Jack Johnston Poetry
The Thiepval Memorial, in Somme, France. The Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916. The memorial also serves as an Anglo-French Battle Memorial in recognition of the joint nature of the 1916 offensive and a small cemetery containing equal numbers of Commonwealth and French graves lies at the foot of the memorial.
Image source: 2016 PAMS photo collection
Premier's Anzac Memorial Scholarship Tour 2016
Poetry
Battlefields
Fromelles was the blackest battle
From trenches across no-man’s land
Australians ran into heavy gunfire
A chance they never did stand
The Germans won this battle
They mowed the allies down
They defended the Western Front
No allied victory was found
The horror was indescribable
Pozieres was densely sewn
With more sacrifice of Australian troops
Than any place ever known
From seven weeks of battle
23,000 casualties overall
The Allies captured Pozieres
Against the greatest odds of all
Mont St Quentin & Peronne
The greatest military achievement of all
Where the Somme River was captured
And the Germans began to fall
Despite being out numbered
The Australians fought their way
To deliver a stunning blow
To the Germans on that day
Box On
How do you remember your ancestors
Who fought for us in the Great War?
Did they make it home to loved ones
Or die on a foreign shore?
Their stories are all inspiring
Of selflessness, and valour, they abound
Although some they fell silently
Their bodies never found
Aborigines and white men
Were comrades in the war
They fought together united
All Australian to the core
They fought for France’s freedom
On battlefields soaked with blood
In freezing cold conditions
Up to their waist in mud
When you’re fighting a battle
With your body or your mind
Spare a thought for our diggers
It’s the ANZAC spirit you need to find
Let bravery be a tradition
Tell your daughter and your son
To never ever give up
Stand tall and “box on”
In memory of
Private Harold Charles Wythes KIA 5/5/1917 Bullecourt France
Sergeant Fred A. Williamson 2nd M.G. Battalion