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Australia

Son of Edward and Alice RAY, 131 Cowper Street, Footscray, Victoria.

From Francois Berthout

Private 5757A George Ray
14th Australian Infantry Battalion,
4th Brigade, 4th Australian Division, AIF
 
On this morning, a new mild spring sun rises over the Somme and across the fields of poppies, beyond the horizon, once again rise in the light the immaculate graves of thousands of young men who, in the prime of their lives, in a hell never seen before, fought here over a hundred years ago with exceptional bravery in the blood and mud of the trenches of the Great War, the still-open scars of an appalling past that sent to their deaths a whole generation of heroes who, alongside their friends and brothers, shed their blood for our country and gave their lives in the name of peace and freedom. They were Australians who, from the other side of the world, came to help France free itself from the darkness of a warlike madness that was triggered by two shots fired in Sarajevo, which then unleashed a rain of shells on the blood-red fields of the Somme where the young Diggers did their duty with such courage, but in the face of death and pain, in the face of the sadness of these open-air slaughterhouses, remained filled with faith and united in a solemn fraternity, a strength, a bond so strong that guided them to go beyond, to give all they had, looking out for each other as they went over the top into the murderous fields of Pozieres, into the smoking ruins of Villers-Bretonneux, into the brick-dusted town of Amiens where they stopped the German army once and for all in 1918.Shortly after these last battles that brought death, peace was finally signed, but it was paid for hard in blood, by the courage and sacrifices of thousands of young boys who, on the road back to beautiful Australia, saw fields of corpses, the lifeless bodies of their brothers in arms who never had the chance to return home, to build a life in the peace for which they fought until their last breath, but found here, on these sacred grounds strewn with poppies, the silence and serenity of a new life filled with remembrance and still stand, young for ever, strong and proud before the eyes filled with respect, gratitude and love of the French and Australian people whose children visit the graves of these heroes to keep their memory alive, to carry in the hands of future generations the torch of remembrance so that the peace that was so hard paid for can be preserved, so that these men to whom we owe so much are never forgotten.

Today, it is with all my heart, with the utmost respect and with the deepest gratitude that I would like to honor the memory of one of these young men, of one of my boys of the Somme who, for Australia and France, for each of us, gave his life.I would like to pay a very respectful tribute to Private number 5757A George Ray who fought in the 14th Australian Infantry Battalion, 4th Brigade, 4th Australian Division of the Australian Imperial Force, and who was killed in action 106 years ago, on May 31, 1918 at the age of 29 on the Somme front.

George Ray was born in 1889 in Richmond, Victoria, Australia, and was the son of Edward and Alice Ray, of 131 Cowper Street, Footscray. He was educated at Footscray State School, No 253, Victoria and after graduation worked as a teamster until the outbreak of the war.

On August 4,1914 Great Britain declared war on Germany and Australia quickly followed the Mother Land's call to arms. Immediately, From the city and suburbs clerks laid down their pens, shopkeepers and shop assistants walked out of their shops, solicitors paused with their briefs, workmen downed their picks and shovels and from the countryside bushmen, farmers, graziers, shearers, woodchoppers set out on by horse drawn buggy, by train, by horse and on foot starting their journey to join a new type of army, an all volunteer army, the Australian Imperial Force.
Refusing to stay behind and driven by a strong spirit of patriotism and camaraderie, George enlisted on February 23, 1916 in Melbourne, Victoria, as a Private in the 6th Australian Infantry Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 1st Australian Division then, after an initial period training for a little over four months at Broadmeadows Camp, north of Melbourne, he embarked with his unit from Melbourne, on board HMAT A33 Ayrshire on July 3, 1916 and sailed for England, arriving in Plymouth on September 2 and promoted the same day to the rank of Lance Corporal then joined the 2nd Training Battalion at Perham Down, Wiltshire, and completed his training on Salisbury Plain then, shortly after, ready to join the battlefields of the Western Front, proceeded overseas on October 8.

On October 9, 1916, after a short trip across the Channel, George arrived in France and was disembarked at Etaples where he joined the 1st Australian Divisional Base Depot, was reverted to the rank of Private and transferred to the 14th Australian Infantry Battalion (then commanded by Colonel John Monash) in which he was taken on strength on October 22 at Steenvoorde. The battalion then comprised a strength of 884 men including 28 officers. The day after George's arrival, the 14th was reviewed by General William Birdwood then followed a period of training then on October 27, moved to Bellancourt, in the Somme then theater of battles which were among the deadliest for the Australian Imperial Force such as the infamous battles of Pozieres and Mouquet Farm which, a few months earlier, between July 23 and September 4, claimed the lives of just over 20,000 Diggers. In Bellancourt, George and the men of his unit continued their training including practice attacks in four waves.

On November 2, 1916, George and his comrades of the 14th Battalion left Bellancourt and marched to the "Roman Camp" at La Chaussee where they followed numerous tactical exercises in collaboration with airplanes as well as anti-gas exercises then a week later, on November 9, moved to Ribemont for another period of training near ancient Gallo-Roman ruins. On November 13, approaching the front line and the sinister rumbles of shells, the units of the 14th marched through Fricourt, Montauban and arrived at Bernafay Wood the next day where George and his friends were employed in freezing cold in working parties consisting of repairing roads and railways then crucial for transporting men and munitions to the front then on November 23 marched to Carlton Camp ( a camp made of tents and dug shelters), near Bazentin-Le-Petit but the time to join the trenches arrived and on November 27, they took place on the front line at Gueudecourt, in support near "Bull's Road " where they relieved the 48th Australian Infantry Battalion. Here, George and his comrades fought in very difficult conditions with their knees deeply buried in cold, sticky mud and then very quickly came under German artillery fire but despite heavy losses , remained strong and were used to reinforce and consolidate their trenches with more than 2000 sandbags.
On 2 December 1916, probably while working to reinforce his battalion's trenches, George was injured in his ankle and back (either from a fall or shrapnel) and was evacuated and admitted the next day to the 1st Australian General Hospital in Rouen. His injury must have been severe because on August 8 he was transferred to the hospital ship "Carlbrook Castle" and sailed for England then the same day was admitted to the Beaufort War Hospital in Bristol and to the 3rd Auxiliary Hospital in Dartford. on March 6, 1917 where he recovered from his injuries. After this, he was granted a furlough followed by a short period of training at Perham Down and proceeded overseas from Folkestone to France on April 25, 1917.

On April 26, 1917, George arrived for the second time in France and was disembarked in Le Havre where he joined the 4th Australian Divisional Base depot then, after a new period of training, joined the 14th Australian Infantry Battalion on June 17 at Neuve-Eglise and on June 28, took place in the trenches between Ploegsteert Wood and St Yves, on the Ypres salient where it is probable that George met Captain Albert Jacka who was sniped through the leg on July 9.

On July 14, 1917, George and the men of the 14th Battalion moved back to Neuve-Eglise for rest and cleaning followed by a period of training then on July 19 the battalion marched to Vieux-Berquin for training but received new clean uniforms and new individual equipment, which added a little comfort through the hell of war. During this period, the officers of the battalion had to speak of the number of cases of desertion which increased and John Monash personally intervened to encourage men who had already suffered so much previously in the Somme and around Ypres. Shortly after, on August 8, the battalion joined the trenches of Wytschaete under hostile fire from enemy artillery but on August 12, George fell ill and was admitted to the 4th Australian Field Ambulance suffering from trench fever. Later the same day he was admitted to the 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station then on August 15, was transferred to the 2nd Australian General Hospital in Wimereux then finished recovering at the 1st Convalescent Depot where he was admitted on October 2.

On October 3, 1917, after having recovered, George joined the No1 General Depot in Boulogne, then marched to the 4th Australian Divisional Base Depot in Le Havre on October 7 and joined his comrades of 14th Battalion on October 20 on the front line at Westhoek Ridge. Two days later the battalion moved further north to the front at Broodseinde where they were heavily shelled but were relieved the next day by the 8th Australian Infantry Battalion and moved to Devonshire Camp for reorganization and rest then on 27 October , embarked by train for Predefin, in the Pas-De-Calais region where they followed a new period of training including bayonet fights interspersed with moments of recreation including football competitions like the one which took place on November 7 between the men of the 14th Battalion and the troops of the 4th Company of the Australian Machine Gun Corps.

On November 14, the troops of the 14th Battalion left Predefin and marched through Bergueneuse, Coupelle-Vieille, Hazebrouck, Lebiez, Saulchoy, Estrées-lès-Crécy, Canchy, Miannay and arrived at Fressenneville, near Abbeville, in the Somme on November 24 for a new period of reorganization, they received reinforcements then had a period of intensive training including musketry exercises. On December 7, they moved to Moislains where they bivouacked for a few days then on December 11 marched to Amiens where George and his comrades had baths as well as a little rest and were able to admire the solemn beauty of the cathedral of Amiens then covered and protected by thousands of sandbags but the young Diggers declared that "this silent lady who stood majestically under the sky, was the most beautiful wonder of the Somme" but which nevertheless rivaled the charm and kindness of the young women they saw near the estaminets and here, were very moved by the welcome, the admiration and the love that young children felt for the young Diggers, a love and admiration that still lives today.

On December 21, 1917, the men of the 14th left Amiens with regret and marched to Templeux-la-Fosse where the training of the troops continued including hand-to-hand combat, rapid loading, platoon drill, respirator drill, bayonet fighting , gas drill, tactical exercises, routes marches, interspersed with working parties including road works and moments of recreation then on January 11, 1918 marched through Meteren, Hazebrouck and arrived at La Clytte where they stayed until January 20. The next day, they moved to the Tournai Camp, near Vierstraat, in Belgium where they were mainly employed in working parties for a week then joined the front line near "Spoil Bank" on January 29, a relatively calm area and took advantage of this to consolidate their positions and installed numerous lines of barbed wire in front of their trenches, a work which was done at night so as not to be targets of possible German snipers but were shelled by German artillery which caused heavy damage and numerous losses among George's unit (including a violent artillery fire with gas shells during the day of January 31 which was particularly deadly).
On February 1, 1918, George and his comrades moved to another sector of the front line at Zillebeke, near Ypres on a portion of the line called "Belgian Wood-Chateau Road" where they were once again brutally shelled by explosive shells and gas shells but the men of the 14th Battalion held the line firmly despite the evacuation towards the rear of 56 gassed men who spit blood and shed so many tears, their eyes being seriously burned by the mustard gas that the Germans used very often to push back the Australian troops in front of them then on February 5, they were relieved and marched to Murrumbidgee Camp, near Hazebrouck where they remained until February 14. The following day, they moved back to La Clytte then at Tournai Camp on February 21 for a rest period which ended on February 28.

On March 1, 1918, George was granted leave in England and there is no doubt that it must have been a moment of respite that he particularly appreciated after so much fury and horrors seen and experienced on the battlefields but unfortunately, the war was not over, far from it and after having joined his battalion on March 18, General Ludendorff launched,on March 21, with implacable brutality, the Kaiserschlacht (the Kaiser's battle) also called "Operation Michael" whose primary objective and main was the capture of the railway junction of the town of Amiens, in the Somme, the rupture of the British and French lines and a rapid march towards Paris before the massive arrival of American troops on the front which would prevent any definitive victory of the army German on the western front.

General Erich Ludendorff, the First Quartermaster General and de facto commander of the German army, began to consider a renewed offensive on the Western Front in October 1917. The Reich’s strategic situation informed his deliberations. The USA had been an enemy since April and was training a huge army across the Atlantic. Russia’s revolution and collapsing war effort had freed up German units in the east. Forty-eight divisions could be transferred to the Western Front, increasing German strength to 191 against 178 Allied divisions by the spring of 1918. The general thus had one final, brief chance to win a decisive victory there before the arrival of overwhelming American forces.

Ludendorff selected as his battlefield an eighty-kilometer front from La Fère to Arras defended by the British army, regarded as less skilled than its French ally. He refused to set final territorial objectives. This was a gross error, for the British army was highly vulnerable at the rail hubs of Amiens and Hazebrouck and capturing these logistical choke points could have pushed it from the continent. Instead, Ludendorff chose his attack front with two other aims in mind. First, he hoped to punch through at the boundary between the British and French armies here and then turn north to eliminate the British line. Second, tactical and psychological calculations were paramount. The defenders were weak here, raising the likelihood of a breakthrough. Once dislodged, the enemy’s unwieldy command system and troops schooled only in trench combat were expected to collapse quickly under the pressure of mobile war.

The German offensive codenamed Michael opened on 21 March 1918. At 4:20am, 6,473 guns and 3,532 mortars began a devastating bombardment and five hours later the infantry advanced. The assault divisions had been allocated the best equipment, horses and fittest men and had completed four weeks’ special training in state-of-the-art infiltration tactics. Great care had been taken to achieve surprise. Tactically, results were impressive: 255 km² were overrun on the first day. By the time the offensive was ended on 5 April, the Germans had captured 3,100 km² and taken 90,000 prisoners. However, operationally the offensive was a failure. Erroneously believing the British to be defeated, Ludendorff had reinforced the offensive’s southernmost army to hinder any transfer of French reserves and then dissipated his strength by attacking in multiple directions. The Germans captured nothing of value and neither destroyed the British army nor split it from its French ally.

The renewed German attempts to break the western Allies in subsequent months repeated the pattern of Michael. A second offensive,Operation Georgette,was launched against British lines in Flanders on 9 April, intended to capture Hazebrouck. The Germans advanced quickly but failed to take the rail hub, in part because Ludendorff again dispersed his attacks. The next major operation, Operation Blücher, opened at the Chemin des Dames on 27 May. This was conceived as a diversion to attract French reserves from Flanders in preparation for another attack there, but Ludendorff was duped by its staggering tactical success into expanding it to a full-fledged offensive. German troops advanced to within ninety kilometers of Paris, yet as in March created a vulnerable salient rather than dealing any fatal blow to their enemies. A penultimate operation on the Matz river (9 June- codename Gneisenau) was inconclusive and the final offensive in Champagne (15 July-Marneschutz-Reims) a total failure. On 18 July, a French-led surprise counterattack fell on the exhausted Germans. The initiative would now firmly remain with the Allies.

The Spring Offensives failed for several reasons. There were serious command errors. Ludendorff squandered his best chance at victory by missing British logistical vulnerabilities, and he lost a grip on the operations, repeatedly reinforcing mere tactical successes. The German army’s material, manpower and mobility limitations called into question whether it was capable of defeating the British and French. These enemies were tough and eventually learned from the tactical mistakes which had contributed to their reverses.

The offensives provoked bitter political controversy in Germany in the war’s aftermath. Critics accused Ludendorff of squandering a chance of negotiated peace with a military operation doomed to fail. Certainly, the offensives hastened the Reich’s defeat. Under pressure, the Allies streamlined their command, appointing Ferdinand Foch coordinating General-in-Chief. The million of American soldiers who had arrived in France by July covered their heavy losses. By contrast, the German army had no reserves to replace its nearly 1 million casualties and was stretched out on a front 120 kilometers longer than in March. Its fittest and best-trained troops had disproportionately perished in the failed operations. Officers and soldiers were exhausted and demoralized.

On March 28, 1918, George and the 14th Battalion were rushed towards the Somme and arrived in the ruined village of Hebuterne with the support of the 15th Australian Infantry Battalion on their left flank but as soon as they entered the trenches, they were heavily shelled and also suffered from fire from German machine guns and snipers which caused heavy losses among George's comrades who, once again, found themselves in the heart of the cyclone, a hell on earth never seen before. During the evening, the Germans surged in compact waves towards the positions of the 14th but were mowed down one after the other under Australian bullets and the precise fire of the machine gunners who fired hail of lead. The next day, another German attack was launched on them with the same catastrophic result and it soon became clear that they would not break the Australian lines.

On April 5, 1918, the troops of the 14th Battalion supported a partially successful British attack towards Rossignol Wood, north of Hebuterne but despite the support of several tanks suffered appalling losses under the crossfire of German machine guns. The next day, the New Zealand troops of the 2nd Auckland Infantry Battalion came to support the Australians then on April 13, the 14th Battalion was relieved by the 16th Australian Infantry Battalion and marched to Rossignol Farm for a short period of rest before returning to the front line, this time in reserve at Sailly-Au-Bois where they remained until April 24. The following day, George and his battalion marched to the Foret De Mai, near Amiens for reorganization and commemorated the 3rd anniversary of ANZAC Day during which a bottle of beer was given to each man. Three days later, on April 28, the battalion moved to Villers-Bretonneux with the support of the 13th Australian Infantry Battalion on their left flank and the 2nd French Regiment de Zouaves on their right flank (a French regiment that the Australians describe it as "a very good troop of soldiers fighting with courage".

On May 30, 1918, the men of the 14th Battalion left the trenches of Villers-Bretonneux and moved into tickets to Allonville where, on the night of May 30 to 31, George met his fate and was killed in action while resting in a barn which was hit by a very high German explosive shell. This sad incident was described as follows in the battalion's war diary:
"At about 1.15am the enemy shelled Allonville and one shell landed right in the large barn occupied by "A" Company,cutting it in halves. 13 other ranks killed,56 wounded.Another shell landed in barn occupied by "C" Company and Headquarters,causing 17 casualties.The behaviour of the men was magnificent,as men were buried in the debris and had to be dug out and some of the wounds (the majority) were awful.The battalion should have moved off at 6am but owing to this accident did not move till 10am."

Today, George Ray rests in peace alongside his friends, comrades and brothers in arms at the Allonville Communal Cemetery, Somme, and his grave bears the following inscription: "When evening shadows fall."
George, more than a hundred years ago, young and strong, it was with a heart full of hope and with the light of courage in your eyes that you responded to the call of duty alongside your comrades under the sun of Australia to do your part in the darkness of war on the battlefields of northern France then, without hesitation but with resolution, with determination, you left behind so many promises, a life made of happiness in the love of your family and smiles which echoed ghostly in the schoolyards and golden fields of Footscray and which very quickly disappeared behind the rhythmic steps of thousands of men who, under their slouch hats, walked proudly with all the Australian Imperial Force towards the unknown, towards what they thought would be a great adventure which would lead them towards the glory which was promised to them and which they heard so much about during their training in the camps in which a whole generation of young boys gathered around ideals that guided them to take a step forward into the trenches of the great war but nothing prepared them for what they endured in what was only an endless nightmare whose days and nights were made of screams of agony of men who, in the mud, under the shells, were riddled with bullets and who, unable to move, a few hundred meters from their friends, awaited death in shell holes filled with tears, sweat and blood of an entire generation of men who lived every day, every hour alongside the death which awaited them lurking in the shadows and the nauseating stench of quagmires scarified by sharp lines of barbed wire in which they were mowed down, waves after waves under machine gun fire so many young men who, with the greatest bravery, charged forward towards their destiny and who, in bloodbaths, in terrible hand-to-hand combat, gave their youth and their lives in the name of peace and freedom for which they had all fought so hard on the deadliest and most horrible battlefields of the war as at Gallipoli in 1915 then bruised but still standing, were dragged towards the apocalypse of Fromelles then in the open-air slaughterhouse that was Pozieres in 1916. Again and again the young Australian soldiers showed their courage and proved to the whole world the bravery of the entire Australian nation whose sons were decimated in such murderous assaults at Mouquet Farm then through the poppies of Flers and Gueudecourt through which the sun reflected on the bayonets during attacks carried out with such heroism by men who were not guided by orders shouted with ardor but who were led forward through the camaraderie, through the friendship that linked them. Under the bullets, under the shrapnel they moved forward, watching over each other like brothers. The rank was not important to them but the lives of the men who stood by their side were everything.In the Somme, the Diggers wrote the history and legend of the ANZAC spirit with honor and loyalty but also through the blood shed and the sacrifices paid. On April 25, 1918, three years after the landing on the red sand beaches blood of Gallipoli, it is here, on the sacred ground of Villers-Bretonneux that the Australians, in what was one of their most heroic battles, stopped the Germans once and for all then pushed them back from Amiens and liberated my country of the darkness of a madness which plunged the world and men into flames but their road was long, their war was terrible and they lost so many friends, brothers who never returned home. In all, more than 40,000 Australians fell in the fields of the Somme, thousands of whom have no known graves but here, we will always remember each of them. For me, they are not just men who stand silently side by side in the cemeteries of the Somme today so peaceful. They are the sons of France over whom I will always watch with love and respect like my sons and whose stories I will always tell with infinite gratitude in my heart so that these heroes whose faces live in our thoughts may live for eternity.Thank you so much George, for everything you did and gave for my country which will never forget the Diggers nor Australia which, in my heart, through their eyes, became my true country.At the going down of the sun and in the morning,we will remember him, we will remember them.