Hugh Allan Harris

“At 5:30 am the calm of the night was suddenly broken by a barrage put down by the Hun across the assembly lines. It appeared that our assembly had been discovered - but no this was his preliminary barrage preparatory to an attack which he contemplated making over the ground recently captured from him. Information later obtained from prisoners showed that our attack anticipated the one he intended making by only a quarter of an hour. During this barrage which was extremely ineffective we suffered few casualties - Captain Towl, Officer Commanding D. Coy, being among the slightly wounded.

That half hour was nerve racking but instead of demoralising our assembled troops tended only to develop and strengthen the fighting spirit requisite for an attack. Dawn was fast breaking - the time was fast approaching. Another minute and the twilight would disappear. At the end of that minute, down 200 yards in front of us fell a heavy curtain of metal - what a crash! It was our barrage.

The opening roar of the canons was like thunder. For 3 minutes that curtain would hang on to the line where it had fallen, then lift to a line 100 yards ahead from which it would again lift and follow in the course of the programme made out for it… “We're in it -boys”, shouted someone and then arose as out of the earth some hundreds of it, athletic men bent only on one thing - the extermination or capture of the enemy and booty encountered or found in the area between their assembly and their objective some 500 yards ahead. Forward they went in attack formation, few fell as the enemy shells and shrapnel brush about them. Machine gun bullets filled the air with whistling noises but soon died down as our barrage caught the emplacements. “Major Story’s “cracked”, yelled someone.

Two company commanders were now out of action. Lieutenants L. J. Brown and M. R. Stokes automatically took charge in their places. Already the appealing cry of “Kamerad” was heard and groups of pale faced, frightened Huns with hands upraised hurried past back to out lines. These were a poor looking lot though later batches were sprinkled with magnificently well built and soldierly looking men. Most of them belonged to Bavarian Regiments. Pill boxes were rushed by some of the men and dozens of the enemy extracted, unarmed and made prisoners. These pill boxes are in themselves veritable fortresses from which the Hun is able to fire on advancing troops without running any risk of being injured by our barrage. They are solid concrete, the walls and the roof being in some cases 6 feet thick.

Strong resistance met from one of these places were soon overcome when the men got into close quarters with their bayonets - these they used with remarkable efficiency. After this the Hun willingly surrendered and by the time the first wave of the leading companies had reached its objective some 400 prisoners had been captured and 8 pillboxes and dug-outs mopped up.”

The diarist continued;

“The medical arrangements of this Battalion were excellent. The Regimental Aid Post was established at Mitchells Farm. The work of the stretcher bearers was difficult as the going over the sodden ground was hard, nevertheless cheerfulness at all times characterised them as they plodded along.”

We’re not sure what Company of the 37th Battalion Hugh belonged to, but we do know that at some stage during the attack Hugh was killed in action. He was one of 47 “other ranks” from the 37th Battalion who were killed during the battle that would become known as the Third Battle of Ypres, or Passchendaele. Such were the atrocious weather conditions during the time of this battle that Hugh’s body was never recovered. He is one of over 350,00 men of the British Empire who had no known grave in this campaign and who is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres, Belgium.

The Corryong Courier of 25 October 1917 wrote of his death.

“Another well-known local lad has paid the supreme sacrifice. Last evening the Rev. Mr Coulter was entrusted by the Defence Department with the sad duty of informing the brothers and sisters of Pte. Hugh A. Harris that he had been killed on the 5th inst. In France. Hugh was amongst the slightly wounded some few months ago, but had been back in the firing line for some time. We extend the sympathy of the district to his relatives. The flag at the local school was hoisted at half mast this morning; deceased being an old pupil of the school.”

Hugh’s death was not mourned by his siblings, but also by a young lady of the district. On the 8th of November, 1917, the following was placed into the “Thanks” column of the Corryong Courier by Adelline Button, a resident of Corryong.

“Thanks

MISS Button desires to THANK her many friends for their kind letters of sympathy in her recent sad bereavement in the loss of her dear friend, Pte. Hugh Harris, who was killed in action (in France) on October 5th, 1917.”

On 3 October 1918, Adelline placed the following notice in the Corryong Courier.

“HARRIS. - In loving memory of Pte. Hugh Harris, killed in action October 4th, 1917.

I seem to your face, Hugh,

Through a mist of anxious tears;

Oh, a sweetheart’s part is a broken heart,

And a burden of lonely years.

Time may heal the broken heart,

Tme may make the wound less sore;

But time will never stop the longing

For the love one I adored.

• Inserted by Adelline Button.”

Adelline would go on to mourn for Hugh for another ten years before marrying Allan Leach Hamilton II, the brother of Joseph Bell Hamilton, who was also killed in action on the Western Front.

Hugh Allan Harris was born in 1894 in Corryong, Victoria. His father, James, was 52 while his mother, Esther Annie (née Attree), was 39. He would be the youngest of four siblings; Willam Attree, Annie Crawford, and Ernest Frederick. His father would pass away on the 9th of January, 1908, whilst his mother, Annie, would pass away on the 25th of November, 1916.

Hugh enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces on the 26th of May, 1916, at Tallangatta, Victoria, being allocated the service number 1847. At the time of his enlistment, he gave his occupation as “Farmer ''. Initially his next of kin was given as his mother, however, this was later crossed out and replaced with his eldest brother, William, due to his mother having passed away in late 1916. Hugh was described as being single, 170 cm in height, weighing 84 kg, having fair hair and complexion, and blue eyes.

After initial training at Broadmeadows on the outskirts of Melbourne, Hugh embarked on the S.S. Orontes at Port Melbourne on the 16th of August, 1916, disembarking at Plymouth in England on the 2nd of October, 1916. He was initially attached to the 10th Training Battalion before being allocated to the 8th Training Battalion on the 14th of October, 1916. Two weeks later he was taken on strength by the 37th Battalion.

The 37th Battalion proceeded overseas to France on the 22nd of November, 1916, embarking from the Port of Southampton. One month after arriving in France, he was admitted to the 10th Field Ambulance with mumps at Armentieres and then forwarded onto the 1st Canadian Casualty Clearing Station. Hugh’s first Christmas overseas was spent in bed at the 7th Canadian General Hospital at Etaples, France.

Hugh was released back to his Battalion on the 12th of January, 1917. In early April, he was once again admitted to the 10th Field Ambulance with a septic toe on his left foot. After spending some time at the 15th Casualty Clearing Station, he was returned to the Battalion on the 20th of April, 1917.

On the 7th of June of that year, Hugh was in action with his Battalion as they participated in the attack on the Messines Ridge. The start of this battle was announced with the detonation of nineteen mines that had been two years in planning and construction. It was said that the detonation could be felt as far away as London, England.   As Hugh and the rest of his Battalion moved up to the assembly trenches they came under intense gas shelling from the Germans. This resulted in wearing the box respirator, a more compact version of the original gas respirator. As recorded by an unknown diarist:

“Every German gun seemed to be pouring gas shells over, and the air was full of the whine peculiar to the aerial flight of a gas-shell. They burst all round the columns, and a number of men were killed or wounded by flying nose-caps. Occasionally the monotonous whine and pop of impact was relieved by a high explosive or an incendiary shell, and the casualties were fairly heavy. The remainder of the approach march was like a nightmare. The actual wearing of a small box-respirator is a physical discomfort at any time, but on a hot dark night for men loaded with ammunition, arms, and equipment, it is a severe strain. Wounded and gassed men were falling out, and officers and non-commissioned officers were continually removing their respirators to give orders and to keep their platoons together. A shell would burst in a platoon, the dead and wounded would fall, and the rest of the platoon would pull themselves together and move on, for above everything was the fixed determination to be in position at the Zero hour, and the realisation that this terrible gassing, if it prevented our arrival on time, might easily result in the failure of the whole operation.” 

During the fighting, Hugh received a gunshot wound to a finger on his left hand. This time he was first sent to the 9th Field Ambulance, and then moved down the line to the 2nd Casualty Clearing Station, before finally being sent to the 32nd Stationary Hospital based at Wimereux. After spending a short time in hospital (3 days) his wound had sufficiently healed for him to be sent to the 1st Convalescent Depot at Boulogne. On the 14th of July, he was sent to the 3rd Australian Divisional Base Depot at Rouelles. Hugh would spend nearly two months recovering from his wound before being sent back to his Battalion on the 18th of August. 

On the 4th of October, Hugh’s Battalion, the 37th Battalion of the 10th Infantry Brigade, was involved in the first day of fighting in the Third Battle of Ypres. It would be Hugh’s last day.

Hugh is remembered at the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres, Flanders, Belgium, the Corryong State School Roll of Honour, and the Corryong War Memorial. For his service during the First World War, he was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.