Private Joseph Bottrall, 32nd Battalion, AIF
Australian War MemorialJoseph Bottrall was born on 5 February 1881, the fifth of nine children born to Mary and Charles Bottrall, in Black Spring, north of Adelaide in South Australia. He attended the Model School at nearby Burra, and later moved with his family towards the coast to live in Lower Light and Telowie on St Vincent Gulf. At some point around the turn of the century, Bottrall’s father left the family and went to live in Western Australia. Joseph Bottrall moved to work as an engine driver at the smelting plant at Port Pirie. There, he worked with his brother and supported his mother, and was for several years the Secretary of the Federated Engine Drivers and Fireman’s Association, a union organisation. He was a popular and well-respected member of the Port Pirie community.
Bottrall enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 7 October 1915, and soon began training with the reinforcements of the 32nd Infantry Battalion. On 7 February 1916 he sailed from Adelaide for Egypt and service abroad. Before he left, he was given a fond farewell by the Port Pirie community and presented with a gold watch.
In March 1916, he arrived in Egypt, where he was taken on strength of the 32nd Battalion and continued his training. Bottrall was too late to serve on Gallipoli, but was in Egypt while the AIF reorganised in preparation for service on the Western Front in France and Belgium.
In June, Bottrall sailed with the 32nd Battalion from Egypt for France, and immediately after disembarking moved north to camp and train at Morbecque, not far from the border with Belgium.
On 16 July, Bottrall and the 32nd Battalion moved into front-line trenches for the first time near the small town of Fleurbaix. Bottrall, who served in D Company, was tasked with repairing trench defences in the front line while other companies of his unit served in the reserve. On the afternoon of 17 July, they came under heavy German artillery fire and were forced to pull back to the relative protection of the reserve lines. Hours later they returned to the front-line trenches to continue to repair the defences, as well as to observe enemy defences and attempt to cut barbed wire defences in no man’s land.
On 19 July 1916, Bottrall and the 32nd Battalion took part in Australia’s first major engagement on the Western Front, in what would become known as the battle of Fromelles. Troops of the 5th Australian Division formed the northern flank of a joint British and Australian attack on a bulge in the German lines known as the Sugar Loaf. The attack took place after a seven-hour artillery bombardment of the German lines, but ineffective fire and strong German counter-attacks resulted in devastating allied losses. Australia suffered over 5,500 casualties in the battle, including more than 1,900 dead.
Bottrall participated in the third and fourth waves of his battalion’s attack, which formed part of the left of the Australian flank. Troops of the 32nd Battalion attacked across waterlogged ground and found ineffective cover in a muddy ditch, before successfully taking a series of German trenches. Throughout the night of 19/20 July they suffered terribly in the face of a series of concerted German counter-attacks, and were eventually forced to withdraw. In less than 24 hours, the 32nd Battalion suffered 718 casualties, some 75 per cent of its total strength.
Bottrall was killed at some point during the bloody fighting on 19 July, probably by German high explosive or shrapnel artillery fire during the advance, or during one of the German counter-attacks.
He was 35 years old, and had been in France for less than a month.
In the chaos of the battle his body was never recovered, and he lies to this day in an unknown grave somewhere in the former battlefields of northern France.
His name is engraved at the VC Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial at Fromelles, which lists the names of nearly 1,300 Australians who fell at Fromelles and have no known grave.
