Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

 
#2372  ARMSTRONG, William George          47th Infantry Battalion
 
William Armstrong was born at Loganlea, on the banks of the Logan River, on 10th April 1874 to parents Thomas and Frances Armstrong. His parents were probably farming in the area and young William attended the nearest school at Waterford.
 
Rather than leave school and return to the family farm, William would appear to have remained at Waterford School to be trained as a pupil teacher; a kind of apprenticeship conducted under the head teacher at the school. Candidates who were successful in passing a series of exams gained qualifications as teachers. It was reported by William’s wife when completing the Roll of Honour Circular after William’s death that William had been a school teacher before taking up farming.
 
When William reported for enlistment at Maryborough, Queensland, on 18th April 1916, he was 42 years old, married to Edith Miriam, and was the father of six children. He stated his occupation as farmer from Murgon. William was also at that time the Chairman of the Murgon Shire Council which had been formed in 1914. William also stated that he had 3years service with the Moreton Regiment, a militia unit, and he was also a member of the reserves of the Queensland Rifle Club.
 
Notwithstanding William’s military credentials, the reason for his enlistment bears some comment. It was not unheard of for men in their forties to enlist in the AIF, even though the cut off was 45 years. However, for a man who had a wife and at least three dependant children at home, it seems at first glance a rather rash decision. Perhaps one reason may lie in William’s role as Shire Chair. The members of local councils throughout Queensland were encouraged to establish recruiting committees in their local areas to boost enlistments and there was a wave of recruiting fervour across the nation in October and November 1915, culminating in a series of recruiting marches which would collect men along the route of their march. The largest of these in Queensland was the Dungarees March which left Warwick and followed the rail line to Brisbane but in spite of the coverage by local newspapers, the Dungarees march was not very successful as a recruiting tool. Perhaps William felt that it was his duty, as chair of the Recruitment Committee of the recently formed Murgon Shire to set an example for the young men of the district. 
 
After signing his enlistment papers in Maryborough, William travelled by train to Brisbane and then on to Enoggera where he was placed in a depot battalion initially before being assigned as a reinforcement for the 52nd Battalion. The reinforcements boarded the “Seang Choon” in Brisbane on 19th September and landed in Plymouth on 9th December 1916.
 
William spent the next two and a half months at the 13th Training Battalion at Codford Barracks before crossing the English Channel on a night ferry from Folkstone on 25th February 1917. When William arrived at the huge British training base at Etaples on the French Coast he was reassigned to the 47th Battalion, part of the 12th Brigade of the 4th Division AIF. William was taken on strength by the 47th on 7th March 1917.
 
The 47th Battalion had endured a difficult time, almost from its inception in Egypt in early 1916. The battalion had earned a reputation for ill discipline and poor leadership throughout 1916, coupled with crippling casualties at Mouquet Farm. William’s arrival at the 47th came soon after a new commanding officer, Lt Col Imlay, was appointed with the specific task of whipping the battalion into shape. Imlay had previously been the second in command of the 48th Battalion; probably one of the best battalions in the 4th Division.
 
In April of 1917, the 47th was tasked with preparing an assault on the Hindenburg Line at Bullecourt. The commander of the 5th British Army, under whose command the 4th Division were operating, had been persuaded by an enthusiastic tank officer that a squadron of the new super weapons could be employed to destroy enemy wire with greater efficiency than artillery. General Gough dispensed with the usual artillery barrage prior to an attack and ordered two brigades of Australians to conduct an attack in daylight against the Hindenburg defences, supported by the tanks.
 
The tanks failed to make it to the start line on 10th April and the attack was called off. 24 hours later, employing the exact same plan as the day before, and with the enemy well aware of what was coming, the tanks either failed to arrive, broke down, got stuck in a crater or made easy targets for field artillery. The infantry was left exposed on the snow covered ground with no artillery support as they charged towards the uncut wire entanglements. The 47th Battalion had the task of resupply for the brigade but was soon called up to fill gaps in the line. A small section of trench was taken but could not be held once the counterattack began. Survivors of the fiasco retreated at a dead run through enfilading machine gun fire. The two attacking brigades sustained 3200 casualties at Bullecourt and William was fortunate to get through his first battle unscathed.
 
After the disaster of Bullecourt, the Australian forces were withdrawn to the area around the Flemish city of Ypres in Belgian Flanders for a period of rest, reinforcement and training. For the latter half of 1917, British operations were focussed on the Ypres salient, and planning for the 3rd Battle of Ypres (sometimes referred to as Passchendaele) were well advanced. The first in a series of battles was planned to commence on the 7th June 1916 with an assault on the Messines Ridge.
 
Since 1915, the British had been tunnelling under the German positions on the crest of the ridge and by the summer of 1917, had established 25 underground mines packed with tons of high explosive. Large scale models of the terrain which troops would cross were constructed and all troops involved, which included the 12th brigade of the 4th Division, were walked through them. For the opening salvos of the attack, the British had stockpiled three and a half million artillery shells.
 
At 3:10am on the 7th June, 19 of the 25 mines were fired almost simultaneously, creating an enormous explosion that shattered the German positions on the ridge and caused thousands of casualties. As the dust and smoke cleared, the first wave of infantry proceeded across the shattered ground, protected by a creeping artillery barrage. As the day progressed, successive waves of infantry leapfrogged each other, progressing the front line forward for a distance of several thousand yards. The 47th Battalion set off from their billet at 7:00am and began the slow march through the support lines to reach their start line. It was a very hot day and the soldiers sweated profusely in their heavy woollen uniforms. They had also been forbidden to drink anything from their canteens until they reached the start line in front of the village of Messines. At one point, a platoon came across a shell crater with filthy water in the bottom. The men fell upon the dirty water and only abandoned their drinking when an officer fired his pistol into the crater wall.
 
The 47th reached the Black Line, their starting point in the middle of the afternoon, by which time the German defenders had recovered from the initial shock of the explosions some 12 hours before and were actively shelling the advancing Australians. At some point during the afternoon, William received a wound to his chin or lip from a shell fragment. It was recorded that a dressing was applied and William was sent back to a battalion dressing station. He was not seen again.
 
William’s wife was informed by telegram that her husband was wounded and missing. She wrote to a number of agencies seeking further information but was unable to learn more about William. At one point, Edith even invoked the name of the Australian Agent General in London, former Prime Minister Andrew Fisher in one of her letters. A note on the letter states that Edith Armstrong was well known to Fisher, who had been the Federal Member for the South Burnett for many years.
 
Eventually, a court of inquiry convened in November 1917 when the Flanders campaign came to an end, determined William Armstrong had been Killed in Action on 7th June 1917. From the time of his disappearance, William’s family had been in receipt of a war pension with two pounds a fortnight granted to Edith and smaller amounts to the three youngest children, Florence, Myrtle and Harold.
 
William Armstrong’s remains were never recovered. He is commemorated on the tablets of the Menin Gate Memorial at Ypres (now Ieper) along with 54,000 British and Dominion soldiers who lost their lives in Belgium and have no known grave. To commemorate this sacrifice, the citizens of Ypres conduct a remembrance service each evening under the arches of the Menin Gate which concludes with the recitation of the Ode and playing of the Last Post.