Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Thomas Stanley #6844 52nd Battalion

Tom Stanley was born in Killarney near Warwick and attended Bennett’s Creek State School. In his later years of schooling he learnt to type and when he completed his application to enlist, he stated his occupation as compositor. It is possible that Tom was employed by the local newspaper or a local printer.

Tom initially presented himself for enlistment at Boonah on 20th April 1917 where he completed the application to enlist. The form had been signed by his parents Thomas and Jessie as Tom had only just turned 18. His medical examination was conducted in Boonah by the local GP, Dr Harold South, who ironically is listed just above Tom’s name on the Boonah War Memorial. Once provisionally accepted into the AIF, Tom was given a travel warrant and took a train to Brisbane and then on to Enoggera where he was placed into a depot battalion before being allocated as a reinforcement for the 26thBattalion.

In the last week of May 1917, Tom was granted home leave of 5 days and two weeks later on 14th June he boarded the “Hororata” in Sydney. The transport arrived in Liverpool on 28th August and the reinforcements marched to the railway station for transport to a staging camp at Rolleston on Salisbury Plain. While in camp at the 7th Training Battalion, those reinforcements over 21 voted in the second conscription plebiscite. The authorities were hopeful of a positive outcome to the plebiscite, which would boost reinforcement numbers but with the defeat of the question on conscription, the AIF was forced to face the prospect of increasing reductions in its frontline battalions due to death, wounding or disease.

On 31st January 1918, Tom crossed over from England to France. While in camp in England, Tom had been transferred from the 26th Battalion to the 52nd Battalion, part of the 13th brigade of the 4th Division AIF. He was taken on strength by the 52nd on 9th February 1918.

The spring of 1918 offered the German commander on the Western Front, Ludendorff, a brief window in which he could take advantage of a superiority in numbers. The window would close as soon as General Pershing’s American regiments, which at full strength would be over one million men under arms, were sufficiently trained to be put into the fight. In anticipation of a German attack, all available men in England had been sent to France.

On 21st March 1918, Operation Michael was launched in the valley of the Somme. The German advance retook all the ground that had been won by the British in 1916 and 1917. The British 5th Army which was holding the line on the Somme fell back in total disarray. The German advance was only a few miles from Amiens, a vital transport hub. If the advance continued the French and British armies would be split and Germany could advance to the channel ports and win the war!

In a desperate move to halt the advance, General Haig, the British Commander ordered the 4th Division AIF south from Belgium to take up a blocking position in front of Amiens. The 13th Brigade marched through the night and arrived at a defensive position at Dernacourt on 3rd April, Easter Sunday.

The position was dominated by a railway embankment and units of two brigades took up defensive positions on the embankment. They were facing three German divisions of storm troopers. The position was occupied so quickly that no serious earthworks could be carried out to provide cover for the Australian defenders. The 52nd Battalion was arranged along the railway embankment. On their left was the 47th Battalion, with the division between the two battalions marked by a railway underpass.

On 5th April, the Germans began a sustained attack. The railway underpass proved to be a weak point and as the enemy pressed through and fanned out in the rear of the men on the embankment. The positions occupied by two companies of the 47th were over-run and only won back late in the day after a counterattack by the 48th and 49th Battalions. Nevertheless, two brigades of AIF were able to withstand a full frontal assault by three German Divisions. The advance had been halted but at great cost. The 52nd did not sustain as heavy a casualty toll as the other battalions manning the embankment but nevertheless the losses were considerable with 32 men killed and 119 wounded.

There were also a significant number of men listed as missing, one of which was Tom Stanley. Over time, POW lists from German POW camps revealed the fate of many of those missing, but Tom’s name was not on any list. A court of inquiry in April 1919, fully 12 months since Dernacourt was convened. Many of the witnesses at this enquiry were recently released POWs, who could give their own account for the first time. Inquiries by the Red Cross located a witness who was beside Tom on the embankment and subsequently reported him killed. Tom’s remains were finally located in 1920 and laid to rest in the Dernacourt Communal Cemetery Extension.

Tom Stanley is listed on the Boonah War Memorial with another 52nd Battalion man, Roy McLeary who was also killed on 5th April 1918.