The horrors of the first world war.

 In parts of the line there was some panic; in one case, an Non-Commissioned Officer of the 31st Battalion brandished a revolver to keep men from breaking in the early morning as they saw many others retiring on both flanks.

Elsewhere the withdrawal was more deliberate. Sapper Fred Strode of the 8th Field Company was one of a party of four men instructed to hold their line on the morning of 20 July to enable his company to get back to their trenches. He held on until his supply of hand grenades ran out and his mates were killed, and then he too fled.

Wounded men had begun to crawl back during the night while others still lay in no man’s land, calling for help. By dawn on the morning of 20 July the Australian trenches were packed with wounded and dying men.

For the next three days and nights, Australians risked their own lives to go out under enemy fire to retrieve the hundreds of wounded men in no man’s land. But the Germans opened fire at every movement. For several days after the battle a blinded and dazed Australian officer staggered about near the German lines and a umber of men were killed attempting to rescue him. Eventually, the Germans shot the man.

An informal truce occurred in one sector which allowed the Australians to carry in some of their wounded but when he learned of this, the Australian divisional commander, Major General James Whiteside M’Cay, halted the truce.

Some wounded men remained in no man’s land for up to a week, scavenging food and water from the dead, hiding by day and crawling by night until at last they reached their own lines.

But many remained missing. More than two years after the battle, on the day of the Armistice of 11 November 1918 when the guns of the Western Front finally ceased fire, Charles Bean wandered over the battlefield of Fromelles and observed the grisly aftermath of the battle. "We found the old No-Man’s-Land simply full of our dead," he recorded. "The skulls and bones and torn uniforms were lying about everywhere."

The Australian 5th Division’s losses in this single night amounted to 5,533 officers and men killed, wounded or taken prisoner. It would be many months before the division would be ready for action again. The British 61st Division lost 1,547 casualties, including 500 dead. The Germans lost fewer than 1,600 casualties in the battle, half of them in the regiment opposing the Australians.

During the Battle of Fromelles, the 31st Battalion lost 580 men including 66 killed in action, 440 wounded and 80 missing but estimates that 500 Germans were killed in their sector of attack. Luckily, Harold survived the Battle of Fromelles and for his courage, was confirmed to the rank of Company Quartermaster Serjeant on July 29, 1916 then promoted to the rank of Second Lieutenant on August 30.

On September 7, 1916, Harold and the 31st Battalion left the killing fields of Fromelles and moved back to Fleurbaix in billets described as "very dirty". During their period here, they received new equipment including new gas masks then moved for Armentieres on September 21. A week later, on September 27, they marched to Houplines where they remained until October 12.

On October 13, 1916, the men of the 31st Battalion left Houplines and marched to Strazeele and shortly after, received orders to join the Somme front. On October 17, they embarked by train at Bailleul and arrived at Longpre, near Amiens on October 17. From there, Harold and his unit marched to Yaucourt-Bussus, reached Buire on October 21 and joined Mametz the next day where they underwent a period of training then moved to Montauban Camp on October 29. Shortly after, on the 1st November, the battalion took up position near Flers in a position called "Factory House" where unfortunately Harold met his fate and was killed by a German shell while he was asleep in a dugout on November 4. He was only 23 years old.

Today, Second Lieutenant Harold William Wilthew rests in peace alongside his friends, comrades and brothers in arms at the AIF Burial Ground, Flers, Somme, and his grave bears the following inscription: "In remembrance of our dear brother.Gave his life for king and country."

Harold had a brother who also fought courageously during the Great War. He was Private number 1708 Reginald Kenneth Wilthew who served in the 36th Australian Infantry Battalion. Reginald survived the war and returned to Australia on August 22, 1919. He died peacefully on June 15, 1978 at the age of 81 in Narrabeen, New South Wales, Australia.

Harold, so brave, it was in the prime of your life that you raised your head and under the sinister bells which announced the start of the war, you answered the call of duty, the call of Australia and joined the smiling ranks of young men who became soldiers, comrades, brothers watching over each other with fraternity and who, ready to give their lives, embarked together on slow steamboats but, even if they were proud, even if they were strong, they could not hide their tears in the arms of their mothers and sisters who said goodbye, some for the last time because, even if they volunteered with ardor and enthusiasm, these young men knew that war would not spare them from the horrors and suffering that it caused in floods of blood but for them, despite the dangers and death that awaited beyond the horizon, their fight was the good fight and shoulder to shoulder, they defended values and causes that were worth more than their own lives so, their heads held high, pushed forward by valiant hearts, they sailed for war, for an unknown destination but they knew that wherever they went they would not be not alone and would stand alongside their friends, their brothers so that this war puts an end to all wars, so that peace and freedom triumph over darkness and madness then, after a long voyage on the seas, through the calm of the waves and the foam, they arrived in France, on the soil of a country that they did not know but for which they were ready to fight with all their heart and all their determination then, standing alongside the horses, they headed with faith and confidence towards the trenches of the great war, towards all the horror and brutality of battles which awaited the young Diggers but in the heat of the summer, under the sun of July 1916 , nothing prepared them for the hell which took them under rains of shells and bullets at Fromelles where, in a few minutes, thousands of them fell at a terrible pace side by side in their uniforms reddened with blood and torn to pieces by the shrapnel and the murderous fire of the machine guns which left these young men no chance to reach their objectives.In this hell of fire and steel, of mournful howls, the innocence of these young men was swept away, reduced to nothing in this nightmare from which it was impossible to hide but, even in the face of death, the young Australian soldiers showed all their bravery, their conviction and made their country proud. Together, they showed the strength of the entire Australian nation who stood proudly behind their sons and wrote the legend of the ANZAC spirit through their actions, their camaraderie and their sacrifices and despite the catastrophic losses suffered at Fromelles, these brave men did not give up and shortly after, at Flers, Pozieres, in the poppy fields of the Somme, they showed the same courage, the same fighting spirit which characterized the Australian soldier, a courage which was deeply admired by their French brothers in arms and who, in Villers-Bretonneux, in Amiens, fought shoulder to shoulder until victory.However, when they looked behind them when the bugle sounded on November 11, 1918, the Australians saw the distance traveled and saw their brothers, their mates who, silent, lay lifeless in the mud and in the barbed wire or who, in full run, were mowed down by rains of lead and fell into shell holes filled with stagnant water and blood above which hovered the smell of death. They marched on the killing fields and saw men with whom they had grown up in laughter and love and who, their eyes towards the sky, mutilated, disfigured, still seemed to want to fight and defend these lands of France and on which they gave their lives, their youth, their hopes, their everything far from home but after this darkness endured with so much bravery, sometimes wondering why all this, they saw the children of France come to say thank you and put flowers on the graves of their brothers who fell here and understood why they fought,  to give new hope to future generations, to allow us to live in a world in peace.More than a hundred years have passed but the memory of Australian soldiers who fought and fell in the Somme has not disappeared, French children continue to come and pay their respects to the graves of these heroes whom I do not see as ordinary men but as heroes who paid the supreme sacrifice. They are not just names or service numbers but they are and will always be our sons, my boys of the Somme over whom I will always watch over with care and love to perpetuate their memory so that no one never forget who these young boys were and what they did for us. In the Somme, the friendship that unites Australia and France, the ANZAC spirit and the memory of the Diggers will live forever.Thank you so much Harold, for everything you and your brother did for us and for my country whose respect, gratitude and love will always be yours.At the going down of the sun and in the morning,we will remember him,we will remember them.🌺

In the fifth photo taken in Egypt before going to France, Harold William Wilthew is second from the left