55th Battalion On The 8th March 1916 example essay topic

Joseph King was born 25th July 1886 at Bulli NSW Australia. His father, Edward, was born in Surrey England in 1842 and migrated to Australia with his family during the gold rush to Hill End NSW in 1861. His mother, Jane, was born in 1852 at Portland Head on the Hawkesbury River in NSW. His father had a previous to Rebecca Maris who bore him four children and died having a fifth.

Two of those children subsequently died on the goldfields. He was one of seven born by Jane and was the second youngest. In 1880 the family moved to Bulli where Edward became a coal miner. He died in 1889 of 'black lung' leaving Jane with nine children, Joseph was 21/2 y. o. Joseph and his brothers all worked in the mines up until the Great War of 1914-18. Joseph enlisted at Goulburn NSW on 24th February 1916.

He was 271/2 years old, 5 ft 6 in high and weighed 130 lbs. He had fair hair, fair complexion and blue eyes. He was accepted as part of the 4th Reinforcements 55th Battalion on the 8th March 1916. Originally assigned to 'D' company he was transferred to 'B' company before leaving Australia. The 55th Battalion was raised in Egypt on 12th February 1916 as part of the 'doubling' of the AIF. Half of its recruits were Gallipoli veterans from the 3rd Battalion, and the other half were fresh reinforcements from Australia.

Most of the men from the 4th Reinforcements came from the Monaro area. For Joseph to walk across the mountains from the coast to Goulburn to enlist at 27 years of age and so late in the war, he must have been motivated by patriotic fervour brought on by reports of the Gallipoli campaign which would have been sweeping Australia by then. (Gallipoli landing was 25th April 1915 and evacuation was 20th December 1915). After 6 months training in Australia 4/55th Battalion embarked from Sydney 4th September 1916 and disembarked Plymouth England 29th October 1916.

More training in England followed until they embarked from Folkestone England 14th December 1916 and disembarked at Boulogne France 15th December 1916 and were marched into the base depot at Etap les. Here all the drafts - though they had already been passed in England as fully trained - were subjected to further tests laid down by GHQ which involved at least 10 days additional training by English instructional officers. Joseph was marched out to his unit and taken on strength in the field on Christmas eve 24th December 1916. He was part of 130 reinforcements for the 55th Battalion which was resting at Buire-Sur-L'anc re after the horrors of the autumn fighting on the Somme. The 55th Battalion was part of the 14th Brigade of the 5th Australian Division. It had arrived in France on 30th June 1916 and was in the front line trenches by 12th July and fought its first major battle at Fromelles on the Somme a week later.

The battle was a disaster, resulting in heavy casualties across the division. Although in reserve, the 55th was quickly committed to the attack and eventually played a critical role, forming the rearguard for the 14th Brigades withdrawal. Despite its grievous losses the 5th Division continued to man the front in the Fromelles sector for a further two months. The 55th had been in the front line trenches until as recently as 16th December 1916 and had moved to Buire-Sur-L'anc re billets for rest on 22nd December when Joseph joined them. The autumn and winter of 1916-17 were the wettest and coldest of the war. The mud pictures that you see of WWI were from this time.

This pre Christmas time had been very muddy and was to freeze over during the winter snowstorms with more mud coming with the thaw. The rest period included work parties and from boxing day included further training. On 4th January 1917 they moved back to Franvillers and then further to Flesselles where they were re-equipped and more training in til they moved back to Buire-Sur-L'anc re 14th January 1917. They then moved forward towards the frontline camp at Montauban via Fri court working on defences etc as they went arriving at the camp on 19th January 1917.

The system was that four battalions worked in rotation, from rest camp at Montauban, to forward camp at Trones Wood, to intermediate line trenches between Flyers and Lesboeufs, to the front line trenches just forward of them, spending four days at each stage. The time at the front wasn't only spent in the trenches. Patrols were sent out to gather intelligence and often resulted in skirmishes when the enemy were encountered. They were also required to make feints and to test the weaknesses in enemy defence lines. Up until now Joseph had not been involved in any fighting except for the occasional speculative shelling despite having been in France for 45 days but from now until his wounding he was continuously on a trench rotation or in battle readiness as they moved forward with the front. On 28th January the 55th moved to the advanced camp at Trones Wood, on the 29th they moved into the intermediate line and on the 31st they moved into the front line trenches.

Josephs first taste of action was unpleasant. It was all snow and ice and frozen mud. Shelling from the enemy was more lethal as shrapnel could ping around unrestrained by mud. Shelter in the front line trenches was minimal and the cold severe. Josephs first four days saw the 55th lose 4 dead and 19 wounded while on the line. They returned to the front line again on the 12th to 15th February, 25th February to 1st March, and 10th March to 14th March 1917.

At 4 am on 18th March the 55th moved forward over the front line a cro the evacuated German lines to Beaulencourt where 'A', 'C' & 'D' companies entrenched in advance of the village and 'B' company (Josephs) entrenched in the rear. On 20th March they moved forward again to positions near Haplincourt and Villers-Au-Flos. On 28th March they took over advanced outpost work. One company to woods outside Villers-Au-Flos with the remainder to Ban court. Finally on April fools day, 1st April 1917 after 25 days without a rest break all companies of the 55th joined up at Vel u by 1 pm in preparation for an attack on the village of Doignes scheduled for early the following morning. The normal method of assault on an enemy position in WW! was for a prolonged artillery barrage to break up the enemy defensive formations and breach the barbed wire entanglements in front of them, then charge en mass through the breaches before the defence could reorganise.

The attack on Doignes was to be a secondary action with the main advance further north where most of the artillery was committed. Because of lack of artillery it was decided on a surprise attack prior to dawn as a feint to the overall allied assault. To overcome the lack of breaches in the wire, the 56th and 55th battalions would aim to move through the gaps between Louveral, Doignes and Hermies and cut off Louveral and Doignes from behind and the sides. This plan was abandoned when observers noted that the enemy had linked the Doignes-Hermies line and reinforced it. The final plan was for the 56th to line up facing Louveral on the north side of the Cambrai Rd which ran between Louveral and Doignes with the 55th lined up behind them. At 4.30 am the 56th was to move off with the 55th to follow at 4.45 am.

The right flank of the 56th was to veer further to the right and clear out an enemy advanced post in a beetroot factory, clearing the way for the 55th to swing south east through the gap between Louveral and Doignes to capture Doignes from the flank and rear while the 56th continued on to take Louveral. ' C' company was to be the left flank of the 55th line on the north. 'B' company (Josephs) was to be the centre and 'D' company was to be the right flank to the south. As so often happened in this war things immediately went wrong. The commander of the 56th had been given the decision of exact timing of the advance and following a request at 4 am from the commander of the battalion immediately to his north put the kick off back from 4.30 am to 5.00 am. This meant that the 55th should have set off at 5.15 am instead of 4.45 am, but they never got the message and set off at the original time.

' C' and 'B' companies duly ran into the back of the 56th and stopped, but 'D' company moved through the gap left by the units of the 56th that had veered toward the beetroot factory and were thus in front of everybody. After passing the beetroot factory 'D' company disturbed a dog which alerted the enemy and fighting ensued. 'D' company fought their way to the Cambrai Rd where they waited for 'C' and 'B' companies to join them for the attack on Doignes. Dawn was starting and 'C' and 'B' companies having got mixed with the 56th speared off directly toward Doignes fearing that 'D' company would be isolated in the attack. ' D' company seeing this and not wanting to wait any longer as the light improved, advanced on the north eastern corner of the village.

This meant that 'D' company had crossed from right to left flank, 'C' was now in the middle a Josephs 'B' company was pushed out to the right and approaching the defences forward and to the side instead of skirting them. Doignes was taken by 7.00 am and defences set up at the rear (east) and facing Hermies (south). That night it snowed heavily and on the evening of the 3rd the 55th were relieved after 28 days without a rest break. Joseph was almost certainly wounded by machine gun fire as 'B' company made the dash across open country on the right flank approaching the end of the trench line defending Doignes. His wounds, all on his right side (leg, forearm and eye) e were all described as gunshot wounds. As the attack took the enemy by surprise there was little artillery fire until the troops entered Doignes where some mines caused some injuries and after the capture of the village was subject to extensive shelling throughout the remainder of the day.

Both the battalion war diaries and Bean's war history seem to play down the intensity of the fighting. However of a battalion strength of 1138 officers and men that day, only 3 companies were committed and one held in reserve, take away head quarters and support staff etc and probably only 700 to 750 men were involved in the fighting. 34 were killed, 145 were wounded and 2 were missing. Thats 20-25% casualties or 1 in 4 or 5. May have been light by WWI carnage standards but a look at photo's of the approach and of the damage to Doignes attests to the ferocity of the action. History sees it a little differently.

Sir Douglas Haig, British commander-in-chief in his report on the war fro November 1916 to May 1917 refers to the action as a major achievement. In the Australian Bureau of Statistics 1922 special on the analysis of the war, Doignes was listed as a major engagement of 1917. And even the French in their embassy fact sheet lauds the Australian effort at Doignes. Joseph was treated in the field for gun shot wounds to the right leg, arm and eye on the 2nd April 1917 at the 9th casualty clearing station then moved to the ambulance train on the 3rd. He was admitted to the 13th surgical hospital on 4th April and transported to England on the 9th where he was admitted to the 3rd London General Hospital at Wandsworth with bullet wound eye and gunshot wound for arm and leg.

He stayed there for two months before being transferred to the repatriation hospital at Hare field House where he stayed for another 10 months. Joseph was shipped back to Australia arriving 1st June 1918 and was discharged July 1918. While at Hatfield house he met a young volunteer who read to him and made him cups of tea. Her name was Eveline Fraud and she worked in a local munitions factory. They fell in love and she followed him back to Australia where they married 8th February 1919. For the rest of their lives they lived in a little house in the middle of the stock yards at Homebush Sydney.

They named the house 'Doignes'.