Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Arthur Horton #3165 52nd/49th Battalion

Arthur Horton was born in the Fassifern District around 1878 to Joseph and Elizabeth Horton. Some time between his birth and enlistment, the Horton family moved to Nevilton near Clifton on the road from Toowoomba to Warwick

When Arthur presented for enlistment in Toowoomba on 22nd September 1916, he was 38 years old, single and stood 6’2” tall and weighed 15 stone. His attestation papers suggest that he had only a limited education as his signature is in a very shaky hand and he took two attempts to get his name correct. A month after enlisting, Arthur arrived at Enoggera where he was initially placed in a depot battalion before being allocated as a reinforcement for the 52nd Battalion. Two months after arriving in camp, Arthur boarded the “Demosthenes” in Sydney.

The “Demosthenes” arrived in Plymouth on 3rd March 1917 and the reinforcements marched out to the Australian Camp at Codford. Arthur would spend a further 4 months at Codford recovering from mumps and training before being shipped to Havre in France and then on to his unit which he joined on 22nd July 1917.

The 52nd Battalion, part of the 13th brigade of the 4th Division AIF, was in reserve when Arthur joined their number. The Battle of Messines had begun in June 1917 but the 13th brigade were not part of this action. Instead time was spent in training and fatigue duties around Steenwerck. In September and October 1917 the brigade was involved in attacks at Menin Road, Polygon Wood and Passchendaele.

After the Passchendaele campaign, the entire AIF was withdrawn into winter quarters around Poperinghe west of Ypres for much needed rest and reequipment. It was evident that with the coming of spring in 1918, there would be a concerted effort by the Germans to press home a numerical advantage in troops, but there was some doubt about where and when such assault would occur.

On 17th March 1918, Arthur was granted two weeks leave in England. On 21st March the much anticipated German spring offensive began along the valley of the Somme. Arthur was recalled from leave and arrived back in his battalion lines on 24th March. Operation Michael swept through the Somme retaking towns and villages that the British had fought for at such cost in 1916. The British 5th Army which was holding the line in that sector broke before the German onslaught and the vital communication hub of Amiens was threatened. Douglas Haig, Supreme British Commander in France ordered four of the five Australian divisions then in Belgium to be rushed to south to meet and hold the advancing Germans. The 13th Brigade, and Arthur in the 52nd, were hastily placed in front of the strongpoint of the German advance at Dernacourt near the junction of the Somme and Ancre Rivers.

On 5th April 1918, two brigades of Australian Infantry from the 4th Division faced two and a half divisions of German storm troops across the railway embankment at Dernacourt. The Australians repulsed the German attack but casualties were heavy. The German threat on the Somme continued to menace the defences throughout April and on 21st April successfully captured the village of Villers Brettoneux from which vantage point the city of Amiens was within range of the German artillery.

It was vital that Villers Brettoneux be retaken and this task again fell to the men of the 4th Division. In an audacious pincer movement at night, the 11th and 13th Brigades retook the village in the early hours of the 25th April. The battle for Villers Brettoneux was the turning point for the British Forces. The Germans would go no further. Today a stone monument just outside the village marks the furthest point of the German advance.

During the 52nd Battalion’s action on 25th April, Arthur received a shrapnel wound to his left eye and a gunshot wound to his neck. If these wounds had occurred earlier in the war it would have resulted in the casualty being shipped to a war hospital in England but by 1918, the AIF was so short of men that wounded were despatched to hospitals near the front and were discharged almost as soon as possible to rejoin their units.

The 52nd Battalion had suffered heavy losses during April 1918 at Dernacourt and Villers Brettoneux which could not be made good from reinforcements or returning men from illness or wounds. The decision was made to disband the battalion and distribute the strength of the unit between the three other battalions in the brigade. On 16th May, while Arthur was still in the Australian General Hospital at Rouen the remnants of the 52nd paraded in front of the Brigadier to be allotted into the three remaining battalions. The last act by the men of the 52nd was to erect a large cross in memory of those men who had died at Villers Brettoneux three weeks earlier.

Arthur was officially transferred to the 49th Battalion on 22nd May. The work of the AIF had now become serious. Commanders sensed that the time was right for an all out offensive by the British and French. While preparations were being made for the new offensive, the Australian divisions were kept busy harassing the enemy through aggressive patrolling and trench raids. After a limited engagement at Hamel on 4th July which was planned and executed by the new rising star on the Western Front, Lieutenant General John Monash, final planning for the big day began.

On 8th August 1918, all five divisions of the AIF as well three divisions of Canadians and two divisions of British advanced on an 11 mile front. The ground troops were supported by tanks, artillery, aircraft and motor transport. Their advance was so well planned by Monash and his staff that attackers crashed through the last lines of enemy defences into open countryside. Ludendorff called 8th August the “blackest day.” So began the period referred to as the 100 days, at the end of which the war would be over.
Arthur no doubt with his new mates in the 49th would have reveled in the victory. In the ensuing days, small operations were planned to keep touch with the enemy who were trying desperately to regroup after a huge defeat. Arthur Horton’s file contains a brief entry for 12th August 1918; Killed in Action.

The official records contain no clue as to the circumstances of his death. There was no recorded burial. Arthur’s parents received a parcel of his few personal belongings as well as campaign medals and a memorial plaque and scroll. Arthur’s name was added to the lists of the fallen on both the Boonah and Clifton War Memorials.

In 1938, after much argument about design and funding, the Australian National Memorial at Villers Brettoneux was dedicated by the newly crowned King George VI and his wife Elizabeth. The memorial records the names of 10,000 Australians who gave their lives in the defence of France and have no known grave. Arthur Horton’s name appears on the limestone tablets.