Australia’s diggers didn’t go over the top for King and Country, they did it for their mates and their battalion – extraordinary deeds performed by ordinary men. Harry George Harnett

Henry George Hartnett, known as Harry, joined the Australian Imperial Force on 13 September 1915 at the age of 23. He saw the action on the Western Front at Fromelles and on the Somme, receiving his first ‘Blighty’ in the Battle of Pozières, a wound so serious he was sent back to Britain for treatment. Upon his recovery, he returned to ‘tour’ the front with his battalion – an endless cycle of fighting interspersed with brief rest periods behind the lines. 

“Although diaries were forbidden, I managed to secrete one in my haversack; brief notes were made in it each day, often under difficulties, especially when we were in the front-line trenches. Though brief and disjointed, its soiled pages contain much that is priceless to me …”

Several years after the war ended, Harry turned his diaries into this fascinating memoir. Several more decades were to pass before the manuscript came into the hands of FFFAIF member Chris Bryett, a passionate amateur military historian. In spite of the great passage of time, the larrikin spirit of the young diggers still shines through. In Over The Top Harry recalls the battles, the long marches, and the many amusing events that provided escape from the horrors of the battlefront. His moving descriptions give the reader insight into the unshakeable bonds forged between the men trapped in situations they could never have imagined.

In the book, Harry Hartnett provides intriguing details about the army equipment, food, weaponry and battles without ever over emphasising the horrors he must have seen. Harry believed that the experiences recorded in his book were not personal so much as indicative of the experience of all diggers, of all units, and his hope was that the deeds of the diggers and their sacrifices would not be forgotten.  Over the Top takes the reader on an eye-opening tour of life in and behind the trenches of the Western Front through the diaries of digger Harry Hartnett. His book, which has not previously been published, is a magnificent gift to Australia.

Over the Top is published by Allen & Unwin and is available in bookshops from 26 October, 2009. RRP $35

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The Families and Friends of the First AIF applauds the joint Australian–UK decision, announced by The Hon Greg Combet AM MP and the Hon Kevan Jones MP, to conduct a full DNA testing program on the remains of Australian and British soldiers found in mass graves at Pheasant Wood (Fromelles), and for their continuing commitment to identify as many of the fallen as is possible. We also thank the Australian, UK and French governments for affording dignified individual reburials for these soldiers, buried by German soldiers following the Battle of Fromelles on 19/20 July 1916, in the new Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery presently under construction at Fromelles.