#8241 Gunner George Frederick Eley
6TH BRIGADE, AUSTRALIAN FIELD ARTILLERY
SINCE THEIR RELIEF BY THE Canadians, the Australian contingent that had been so bludgeoned around Pozières had been further north, their main purpose a series of trench raids and improving defences. They had heard rumours of the appalling conditions on the Somme in which men were being ordered to attack and the Australians felt the first pangs of apprehension when a British division nearby that had been present at the beginning of the Battle of the Somme was sent back there. Then in early October another, familiar to them from their Gallipoli days, followed. It was still a shock to the men though, when on 9th October it was revealed that certain Australians were going back to the scene of their utter devastation.
Gunner George Eley. (Authors’ collection)
Heading south with a brigade of the Australian Field Artillery was a 24 year old from Ross, Tasmania. George Eley, a clerk, had enlisted in September 1915. With two years’ gunnery experience with a volunteer outfit at home, the artillery was a logical choice. He had first joined his unit during its defence of the Suez Canal at the end of 1915, before sailing for France in the spring. On board the transport Arcadia, George steamed into Marseilles on 23rd March. A cheeky character, he was prone to wandering, the odd bit of scrapping and even a spot of drunkenness, but had never been in serious trouble.
AIF Burial Ground, Flers. (Andrew Holmes)
Attention might have been shifting to the northern part of the battlefield and Gough’s expected attack on the Ancre, but that did not mean that Rawlinson’s men were done with the campaign on the Somme, even if their assaults were to be smaller in scale. Australian divisions began replacing British in the centre of the Fourth Army line in preparation for their next series of attacks, which were awaiting an upturn in the weather. George and his battery took their place at Dernancourt, just to the south-west of Albert, on 30th October as Australian infantry also began taking over the line in disgusting conditions. George was immediately introduced to the reality of getting guns going in appalling winter weather. During the following night George and his fellow gunners fired a standard night barrage: 100 rounds each towards the enemy to keep them on their toes. There was no response from the Germans on their front, although the enemy fired a few large calibre shells at Flers. Two shells came slightly near their guns and that was it.
Throughout the following afternoon the batteries took it in turns to register their guns. George’s fired fifteen rounds just before 3pm and then rested until they fired their normal night barrage. In exchange, the enemy showed fair activity during the day on the ridges on both sides of the Flers-Longueval Road and between 12:55pm and 2pm the Germans shelled fairly heavily around Flers. Part of setting up operations on arrival in a new sector was the necessity of officers going forward to observe the effect of their fire in the front lines and to co-operate with the infantry. A forward liaison officer dutifully went forward on 2nd November, taking with him two runners to take messages back to the batteries. George Eley was chosen and he spent the day trudging back and forth through the mud, telling the gun teams that everything was more or less satisfactory, just a few rounds were bursting high and a few too long. Throughout the course of the day, George was killed while going to and fro in between the front lines and the guns. The 24 year old was originally buried to the east of Flers, until the area was cleared and he was finally laid to rest at A.I.F Burial Ground, plot I.C.21.