Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

 
#523 Charles Henry WILSON  3rd/ 4th Machine Gun Company

Son of William WILSON and Hannah nee TWIDDLE
 
Charles Wilson was born in Howard and by all accounts lived all of his life in the Howard and Torbanlea area where he attended school before progressing to work in the coal mines of the area.
 
When he presented himself for enlistment in Brisbane on 13th March 1916, Charles stated his age as 25 years and gave his occupation as miner. He named his mother, Hannah Wilson, a widow of Torbanlea, as his next of kin. Charles was a big man standing almost six feet tall and weighing 160 pounds. He reported to camp at Enoggera where he spent some time in a depot battalion before being allocated to Machine Gun reinforcements. All machine gun training was conducted at the Seymour Depot on the outskirts of Melbourne and Charles along with the other Queensland recruits arrived in Seymour on 15th May.
 
While in camp at Seymour, Charles reported to the camp hospital where he was diagnosed with gonorrhoea. He was transferred to Langwarrin Dermatological Hospital on the Mornington Peninsula. Langwarrin was a former detention camp from the time of the Boer War and the wire and towers were still in place. At the beginning of the 20th Century, antibiotics that would successfully treat venereal disease had not been developed and sufferers were isolated while the disease ran its course. The military authorities took a dim view of VD cases because while being treated, men were not available for ordinary duties. Cases of VD were considered to be self-inflicted and consequently all pay was stopped while the patient was being treated in hospital. Charles spent over four months at Langwarrin, being discharged back to the Seymour depot on 2nd November 1916. Three weeks later, Charles boarded the “Hororata” at Port Melbourne for overseas. The embarkation roll of the 8th reinforcements of the 3rd Machine Gun Company shows that Charles had allocated 3/- of his overseas daily pay of 5/- to his mother.
 
The reinforcements arrived at Plymouth on 29th January 1917 and were marched in to the 3rd Machine Gun Depot at Perham Downs. Charles was sentenced to 7 days of field punishment #2 in February for insolence towards an NCO. On 11th May 1917, Charles was sent to the Machine Gun Base Depot at Boulogne in France for further training.
Machine Gun Companies had been raised as support units for an infantry brigade, which was comprised of four infantry battalions. The main weapon of the MG Companies was the Vickers Heavy Machine Gun. This was a very robust weapon which could sustain a rapid rate of fire over a range of up to 4,000 yards. Unfortunately, the gun was heavy and was better suited to static deployment and defensive work than supporting advancing infantry. To overcome this short coming, gun crews were increased from three to six. This enlarged crew could break down the gun into its component parts, load them onto a small limber or cart along with spare parts, belts of ammunition and water tanks for maintaining the water-cooling jacket surrounding the barrel. The work of the gun crew was highly skilled and much training and practise was required to ensure that all members of the crew could perform at a high level.
 
While still at the MG Base Depot, Charles was reassigned to the 4th MG Company which supported the 4thInfantry Brigade of the 4th Division AIF. It was not until 19th September 1917 that Charles was finally taken on by the 4th MG Company. It had taken him 18 months to get there. The latter half of 1917 saw the Australian Divisions involved in the huge British offensive in Belgian Flanders. This series of battles which began in June 1917 at Messines became commonly known by the name of the village which had become the final goal, Passchendaele.
 
When Charles joined his company, the gunners were attempting to provide support to the four battalions of the 4th Brigade as they attempted to take Passchendaele. Over the previous few weeks, heavy rain had turned the battlefield into a quagmire into which men, animals and equipment fell and became stuck. The machine gun limbers of the 4th MG Company got stuck frequently and had to be hauled out by man power or sometimes mules. The weather also made it difficult to find a piece of solid ground on which to erect the heavy gun tripod. While manning the support lines below the Passchendaele Ridge on 15th October, the gun crew to which Charles was attached was hit by a high explosive artillery shell. Three men were killed and Charles was buried by the force of the concussion. When was finally extricated from the torn earth, it was discovered he had sustained a number of shell fragment wounds and had a badly bruised chest as a result of the concussive force of the explosion. He was taken to a casualty clearing station and then a field hospital before being assessed as requiring treatment in England. On 2nd November, Charles was loaded onto the Hospital Ship “Warilda” and after landing at Southampton, was put on a hospital train for the 1st Southern General Hospital in Birmingham. Later that month, he was transferred to the Australian Hospital at Dartford.
 
Charles would spend four months in hospital and various convalescent units before he was finally passed fit in early April 1918. He was posted to the machine Gun Training Depot at Deverill where he spent another three months before being posted back to the front. While Charles had been away from the front, the situation had changed. A German spring offensive which began in March 1918 progressed along the Somme valley in France until the city of Amiens was threatened. Throughout April and May, the German advance was met and held and by July, the first counteroffensive of the campaign occurred at Hamel. Hamel was a triumph for the newly promoted Australian Corps Commander, Lieutenant General John Monash, who employed his considerable skills of planning to execute an attack on the German line above the village of Hamel. Monash estimated it would take his Australians 90 minutes to achieve the objective; it in fact took 93.
 
The success of Hamel prompted the British Commander, General Douglas Haig, to commission Monash to plan an even larger offensive timed for the 8th August 1918. The final plan included all five Australian Divisions, three and a half Canadian Divisions and two British divisions. Also in the battle plan were over 540 aircraft that would be used in ground attack, logistic support and aerial spotting. Monash was also given 450 tanks which would be used in a number of ingenious ways.
 
Charles was finally posted to France in July of 1918 and rejoined his unit on 29th July. The 4th MG Company was at that time in the rear areas training with tank crews who would ferry the Vickers Gun crews forward as the battle progressed. When the artillery barrage crashed down on the German lines in the early morning of the 8th August, the enemy were taken by surprise as the waves of infantry and field artillery swept all resistance aside. The main advance was across undulating fields on the south bank of the Somme River. The 4th Australian Division occupied the left flank of the Australian advance with the river on the division’s left. Across the river, a British division had been tasked with protecting the Australian flank but the British units could not keep up with the Australian advance, thus exposing units of the 4th Division to enfilading fire from machine gun and artillery fire directed from the Chipilly Ridge at the advancing Australians. The gun crew to which Charles had hurriedly been assigned dismounted from their carrier tank near the village of Cerisy – Gailloy and set up to engage the enemy across the river when an artillery shell landed among the crew. The gun was knocked out and one man was killed; three of the crew including Charles Wilson were wounded.
 
Monash’s planning for the battle had even included detailed arrangements for the treatment of the wounded. He initiated a system for the field ambulances that he copied from the hansom cab ranks in his home town, Melbourne. Charles was swiftly taken from the battlefield by the 13th Field Ambulance to the 20th Casualty Clearing Station at Vignacourt. Charles was admitted with a serious wound to his left thigh which probably had damaged his femoral artery. He died later that day from his wound and was buried in the Vignacourt Military Cemetery. Charles had been back with his unit a total of ten days.
 
In early 1919, a cousin of Charles, Gladys Wilson of York, Yorkshire wrote to the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Inquiry Service seeking details of Charles’ death. Charles’ mother, Hannah Wilson, eventually signed for her son’s medals and memorial plaque. She also was granted the balance of his pay and a war gratuity but there is no record of her being granted a war pension.