of “splendid dash and bravery” (Brigadier Wisdom, Commanding the 7th Australian Infantry Brigade).
 
Monash was appointed overall commander of the Australian Corps on 1st June 1918. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and was still not satisfied with the position of German observation points. Using his new found authority, he began to plan his own operation against the Wolfsburg which overlooked the village of Hamel. Again the 7th Brigade as part of the 2nd Division was included in the order of battle for the 4th July. Monash’s plan called for the coordinated deployment of artillery, tanks, aircraft and 10 battalions of Australian infantry from three divisions, advancing under a creeping barrage. The 26th Battalion was positioned on the far left of the line and was forced into some hand-to-hand skirmishes in securing the objective. Monash calculated that the entire battle would last for 90 minutes, it in fact took 93! The first of many successes by the AIF in 1918.
 
Bill Muir and the men of the 26th had been fighting almost constantly since the beginning of April in which time the British forces on the Somme had withstood Ludendorff’s assaults and were now positioned to go on the offensive. After the success at Hamel, Monash’s star was rising and he was asked by General Haig to plan a major offensive on the south bank of the Somme using some of the tactics he had devised for Hamel. At Hamel, Monash had 60 tanks but for this new operation, the Battle of Amiens, he would have 400 Mark VI tanks at his disposal in addition to four AIF Divisions, three Canadian Divisions and squadrons of cavalry and armoured cars. The French would secure his right flank and north of the Somme the British III Corps. The attack would begin at 3:40 am on 8th August 1918.
 
The 2nd Division, including the 26th Battalion took up position on the line of advance with the Somme River on their left and the 3rd Division on their right. The 2nd and 3rd Divisions would advance from near Hamel three and a half kilometres to the green line where they would dig in and be leapfrogged by the 4th and 5thDivisions which would advance a further four and a half kilometres. During the initial advance by the 26thBattalion, Bill Muir was killed. A stretcher bearer, Private Dobwin told the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Inquiry Service that he came across Bill Muir lying on the ground. He had been wounded by a burst of machine gun fire to the abdomen but as Dobwin attempted to bandage the wounds, Bill died. He was carried to the Card Copse British Cemetery for burial. Bill’s wife back in Kilkivan received a few personal effects including a wallet and notebook. It is presumed that Elizabeth was in receipt of a war pension for herself and the three children, but no record of such payments is contained in Bill’s file.
 
In 1920, Elizabeth remarried and a few years later, Bill’s remains were exhumed and reinterred in the new Australian Cemetery at Villers Bretonneux. Elizabeth chose as an inscription for her husband’s headstone: HIS COUNTRY CALLED, HE ANSWERED, NOW IN GOD’S HANDS HE RESTS.