 1898 - 1917 (18 years)
-
| Name |
James Murphy |
| Title |
Pte 3399 |
| Suffix |
- WW1, 47th Batt. late 15th Batt, 11th Company |
| Born |
17 Jul 1898 |
Queensland, Australia.  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Military |
10 Apr 1917 & 11 Apr 1917 |
Bullicourt, France |
The First Battle Of Bullecourt
10 April 1917
General Gough decided to put the Australians in the van. Despite protestations by the Australian commanders about his unorthodox tactics (eg the over-riding reliance on the tanks and no preparatory bombardment), he decided to proceed with the attack on 10 April 1917 at 0430 hours. The main assault was to be led by the 4th Division of I ANZAC, supported by the British 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division, with the 12 tanks in the van to clear a passage through the heavy barbed wire defences and to deal with the machine-gun nests. In the midst of a blinding snowstorm, the tanks were delayed and were not in the line by zero hour. So the Australian commanders decided to postpone the attack until the tanks were ready. Unfortunately, the Australians did not inform their supporting British troops, and elements of the 62nd Division advanced, as scheduled, toward Hendecourt. They walked into a hail of machine gun and artillery fire; it was some while before they realised that the Australians had not moved forward. The 62nd subsequently withdrew having suffered many casualties.
The first disaster at Bullecourt was down to the Australians.
Nothing dismayed, Gough decided the operation would take place the next day despite the protestations of the Australian generals.
11 April 1917
On 11 April 1917, 11 of the tanks were in roughly in position at 0430 hours - zero hour. The Australian 4th Division's 12 Brigade decided to wait until all of its tanks were properly positioned. But the Australian 4 Brigade decided to press on regardless, without the tanks, along its planned line of advance to the right of Bullecourt village: a risky move since their left flank - where 12 Brigade was supposed to be - was vulnerable to enfilading fire. As planned, once again there was no preliminary bombardment to ensure a surprise element for the tanks. Nevertheless, despite heavy machine gun and artillery fire, 4 Brigade reached the first line of the German trenches and occupied them. They then moved off in the direction of the neighbouring village of Riencourt. At which point a well-sited German machine gun nest brought the brigade to a halt.
Meanwhile, 12 Brigade finally got the tanks organised by 0515 hours, and the 11 tanks set off with the men of 12 Brigade following them. But the speed of some of the tanks was so slow that the advancing infantry overtook them. The pattern of advance closely mirrored that of the 4 Brigade. After capturing the first line German trench, and part of the second,12 Brigade was halted by stiff opposition. Further advance depended on artillery support. None was forthcoming from the Australian artillery.
At 1000 hours the Germans counter-attacked with their usual fervour and efficacy. In two hours all of the first line trenches had been retaken; many of the Australian troops in the German second line trench were cut off.
As for the tanks, they had proved to be almost useless: all but one were either broken down, ditched or destroyed by artillery fire, leaving the advancing troops without a covering barrage at the critical points of the advance.
When it came to totalling up the casualties and reviewing the day's events, four facts stood out.
Firstly, the British 62nd Division felt badly let down by the Australian commanders - Generals Birdwood, White, Walker, Smythe, Holmes and McCay - and their artillery.
Secondly, the Australians' faith in the professional abilities of the British Senior commanders, Generals Haig and Gough, was seriously compromised.
Thirdly, the Australian casualties were astronomical:12 Brigade had suffered 45% casualties (950 from 2,000) and 4 Brigade 78% (2,339 from 3,000), representing two-thirds of the strength of the whole of the 4th Division, and of whom over a thousand were taken prisoner. As a result, the Australian 4th Division was taken out of the line and remained so for four months until it was entirely rebuilt and retrained.
Fourthly, the Australians, almost to a man, were completely disenchanted with the new British weapon - the tank - and refused for over a year to have anything to do with it. This may have had consequences that closely mirror those of the American Army on Omaha Beach at D-Day when the British special beach weapons (The Funnies) were similarly spurned. Subsequently, over the next year many Australian lives were lost that probably could have been saved.
|
| Died |
11 Apr 1917 |
Bullecourt, France |
| Military |
22 Jul 1938 |
Cemetery: VILLERS-BRETONNEUX MEMORIAL |
Cemetery: VILLERS-BRETONNEUX MEMORIAL
Country: France
Locality: Somme
Visiting Information: This memorial stands within Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery. October 2008 Note: Horticultural renovation will take place in the cemetery in annual phases, commencing in November 2008 and ending in 2010. Access to the tower at the memorial will be restricted during bad weather conditions. During working hours wheelchair access to Villers-Bretonneux Cemetery, in which the memorial stands, is possible by an alternative entrance. For further information regarding wheelchair access, please contact our Enquiries Section on 01628 507200. The names are engraved on the memorial in order of battalion, then alphabetically under rank.
Location Information: Villers-Bretonneux is a village 16 kilometres east of Amiens on the straight main road to St Quentin. Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery is about 2 kilometres north of the village on the east side of the road to Fouilloy.
Historical Information: Villers-Bretonneux became famous in 1918, when the German advance on Amiens ended in the capture of the village by their tanks and infantry on 23 April. On the following day, the 4th and 5th Australian Divisions, with units of the 8th and 18th Divisions, recaptured the whole of the village and on 8 August 1918, the 2nd and 5th Australian Divisions advanced from its eastern outskirts in the Battle of Amiens. The VILLERS-BRETONNEUX MEMORIAL is the Australian national memorial erected to commemorate all Australian soldiers who fought in France and Belgium during the First World War, to their dead, and especially to those of the dead whose graves are not known. The 10,770 Australian servicemen actually named on the memorial died in the battlefields of the Somme, Arras, the German advance of 1918 and the Advance to Victory. The memorial stands within VILLERS-BRETONNEUX MILITARY CEMETERY, which was made after the Armistice when graves were brought in from other burial grounds in the area and from the battlefields. Plots I to XX were completed by 1920 and contain mostly Australian graves, almost all from the period March to August 1918. Plots IIIA, VIA, XIIIA and XVIA, and Rows in other Plots lettered AA, were completed by 1925, and contain a much larger proportion of unidentified graves brought from a wider area. Later still, 444 graves were brought in from Dury Hospital Military Cemetery. There are now 2,141 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 608 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to five casualties known or believed to be buried among them, and to 15 buried in other cemeteries whose graves could not be found on concentration. The cemetery also contains the graves of two New Zealand airmen of the Second World War. Both the cemetery and memorial were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. The memorial was unveiled by King George VI on 22 July 1938.
No. of Identified Casualties: 10767
This figure includes Foreign and Non-World War graves in CWGC care |
| Buried |
Buried 500 Yds, , E.Of Bullecourt, France |
- Burial information taken from James Murphy Testation papers.
James was wounded and carried by 4 fellow soldiers (one being Pte W. Foster no. 2169. who stated that James was carried to the Dressing Station near Crucifix Corner at Noreiul. At this time the enemy were shelling very heavily near the dressing station.
British Expeditionary Force- buried 500yrds E of Bullecourt.
His dear mother (Mrs Norah Murphy) lived at Haughton St, Red Hill, Brisbane in 1919.
Jack Galloway Healy also died as a result of wounds received while defending Bullecourt on the 11 Aprril 1917. he was buried 500 yards East of Bullecourt which has Jack and James in the same grave or same vacinity. By looking at maps of Bullecourt it appears quite possible that they were buried very near the Digger Monument.
|
| Person ID |
I1788 |
Hickey, List, Bundesen, Thomsen, Jensen, Jessen |
| Last Modified |
10 Apr 2010 |
| Father |
James Murphy, b. 1861, Cork, Ireland. , d. 16 Apr 1912, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (Age 51 years) |
| Mother |
Honora, (Norah) Shine, b. 5 Mar 1864, Newmarket, Cork, Ireland , d. 16 Nov 1939, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (Age 75 years) |
| Married |
22 Feb 1887 |
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia |
| Family ID |
F227 |
Group Sheet |
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