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From Francois Somme

LCpl 2857 Sydney James Armstrong Sawyers
52nd Australian Infantry Battalion,
13th Brigade, 4th Australian Division, AIF
 
The Somme, today so silent in its waves of poppies which bend in a summer breeze, hide in its soil the traces of a murderous past and every day, under the wheels of the tractors are found tons of shells , rusty bullets, iron helmets eaten away by time, old barbed wire but also the remains of young men who here, more than a hundred years ago, fought shoulder to shoulder in the trenches and on the battlefields on which they sacrificed their youth and on which thousands of them paid the supreme sacrifice in heroic attacks which were delivered with courage under the merciless fire of machine guns which spewed rains of bullets through which so many lives and hopes were mowed down but in this hell, the camaraderie, the fraternity, the compassion, the humanity of the men who knew how to remain united and strong through these rains of blood were also shown.They were proud Australians and united, guided in the ANZAC spirit, watching over each other with love like brothers, they went over the top, not to bring death but moved forward in the name of peace and freedom for which so many of them fell on these sacred grounds in the north of France where they rest in peace and over whom I will always watch over with the greatest care, with respect and love so that they are never forgotten, so that the names of these men, of these courageous Diggers, of these sons of France live forever.

Today, it is 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 for France, two brother countries, gave his today and who, in the name of peace and freedom, gave his life for us.I would like to pay a very respectful tribute to Lance Corporal number 2857 Sydney James Armstrong Sawyers who fought bravely in the 52nd Australian Infantry Battalion, 13th Brigade, 4th Australian Division of the Australian Imperial Force, and who died of his wounds 108 years ago , on September 7, 1916 at the age of 24 during the Battle of the Somme.
Sydney James Armstrong Sawyers was born in 1893 in Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia, and was the son of James Caldwell Sawyers and Susan Sawyers (née Phillips), of Norseman, Western Australia. He worked as a miner in the mining town of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia until the outbreak of the war.

In August 1914 the war began and Australia quickly joined its brothers in arms in the conflict which cost the country thousands of lives lost but news from the front from Gallipoli convinced Sydney to join its friends in the trenches and, driven forward by a strong spirit of camaraderie, took a step forward and answered the call of duty. He enlisted on July 5, 1915 at Norseman as a Private in the 12th Australian Infantry Battalion, 9th Reinforcement. The 12th Battalion, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Lancelot Clarke (who was killed in action on April 25, 1915 during the hours following the landing at Gallipoli by a sniper), was among the first infantry units raised for the AIF during the First World War. Half of the battalion was recruited in Tasmania, a quarter was recruited in South Australia, and a quarter from Western Australia. With the 9th, 10th and 11th Battalions it formed the 3rd Brigade,then, after a training period of just under three months, Sydney embarked with his unit from Fremantle, Western Australia, on board HMAT A20 Hororata and sailed for Egypt.

On January 19, 1916, Sydney arrived in Cairo then marched to Tel-El-Kebir where he was transferred and taken on strength in the 52nd Australian Infantry Battalion on March 1,in which he fought courageously until his death.The 52nd Battalion, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Miles Beevor, was raised on March 1 at Tel-El-Kebir as part of the process that was known as "doubling the AIF" to create the 4th and 5th Divisions. Following the evacuation from ANZAC and with recruits arriving from Australia in large numbers, it was decided to split the 1st Division (1st, 2nd and 3rd Brigades) and the 4th Brigade into two to create sixteen new or so-called "Pup" Battalions. The 3rd Brigade was split to create the 13th Brigade and together with the 4th and 12th Brigades comprised the new 4th Division,then, after a period of particularly difficult training in the hot sand of the desert, Sydney and his new unit marched to Alexandria where they joined the troops of the British Expeditionary Force on June 5 and proceeded overseas to France on the transport ship HMT Ivernia protected by a torpedo destroyer.

On June 12, after a rather calm journey on the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea, Sydney finally arrived in France and was disembarked in Marseilles then after a night of rest, the men of the 52nd Battalion embarked by train for Courte Croix where they arrived on June 15 and marched to Fletres, in the north of France where they followed a period of general training and moved to Sailly-Sur-La-Lys on June 19 then on June 23, joined the trenches of Petillon, near Fleurbaix, an area called "nursery" where Australian troops acclimatized to the conditions of trench warfare on the Western Front. Here, they relieved the 12th Australian Infantry Battalion and initially were employed to improve their trenches and then on July 9, were placed in support of the 9th Australian Infantry Battalion which led a successful raid on the German trenches in this sector. However the war was everywhere and after a period of enemy inactivity, the 52nd suffered from violent German artillery fire and were finally relieved by the 58th Australian Infantry Battalion and moved back to Courte Croix on July 12 but lost 12 men in a few days, two of whom were killed.

On July 12, 1916, the 52nd Battalion received the order to join the Somme front, and the next day embarked by train at Bailleul and arrived at Candas, near Amiens on the morning of July 14 then, after a halt during which they had breakfast, Sydney and his unit marched to Halloy-Les-Pernois where they followed an intense period of training, following which they moved to Toutencourt on July 30 and the next day, were sent to Harponville where they were billeted until to August 5.

On August 6, 1916, Sydney and the 52nd Battalion left Harponville and moved to "Brickfield", in Albert, where they bivouacked then, on August 13, the time had come for the battalion to join the front line and took up position in the "Wire trech" and were thrown into the hell of the Battle of Mouquet Farm.

Following the capture of Pozières and the German lines at the windmill east of the village in late July and early August 1916, the three Australian divisions of the 1st Anzac Corps attacked northwards along the Pozières Heights towards the site known as Mouquet Farm.

Between 8 August and 3 September 1916, the Australians launched nine separate attacks to capture the heavily defended German position which lay half way between Pozières and Thiepval, with the aim of driving a wedge behind the salient held by the Germans.

Although the Australians managed to occupy the farm several times, they were forced back each time due to fierce German counterattacks. The site was still in enemy hands by the time the 1st Anzac Corps was withdrawn from the Somme on 5 September.
The 1st, 2nd, and 4th Australian Divisions suffered around 11,000 casualties in the fighting. After moving past the stronghold in a broader offensive, the British managed to capture the now isolated outpost three weeks later.

On August 16, 1916, Sydney and the 52nd Battalion, who had already suffered terribly during the initial fighting at Mouquet Farm, moved back to Albert and marched to Warloy-Baillon on August 18, when Sydney was promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal. On August 21, they marched to Bonneville for reorganization and training then moved back to Mouquet Farm on September 2 and the next day charged in a courageous attack which was the last attempt to try to capture the farm. The attack was carried out "with courage and dash but ended in bloody hand-to-hand combat during which bayonets and rifle butts were used". Unfortunately, it was during this attack on September 3 that Sydney met his fate and was seriously wounded on the no man's land by a shell to the back and buttock but which also fractured his right foot and thigh. He was immediately evacuated from the front line and admitted to the 13th Field Ambulance then to the 49th Casualty Clearing Station in Contay where he died of his injuries four days later, on September 7, 1916 at the age of 24.
Two days earlier, on September 5, 1916, exhausted by terrible fighting and catastrophic losses at Pozieres and Mouquet Farm, the Australian divisions withdrew from the Somme and were sent to rest at Ypres but from November, returned to the Somme and will once again suffer terrible fighting around Flers and Gueudecourt.

Today, Lance Corporal Sydney James Armstrong Sawyers rests in peace alongside his friends, comrades and brothers in arms at the Contay British Cemetery, Somme, and his grave bears the following inscription: "Bright, intelligent lad, was respected and loved by all his regiment."

Sydney, on this day of remembrance, it is by a summer sun that we come to bow with respect in front of your grave, the last step of a life through which the story of your life is told and remembered who carries in your name the courage and determination of an entire generation of men, of the entire Australian nation who wrote the legend of the ANZAC spirit in the bravery shown by the Diggers on the battlefields of the Somme and who, shoulder to shoulder, stood with pride and endurance in the trenches which they held with conviction and perseverance under deluges of shells which rained down death at an incredible rate and which transformed, disfigured once peaceful and silent landscapes into fields of death on whom the lugubrious symphony of artillery mixed with the agonized screams of young boys who, in blood, wounded, awaited death in the middle of a carnage which lasted four long years and during which thousands of men were decimated by hail of lead spat out with ferocity by machine guns which unleashed their anger and which sent so many friends and brothers to their death, in a deep mud gorged with guts above which hovered, fetid and unbearable, the smell of decomposing bodies mixed with poisonous gases which drove so many men crazy who, when they arrived in France, thought they would experience a great adventure but on the front line, they saw and only found death in attacks sometimes suicidal but again and again, the Diggers were ordered to push forward and at the whistle of their officers, came out of the trenches and charged beyond the barbed wire, and sometimes had to walk on the bodies of their comrades who fell earlier but, under their slouch hats, sometimes with tears in their eyes, their hearts heavy, like lions they rushed towards the enemy lines and, jumping into the trenches of enemies who were men like them following orders, they fought fierce battles at the bayonets and rifle butts which ended in bloodbaths where friends and enemies killed each other and fell on each other.Here, no glory was won, what glory would be won from such carnage?.From this thought, was born, in the trenches and in the hearts of these young men, the thought "never again" and for this hope, the young Australian soldiers, despite the dirt on their faces blackened by mud and blood, fought with exceptional bravery from Pozieres to Amiens until the final peace which was won at the cost of great sacrifices and when the survivors of the Somme left France for Australia, they marched on the murderous grounds of the Mouquet Farm, of Villers-Bretonneux, of Flers and Gueudecourt where they saw the graves of their mates, men with whom they had grown up and with whom they answered the call of duty, no joy was gained in the armistice and walked with silent tears on their cheeks thinking of the cobbers they would never see again and departed with heart heavy in leaving them behind, among the eternal shroud of the poppy fields where thousands of young Diggers rest today in peace, in the love and care of the French people who will always honor the memory of these heroes with respect and whom I will always watch over with love and gratitude to keep their names alive but also to perpetuate the friendship which unites Australia and France which was born in the trenches and which, with respect and remembrance, will last forever.

Thank you so much Sydney, for everything you and your comrades did for us in the prime of their lives and for which our love, our respect and our gratitude will always be yours. In the Somme, the colors of Australia will always fly high and proud.At the going down of the sun and in the morning,we will remember him, we will remember them.