The Battle of Fromelles took place on the evening of 19th July 1916. The battle is described in an article by Ross McMullin in The Australian War Memorial magazine Wartime (issue 36) as the worst 24 hours in Australia’s entire history. The Australians suffered 5,533 casualties in one night. The Australian toll at Fromelles was equivalent to the total Australian casualties in the Boer War, Korean War and Vietnam War put together. It was a staggering disaster.
The last RECENT NEWS item A Lucky Survivor featured Sergeant Bill Mair who was one of the 5,533 casualties of the ill fated attack. The Australian Army Medical Corps (AAMC) was responsible for treating the Australian soldiers wounded in the battle.
The following article from DIGGER issue 15 gives a glimpse of the duties of one of the AAMC doctors treating the wounded from the Battle of Fromelles.
Same Digger by Graeme Hosken, Dubbo
Above: Bill Mair (54th Btn) in a photograph taken at Epsom Hospital whilst he was recovering from wounds to his back and legs received at Fromelles.
Captain Hugh Rayson was the Medical Officer for the 57th Battalion during the Battle of Fromelles (19th /20th July 1916). Twenty five years after Fromelles, Rayson was interviewed by AG Butler when Butler was researching his three volume, Official History of Australian Army Medical Services in the War 1914-1918. Rayson stated: “I found one man in the front line about two days after the battle who had the lower part of his face shot away; the lower and upper jaws, nose and I think one eye destroyed. By signs he made me understand that he wanted a drink. It was literally impossible to decide where to put the water bottle. And yet he was on his feet attempting to seek help.” [Source: Don’t forget me, cobber, Robin S Corfield] Could this have been the same man mentioned by Sergeant Bill Mair (54th Battalion) in his letter written from the London County War Hospital on 9th August 1916? Bill wrote: “That was when I was bowled over, and … the man that carried me back to the rear was Dan Ryan from Cootamundra, and he had half the side of his face shot away. I will always say that Dan Ryan saved my life, because you know I would have laid there all through the night, and would surely have been blown to pieces.” [Source: Four Australians at War, M Campbell & G Hosken.] Dan Ryan died of his wounds at the 13th Stationary Hospital, Boulogne, on 25th July 1916.
While the descriptions of the wound match quite well, there is still some doubt that Dan Ryan was the soldier Rayson found. Dan Ryan’s service records show that he was admitted to a CCS (Casualty Clearing Station) on 20th July, the day after the battle was launched, whereas Rayson says the soldier was found by him ‘about two days after the battle’. Ryan was in the 54th Battalion of the 14th Brigade, whilst Rayson was the MO for the 57th Battalion of the 15th Brigade. Would Rayson have come into contact with a wounded soldier from a different part of the battlefield? The answer is ‘quite possibly’, as the 14th and 15th Brigades attacked side by side, and in fact, the two brigades shared the same Regimental Aid Post and Main Dressing Station. Given the chaotic nature of the trenches after the failed attack, it is certainly possible that the wounded of the two brigades were intermingled. The high casualty rate of Fromelles also makes it likely that the facial wound (as described by Rayson and Mair) could have occurred to more than one soldier. According to A G Butler, 16.67% of the wounds at Fromelles were to the head and neck. Nevertheless, there is a chance that the plucky soldier encountered by Rayson was the same man who rescued Bill Mair at Fromelles.
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FROMELLES IS NOT HONOURED ON THE NATIONAL OR ANY STATE MEMORIAL IN AUSTRALIA.
FFFAIF SUPPORTS ALL EFFORTS TO RECOGNISE FROMELLES ON OR AT THE NATIONAL AND ALL STATE MEMORIALS THAT PRESENTLY LIST BATTLES BY NAME.