Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

#3657 John William THOMPSON  4th Pioneers / 25th Infantry Battalion

John Thompson was born in Howard to Alexander and Rose Thompson. He attended school at Howard and then progressed to working in one of the many coal mines operating in the Burrum district at the time.

John presented himself for enlistment in Maryborough on 18th November 1916, soon after the first of the conscription plebiscite failed to gain the necessary support. He stated he was 22 years old and lived at Phillip Street, Howard. John’s father was deceased and his mother had remarried a Mr O’Brien. John named his mother as his next of kin. He also disclosed that he had served for 5 years with the Wide Bay Regiment in the citizens’ forces.

John was given a travel warrant to take a train to Enoggera where he was placed into a depot battalion before being allocated as a reinforcement for the 4th Pioneer Battalion. At the beginning of December, he was granted home leave for 5 days. The 9th Reinforcements of the 4th Pioneer Battalion embarked for overseas from Sydney on 24th January 1917 and arrived in Devonport in Devon on 12th April. Having been at sea for almost three months, the reinforcements were marched in to the Pioneer Training Battalion at Fovant to prepare them for deployment to the front. On 10th July, John was transferred to the 25th Infantry Battalion and marched in to the infantry training base at Rollestone. Meanwhile, the summer offensive had begun across the channel along the French Belgian border.

The 3rd battle of Ypres (sometimes referred to as Passchendaele) was planned as a series of British offensives in Belgian Flanders. The offensive began with an enormous onslaught of artillery, underground mines and waves of infantry on 7th June 1917. The campaign ground to a halt, bogged down in the Flanders mud at the end of October. It had been a costly campaign for both the British and the divisions from the dominions. The 25th Battalion, which John would eventually join had had a tough time at Menin Road in September and Broodseinde Ridge in October and like the other battalions of the AIF, was badly in need of a period of rest and reorganisation. John finally marched in to the 25th Battalion lines on 24th October as a badly needed reinforcement. The battalion had been seriously affected by gas (mainly mustard gas) and John and his cohort were put to work. The 25th moved up into the support lines and then brigade reserve up until the end of the month.

By November, the weather had turned and snow fell frequently while the 25th was in billets at Neuve Eglise. Light training continued to keep the men fit and football (soccer) and rugby matches were staged. The men also had access to divisional baths where they could have uniforms steamed to kill lice and be issued with clean underwear.

The collapse of the Russian Front in 1917 and the peace treaty that followed provided the German Field Commander Ludendorff with over 30 divisions of German troops that could be redirected to the Western Front, but the advantage would not last forever. The entry of the United States into the war would provide over a million men to add to the forces of Britain and France; but it would take some time to conscript, train and transport the regiments to the European War. Ludendorff had to strike before the Americans could be added to the order of battle in significant numbers.

The much anticipated German spring offensive, code named Operation Michael, began on 21st March 1918. General Haig had anticipated that the main thrust of the offensive would be in Flanders and he had kept the five Australian divisions close to the Ypres salient to meet the threat. The main thrust however was directed at the British 5th Army along the valley of the Somme in France. The German advance was so sudden that all the gains made by the British on the Somme in 1916 were lost in a few days and the vital communication hub of Amiens was threatened. Haig eventually moved four of the five Australian divisions to the defensive line in front of Amiens.

The 25th Battalion, as part of the 7th brigade of the 2nd Division by way of busses, trains and route marches made its way to the new front, arriving at Saint Lawrence Farm on 7th April. On 25th April, two brigades of Australian infantry pulled off a daring pincer movement in the dark to surround and recapture the village of Villers Bretonneux. This action put an end to the German advance, they would progress no further.

During May, the 25th battalion engaged in active patrolling to un-nerve the enemy while plans were being formulated to take back the initiative. A small but important operation was planned for the twilight of the 6th June at Morlancourt and the 25th Battalion would be the spearhead of the attack. The German defenders were completely surprised by the speed of the attack and twenty minutes after the raid began, all objectives had been reached and the men began to consolidate their gains. Sometime during the attack or perhaps soon after, John received a gunshot wound to his buttock. He was initially taken to the 20th Casualty Clearing Station but after initial treatment was sent to the 8th Stationary Hospital at Rouen. While John was in hospital, the 7th Brigade was involved in a ground breaking attack at Hamel, planned by the new corps commander, Lieutenant General John Monash, who employed a coordinated approach to the battle using tanks, artillery, aircraft and subterfuge. Monash’s success prompted Haig to have Monash plan an even bigger battle in which even more resources would be at his disposal for the Battle of Amiens on 8th August.

John was discharged from hospital on 30th July but did not arrive back in his battalion lines until 10th August, two days after the Battle of Amiens which heralded the beginning of the end for the German armies in France. The entire AIF had performed well in the Amiens battle and continued to push eastward harassing the enemy and taking prisoners. By the end of August, the AIF had reached the point along the Somme where the river turned south in front of the fortress town of Peronne. Overlooking Peronne was a small but heavily defended hill, Mont St Quentin.

If Monash was to take and hold Peronne, he would need to take Mont St Quentin as well. The original plan was for three Brigades from the 2nd Division to assault the summit of Mont St Quentin on 3rd September but the plan changed. At 10:30 on the night of 1st, a divisional conference was called where Brigade and Battalion Commanders were informed that the assault was to be brought forward with Zero Hour being 5:30 am on 2nd September; 7 hours away. There was no time for reconnaissance and the plan was therefore quite simple but quite audacious. The artillery barrage crashed down at 5:30 am and the men of the 25th Battalion, thee companies abreast began to move out from their positions to the north of the Mont and proceed along the Bouchevesnes Spur. It was not long before the 25th began to be hit by heavy enemy artillery which consisted of high explosive and mustard gas. As the platoons moved out of the Mt St Quentin wood they were able to begin engaging with the numerous machine gun posts by sending small parties around both sides of the emplacement. It was probably during this phase of the battle that John Thompson was killed. A Red Cross Wounded and Missing Report completed by a Private Dickson stated that he had been told by Sergeant Wagenknecht, who witnessed John’s death, that John had received a fatal machine gun round to the head around 7 am. A note in Johns file states that John was buried in a shell hole  about 8 yards off the main road, along with five other men from “C” Company.

At war’s end, the six temporary graves on Mont St Quentin were exhumed. John was reinterred in the Peronne Communal Cemetery Extension beside a number of other 25th Battalion men killed on 2nd September.

John’s mother received his medals and a small collection of personal items. Of the watch she had presented to him prior to his departure for the war, there was no sign.