The TSO Chorus remembers

ANZAC stories related by June Tyzack, TSO Chorus Master

PART ONE The Trip of a Lifetime From Mathinna to the Somme (via the Tower of )

I spent a lot of time with my Nan. She was a great story teller and I never tired of hearing about her teen years at Mathinna. The most memorable stories involved rabbits, floods, milking the cows, delivering the milk by horse and cart and then walking umpteen miles to school, the bull that gored her brother to death, and the Tyne River murder mystery, but never any stories. She was the ninth child in a family of ten children which included two sets of twins and I shared a birth date with Auntie Dot and Uncle Ern.

My memories of Uncle Ern and his younger brother, my Uncle Eric, stem from when they were living in . Uncle Ern had a little dog, but my recollection of Uncle Eric, the baby of the family, is far more comprehensive. He was so distinctively suave looking, with a manicured moustache and taller than the rest of the family, and he was an amazing ‘play anything-by- ear’ pianist with his very own grand piano!

Uncle Ern - Ernest Lionel Whittle - was the only one of the five boys to go to war. Nan was sixteen and he was just shy of 22 when he enlisted. His journey from farmer to began in - from the Tyne River at Mathinna to Perham Downs training camp in Salisbury, . Sapper Whittle was deployed to the infamous in the area of as part of the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company of the 92nd Infantry.

The TSO Chorus remembers

The ‘Second of Ypres’ (1915) is historically significant as it was the first time poisonous gas was used in warfare. Three years later, on Wednesday, 20th March, just prior to the ‘Fourth ’, Sapper Whittle was gassed: Mustard Gas1. It was his first eight hour shift ‘up the lines’. Although his Military Record classifies his injuries as severe, Uncle Ern makes little of it in his notebook, rather providing an itinerary of travel arrangements and ‘accommodation’.

He left the dugout the morning after he was gassed and walked three miles to Ypres for dressing, was treated at “Dicky Bush”2, ambulanced to the 2nd Canadian Casualty Clearing Station and then entrained to the 54th London General Hospital at Wimereux, a coastal town in northern . Eleven days after the attack he was on a bound for “Blighty”. In England he marched, trained and motored between Clandon Park Hospital 3 and the No.3 Australian Auxiliary Hospital in Dartford. From Dartford he transferred to Hurdcott Camp near Fovant in South West England, but not before relieving the ‘blues’ with a visit to the Tower of London. (I read, that included in the items for sale when Hurdcott Camp was demolished, were five pianos, six billiards tables and hundreds of bats.) He was later transferred to Sutton Veny, a concentration area for troops going to or from France. It was here that the 1918 pandemic claimed the lives of over 150 Australians but Uncle Ern survived this particular killing field.

Within five months of his father in Mathinna receiving advice that his son had been wounded, Sapper Whittle was back in France, on duty in the Somme. From he moved through Pernois, Amiens, La Neuville, Bray-en- Somme to Maricourt where he camped in ‘death trap gully’ before working on the railway line through Cartigny to Lincourt, and finishing at Roisel. Here he witnessed ‘two of Jerries planes down in flames by gun fire”.

As part of the ‘’ which ultimately pushed the Germans out of France and led to the end of World War 1, Uncle Ern notes that on the 18th September the big offensive started with five hours of bombardment and over 3,500 prisoners being escorted to the Cartigny Depot. This ‘Battle of Epehy’4 was followed by the ‘Battle of St Quentin Canal’ 5. Now stationed in Busigny, Uncle writes that “on September 29th at The TSO Chorus remembers

5.45am the stunt commenced with four hours bombardment.6 On the 1st October the Huns planes dropped 6 on the camp killing 3 men and wounding 10 severely.” A total break in the was achieved by October 10th and Uncle Ern opted for a week’s spell!!

Travelling from Busigny to Felleries and then marching 12 miles north-east, Sapper Whittle crossed the Belgian border, and this is where his Notebook entries cease. The last pages are filled with riddles, such as: Why do girls like looking at the Moon? Because there is a man in it. What grows bigger the more you take from it? A hole. He returned to aboard the Aeneas, disembarking on the 12th .

The TSO Chorus remembers

Embroidered postcards from WW1 are generally known as "WW1 Silks". They were first produced in 1914 through 1918.The cards were hand embroidered on strips of silk mesh. They were mostly produced by French and Belgian women refugees who worked in their homes and refugee camps, and then sent the finished strips to factories for cutting and mounting on postcards. Because of their beauty and uniqueness, the WW1 Silks were wildly popular with British and American servicemen on duty in France. From http://www.ww1- propaganda-cards.com/silks.html

1 (Yperite); “…one of the most lethal of all the poisonous chemicals used during the war. It was almost odourless and took twelve hours to take effect. Yperite was so powerful that only small amounts had to be added to high explosive shells to be effective. Once in the soil, mustard gas remained active for several weeks. The skin of victims of mustard gas blistered, the eyes became very sore and they began to vomit. Mustard gas caused internal and external bleeding and attacked the bronchial tubes, stripping off the mucous membrane. This was extremely painful and most had to be strapped to their beds. It usually took a person four or five weeks to die of mustard gas poisoning. One nurse, , wrote in her autobiography, Testament of Youth (1933): "I wish those people who talk about going on with this war whatever it costs could see the soldiers suffering from mustard gas poisoning. Great mustard-coloured blisters, blind eyes, all sticky and stuck together, always fighting for breath, with voices a mere whisper, saying that their throats are closing and they know they will choke." From http://spartacus- educational.com/FWWmustard.htm

2 Dickie Bush A camp situated between Ouderdom and Dickebusch in the Ypres behind the front lines. In the years 1915-1917 Dickebusch (now Dikkebus) had one of the largest concentrations of troops.

3 West Clandon, Guildford, Surrey Clandon Park is one of England’s most complete examples of a Palladian mansion. It was built by a Venetian architect for Lord Onslow in the 1720s. In 1914 Clandon became an Auxiliary Military Hospital remaining open until 1919 in order to treat victims of the The TSO Chorus remembers

Spanish flu epidemic. There were 5059 admissions, and 747 operations were conducted in the operating theatre which had been Lord Onslow’s dressing room. 4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_%C3%89pehyhy 5http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_St._Quentin_Canal 6 Wikipedia: On 29 September, the Australian attacked, this time with the addition of two American divisions from the American II Corps … supported by approximately 150 of the 4th and 5th Brigades … The US divisions launched the initial attack, with the Australian 3rd and 5th Divisions intended to "leapfrog" through the American forces.”

1 Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum est As under a green sea, I saw him (1917) drowning. Bent double, like old beggars under In all my dreams, before my helpless sacks, sight, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we He plunges at me, guttering, choking, cursed through sludge, drowning. Till on the haunting flares we turned our If in some smothering dreams, you too backs, could pace And towards our distant rest began to Behind the wagon that we flung him in. trudge. And watch the white eyes writhing in his Men marched asleep. Many had lost their face, boots, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; But limped on, blood-shod. All went If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood lame, all blind; Come gargling from the froth-corrupted Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots lungs, Of gas-shells dropping softly behind. Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! An ecstasy of Of vile, incurable sores on innocent fumbling, tongues, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, My friend, you would not tell with such But someone still was yelling out and high zest stumbling To children ardent for some desperate And floundering like a man in fire or lime. glory, Dim through the misty panes and thick The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est green light, Pro patria mori. The TSO Chorus remembers

PART TWO Eight Arms for the War; Seven for the Farm

My Nan married my Pop in 1925. He was the eighth child of twelve from one of the Alexander families living at Table Cape near Wynyard, and his ten cousins from the other Alexander family included Frederick Matthias Alexander, founder of the Alexander Technique.

My childhood memories clearly separate the Alexander great aunts and uncles from the Whittle’s: there was much laughter and celebration and warmth within Nan’s family whereas I found the Alexanders quite strange and frightening. Perhaps I now have a better understanding of the times.

My great uncles Bertie, Claude and Elton served in the 40th battalion; a battalion recruited solely from Tasmanians. Lt General Sir wrote of the 40th Battalion: "The fact that it was composed wholly of the men of a small island state, gave it a special stimulus to the highest emulation of all other units. In no other unit was the pride of origin and sense of responsibility to the people it represented stronger than in the 40th".

Along with three Victorian-raised battalions, the 40th battalion formed the , 3rd , and joined with other divisions that had been transferred from . The Tasmanians had to undertake training for three months at Claremont, but without proper equipment and weaponry (jam tin bombs for example) their training was mostly musketry and drill, and their departure for overseas couldn’t come soon enough. On 1 three of my uncles embarked on HMAT Berrima from Hobart, and arrived in England on the 22 August. Uncle Allen, of whom I have no recollection, sailed on the Orontes from in and served with the 46th Infantry: Machine Gun Company. After further training at Lark Hill on Salisbury Plain, the eagerly awaited transfer to France to the ‘action’ came in . Initially the ‘Fighting Fortieth’ assisted other battalions and one of their dreaded duties was to carry the heavy and awkward gas cylinders to the front line trenches. Life in the trenches was undeniably exceedingly miserable; standing, eating, and sleeping knee deep in mud and muck, with rats that The TSO Chorus remembers

gnawed through haversacks to find a saved biscuit. Little did they know that their whole campaign would be bookended by perilous mud.

Their first major battle wasn’t until - the battle of Messines.1 Four months later they were involved in the battle for Broodseinde Ridge, and just a week later the battalion took part in a follow-up attack in the .2 Advancing across muddy ground, the battalion came under machine gun fire from their front and sides and the attack ultimately failed.

“The conditions made the last stages of the third battle of Ypres one of the most terrible conflicts in the history of war. Mud was the enemy's real defence, and under heavy fire we had struggled through it. It was under terrible conditions which made the fighting men reach the lowest possible depth of human misery. Belgium should no longer be called "the cockpit of ," for after the third battle of Ypres it became one of the biggest graveyards of the Anglo-Saxon race.

Strategically the battle was a failure, for we were never within measurable distance of the great objective aimed at, and it cost the British and Overseas 260,000 casualties.” Captain F.C.Green 40th Battalion https://archive.org/stream/fortiethrecordof00greerich/fortiethrecordof00greerich_djvu.txt When my Pop’s four brothers enlisted, their father was already deceased, and so it was Maria, their mother, who received the dreaded, sparsely worded, “We regret to inform you” notifications. The first arrived as early as July 1916 - (Uncle) Elton, hospitalised in France, and thereafter, a relentless stream of hastily typed ‘wounded in action’ notes perforated 1917: in February – Bertie; 3rd March – Allen; early June – Elton for the 2nd time; 26th June – Claude; 19th July – Elton for the 3rd time. The brothers’ hospitalisations treated infected toenails, gunshot wounds to arms & thigh, multiple gunshot wounds to back and arm, bronchitis, pneumonia, and cerebral concussion.

Despite these documented physical injuries, Elton, the farmer, Claude, the butcher, and Allen, the labourer, all returned to the front after being ‘fixed up’ in England and were in The TSO Chorus remembers

active service for over two years. Bertie’s injuries sent him home to within thirteen months of his deployment.

The casualties suffered by the 40th Battalion were horrendous and it is miraculous that Maria didn’t receive the pink telegram of death. , (1916-1918): 470 casualties - 66 killed Messines (7 June 1917): 343 casualties - 46 killed (4 ): 247 casualties - 50 killed Passchendaele (12 Oct 1917): 241 casualties - 79 killed http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-conflicts- periods/ww1/1aif/3div/10bde/40th_battalion_aif.htm

In the Spring of 1918 when the Germans attacked the Somme, the little village of Dernancourt became the new front line and the 3rd and 4th Australian Divisions were asked to help stop the advance of the German troops. Of the four brothers, only Allen in the 46th Infantry was still active, despite not being able to carry a pack due to shrapnel lodged in his back and shoulder.

Bertie was discharged on 3rd ; Elton, on 8th ; Allen on 6th July 1919 and Claude lost his discharge notice, lost his left arm, and his Victory Medal was lost down a drain. Despite the unimaginable suffering, the excruciating mental and physical The TSO Chorus remembers

distortion, Maria’s four sons all lived well into their eighties and she survived both WW1 and WW2, dying at 98 years of age.

1Battle of Messines: a successful assault on the Messines-Wytschaete Ridge, a strong strategic position held by the Germans since late 1914. The detonation of 19 mines beneath the German font line caused an estimated 10,000 German casualties. The combined British, Australian and infantry advanced behind a carefully co- ordinated bombardment and achieved their objectives within the first hours of the battle. https://www.awm.gov.au/military-event/E81/ 2As a part of the continuing Third Battle of Ypres, on the 12 October 1917, Australian, New Zealand and British troops were involved in an unsuccessful attempt to seize the Passchendaele Ridge from the defending Germans. The brutal attack took place in horrific waterlogged conditions: the name Passchendaele became a synonym for slaughter. https://www.awm.gov.au/military-event/E83/

Interestingly the infamous Cemetery stands on ground captured by the Allies in October 1917, specifically the 40th Battalion, the only all–Tasmanian battalion to fight with the AIF in . “Today the view from Tyne Cot looks over peaceful fields and farms, but in October 1917 in this countryside 6,405 Australians were killed in action or died of wounds and a further 19,194 were wounded. This makes October 1917 the worst single month of the war for the AIF.” http://www.ww1westernfront.gov.au/zonnebeke/visiting-tyne-cot/40th-battalion-at-tyne- cot.php

The TSO Chorus remembers

PART THREE A Road to Recovery

It wasn’t until the conflict that the word ‘war’ was ever spoken in our home, and then it expressed an unfathomable depth of dread and anguish. My parents’ friends with sons the same age as my sister were heavy with fear that they would ‘win the lottery’. They did in fact win the lottery when the birthday marbles fell either side of their sons’ birthdays. Fate.

Fate had determined the return of five out of five known (great) uncles from WW1 conflicts, and two out of two – my father’s brothers - from WW2. There was just one missing in action from the Burma Railway nightmare: Nan’s sister’s husband, my uncle Jim, if I had ever met him. Nonetheless the aftermath of war shaped their futures in ways I am only now appreciating.

And yet our home was so often alive with the animated singing of songs that originated in WW1: songs that had boosted the morale of soldiers and comforted those at home; songs that belied the wastefulness and hideousness of war; songs that wished the soldiers a safe return.

My Mum was a competent amateur pianist, well-practised in the art of the "oom-pah" (alternating bass note / chord) action of the left hand. Often the harmonies weren’t compatible with the tune but it went unnoticed as Mum played with such flare and spirit that everyone huddled around the piano was having a bonza time. As a child hearing these tunes, had I known the word ‘war’ I would have thought it meant a party. I loved these songs and would share the piano stool with Mum until inevitably I was sent to bed for the very last time!!

Her favourite song book has 1938 pencilled inside the cover and those songs listed in the Contents she favoured have a tidy pencil tick next to them; songs like – Comrades, Good- bye-ee!, Men of Harlech, Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag, Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! The Boys are Marching, When Johnny Comes Marching Home et al. Curiously It’s a long way to Tipperary is not in that collection so I must assume Mum played that one from The TSO Chorus remembers

memory, as I vividly recall it always being given a rowdy rendition in this medley. Written in 1912, it became a massive hit and by the outbreak of WW1 the publishers were selling 10 000 copies a day.

But the ‘Red Book’ wasn’t the only source of entertainment as Mum had a vast collection of sheet music and the nostalgic Keep the Home Fires Burning, Till we Meet Again, and If you were the only girl in the world are indelibly printed on my disintegrating memory sheet. So too, more so because of my dad’s antics, are songs like Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning and How ‘Ya Gonna keep ‘em down on the Farm (after they’ve seen Paree?). Although I don’t recall hearing Mum play these, I have her volume of E.T.Paull’s ‘Famous Marches ‘ which includes the Battle of the Nations March (1915) complete with explanations like “Heavy Cannonading”, “Bugle call to Arms in the Distance”, “Whole Falling Back” and a “Rule Britannia” quote to finish.

With all this fresh knowledge I’m wondering what emotion, if any, Pop experienced when he heard sung “Brother Bertie went away To do his bit the other day…Tho’ it’s hard to part, I know, I’ll be tickled to death to go…” After drill after drill at Claremont I’m guessing this summed up Bertie’s attitude. The TSO Chorus remembers