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From Francois Bertout

Pte 3475 William Collie,
26th Australian Infantry Battalion, B Company,
7th Brigade, 2nd Australian Division
 
More than a hundred years ago, in the fields of the Somme, the hell of an insane war raged which was for a whole generation of men, a hell on earth made of fire and steel through which they lived and fell but who, determined to do what was right, to do their part, answered the call of duty in the prime of their young lives to preserve and protect the peace and freedom in whose names they gave their youth , their today in the darkness and the fury of the trenches on which tons of shells rained down under a mournful symphony which brought death and devastation on the world and which, on the battlefields caused abominable baths of blood poured by these brave men whose only youth was four years of war which forever changed the face of the world and the once green valleys of the Somme which were scarred and bruised by endless lines of barbed wire in which the hopes and dreams of a whole youth fell who, for our country and for our tomorrow gave their lives and who, young forever, stand solemn and silent as ghosts of a lost generation whose lives and names are today remembered and honored on the endless rows of white graves over which I will always watch with the utmost respect to preserve and perpetuate the memory and stories of these heroes whose names will live forever.

Today, it is with the utmost respect but also 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 gave his today for our tomorrow.I would like to pay a very respectful tribute to Private number 3475 William Collie who fought in the 26th Australian Infantry Battalion, B Company, 7th Brigade, 2nd Australian Division, and who was killed in action 106 years ago, on November 5, 1916 at the age of 19 during the Battle of the Somme.

William Collie was born on December 29, 1896 in Gladstone, Queensland, Australia, and was the son of William Collie (1863-1947) and Jessie Collie (née Scott, 1864-1944), of Elizabeth Street, Rosalie, Brisbane, Queensland, and had two brothers, David Robertson Collie (1899-1972) and Thomas Collie (who died aged 1). William was educated at Rosalie State School, Queensland, served in the Cadets and Citizen Military Forces then before the outbreak of the war worked as a tailor.

William enlisted on August 31, 1915 in Brisbane, Queensland, in the 26th Australian Infantry Battalion, B Company, 8th Reinforcement.The 26th Battalion, which had as its motto "Nunquam Non Paratus" (Never Unprepared) was originally raised in April 1915 at Ennoggera, a suburb of Brisbane and was under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Ferguson. After a three month training period at Ennoggera, William embarked with his unit (a strength of 1023 men) from Brisbane, on board HMAT A55 Kyarra on January 3, 1916 and sailed for Egypt.

On March 21, 1916, William and the 26th Battalion arrived in Egypt, were disembarked in Alexandria where they joined the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) and proceeded overseas to France.

After a few days on the Mediterranean Sea, William arrived in France and was disembarked at Marseilles on March 27, 1916 then was sent to Etaples two days later where he joined the 2nd Australian Divisional Base Depot and was taken on strength with the 26th Battalion on the 9th June at Bois-Grenier then on June 26, marched for the trenches of Belgium and fought in the Kortepyp sector where they relieved the 8th Battalion of the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment.

On July 1, 1916, as the British launched their great offensive on the Somme, William and the 26th Battalion moved to the trenches between Messines and Wytschaete, in the Ypres salient alongside the Royal Fusiliers where they fought until July 10 and then the next day marched to Strazeele in northern France and were billeted there alternating periods of rest and drill. A few days later, on 14 July, the battalion was ordered to march for the Somme and reached the small village of Rubempré where they followed a period of exercises including trench attack exercises until July 25. The following day, the 26th marched through Herissart, Toutencourt, Harponville, Warloy-Baillon, Bouzincourt and on July 27, arrived in the trenches of Pozieres which was the first major engagement of the battalion but also of all the Australian Imperial Force in the Somme.

At this point in the war, the British strategy focused on the seizure of the ridge east of Pozières village from where an attack could be mounted on German strongholds further north at Thiepval which had not fallen to British attack on the opening day of the battle, 1 July 1916. By the time the Australians entered the Somme battle the operation had become a series of attacks aimed not so much at a break-through of the German lines as the capture of key positions and the wearing down of the enemy.

Between 23 July and 5 August 1916, the Australian 1st and 2nd Divisions captured Pozières village and Pozières heights, a ridge 500 metres east of the village. The initial attack began at 12.30 am on Sunday 23 July when the 1st Division seized the German front line and in the following hour reached the main road through Pozières. At dawn the Germans counter-attacked but the Australians held on. The rest of Pozières fell on the night of 23–24 July and further gains were made on the night of 24–25 July. The Germans reacted to the seizure of Pozières by concentrating the bulk of their artillery on the Australians. Constant barrages were directed onto the village and the narrow approaches creating a nightmarish situation for troops forming up and attacking in the dark. By 27 July, the 2nd Division had taken over in Pozières.

The 2nd Division was ordered to take Pozières heights. The attack commenced at 12.15 am on 29 July but the Germans were ready and the attack failed at a cost of 3,500 Australian casualties. The Australian commander of the 2nd Division asked that his men might attack again rather than be withdrawn after failure. Following an intense bombardment on 4 August 1916, the Australian seized Pozières heights and the Windmill. The exhausted 2nd Division was now rested and the 4th Division took up positions on the Pozières Heights. Attacking north along the ridge, the Australians in ten days of continuous action reached Mouquet Farm. The 4th Division was now relieved. The farm resisted capture until 26 September 1916, the day after the commenced of a major British offensive.

In less than seven weeks in the fighting at Pozières and Mouquet Farm three Australian divisions suffered 23,000 casualties. Of these, 6,800 men were killed or died of wounds. It was a loss comparable with the casualties sustained by the Australians over eight months at Gallipoli in 1915.

On August 4, 1916, William and the 26th Australian Infantry Battalion were involved in the attack which aimed to capture the position of the Windmill which was an important German observation point allowing them to have a perfect view of the battlefields between Pozieres and Thiepval. The position was extremely fortified and defended by several machine guns but the windmill, or what remained of it, was taken at the cost of terrible losses suffered by the 2nd Australian Division and the 26th Battalion which extended the Australian front line to the west of the town of Pozieres.

On August 5, 1916, after the successful attack of the 26th Battalion against the Windmill, William fell ill and was admitted to the 2nd Field Ambulance, was transferred the same day to the 29th Casualty Clearing Station then embarked in an Ambulance Train for Etaples where he was admitted to the 1st Canadian General Hospital suffering from a sprained ankle. On August 21, he was transferred to the 6th Convalescent Depot in Etaples, discharged to duty on September 2 and joined the 2nd Australian Divisional Base Depot then joined his unit September 22 in Steenvoorde (Hauts-De-France).

On September 25, 1916, William neglected an order during a parade and was awarded 24 hours in Field Prison then, on October 1, he and the 26th Battalion left Steenvoorde, embarked by train for the trenches of the Ypres salient where they relieved the 28th Australian Infantry Battalion then on 13 October took the trenches opposite Maple Copse and Sanctuary Wood and between 17 and 18 October were relieved by the 10th Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers and the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Regiment.
On October 19, 1916, the 26th Battalion moved back for reorganization to Steenvoorde then embarked by bus on October 24 for the Somme and marched through Ribemont, Longpré, Amiens, Querrieu and arrived at Dernancourt on October 27 where they were billeted until November 1.

On November 1, 1916, William and the 26th Battalion left Dernancourt and marched for Mametz where a camp was established for the Australian troops called "Carlton Camp" then on November 3, joined the front line at Flers and entered the "Switch Trench" The following day, orders were received for the battalion telling them that on November 5 at dawn they would join the "Cobham Trench" in support of an attack against an extremely well-fortified German trench system called "The Maze".

At the first light of dawn, the 26th Battalion moved towards the "Cobham Trench" and the B Company in which William was, as well as a portion of the D Company received the order to take part in the attack with the support of the 27th Australian Infantry Battalion on their right and the 25th Australian Infantry Battalion on their left then at 9:10pm, the attack was launched in catastrophic conditions. By this time the Somme battlefields had been deluged with rain and the attacking waves of troops were sucked down by the cloying mud and thus, unable to keep up with their creeping artillery barrage, became easy targets for German machine-gunners and riflemen.

Unfortunately, it was during this attack on November 5, 1916 in Flers that William met his fate and as soon as he left the "Cobham Trench", he received a first bullet in his right arm but continued to advance on the no man's land then received a second bullet from a German machine gun, this time, in the groin and William fell to never get up again, he was only 19 years old.

Today, William Collie, who was affectionately called "Willie" by his comrades, rests in peace alongside his friends and brothers in arms at Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval, Somme, and his grave bears the following inscription:"God will link the broken chain closer when we meet again."

William, you who were so young, it was in the first light of your life that you stepped forward with courage and determination to answer the call of duty alongside your Australian brothers who without hesitation, in the purest spirit of courage and camaraderie, under the rising sun wore their slouch hat and marched with resolution and determination on the roads of our old and beautiful France, a country they did not know but for which they gave their today and for which they fought with the most exceptional bravery in the trenches and battlefields of the Somme above which stand the colors of Australia. Young and proud, side by side they arrived at Pozieres, Amiens, Villers-Bretonneux, greeted with tenderness by the children of France who saw in the young Diggers, real heroes whose smiles gave birth to new hope in the hearts of our families, of our ancestors who adopted these young men and considered them, loved them as our sons. In the Somme, they were not only Australians from the other side of the world,they had become real sons of France and had all the admiration of their French brothers in arms who had the honor of fighting with them for the same causes, united in a common front in which was born the friendship which united our two nation.In the mud, in the cold, among the rats, they faced the ultimate test and saw, lived with death that the artillery spat at them at a relentless pace but under hurricanes of shells they stood and firmly held the front line, they showed the determination, the strength, the courage and the solidarity of all the young Australian nation which never retreated and whose most glorious pages were written on the fields of poppies of the Somme.At Pozieres, hole of hell, nightmare of fire and blood, pounded, hammered, it was in the fury of this battle that the Australians showed the French people their will to do everything to save us, in the face of machine guns and barbed wire, on devastated grounds, riddled with craters filled with blood and bodies, they charged bayonets forward animated by a fighting spirit that nothing broke, a spirit that was born on the beaches of Gallipoli and that kept these young men united and strong in the face of suffering, in the face of their fears and pains and which gave them the strength to face this apocalypse of fury which pushed an entire generation to kill each other through the barbed wire in which so many lives, hopes and dreams were shattered.In just seven weeks, 23,000 young Australian brothers in arms fell at Pozieres, but despite catastrophic losses, despite the weight of war they all bore without ever complaining, despite the weight of their uniforms full of mud and of blood, despite the weight of sadness in their eyes and in their hearts, they continued to advance keeping their heads high and suffered terribly at the Mouquet Farm, saw their friends, their brothers, their fathers who fell but kept faith in the future while going through the deadliest battles they endured in the Somme, still and always in the front line at Flers,Dernancourt, they fought step by step and definitively stopped the German army at Villers-Bretonneux, were the first to enter our beautiful city of Amiens under the eyes full of love and admiration of the french people for these young heroes who did, sacrificed and gave so much for us and for whom I want to express all my gratitude, my admiration and my respect and on whom I will always watch with tenderness through the cemeteries of the Somme where so many of them rest in peace after having endured so much for us so for them, for their families, I will always give my heart, my entire devotion so that they are never forgotten, so that their memory never fades, to make their names live forever in the light of remembrance. Thank you so much William,for everything. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember him,we will remember them.