World War 1 Collie Boys - The Australian Infantryman
The Australian Infantryman - Quotes
Quote: French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, to the Australian Soldiers, 1918.
“We knew you would fight a real fight, but we did not know that from the very beginning you would astonish the Continent with your valour. I have come here for the simple purpose of seeing the Australians and telling them this. I shall go back and say to my countrymen: I have seen the Australians; I have looked into their eyes. I know that they, men who have fought great battles in the cause of freedom, will fight alongside us, till the freedom for which we are all fighting is guaranteed for us and our children”.
Quote: British General Hubert Essame CBE, DSO, MC, who fought with the Australians at Villers-Bretonneux.
“Past Wars should be studied as flesh and blood affairs, not as a matter of diagrams, formulae and concepts…but of men. Hence perhaps an element of over-emphasis on personalities in this book and in particular on the personal ascendancy of the Australian Soldier on the battlefield which made him the best infantryman of the war and perhaps of all time”.
Quote: Lieutenant Frank Reinhard Fischer, 6th Battalion, writing to his brother and sister in Adelaide.
“Our only disappointment is that Fritz has made such rapid advances, but it must please you to know that wherever he has met the Australians he has come, what the boys call a ‘Gutzer’ & has never advanced an inch…If only the Tommies would stand & fight like our grand boys – the state of things would be very different…At least I can say that I am proud to be an Australian & if history is ever truly written you will find that they have done wonderful works which the English papers cannot for their own sakes mention”.
Quote: From the diary of Sydney B. Young of Campsie, after 1000 American Soldiers joined 7000 Australians to capture Hamel in 93 minutes on 4th July 1918.
A Yankee who could speak German asked a German prisoner did he think they were winning the war, he replied: ‘Yes God is with us’. The Yankee replied: ‘That’s nothing, the Australians are with us’.
SOMME MUD
‘It’s the end of the 1916 winter and the conditions are almost unbelievable. We live in a world of Somme mud.
We sleep in it, work in it, fight in it, wade in it and Many of us die in it. We see it, feel it, eat it and curse It, but we can’t escape it, not even by dying.’
From the narrative, Somme Mud. The war experiences of an Australian Infantryman in France 1916-1919. (Written by, E.P.F. LYNCH)
Like many, Private Edward Lynch, from NSW, enlisted in the Army at just eighteen, he served with the 45th Infantry Battalion.
Villers-Bretonneux (Never Forget Australia)
In early 1918 after four years of continuous battle the fate of the Great War hung in the balance. The Germans launched Operation Michael, the plan was to split the British and French defences forcing a retreat which would enable the Germans to take the strategic town of Villers-Bretonneux. British commander, General Douglas Haig, called upon the Australians to stop the onslaught and save the town of Villers-Bretonneux; General Douglas Haig stated: ‘If the gateway to Amiens can be held then Germany will not win the war’.
An Australian soldier is quoted as saying the following to a French villager in late March 1918; ‘Fini retreat Madame, beaucoup Australiens ici’. (‘No more retreating Madame, many Australians here.’)
History shows that Australian forces took Villers-Bretonneux on the 25th of April 1918. British Brigadier General G W Grogan later wrote; ‘Villers-Bretonneux will ever be remembered for perhaps the greatest individual feat of the war – the successful counter- attack by night across unknown and difficult ground, at a few hours’ notice, by the Australian soldiers’.
Australians not only retook Villers-Bretonneux but after the war helped rebuild it. The city of Melbourne adopted the town and donated money for the reconstruction of its school, as noted on the commemorative plaque still in place today. In 1920 French commander Marshall Foch paid tribute to the Australian action; ‘That wonderful attack of yours at Villers-Bretonneux was the final proof, if any were needed, that the real task of high command was to show itself equal to its soldiers. You saved France. Our gratitude will remain ever and always to Australia’.
And the people of Villers-Bretonneux remain grateful to this day. ANZAC Day is commemorated every year in the town, and in the school – situated on Rue Victoria, just off Rue Melbourne – a sign adorns every classroom: N’oublions jamais L’Australie’ – ‘Let us never forget Australia’.
