Our image this week shows Bert and Rose Bettles after they married during World War One with this image posted home to Australia, "To Dear Dad, from Rosie and Bert". Bert is sporting his Lance Corporal stripes. This week is part two. Read part one here.
POSSIBLY because Bert Bettles' training took longer in England, he would have had more leave than most Australian's received prior to going to France. Thus, he was able to marry an English lass.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
At some stage he met and married Rose Violet, surname unknown. Rose lived at 38 York Place, Pokesdown in Bournemouth in Dorset, England. There were army training camps near Pokesdown where Bert was training, however, where Bert met Rose will probably remain their secret.
Bert said his farewells to Rose and sailed to a seaport in France before boarding troop trains to the reserve billet area behind the front lines to join his 54th Battalion.
The 54th Battalion was later moved closer by train on July 2, 1916, and again billeted in private local billets. Training continued and more equipment issued.
On the 8th the unit was issued with their gas masks and a practice was carried out in the morning. The men are moved around the area to different billets, but training continued.
On the 11th the men moved to a forward section of trenches with the Germans about 50 feet away.
On the 14th they are moved from the trenches and returned into billets, being relieved by the Thropshire Light Infantry.
On the 17th the Battalion was sent back to the forward trenches "with the view of developing an attack" during which one officer was killed and several privates wounded, only to be relived the following day by the 53rd Battalion.
At 2pm the following day, July 19, 1916, Bert and his mates were ordered into the front line with them attacking the German trenches about 6pm. For about half of these Australian infantrymen this was their first major battle on the Western Front which took place at Fromelles.
The Germans threw everything they had at the Australians and within about an hour and a half the diggers were withdrawn and sent back to reserve lines. It had been a disaster.
Three officers and 70 men were killed, 11 officers and 277 other ranks were wounded and there were still four officers and another 169 other ranks still unaccounted for - they were missing, and few were ever found.
As it turned out some 65 per cent of the units fighting strength had gone in about 90 minutes.
Despite these losses and the deplorable conditions Bert and what remained of his unit continued to man the front lines in the Fromelles sector for a further two months.
Bert was injured some time in July 1917 where he was sent to a Field Hospital. He sent two medical post cards home to Newnes not knowing that his father John was now running a general store in Burraga.
In July 1918, Lance Corporal Bert Bettles was still in the front line. Conditions were drying out a little as this was summer in Europe. The area was absolutely desolate, flattened by the artillery barrages from both sides.
On the July 11, 1918, the Germans fired their artillery intermittently until daylight. Lance Corporal Bettles was out with his section on ration carrying detail carrying "dry rations" after having drawn the "short straw".
The 54th Battalion Unit War Diary records: "5 men being killed and 5 men wounded at about 3 a.m. They nearly all belong to 'A' Coy. ration parties who were returning to Coy. H.Q. after completion of their task." Bert was one of those killed.
Lance Corporal Herbert William "Bert" Bettles was buried in the communal cemetery in what is known as the extension of the local cemetery at Franviller, in the Somme region of France.
Bert's family was notified by telegram in Australia as was his wife Rose in England.
Alan McRae is with the Bathurst District Historical Society.