Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

VESSEY, Charles Weaver (1893-1984)

_{4th Light Trench Mortar Battery, Australian 1st Division}

Charlie was born Charles Weaver Vessey in 1897, the eldest of two surviving sons of Francis Staley Vessey and Lydia Vessey (Ricketts), one of 8 children. He spent most of his early years living in Tennyson Street, Kew. On leaving school Charlie worked as a warehouseman at the Foy & Gibson’s department store complex around Smith Street, Collingwood. Foy & Gibson’s was one of Australia's earliest department store chains, modelled on Le Bon Marché in Paris and other European and American stores of the period.

Constructed to the design of renowned architect William Pitt over several decades from 1887, the Foy & Gibson factory complex still dominates the area in Collingwood bounded by Stanley, Wellington, Peel and Little Oxford Streets. The factories provided goods for the Foy & Gibson department stores and produced men’s clothing and shirts, ladies’ underclothing, millinery, furniture, hardware and bedding.

Warehouses stored imported goods and the complex was a major hub for home delivery, firstly with horse-drawn vehicles and later with motorised trucks. A major source of local employment, the Foy & Gibson factory complex employed around 2000 people in all stages of the production process, from spinning to despatch and delivery.

After Federation in 1901, one of the first acts of the new Commonwealth was to create a national Defence Department.  In 1911, compulsory military training in peacetime (referred to as Universal training) was introduced. All eligible males of a specific age group were liable for military training in peacetime and for service within Australia in time of war. This new army consisted of a small permanent garrison, a paid part-time militia and a force of unpaid volunteers. Before the First World War, Australia was the only English speaking country to have a system of compulsory military training during a time of peace.

Between 1911 and 1929 Australian males between the ages of 18 and 60 were required to perform militia service within Australia and its borders.  There were three levels of training.  Boys between the ages of 12 and 14 had to enrol in Junior Cadets, which were mainly school-based and did not wear uniforms, from 14 to 18 they became members of the uniformed Senior Cadets and from 18 to 26 years they became members of the Citizen's Military Forces, requiring 16 days' paid training per year up until they reached the age of 20, after which they had to attend an annual muster.

Exemptions were given to those who lived more than five miles (8 kilometres) from the nearest training site, those passed medically unfit, to resident aliens and theological students.  Those who failed to register for military training were punished with fines or gaol sentences.  Many boys did not register for their military training, and between 1911 and 1915 there were 34,000 prosecutions, with 7,000 gaol sentences imposed.

From the age of 15, Charlie did his duty for five years as a Senior Cadet and with the 53rd (Glenferrie) Infantry Battalion at the Drill Hall in Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Although the original timber building has long since been replaced the drill hall is still in use for the Army Reserve in 2013.

THE CALL OF KING AND COUNTRY

When war broke out in 1914 the government pledged Australia's whole-hearted support to Great Britain.  "To its last man and last shilling", according to Prime Minister Andrew Fisher. Australia recruited a force of volunteers for overseas service with the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). With the landing at Gallipoli by the ANZACs on 25 April 1915 Australia formally entered the Great War in Europe. Things did not go well in that campaign and the call of King and Country for young men just like Charlie to join in was loud and insistent, particularly to those already serving in the units of the militia.

Charlie enlisted on 20 July 1915 but did not leave Australia for several months. In the second half of 1915, there was a nation-wide epidemic of cerebrospinal meningitis. Even today Meningitis has a high mortality rate if left untreated but has a good recovery rate if treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics.  While in 1915 antibiotics had still to be developed, a serum was available that had proved reasonably successful, but a supply of the serum was seriously delayed due to its having missed the last mail ship from the United States.

One reason for the rapid global spread of the disease is believed to have been associated with the mobilisation of the world’s military and the social disruption that occurred as a result. Meningitis moved quickly through the troops undergoing training. By the end of August, the total deaths in Melbourne had reached 70.

An Isolation Camp was established at Ascot Vale to quarantine soldiers who had been exposed but who had not necessarily contracted the disease. Often whole units would be in isolation at Ascot Vale for 3 weeks at a time. Owing to this crisis, and to the large numbers of recruits wishing to enlist, measures were taken in July to suspend entry into camps for one month. To deal with the numbers of recruits expected on this deferred date, new camps were established at Warrnambool and Royal Park. Delaying the entrance of so many recruits ensured that no man was sent to a camp where there was any danger of infection with meningitis.

Finally, on 27 September 1915, Charlie Vessey boarded HMAT Hororata bound for Gallipoli via Egypt as a reinforcement of the 14th Battalion.

The ship docked in Alexandria on 8 January 1916 the same day that the last British soldiers left Gallipoli. The reinforcements were immediately moved to the Isolation Camp at Moascar. In addition to the measures already taken prior to embarkation, the camp was set up to screen those soldiers arriving in Egypt as reinforcements to ensure that after having been crowded together for long periods, no infectious diseases were spread among the otherwise healthy troops. Most soldiers stayed about three weeks in the camp and if no illness appeared the soldier was then passed on to the training unit.

Other soldiers who had contracted an illness stayed longer until fit and for Charlie, it was going to be a longer stay. On 10 February Charlie presented with a throat infection. He was admitted to the No 1 Stationary Hospital in Ismalia with tonsillitis finally joining his unit on the 19th. On 18 March Charlie was promoted to Lance Corporal.

CHARLIE GOES TO FRANCE

The First World War was dominated by the use of artillery. Trench warfare is a gruelling form of warfare in which the defender nearly always holds the advantage. In World War I, both sides constructed elaborate trench and dugout systems opposing each other along a front, protected from assault by barbed wire. The area between opposing trench lines was fully exposed to artillery fire from both sides. Attacks, even if successful, often sustained severe casualties as a matter of course. An infantry attack was rarely successful if it advanced beyond the range of its supporting artillery.

In addition to bombarding the enemy infantry in the trenches, the artillery could be used to precede infantry advances with a creeping barrage or engage in counter-battery duels to try to destroy the enemy's guns. Artillery mainly fired fragmentation, high explosive, or, later in the war, gas shells.

Artillery pieces were of two types: guns and howitzers. Guns fired high-velocity shells over a flat trajectory and were often used to deliver fragmentation and to cut barbed wire. Howitzers lofted the shell over a high trajectory, so it plunged into the ground. The largest calibres were usually howitzers.

Artillery was generally heavy and cumbersome to move quickly. Mortars, capable of lobbing a shell in a high arc over a relatively short distance, were widely used in trench fighting. They were able to harass the forward trenches, cut wire in preparation for an attack, and destroy saps or tunnels dug under friendly positions to plant explosives as well as dugouts and other entrenchments. In 1914 the British fired only 545 mortar shells but in 1916 they fired a total of 6,500,000.

Frederick Wilfred Scott Stokes designed the mortar in January 1915. The British Army was at the time trying to develop a weapon to match the Imperial German Army's Minenwerfer mortar in use on the Western Front. The Stokes mortar was a simple weapon, consisting of a smoothbore metal tube fixed to a base plate to absorb recoil, with a lightweight bipod mount. When a mortar bomb was dropped into the tube an impact-sensitive primer in the base of the bomb would make contact with a firing pin at the base of the tube and detonate, firing the bomb towards the target.

When Australia expanded the Australian Imperial Force in 1916 each of the new divisions included a new Light Trench Mortar Battery to provide support to its infantry units. On 1 June 1916 Charlie’s unit boarded ship in Alexandria arriving in Marseilles on 8 June. As the new 4th Division began to assemble in France Charlie was transferred into the newly formed 4th Light Trench Mortar Battery at Bois Grenier, a village outside Armentieres.

The new unit’s initial training used borrowed mortars and a total of 100 rounds were fired successfully with fortunately no casualties. On 6 August 1916 Charlie’s unit moved to the front line.

MOUQUET FARM

Mouquet Farm was located about 1.7 kilometres north-west of the high ground near Pozières on the road running north-west from Albert to Bapaume north of the Somme River. Following the fighting around Pozières in late July 1917, the British decided to gain control of the ridge beyond the village in order to create a gap in the German lines. A salient had developed around the German-held fortress of Thiepval a few kilometres north-west of Pozières. In military terms, a salient is a part of the front line of a battle that projects into enemy-held territory. Such a situation is often created when the support to an attacking force moves at a slower pace or stops moving altogether. Any bulge in the front line is then exposed to counterattack on three sides. By capturing Mouquet Farm, the British hoped that it would destabilise the German position and enable further gains.

During the battle, the three Australian divisions of I ANZAC Corps, the 1st, 2nd and 4th Divisions, advanced northwest along the Pozières ridge towards the German strongpoint of Mouquet Farm, with British divisions supporting on the western side. The Australians moved quickly across the high ground while on their flank the British Division became bogged down in the quagmire from the constant rain of artillery on the muddy lowland. The approach to the farm by the Australians was under observation from German artillery spotters who were able to call down barrages on them from three sides. This meant that the Australians were under fire, not only from the enemy ahead but from those units that were still operating from either side.

This resulted in heavy casualties among the attackers before they even reached the farm. Over the course of August and into September the Australian divisions managed to reach the farm three times, only to be forced back each time.

After the first week of the battle, having lost 2 men dead, 1 wounded and another suffering from shellshock, Charlie’s unit was relieved. On 12 August the unit struggled into camp at Albert, to the south-west of Pozières. If the men were looking forward to a rest, they were to be disappointed. The following day saw the brigade back on the road as they trudged a further 20 km west to La Vicogne.

After manoeuvres that included a lot more marching as well as the transport unit managing to misplace their mortars and bedding on the way, the unit was again ready to move back to the front line. On 21 August Charlie was promoted to corporal and on the 27th the 4th Light Trench Mortar Battery had its mortars back in the front line around Mouquet Farm.

The use of aircraft was another weapon that both the British and Germans were making greater use of during the Somme battle, particularly with their ability to fly above the level of effective rifle fire and drop hand-held bombs onto positions below. Early on the morning of 28 August Charlie’s unit repelled two separate bombing attacks. During one of those attacks, a piece of shrapnel struck Charlie in the leg.

Charlie’s wound wasn’t serious, and he only spent a few days in hospital. He was able to rejoin his unit when they had again been relieved from the front line. This time they boarded a train at Doullens, 30 km north-west of Albert, bound for Poperinge in Belgium.

I ANZAC Corps suffered 6,300 casualties at Mouquet Farm and was so depleted that the entire Corps had to be taken off the front for the next two months. As the battle dragged on, the Canadian Corps took over from the Australians, who were withdrawn on 5 September. However, by the time the battle concluded in mid-September, the German garrison still held out. The farm was eventually captured on 26 September following the general attack of the Battle of Thiepval Ridge by British and Canadian forces.

LIFE IN THE TRENCHES – WINTER 1916-17

The 4th Light Trench Mortar Battery settled into a new routine on a new part of the battlefield. For the next few months as winter closed in life consisted of a routine of about one week in every three in the trenches at the front line, with the time in between spent moving from one camp to another.

Trench conditions varied widely between different theatres of the war, different sectors within a theatre, and with the time of year and weather. Trench life was however always one of considerable squalor, with so many men living in a very constrained space.

Scraps of discarded food, empty tins and other waste, the nearby presence of the latrine, the general dirt of living half underground and being unable to wash or change for days or weeks at a time created conditions of severe health risk (and that is not counting the military risks). Vermin, including rats and lice, were very numerous; disease was spread both by them and by the maggots and flies that thrived on the nearby remains of decomposing human and animal corpses.

Troops in the trenches were also subjected to the weather. The winter of 1916-1917 in France and Flanders was the coldest in living memory. Whenever it rained the trenches flooded, sometimes to waist height. Men suffered from exposure, frostbite, trench foot, and many diseases brought on or made worse by living in such a way.  Trench foot was a wasting disease of the flesh caused by the foot being wet and cold as well as constrained into boots and puttees, for days on end.

On 16 September Charlie’s unit joined up with the 11th Canadian Light Trench Mortar Battery at Voormezele, about 4 km south of Ypres. While the combined units were in a good position from which to fire at enemy targets, they were hampered by poor ammunition supply. Over two days the combined units were only able to fire 300 rounds. The Canadians left the following day and over the next 11 days, the battery was only able to average between 150 and 300 rounds per day.

On 17 October the battery was taken out of the line for a well-earned rest. After a march of about 20 km south-west to Steenwerck, they marched another 30 km north-west the next day to Caestre. From Caestre they boarded a train that took them south-east almost to the coast at Pont Remy a few km outside Abbeville. More marching, this time inland along the River Somme to Yzeux.

Finally, a chance to take the boots off, have a wash and a decent feed. The unit rested at Yzeux for a full week before setting off once more.

On November 5th two attacks were launched; one near Gueudecourt during the small hours, in rain which made the attempt a nightmare; the other near Flers in mid-morning. In the first attack the troops for the assault reached their front line exhausted after a terrible journey over the mud, some of them late. The advance battalion was seen and shelled and therefore unable to assemble in no-man's-land. In the drizzle the troops advanced in good order; but, slithering over shell holes, they could barely keep pace with the creeping barrage.

On 9 November, with the winter rains now upon them Charlie’s unit moved off again and marched upriver to Picquigny where they boarded busses to take them on through Amiens to Ribemont-sur-Ancre. After spending the night in billets described by the battery’s Commanding Officer in the unit’s War Diary as “filthy and decked in mud”, they headed off once more on foot to Dernancourt, about 2 km south of Albert. With the first snows starting to fall the unit camped in woodland where the slushy ground quickly began to freeze.

Rain fell almost constantly until the battery moved forward on 27 November to the trench line north-east of Guedecourt facing the German-held town of Bapaume. The trenches were filled with liquid mud often more than a meter deep. There was little for them to do in the way of firing at the enemy, so the men were kept busy making tracks with duckboards to make movement possible. Even when the weather turned fine the bitter, piercing wind caused significant hardship.

It was a relief when the order finally came on 6 December for the men to get back on the road. They marched south through Delville Wood and Longueville to Montauban. There they rested for a few hours at a railway siding by a quarry just outside the town and at 2 am boarded a train to take them the 20 km back to Mealte. Tired and half-frozen they marched on to Ribemont. After a week of training and fatigue duties, the battery headed south to Cardonette, a village 3 km north of Amiens where they stayed until 2 January.

For two full weeks they rested, undertaking training whenever the rain eased up and even managing to get a few hours off in Amiens. Christmas was celebrated with a Battery Dinner and the New Year with a sports day, all the while being pummelled by rain that never seemed to stop.

On 2 January 1917, they were on the move again. They marched back to Ribemont and on to Mamely Camp where they relieved the 2nd Light Trench Mortar Battery. This time they had to prepare the site for a medical unit to move in. “Corduroy” roads were built by laying logs side by side along the muddy track and making parking stands for the ambulance vehicles soon to be arriving. It was obvious to all that the division was preparing for something.

 On 14 January, the weather suddenly cleared. Four weeks of colder, brighter weather froze the land and water hard. It temporarily banished the mud and covered northern France with snow. Now all four Australian divisions of the I Anzac Corps were in the line. In preparation for an imminent attack on the Germans, the corps was ordered to place the enemy under strain by carrying out small assaults.

On 24 January the 4th Light Trench Mortar Battery moved back to the front line, once again facing Bapaume. This time they were to support the 15th Battalion in one of these small assaults.

At 7 pm on 1 February, two companies of the battalion moved forward supported by mortars from the 4th Light Trench Mortar Battery. They assaulted the German lines along a front about 500 m wide. The Australians reached their objective, and 50 prisoners were taken. At 11 pm the Germans counter-attacked but were quickly beaten off. A much stronger counterattack came at 4.30 and by 5 am the Australians were forced back to where they started.

The 4th Light Trench Mortar Battery lost four men killed and another two wounded during that night’s attack and of the ammunition fired by the mortars 75% were “duds”. During the rest of the morning, the battery attempted to recover bodies from the frozen ground, but the ground was too hard to break through. In the afternoon with the temperature slightly warmer three bodies were located and eventually retrieved.

On the next night, the 13th Battalion assaulted the same position. At 10 pm an artillery barrage, including mortars from Charlie’s unit, opened on the enemy position enabling the battalion to move forward. The battalion’s War Diary describes the fire as being “so excellent” as to enable the assaulting wave to approach “as close as 5 or 6 yards of the barrage”.  This time the assault was successful.

Of the mortar, support provided the diary adds: “The unsatisfactory burning of the cartridges for the mortars nearly resulted in the wire on our left not being cut. This is a vital matter. Some of the bombs failed to travel halfway to their objective and were a frightful danger to the mortar crews. They were very brave men to stick at it the way they did to cut the wire for us.”

The 4th Light Trench Mortar Battery’s own War Diary says of this: “Ammunition 20% duds.” At least it was better than the 75% failure of the previous assault.

On 9 February, the battery once more moved back to Ribemont.

THE HINDENBERG LINE

The winter of 1916 – 1917 affected people in different ways. Some succumbed to influenza, others suffered miserably from trench foot while others caught infections resulting from the appalling conditions under which they were forced to live. Charlie was no different.

On 21 February Charlie reported to the Medical Officer with his eyes oozing from Conjunctivitis. While we wouldn’t consider it as a major illness today, in France in 1917 it was likely that it could spread quickly through the men at the front. Charlie was hospitalised with the 4th Field Ambulance at Warloy but was transferred to the 3rd Field Ambulance at Millencourt the next day while the 4th Field Ambulance prepared to move closer to the front.

After a week in hospital, Charlie rejoined his unit at the camp at Ribemont on 6 March. The weather was changing, moving from constant rain to often fine and sunny with morning mists that concealed the enemy trenches for hours at a time. It was even possible to stand outside the trenches, invisible to the ever-present danger of a sniper’s rifle. The drawback to the sun was that the ground began to thaw, and the trenches became channels of foetid mud.

While Charlie was in the hospital the war changed too. The German Army was withdrawing. Attacks on German outposts brought little resistance. Le Barque and Ligny-Thilloy were taken bringing the ANZACs to just south of Bapaume. It was easy to believe that the allies were gaining the upper hand but the reality didn’t justify the optimism. The Germans were withdrawing to fortified positions along what the allies would later call the Hindenberg Line.

By the time Charlie was out of hospital the Australians were at Grevillers, only 2 km to the west of Bapaume. Early on the morning of the 17th, the Australians moved into Bapaume only minutes after the Germans had departed. In what could only be described as exhilaration, they chased them across green fields seemingly untouched by war. But as the Australians moved north their numbers thinned as they left behind small groups to secure the vacated German lines and thus secure their own supply line. Orders came from the British Command that they were to hold a line through Bapaume and Peronne.

As the Germans withdrew, they left behind them nothing that could be of any use. Trees were cut down, buildings and railways destroyed and many of the roads were blown up to prevent their use by vehicles. At every town and village small, determined garrisons remained to offer resistance to the allies.

On 25 March the 4th Light Trench Mortar Battery left their camp along with the rest of 2nd Division and moved as the Reserve to follow the main advance. First to Fricourt and then north to Bazentin, about halfway to Bapaume. From Bazentin they entered Belgium and on to Grevillers, Bapaume and then to Favreuil.

On 1 April blizzards swept across the fields of Flanders leaving a blanket of ice across the land. By 8 April Charlie’s unit had moved up to Noreuil, via Vaulx and had begun to carry their ammunition forward in preparation for their turn at the front.

BULLECOURT

The Battle of Bullecourt was not the most decisive event of the war, but it did mark an important moment, particularly for the men of the 4th Brigade of which the 4th Light Trench Mortar Battery was an integral part.

The British planned to attack German defences at Arras on 9 April but wanted a secondary attack to take place at the northwest end of the Hindenburg Line at Bullecourt. It was believed by British senior army commanders that once they had broken through at Arras, retreating German forces would move towards Bullecourt and be effectively trapped.

The plan was for the British 1st and 3rd Armies to attack the towns of Vimy and Arras while the Australians, along with the British 62nd West Riding Division attacked to the south at Bullecourt on the following morning. As the allies moved through Bullecourt, they would be assisted by the cavalry having charged through the German lines with the earlier attack.

Immediately to the east of the Australian line of attack on Bullecourt was the town of Quéant. Quéant presented a risk of a German counterattack so the entire area was bombarded by heavy artillery fire prior to the attack. When it was realised that the artillery had not destroyed as much of the German barbed wire as was hoped, the British came up with a bold, new plan. Tanks would move forward in advance of the infantry and destroy the barbed wire instead of relying on artillery.

At 4:20 am on 10 April with a heavy snow driving from the darkness the men of the 4th Light Trench Mortar Battery waited along with the other units of the 4th Brigade ready for the attack to begin. The men were all in the open having crossed the railway embankment just south of the German trenches with only the black of the pre-dawn as cover. 4:30 am, zero hour, rolled past with the light growing slowly through the lashing snow as each minute passed. The tanks had got lost.

At 5:00 am the attack was called off, but it was already light enough for the Germans to see the movement of men heading back to the safety of their own lines. It would not have taken much, only a slight raising of the head above the skyline with the dawn glowing from behind. Charlie had no idea what had happened, only a sudden blinding pain in his frozen face as he was struck in the cheek and neck by a single German round.

The shot was an unlucky one but the fact that the attack had been cancelled gave him a much bigger advantage than if it had gone ahead. The unit suffered only two casualties that morning and both were quickly taken from the field to the dressing station. While the other wounded soldier died Charlie was able to be moved on to the 13th Australian Field Ambulance at Bapaume where he was operated on immediately.

The rest of the division wasn’t as fortunate. On the next morning once more the men were lined up by 4:30 am waiting for the arrival of the tanks to lead the attack. Running 15 minutes late, only three of the expected twelve tanks arrived. The remainder had either broken down or had again become lost in the darkness and the featureless terrain.

For the 4th Brigade, no tanks arrived at all and they were forced to cross the open ground completely exposed to enemy fire. The Germans were ready for them. After the British attacks at Vimy and Arras immediately to the north, and the aborted attempt the previous morning, they had a high degree of expectation that another attack was imminent. Despite this, the Australians managed to fight through to their initial objectives but by 10:00 am they were under a heavy counterattack and desperately short of ammunition, were forced to withdraw to their original start positions.

For the gain on no ground whatsoever the 4th Brigade lost 3,000 men. According to the official war historian Charles Bean, “Bullecourt, more than any other battle, shook the confidence of Australian soldiers in the capacity of the British command; the errors, especially on April 10th and 11th, were obvious to almost everyone”.

OXFORD, HAREFIELD AND HOME

They called it a Blighty wound. That is a wound not serious enough that treatment was impossible but bad enough to get you sent back to Britain. Charlie was moved quickly from the front line to the general hospital at Rouen ahead of the casualties expected from the postponed attack on Bullecourt. On 19 April he was taken on board the SS Viper at Le Havre and carried across the channel. By 23 April Charlie was resting comfortably in one of the converted facilities of Oxford University that had been taken over by the Army to form the 3rd Southern General Hospital.

It was a long recovery for Charlie. The formal description of his injury was a gunshot wound to the left cheek and neck with severe facial paralysis. A month after his injury Charlie’s family was advised that his condition was ‘progressing favourably’ and in August he was transferred to the 1st Australian Auxiliary Hospital at Harefield in Middlesex.

“In November 1914 Mr and Mrs Charles Billyard-Leake, Australians resident in the UK, offered their home, Harefield Park House, and its grounds, for use as a convalescent home for wounded soldiers of the Australian Imperial Forces.  In December, the property became the No. 1 Australian Auxiliary Hospital, the only purely Australian hospital in England. The hospital consisted of Harefield Park House, a 3-storey plain brick building, some out-buildings and grounds of some 250 acres.  It was proposed that the hospital would accommodate 60 patients in the winter and 150 in the summer.  It would be a rest home for officers and other ranks, and also a depot for collecting invalided soldiers to be sent back to Australia.” Harefield hospital still exists today.

By October Charlie’s condition was described as ‘convalescent’ and he was allowed to sail home later that month on HMAT Beltana.

Charlie was discharged on 18 February 1918 and returned to work for Foy & Gibson’s. On 11 June 1921, he married Mildred (Millie) Lucie Wallis and lived in Derby Street, Kew, close to both their families. They settled in Adelaide a few years after that. At the outbreak of World War II, Charlie re-enlisted and served as a Staff Sergeant at the Junior Leader School at Woodside.

It would be nice to say that they lived happily ever after but not long after the war the marriage was in trouble. The couple divorced in Adelaide. Millie returned to Melbourne while Charlie stayed in Adelaide. In 1951 he married Clarice (Claire) Saint. Neither marriage produced any children. Charlie died in Adelaide in 1984.