Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

# 893  OSMOND James Charles Edward                    42nd Battalion
 
James Osmond was born the eldest child of four children to George and Sarah Osmond at Goodna around 1897. The family moved to “Rotherfield” Old Cove Road, Woodford in time for James to attend school. The Osmonds were probably involved in dairying and James began working at the Stanly River Cooperative butter factory as a cream tester upon leaving school. He also joined the Stanley River Rifle Club. To meet the obligations under the defence act of 1912, young men were required to undertake compulsory military training but there would have been insufficient numbers of recruits to warrant a unit in Woodford. Rifle clubs were encouraged in smaller rural areas where young men would receive some military training, often under the direction of Boer War veterans.
 
James presented himself for enlistment to the Brisbane Recruiting Depot close to Central Station on 30thNovember 1915. He stated his age as 18 years and one month and would under normal circumstances required his parents to give their assent. There is no such record in James’ file and it possible that recruiters waived the requirement.
 
James reported to Thompson’s Paddock Camp at Enoggera where a new battalion, the 42nd Infantry Battalion, was being raised. James was placed in “D” Company along with another young man from Woodford, # 880 Tom Martin.
 
In early 1916, four divisions of the AIF were being assembled out of original Gallipoli veterans and new reinforcements in Egypt. When up to full strength, those four divisions would be deployed to France and the Western Front and were all in place before the middle of the year. The 42nd Battalion, part of the 11thBrigade of the 3rd Division AIF would take a different route to the front.
 
Unlike its sister divisions, the 3rd Division would not be constructed around a core of experienced veterans. Instead, the 3rd Division battalions were raised entirely in Australia from new recruits and then sent directly to England where a new divisional training camp was established at Larkhill near Stonehenge. The training would be overseen by the newly appointed divisional commander, Major General John Monash (who was one of the few Gallipoli veterans in the Division).
 
On 5th June 1916, the entire 42nd Battalion boarded trains and travelled via Wallangarra, where trains had to changed due to a change in gauge, and then on to Sydney where they embarked on the “Borda”. The embarkation roll shows that James allocated 3/- of his daily pay to be deducted for his parents. The ship took seven weeks to reach Southampton, during which time the troops were kept fit with drills and boxing matches.
 
The 42nd spent four months in Southern England, while the rest of the AIF faced the might of the German Army on the Somme. Monash had become a minor celebrity in England as a result of his service at Anzac and his many years in the Australian Citizen Forces before the war. In a rare tribute to Monash and his division, the King, George V, travelled down to Larkhill to meet Monash and inspect the division. The King was concerned that the ‘colonials’ had insufficient clothing for the coming winter. Monash assured the King that his men were well catered for clothing wise and that his division would prove to be the best trained in the AIF. He was right.
 
The 3rd Division, all 22,000 men and equipment began to deploy to the continent on 25th November 1916. Just prior to the move, James was promoted to corporal. The 3rd Division arrived just in time for the bitterest winter in over 40 years. The battalion marched into billets at Outtersen. On 5th December, James reported to a field ambulance with bronchitis. He was back with his company ten days later. On 5th January, James was sent to the isolation hospital at St Omer with a case of mumps. When he returned to his battalion, James requested that he revert to the rank of private.
 
Between March and December 1917, James was in England where he spent time in a military hospital at Colchester with trench fever. He then moved through a number of convalescent depots at Larkhill and Weymouth. He returned to his battalion which was in winter billets around Poperinghe in late December. The end of 1917 produced a change in the strategic situation and an opportunity 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 1918, 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.
 
Elements of the 3rd and 4th Australian divisions were hastily ordered south from Belgium to establish a defensive line in front of Amiens. The 42nd Battalion was in position near Vaux sur Somme in the triangle formed by the confluence of the Ancre and Somme rivers by the first week in April. That week, Haig issued his famous “backs to the wall” speech imploring the defenders to hold every position to the last man. The battlefield was very different to those experienced during the Flanders Campaign in 1917. There were no discernible trench lines and defenders had to scratch out shallow gun pits in the chalky soil. The defence of Amiens, which lasted most of April, was the first real action that James had been exposed to.
 
The German advance was finally halted at Villers Bretonneux, just across the Somme marshes from the 42nd’s position by two AIF Brigades, fittingly on Anzac Day 1918. From then on, the German advance began to lose momentum, but they were far from beaten. The 3rd Division Commander, John Monash, encouraged his troops to engage in “peaceful penetration”; which was in fact active patrolling of no man’s land and aggressive trench raiding, all designed to unsettle the enemy. On 1st June, Monash was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General, and was given field command of the all AIF forces. He set about devising an audacious plan, limited in scope, to test his theory about coordinated offence using all of his forces, not just infantry.
 
The Battle of Hamel on 4th July was the first offensive action by British Forces since Passchendaele. Three brigades of Australian Infantry, including a company from the Illinois National Guard (it being American Independence Day) set off under an artillery screen supported by 60 tanks of the Ryal Tank Corp and supported by aircraft from #3 Squadron Australian Flying Corps. Monash estimated it would take his troops 90 minutes to reach the objective; it in fact took 93. James and his companions in the 42nd, as part of the 11th Brigade had the task of capturing the village of Hamel. During the advance, American Corporal Thomas Pope knocked out a machine gun to win the US Army’s first Medal of Honour in France. The following day, upon hearing the news of the Hamel success, the French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau visited Monash’s troops. In his speech he said “I will tell my country men I have seen the Australians; I have looked into their eyes. I know that they will fight.” Two weeks after Hamel, James was promoted to Lance Corporal.
 
Hamel was an outstanding textbook victory, a credit to Monash’s planning and attention to detail. Hamel indicated that with co-ordinated planning and use of technology, the tide could be turned. Monash was engaged to contribute to the planning of an even greater battle in August. With four AIF Divisions, three Canadian Divisions, and two British Divisions, the Battle of Amiens on 8th August 1918 was an enormous undertaking.
 
Much of the techniques that Monash had experimented with at Hamel such as aircraft parachuting ammunition and water to advancing infantry were incorporated into the plan. The 42nd Battalion, as part of the 3rd Division began the advance near Villers Bretonneux at 5:00am in a heavy fog and smoke screen with the 2nd Australian Division on its left and the Canadians on the right. When the advance reached the Green Line at Lamotte-Warfusee, the Australians dug in and allowed the 5th Division to move through on to the Red Line at Harbonnieres. By the end of the day, the front had moved almost 10 kilometres into open country and over 7000 prisoners and 180 heavy guns had been captured by the Australians alone. The German Commander Ludendorff called the 8th August the “blackest day for the German Army.” A week after Amiens, James was promoted to the rank of corporal.
 
After the Battle of Amiens, the German forces on the Somme were constantly withdrawing during which time Monash’s troops harassed and attacked relentlessly. On 25th August, the 42nd Battalion staged a short decisive attack on German defenders near the village of Bray. As was the usual practice, one a new front was established, forward posts were positioned in no man’s land and aggressive patrolling kept the enemy unnerved. It was reported that while leading a patrol that afternoon, James Osmond was killed by an enemy artillery shell. James was buried nearby by men of the 42nd where he lay until his remains were exhumed to be incorporated into the Bronfay Farm Military Cemetery on the north bank of the Somme. A testament, two wallets, photos, letters and coins were returned to Sarah Osmond at Woodford. When permanent headstones were erected in military cemeteries, George and Sarah chose the following inscription: ELDEST AND BELOVED SON OF GH & SA OSMOND, WOODFORD Q. James Osmond is commemorated on the Honour Boards at St Mattias’ Church, the Methodist Church Woodford and the Masonic Lodge. A tree and plaque honouring his sacrifice is included in the Woodford Avenue of Honour.