Wwi Digger Stories Podcast

"A young sergeant led a section that passed in artillery formation, and I shall never forget that godlike youth while life shall last. To think of him now is an inspiration, for he was Australia, young, handsome, earnest, and grim. His eyes were lit with the flame of duty, and he never flinched beneath the swish of shrapnel that Fritz had now directed on our advancing troops. He led his brigade and could not falter." ... Lieutenant George H Wilson. Enough said!

Jim finishes his wartime recollections with descriptions of his time as a "guest" of the Ottoman Empire after his capture at Es Salt in May 1918. Jim describes the conditions in the prison camp, working on the Berlin Baghdad Railway, lice, poor food, bad clothing, other prisoners and the Turkish guards. He also recounts his repatriation, first to Alexandria, then England and then home to Adelaide.

In 1973 Keith Tidswell placed a microphone in front of his grandfather, cameleer, light horseman and field ambulanceman. Over an hour later Jim had recounted his training, the trip over, a little about Beersheba, Es Salt and... Well, that is as far as we get in this episode. It's a "ripper of a yarn" as Jim might have said but you'll have to wait for Part 2 to hear how Jim's war ends! Apologies for the lateness of this one folks, I have been busy with work and home matters!

In late October 1914, English born missionary, Reverend Cox was assaulted and flogged with a cane by several Germans and a Belgian on the island of New Ireland. What followed was one of the few blemishes on  the career of Major General William Holmes. The Germans went so far as to ask the US Ambassador to London enquire about the punishment without a trial. The SS Matinga visits Rabaul on one of her supply missions, but it is her last supply run in 1917 that is interesting when she meets the German raider SMS Wolf!

This one is action packed, Bill hides stores, watches the surrender of New Guinea, is present when the submarine AE1 went missing and heard first hand about the sinking of the SMS Emden by HMAS Sydney. We also look at the capture of the German vessels, Nusa and Komet and Tok Pisin!

Although a minuscule battle by WW1 standards, about 37 men were killed in the Battle of Pita Paka, the fight to take the German colony of New Guinea in September 1914. Bill Lane was amongst the fighting: "Owing to the thickness of the bush, a few of us got separated from the mob. With shooting go on all around, we not knowing whether it was the enemy or our own men. Us, not knowing the German uniform and not knowing they had natives fighting for them, we were in danger of shooting our own men or being mistaken for the enemy."

Who were the first Australians to die in World War 1? They were British soldiers, "Old Contemptibles" actually, but what next? Gallipoli? No! Australia fought its first land battle at New Guinea....“If your Ministers desire and feel themselves able to seize German wireless stations at Yap in Marshall Islands, Nauru on Pleasant Island, and New Guinea, we should feel that this was a great and urgent Imperial service”. So there you go, this short series examines this campaign.

In the final 5oth episode of Percy Smythe's diary we interview his niece, WW2 WAAF veteran, Margaret Clarke and great niece and creator of the Smythe Family History website, Jacqui Kennedy. We also hear Percy's daughter Betty's account of his and Dorrie's later years, read by another great niece, Vivienne Smythe. The last minute will leave you numb as Vivienne reads Percy's poem about the Battle of Pozieres.

At a concert on board the ship home a scene had a "map of Australia depicted by boxes placed together with lights in them. Behind was a tableau, a "digger" just arriving home, met by his mother and his grey-headed old father, the latter holding a little child in his arms. It was very touching, and brought a choking pain into one's throat and a dimness to one's eyes." Then, at Adelaide when the ship docks, Percy hears some terrible news. This one covers the trip home on the SS Anchises, sight seeing in South Africa, Adelaide and Melbourne. It's a real buzz-buzz, whatever that is!

Percy contemplates the great peace celebrations at London in 1919, "It marked the end of the years of cruel warfare and dreary hardships. It meant a lot to me. Those gaudy cloths and things expressed the joyous relief and thankfulness of thousands and millions of my fellow beings that the war is over and Peace is signed. All the people were rejoicing with me, and it touched the deepest chords of emotion in my heart. None but soldiers know, or even guess, what war is."

An English wedding... On again , off again. Finally after some deceitful behaviour from Dorrie's parents, the young couple have to go to Scotland to be married. A returned Chaplain from a Scottish Infantry Battalion handles the service and greatly helps the young lovers. This one covers the lead up to the wedding, the happy day and the honeymoon at Loch Lomond.

The aftermath of war..... "I saw something in the window of a house which caught my attention. It appeared to be a cut-out poster or picture of a hideous face like the cartoons one sees of mad Bolsheviks, thick grizzled beard and a mop of grizzled hair, and a horrible expression on the face. As I walked past looking at it in wonder at the very hideousness of it, the supposed picture suddenly started back violently as it caught sight of me, the eyes bulged out of their sockets and stared as though I were some frightful apparition. This made the face look more horrible and unearthly than ever. I was greatly astonished, and it made one feel uncomfortable to be the object of that ghastly maniacal stare. Obviously the fellow was a maniac, possibly a German soldier gone mad at the war and filled with sudden terror at sight of anyone in khaki. I looked back as I went on, and the awful face kept moving around the window to keep me in view, until the foliage of a tree came between".

This one is wide and varied. Percy writes something that I have read over an over again in these diaries. To him, Armistice Day was a relief rather than a cause for merriment, and that is not just because Percy isn't a party animal, it was common among the majority of the soldiers. I love Percy's description of Christmas and the farewell dinners ....  At 6.30p.m. 54 officers sat down, and one glance at the artistic and lengthy menu dispelled all doubt -- if any doubt there had been -- as to the probable quality of the dinner. At each diner's elbow lay a bon-bon cracker, and those of us who were childishly eager to pull our crackers were soon satisfied. The colonel set the ball rolling by inviting the "Beer Emma" (Brigade-Major) to pull his cracker with him. Immediately there followed a crackle around the table, and each of us donned the paper hats contained in the bon-bons. Then we settled down. Maybe I should say that most of us settled down, for the barman had been working like a Trojan in the ante-room all

In the last of the battle episodes, Percy is somewhat on the sidelines but we get his interesting insights into what is going on around him and around the world. Meuse-Argonne, Bellicourt, Montbrehain are all discussed in some detail and the 24th Battalion wins their one and only VC.

I have no doubt that this is the best from Percy Smythe, absolutely full on account of one of the main defeats of the Germans in 1918. Don't believe me? Here is an extract; "A heavy, probably a 9.2 inch, had evidently landed fair in the trench. The carnage was awful. Dead, wounded, and dying, all lay huddled and twisted together in grotesque little heaps, a mass of mangled flesh. At first all was silent. But when those who still lived saw that we were there, they began to moan piteously for help. Without any hesitation we set to work to do what we could for them. Kneeling down by the first living man, I saw that he was in a pretty bad state. Besides other wounds, his right arm was hanging to his shoulder by a small strip of skin and flesh. He begged me to cut the useless limb right off, and I tried to do so with a blunt jack-knife, but could not manage it. I cut his tunic away from the damaged arm, and cut the equipment off his body to give him a little ease". Well that's about as bad as it could get!

Percy: "I ordered the men to get the Hun gun, but again nobody seemed willing to go forward. I decided to go over first to encourage them, and sprang up on to the earth block. As I did so, a man called out, "Don't go over! There's a bomb not gone off!" The words were immediately followed by an explosion three yards in front of me! It was one of our Mills grenades with those treacherous 7-second fuses...."

August 8th, 1918. Here is a some of what Percy saw, "Moving on from Villers Bretonneux, we passed the wrecked aerodrome that we could see from the Villers line at the time of the Hamel stunt, the former front line and the late No-man's-land, then the old German front line. A few dead Germans lay singly here and there along the way. A couple of supply tanks lumbered noisily across country returning from the fray. Overhead, the 'planes were very busy, many returning from the front and many others going forward. We passed a German brigadier and staff officer, escorted by a solitary digger unarmed save for a great waddy which he carried over his shoulder."

Wait for Zero Hour in the Battle of Hamel. Percy experienced this one from the sidelines. Learn about camouflage counter battery work, tanks, new kinds of shells, sneezing gas, German prisoners and much more. Here is a bit of it: "Suddenly the captain sat up and exclaimed, "It's quarter of a minute past zero and the bombardment hasn't started!" We tumbled out of the dug-out in order to witness the strafe, and, even as we did so, a machine gun started chopping the air on our left, and the next instant the valleys and ridges behind us broke forth into a vast rumbling roar, the sky dancing with the multitude of lightning-like flashes from our guns. I jumped on to the nearest fire-step in time to see the first red light go up from the German lines. It was followed by many more all along our front, and by green ones, and also the pretty orange clusters and the ordinary white illuminating flares. Less than a mile in front of us the barrage from our guns descended in a mighty uproar on the German lines. Great column

Percy gets his commission on 1 June 1918, although he doesn't say a lot about it. This covers the final weeks up to departure and the trip through to Base Camp. Dorrie's Dad, Mr Jewel remains a gem, ha ha, and the two lovers bid a fond adieu. I found the best old WW1 song for our Perce, as you will hear.

Percy gets a letter from his old friend, Jack Elliott, and you can guess the response from the Episode title! Here is a bit of what Percy wrote back: "Jack, if you've got any manhood left in you, cut adrift from that miserable soulless lot of cowards and come over here and do your duty as a man and a true Australian, and as a Christian." Take that Jack! Percy finishes his officer training and prepares to go back to France.