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Bale-W-J-Pte-3348

Page history last edited by Lenore Frost 3 years, 5 months ago

Volunteers of Essendon and Flemington, 1914-1918

 

Bale W J    Pte    3348    William James              59 Inf Bn    20    Labourer    Single    C of E       

Address:    Ballarat East   

Next of Kin:    Bale, James, father, cnr Ross and Eureka St, Ballarat East   

Enlisted:    25 Apr 1917       

Embarked:     A16 Port Melbourne 16 Jul 1917 (Sydney)   

 

Relatives on Active Service:

Bale J A T Driver 9366 brother

Bale-C-Pte-479   cousin KIA

 

Date of Death:   03/10/1918    38 Inf Bn

CWGC:  "Son of James and Alice Bale, of 251, Albert St., West Brunswick, Victoria, Australia. Native of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia".

ST. SEVER CEMETERY EXTENSION, ROUEN

 

Private William James Bale

 

Rod Martin

 

William Bale was a labourer, twenty years old and living in Ballarat East in April 1917.  He had tried to enlist before that time but, in his own words on his attestation form, he had been rejected as being 'medically unfit'.  Just what the problem was is unknown.  He did suffer a bout of bronchitis that led to him being hospitalised in England for eleven days in January 1918, just before he was moved to France.  Perhaps it was an indication of an underlying chest complaint - maybe asthma.  We don't know.

 

William was a short man, just exceeding the minimum acceptable height at 164 centimetres ( the minimum height in 1917 being 162.5 centimetres), and weighing just under sixty-six kilos.  He was accepted into the army on Anzac Day that year and appointed to 9 Reinforcements of 59 Battalion.  He trained at Broadmeadows before boarding A16 SS Port Melbourne on 16 July.

 

 

SS Port Melbourne (formerly called Star of Victoria)   (AWM PC230006 )

 

William arrived at Liverpool in England on 16 September 1917.  Along with his companions, he was transported to Hurdcott Training Camp in Wiltshire, close to Salisbury Plain.  The men trained there until the start of January 1918, when they were transported to France.  As was mentioned above, however, William did not go with them, instead languishing in hospital and then in convalescence until 7 February.  When he did finally arrive in France, he was informed that he had been transferred to 38 Battalion, part of Major-General John Monash's 3 Division, located at Warneton, at the southern end of the Ypres sector in Belgium. Just why he was transferred is not known.  The battalion was recorded as having 871 personnel, losing ten men for the month, so it was not seriously undermanned. 

 

During February 1918 the battalion spent time in the trenches and then in reserve.  On some nights, groups of men were involved in raids on the German trenches.  These were carried out in order to disturb the enemy, assess the strength of his fortifications and, hopefully capture some enemy soldiers who could provide extra information. When the men went into reserve, they sheltered in the catacombs (tunnels) at a spot called Hyde Park Corner.  These provided protection from German bombardments and the weather.

 

Remains of a German observation tower at Warneton.  It had been destroyed by a fifteen-inch howitzer shell.  (AWM A00246)

 

Entrance to the catacombs, Hyde Park Corner  (AWM A00011)

 

In early March, the battalion moved to Nord-Pas-de-Calais in France, being based  in a quiet area south-east of the port town of Calais.  A sudden change occurred late in the month.  All previous orders were cancelled on the twenty-third and the battalion was required to move towards the area around Albert, on the Somme.  On 21 March the Germans had begun their final, last ditch effort to break through to the coast, separating the British and French Armies and then destroying each in turn.  The German ranks had been bolstered by the release of troops from the Eastern Front after the German-Soviet cease-fire agreement signed at Brest-Litovsk. There was a sense of urgency about the German action, nevertheless.  They were keen to end the war before the number of American troops arriving in France and Belgium became overwhelming.

 

The German advance on the Somme was rapid, and they quickly regained all of the territory ceded to the Allies when they staged a strategic withdrawal to the fortified Hindenburg Line in early 1917.  38 Battalion was ordered to proceed to the village of Méricourt, following reports that Germans had been seen in the vicinity.  The battalion arrived there on the twenty-seventh and saw its first Germans the next day.  The men beat back an advance by about 100 enemy soldiers, causing an estimated German loss of about fifty per cent. 

 

William and his compatriots held their positions until 4 April, when the enemy activity increased markedly.  They were slowly driven back to Ribemont on the Ancre River, where they went into reserve on 16 April.  Later in the month, back in action, the men defended the nearby town of Buire.  The battalion lost forty-two men during April as a result of its activities.

 

Buire 15 April 1918. During that month, 38 Battalion defended the town, using the railway station as its headquarters.  The men were dug in in an embankment beyond it and were subjected to heavy artillery,

rifle and machine gun fire.  (AWM E02455)

 

Anzac Day - 25 April - was significant on the Western Front because of the brilliant Australian pincer action that retrieved the village of Villers-Bretonneux  after a very short occupation by the enemy.  The victory is generally viewed as the turning point in the fight against the German onslaught.  From this time on, the allied front was stabilised, and plans for the counter-attack were drawn up.  For 38 Battalion, it meant that its position at Buire was secured.  While German artillery and gas bombardments, machine guns and bomb-dropping aeroplanes were active throughout this period, they made no further move forward and, on 5 May, for the first time, three scouting patrols encountered no enemy troops.  The battalion went into reserve at nearby Allonville on 10 May.  When it returned to the front on the twenty-second, the Germans had not advanced any further.  By 22 May, the men were able to swim in the Somme Canal without being disturbed by enemy artillery. 

 

A machine gun post on the Somme Canal near Sailly, 31 March 1918   (AWM E01943)

 

It is clear from the unit's war diary that a slow but steady movement forward occurred during May.  The atmosphere appears relaxed, as evidenced by the visits from the regimental barber, tailor and boot maker at the end of the month and as also evidenced by the casualty list for that time: eleven wounded and two accidentally injured.

 

On 4 June, the battalion moved to relieve 42 Battalion, located in front of Villers-Bretonneux.  The Germans there were not giving up without a fight, heavily shelling and machine-gunning the lines on a consistent basis.  On 21 June, the first sign of the growing demographic change on the Western Front came with the arrival of four American officers and ten of their troops at battalion headquarters to gain experience of front line conditions.  This build up of Americans reached such a stage by 4 July that Lieutenant-General John Monash was able to conduct a joint Australian-American operation in the Battle of Hamel - a victory in ninety minutes.

 

Although the Germans near Villers-Bretonneux were very active, leading to battalion casualty figures for the month at nine killed and thirty-six wounded, June was still relatively quiet for William and his comrades.  They were constantly under shell fire, but it had relatively little impact.  As they moved into July, their movement forward on the battlefield became more noticeable.  The Germans were once again in retreat, being steadily but surely overwhelmed by the weight of numbers.  However, they were not beaten yet, concentrating their artillery particularly on positions likely to be used by the battalion for the concentration of troops prior to an attack.  Nevertheless, battalion casualties for the month were still light, with five killed and thirty wounded.

 

August came and the word was that a major 'stunt' was coming up.  Troops were described as 'thickening up' behind the front lines.  The battalion commander felt that the Germans had picked up a scent of this because they increased their bombardments on the fifth of the month, using phosgene gas in particular.  When the attack came, on 8 August, the battalion was ordered to move forward at 4.30pm.  The push was on.

 

8th August 1918: H. Septimus Power  (AWM ART12208)    (reproduced with permission)

 

German commander Erich Ludendorff described 8 August 1918 as the black day for the German army. There were extensive breakthroughs on the Somme, and the Battle of Amiens, masterminded by John Monash, was won in twelve hours.  Thus began the so-called 'Hundred Days Offensive' that led to the German defeat in November.  As a result of his victory, Monash was knighted in the field by King George V.

 

For its part, 38 Battalion was ordered to move forward at 4.20 am.  By the twelfth, the men were near Harbonnières and William's A company was ordered to move ahead, using grenades, wipe out machine gun posts and establish a new line.  The casualties from this successful move were ten killed, seventy-eight wounded and fifteen missing.  The battalion commander described these figures for an enterprise of this description as being 'exceeding light'.

 

This 'luck' would not last, however.  The 'Hundred Days Offensive' is also known for the bloodiness of the conflicts as the Germans were slowly beaten back to their Hindenburg Line.  By the end of August, the battalion had reached and taken the Canal du Nord, but at the cost of forty-four dead, 226 wounded and four missing.  The Australians were used as the spearheads for the advance because British commanding general Sir Douglas Haig knew that, in his own words, the Australians would follow an order.  They were effective shock troops, and many Germans feared them as fighters.

 

But the cost was considerable.  After being in reserve in the middle of September, the men entered the front lines again on the twenty-ninth of the month, moving forward at 7.15 am.  They were soon stopped by sporadic machine gun fire ('The Yanks had not mopped up properly,' wrote the battalion commander).  William's A company was ordered to move forward and fix the problem.  As it advanced from shell hole to shell hole, the gunfire became very active, causing heavy casualties.  The company commander, Captain Fairweather, was one of those killed. 

 

The machine guns were finally overcome by other companies and, by 30 September, the battalion had reached the outskirts of the town of Bony, close to the town of St. Quentin and the St. Quentin Canal.  Bony, St. Quentin and the canal formed part of the Hindenburg Line.  It had finally been breached.  In the conflicts in which it was involved between 1 September and 2 October, 38 Battalion had suffered eighteen killed in action, ninety-one wounded and three missing.  It was now entering the last days of the Australians' war.  On 5 October, after 6 Brigade won the Battle of Montbrehain (but losing 430 casualties), the Australians would be withdrawn, to be replaced by American units for the final push.

 

Sadly, William did not make it to that date.  On 29 September, as part of the action by A company, William became one of those reported wounded in the war diary.  He was struck in the head and transported to 9 General Hospital in Rouen.  He died there on 3 October.

 

William was buried in St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen.

 

(Commonwealth War Graves Commission)

 

Sources

 

Australian War Memorial

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

en.wikipedia.org

National Archives of Australia

Travers, Richard: Diggers in France: Australian soldiers on the Western Front,      

                             Sydney, ABC Books, 2008                                

 

Flemington-Kensington Church News, December 1918

 

Pte. Wm. J. Bale, 59th Battalion, has died of wounds at the 9th General Hospital. He was a member of the Robertson-st, Boys Brigade.  His old comrades and the friends of the Mission will remember him well, and his brother, Jim, who is in the 4th Coy. Army Service Corps. To his Father, Mother, and members of the Family we offer our deep sympathy in their time of sorrow. Their address is now 253 Humffray st., Ballarat E.

 

 

War Service Commemorated

Flemington-Presbyterian-Church

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