{"id":1373,"date":"2008-09-30T22:31:10","date_gmt":"2008-09-30T11:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fffaif.wordpress.com\/?p=1373"},"modified":"2008-09-30T22:31:10","modified_gmt":"2008-09-30T11:31:10","slug":"remembered-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/?p=1373","title":{"rendered":"*Remembered In …."},"content":{"rendered":"

Remembered in France<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Families and Friends of First AIF<\/em> member, in France, Yves Fohlen <\/a>sent this message on the anniversary of the death of Lt. Percy Ralph MM.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo: Percy Ralph shortly after enlistment [Yves Fohlen]<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, [30 September]\u00a090 years ago was killed in action 2\/Lieut Percy EDGAR RALPH\u00a0 MM 53rd Battalion Australian Infantry and too many others Diggers of the 3rd and 5th Australian Division were also KIA… they broke the Hindenburg Line north of Saint Quentin city.
\nSome years ago\u00a0to tell\u00a0PERCY’s\u00a0story I wrote a book called “He came from Australia”. Roland “Brig”\u00a0Ralph, the nephew of Percy,\u00a0kindly gave me the letters of Percy to write that book.
\nJohn Laffin gave me the fortitude to start writing in English language that book… John and Roland were both WWII\u00a0Pacific War veterans ………John Laffin passed away in 2000;Roland Ralph\u00a0passed away in \u00a02001.
\nAnd I am the only one left.\u00a0So Today I\u00a0shall\u00a0be ALONE to\u00a0visit\u00a0Percy’s grave and tomorrow with Mike Goodwin<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0the teachers, the students of Mackay North High School.
\nALONE\u00a0is of course not the right word because I know that from their Heaven ..Percy, John and Roland will be there with many others…and the rain falling today\u00a0will hide my tears.<\/span><\/p>\n

LEST WE FORGET<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Photo: Sgt Percy Ralph [Yves Fohlen]<\/span><\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Yves’ book He came from Australia<\/em> is primarily the story of Percy Ralph who fought with the AIF on the Western Front from 1917 and was killed in 1918. He left Australia as a Private soldier in late 1916 and within a year was promoted to Sergeant and then Second Lieutenant. The book also includes a brief outline of the history of the 53rd<\/sup> Battalion in the last years of the war.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He came from Australia<\/em> is available from The War Bookshop. Click<\/span> here<\/a> to order.\u00a0Yves second book, With Guts and Bayonets – Diggers and Doughboys on the Hindenburg Line 1918<\/em>, is also available from The War Bookshop.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remembered in France Families and Friends of First AIF member, in France, Yves Fohlen sent this message on the anniversary of the death of Lt. Percy Ralph MM. Photo: Percy Ralph shortly after enlistment [Yves Fohlen] \u00a0 Today, [30 September]\u00a090 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,71,101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commemorations","category-diggers-of-first-aif","category-the-western-front"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}