Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

# 2861A  HALL George Robert                                   52nd Battalion
George Hall was born in Brisbane to Frank and Mary Hall. He attended Brisbane Central School (often referred to as Brisbane Normal School). When George was in his early teens, the family left Brisbane and took up farming on a property named “Lennox” at Toogoolawah. George worked as an apprentice to a local carpenter and also joined the local Light Horse Troop in which he served for four and a half years. He also had an interest in a block of land at a place called Frog’s Hollow.
George attended the Brisbane recruiting depot in Adelaide Street on the last day of 1915. He told the recruiting officer he was 22 years old. During the medical inspection, George’s papers were stamped – Requires Dental Work. According to the records, George received a partial denture by an Army dentist but refused further treatment. George named his mother, Mary Hall of “Lennox” Toogoolawah as his next of kin.
George reported to the Rifle Range Camp at Enoggera and was temporarily placed into the 11th Depot Battalion. As a result of his previous military experience, George was sent to Corporal School on 8th June 1916 as an acting NCO. He was appointed Acting Sergeant on 1st September. After spending ten months in camp at Enoggera, George finally embarked for overseas on the “Marathon” in Brisbane on 27th October 1916. The embarkation roll shows George as one of 150 reinforcements from predominantly rural Queensland as part of the 7th reinforcements for the 52nd Battalion. He is listed on the roll as acting sergeant.
The 52nd Battalion was raised in Egypt in early 1916 as part of the AIF expansion. The battalion was originally composed of men from Western and South Australia but after crippling casualties encountered during the Somme campaign of 1916, most of the battalion’s reinforcements came from Queensland. After two months at sea, the “Marathon” docked at Plymouth on 9th January 1917. The reinforcements proceeded by train to the 13th Training Battalion at Codford in Wiltshire.
On 13th February, George was sent off to Non Commissioned Officer’s school, after which he was promoted to the rank of acting sergeant. On 9th May, George led a small cohort of reinforcements to Folkstone where they boarded a cross-channel steamer for the short voyage to France. When they arrived at the British Depot at Havre, George reverted to the rank of private. On 13th May, George and the small contingent of reinforcements marched in to the 52nd Battalion lines at Dernacourt on the Somme. The 52nd Battalion was part of the 13th Brigade of the 4th Division AIF. Three days later, the battalion was on the move by train via Albert and Boulogne to arrive in Hazebrouck where the 4th Division was attached to General Plumer’s army for the assault on Messines Ridge in Belgium. The preparations for the Battle of Messines were carefully planned. Large scale models of the terrain to be covered were constructed and all troops who were to take part, which included George and the rest of the 52nd Battalion, were walked through the models to familiarize themselves with their objectives. General Plumer had three and a half million artillery shells at his disposal which would be fired in the days leading up to the attack. In addition, British and then Australian tunnellers had been undermining the Messines Ridge for almost 18 months and had placed underground charges in tunnels directly underneath the German defences.
 
On the night of 6th June 1917, the men of the 52nd Battalion moved up to the start tapes which had been laid by the intelligence officers in preparation for the signal to commence the advance. At 3:10 am on the 7thJune, 19 of the underground mines beneath the Messines Ridge were fired simultaneously. It was the largest man-made explosion in history and the noise could be heard in London.
 
Two Australian Divisions were included in the order of battle for the attack at Messines. The 3rd Division AIF had responsibility for the northern sector of the front while the 4th Division was tasked with attacking the second line of German trenches, the Oosstaverne Line, behind the village of Messines itself. The 3rdDivision’s advance was virtually flawless in its execution but the 4th Division, and particularly the 13thBrigade, encountered difficulties due to the broken ground caused from the mine explosions. The British 33rdBrigade which was supposed to be supporting the 52nd Battalion on its right flank failed to keep up with the advance and the men of the 52nd had to spread out too thinly in an effort to cover the gap in the line. There was confusion as to where the men of the 52nd actually were as they had failed to respond to a signal from a low flying aircraft to fire flares.
 
The British artillery, unaware that there were Australians on the Oosstaverne Line, bombarded the trenches with high explosive. Whether it was from enemy fire or friendly fire is uncertain but George was severely injured by shrapnel from a shell on 7th June 1917. He was transported by stretcher bearers to a casualty clearing station and from there was loaded onto an ambulance train to be taken to the 20th General Hospital at Camiers on the French coast. On 18 June, George was carried onto a hospital ship and transferred to the 2nd London General Hospital where he was admitted suffering from wounds to his head, arm and knee. A telegram stating that George had been wounded was sent to his mother.
 
After initial treatment at London General, George was transferred to the Grove Military Hospital at Tooting. His mother wrote to the authorities requesting information about George’s wounds to which she received the standard response – “In the absence of anything to the contrary, it is to be assumed that satisfactory progress is being maintained.” The military version of “no news is good news.” In late August 1917, George was discharged from Tooting and was granted a two week furlough after which he reported to the convalescent depot at Weymouth. On 21st September, George was sent to the overseas training battalion at Perham Downs and a month later boarded a ship in Southampton to be taken back to France. By the 1stNovember 1917, George was back with his battalion which was enjoying an extended period of rest and relaxation far from the front line. On 15th November 1917, George was sent to the Anzac Bomb School (Hand and rifle grenades) where he received a letter of commendation from the Divisional Commander. Just before Christmas 1917, George was promoted permanently to the rank of lance corporal. Eventually the 52nd went back into rotation around Warneton in Belgium holding the line that had been established during the Ypres campaign of 1917.
 
With the coming of spring in 1918, the German commander Ludendorff took advantage of a temporary numerical superiority of troops to launch a surprise offensive against the British on the Somme. So successful was this offensive that in a few days the Germans had retaken all of the ground surrendered earlier in the war during 1916 and 1917; and were even threatening the vital communication hub of Amiens.
 
In response, Haig ordered the 3rd and 4th Australian Divisions which were in Belgium to be rushed south over 150 kilometres. The first units to be mobilized were battalions of the 12th and 13th Brigades; which included the 52nd Battalion. The battalion boarded buses and trucks for the journey south on 25th March but only got about half way to their destination before orders were changed and they spent 24 hours awaiting new orders.
 
The two brigades were ordered to make their way to Dernacourt, a small village on the railway line between Amiens and Albert. This deployment required a forced march of almost 30 kilometres through the night with the entire German army somewhere out on the left flank. There were reports that German armoured cars were on the roads but this proved to be French farm machinery.
 
 Upon arrival at the assigned position, the two brigades were ordered to take up positions on a ridge which sloped towards the gathering Germans on the other side of the railway line. There were no trenches and the men had to dig shallow pits while under enemy artillery fire. Over the next four days, the men of the 12th and 13th Brigades established a forward defensive line on the railway embankment. The enemy were only a few hundred metres away, massing in large numbers for an attack. Almost opposite the village of Dernacourt was a railway underpass which had been chosen as the boundary between the two brigades with the 12th on the left of the underpass and the 13th on the right.
 
A massive attack by up to three German divisions began at dawn on 5th April. The situation appeared desperate as German storm troopers poured through the railway underpass. The 52nd Battalion companies had to fall back under sustained fire, and the gap between the 52nd and the 47th Battalion (from the 12thBrigade) widened to allow more and more German troops to pour through the gap. Fighting continued from early morning until a counterattack by three battalions from the 12th Brigade drove the enemy back across the railway line. Later intelligence gathered from prisoners indicated that the two AIF brigades, some 8 battalions, had beaten off two and a half divisions of German storm troops.
 
Casualties, however, were heavy; mainly for the 12th Brigade. The 52nd battalion having withdrawn to its own support lines counted 33 killed and 11 missing. George Hall was probably one of those killed on the railway embankment on the 5th April 1918. He may have been buried a few days after but there is no record of the location. George Hall’s remains were never located.
 
Mary Hall who was by that time a widow was entitled to all of George’s estate under the terms of his will which included a life assurance with Mutual Life and the land at Frog’s hollow. In 1938, some 20 years after the end of the First World War, the Australian Government constructed the Australian National Memorial at Villers Bretonneux. The memorial was dedicated by the newly crowned King George VI. The memorial records the names of over 10,000 Australian soldiers who lost their lives in France and have no known grave; Lance Corporal George Hall among them.