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War Memorial
Australia

#89 McCARROLL Henry Samuel Hugh                                                           31st Battalion
 
Henry McCarroll was born in Ipswich around 1897. The family moved to “Orange View” at Esk in time for Henry to attend Esk State School. Upon leaving school Henry worked as a labourer in the district.
 
Henry attended the Brisbane Recruiting Depot on 9th October 1915. He advised the officer that he was 18 years and 9 months old and gave his occupation as labourer. Henry named his stepmother, Ellen McCarroll as his next of kin. Henry reported to Enoggera where he presumably passed the Light Horse riding test and was taken on by “A” Squadron of a new Light Horse Regiment, the 14th LHR on 1st March 1916. Henry had his photograph taken in his new Light Horse Uniform before going home to Esk to see his family.
 
The 14th LHR travelled to Sydney by train where they embarked on the “Beltana” on 13th May 1916. It is unlikely that the troopers were accompanied by their horses as the “Beltana” would be at sea for two months and keeping horses fit and alive in cramped conditions was unworkable. The “Beltana” took the long route to England to avoid the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean, arriving at Devonport in South West England on 10th July 1916. Henry had contracted a case of mumps during the voyage and once he disembarked was admitted to Mooltan Barracks Hospital.
 
While the 14th LHR had been at sea, the situation for the four divisions of the AIF on the Western Front had become serious. The Australians had suffered 23,000 casualties in the Battles of Fromelles, Pozieres and Mouquet Farm during the Somme campaign between July and August 1916. There was an immediate need for infantry reinforcements and Henry found himself transferred to the 9th Infantry Battalion as a reinforcement on 5th August 1916. The 14th Light Horse was disbanded.
 
From the 3rd Brigade Training Battalion Henry proceeded overseas to France on 1st October 1916, a year since he had enlisted. While awaiting transport to his battalion, Henry was transferred again. On 11th October, Henry marched in to the 31st Battalion, part of the 8th brigade of the 5th Division AIF. The 5th Division had been seriously mauled at Fromelles in July and the 31st Battalion was one of the hardest hit with more than half of its compliment killed, wounded or missing. The 31st was resting in the rear areas near Strazeele before going back into the line at Buire. As winter approached, the conditions at the front began to deteriorate. Trenches were knee deep in freezing mud and the men in the firing line would have to stand in the mud for up to three days before being relieved.
 
On 10th November, Henry reported to the 39th Casualty Clearing Station with a case of trench feet. Trench feet occurred as a result of being immersed in freezing mud and slush. Toes became numb and eventually circulation slowed. Toes and feet turned black and could even become gangrenous. Henry’s case was listed as severe and he was placed on an ambulance train to be transported to the 3rd Stationary Hospital at Rouen. On 20th November, Henry was carried aboard the Hospital Ship “St George” for transhipment to the 1st Southern General Hospital in Birmingham. Once Henry was out of danger he was transferred to the Australian Hospital at Hurdcott where he spent a comfortable Christmas. On discharge, Henry reported to the infantry depot at Wareham. On 23rd March 1917, Henry was transferred again, this time to the 69th Training Battalion.
 
The 69th Battalion was planned to be part of a 6th Division of the AIF. It was being raised in England and numbers were made up from new reinforcements and returning sick and wounded. However the large AIF casualty count from Bullecourt and Messines during 1917 meant that filling vacancies in existing battalions had a higher priority than forming a new division. The defeat of the 2nd plebiscite on conscription in Australia was the death knell for the 6thDivision. On 19th September 1917, Henry was transferred back to the 31st Battalion reinforcements at Wareham. On 14th October, Henry sailed from Southampton to the British Depot at Etaples in France and on 26th October, marched in to the 31st Battalion lines. Henry had been away from the battalion for almost 12 months.
 
The 31st Battalion was in a rest camp near Poperinghe during November 1917, preparing for another winter. In December the battalion went into the front-line rotation at Warneton where it began to snow. The battalion war diary records that in the days before Christmas, the men spent time in the township buying delicacies for their celebrations. One soldier purchased a suckling pig in the market. Sheepskin coats, made in Australia, were distributed to ward off the cold. Very little fighting was conducted during the winter but it was still necessary to man the front line. Artillery from both sides kept up sporadic strafes. In February, Henry was sent to a brigade bombing course.
 
 
The latter part of 1917 produced a change in the strategic situation as far as the German command was concerned. The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia brought about the end to fighting on the Eastern Front. A peace treaty between Germany and Russia released up to sixty German divisions which, once re-equipped and re-trained, could be used to press home a distinct advantage on the Western Front. The window for exploiting this advantage was however rather small as the entry of the United States into the war and an expected surge in troop numbers from July 1918 onwards would swing the advantage back to the Entente. The German commander, Ludendorff had only a short time to press home his advantage.
 
The British Commander, General Haig, was fully expecting a German assault in the spring of 1918 but he guessed incorrectly that the main thrust would be aimed at the Ypres salient in Belgium. When Operation Michael began on 21stMarch 1918, the main assault was aimed along the line of the Somme River, the scene of so much fighting and hard-won victories in 1916.
The British 5th Army, which was holding the line astride the Somme was unable to resist the German onslaught which in some places amounted to a five time numerical advantage. As the British retreated, often in disarray, the German Stormtroopers retook all of the gains made by the British in the Somme campaign and were within a few days of capturing the vital communication city of Amiens. If Amiens fell, Haig might well have lost the war; the situation was deadly serious.
 
Haig ordered his most successful and battle-hardened troops, the divisions of the AIF in Belgium to race south to establish a defensive line in front of Amiens. The 31st Battalion began to move south on 27th March when they boarded a train at Godewaersvelde in Belgium, arriving at the French town of Doullens. From there the battalion marched to Daours where they went into billets. On 9th April, the 31st began establishing a front-line defence near the village of Bouzencourt on the south bank of the Somme River and canal. The line consisted of a number of outposts manned by Lewis gunners and rifles to hold back any enemy incursions while a continuous trench line could be dug. It was reported that Henry McCarroll was killed in the front line on 10th April 1918, aged 20. Henry was buried in a temporary grave near Bouzencourt. A parcel of Henry’s personal effects was sent to Henry’s stepmother via the S.S. Barunga. Unfortunately, the Barunga was torpedoed off the southern tip of England and although there was no loss of life, all cargo and baggage was lost at sea.
 
When isolated graves were being consolidated into permanent cemeteries after the war, Henry’s remains were exhumed and reinterred in the Adelaide British Cemetery near Corbie. The family chose the following inscription for Henry’s headstone: IN MEMORY OF THE BELOVED SON OF MR & MRS McCARROLL OF ESK.