lest we forget

Schwarzer Tag des deutschen Heeres

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"The black day of the German Army".....     General Erich Ludendorff, describing the events of the 8th of August 1918, the first day of the Battle of Amiens, which ultimately lead to the end of the First World War. On the first day of the offensive Allied troops pushed some 7 miles into German territory, making it one of the greatest single day advances of the war. It is reputed that when General Ludendorff uttered the above words he was not referring to the 30000 German soldiers who had been killed that day, nor the 18000 who surrendered or were captured  by the Allied forces, but to the crushing blow to the morale of the German army. 

My great grandfather fought in this battle with the 10th Battalion of the A.I.F. He was wounded two days later on the 10th at Harbonnieres, suffering for the second time, a gunshot wound to the head. He was evacuated and hospitalised and while he eventually fully recovered, he did not return to the trenches before the Armistice was signed three months later and was amongst the last troops home in September 1919.  

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Around the time of my 13th birthday, one of my great aunts, the custodian of all things family, handed me  a plain white sack and a battered Roses chocolate box.  "Well, It must be your turn to look after these now."  In the sack was his uniform and in the chocolate box, a small collection of memorabilia; his payroll book & sergeant's roll call, a service medal, a doily in the 10th's colours embossed with - "Souvenir, Salisbury Plains England, 10th Battalion, Love To Mother and Father from Otto, 1916", a postcard sent home from Capetown in 1916, the card of a Parisian Restaurant, the addresses of two Glaswegian nurses on a leaf of YMCA note paper, two newspaper cuttings, an Anzac Day program from 1923, a thin book detailing the 10th's actions during the war, and some postcards. 

Of these items it is the postcards which fascinate me the most. Not for what is written on them, as excepting one, where the intended recipient's name and address has been completed, all are completely blank. No, the reason they captive me whenever I pick one up and look at it, is that they once belonged to German soldiers. 

Who had they belonged to? Where and how did they come to be in the possession of my great grandfather? Why did he keep them till the day he died? 

I can only assume that they haunted my great grandfather as they haunt me now. 

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Schwarzer Tag des deutschen Heeres

a very anxious time waiting

Sgt M.O Smart  

Sgt Maxwell Otto Smart served in France with the 10th Battalion of the AIF during the first World War. During that time he was wounded in battle twice, both times suffering gunshot wounds to the head. The first injury occurring on the 9/11/16 at Guedecourt and the second on the 10/08/18, three days into the Battle for Amiens . This battle occurred at the start of a major Allied push, later known as the Hundred Days Offensive, which ultimately lead to the end of the war. 

Last year the National Archives of Australia released their service records. Amongst his records I found  not only the copies of the letters sent to notify his registered next of kin, but on paper embossed with the 10th's colour patch, a handwritten letter from a Mrs I.M.H Smart, his mother,  & my great great mother. 

a very anxious time waiting

No disability - Feels quite well -  29th July, 1919 - 

My Great Grandfather's Grandfather

Robert Smart 1828-1915 

Obituary The Register Adelaide SA  23/8/15 

Our Narridy correspondent writes:— The death occurred on Monday last of an old and esteemed resident in the person of Mr. Robert Smart, in his eighty eighth year. He had resided in Narridy for 36 years, and was a pioneer of 76 years, having arrived in South Australia in 1839. He was born in Glasgow in 1828, and when 11 years old was brought to South Australia by his father, the late Mr. John Smart, in the ship Ariadne. As a boy he tended sheep for Mr. J. W. White, of the Reedbeds. He lived with hia father in Rundle street, near Primrose's Brewery, the parent's occupation being the cartage of water from the River Torrens for use in the brewery. Among Mr. Smart's early memories were a double public execution in Adelaide, on North terrace, in front of the site of the Institute, and the execution of the bushranger Stagg in front of the gaol. The latter denied that he was guilty of the crime for which he was hanged, to which a police trooper afterwards confessed, but admitted that he had wrapped a man in a bullock's hide and burned him to death. A third punishment which deceased witnessed - was the flogging of an aboriginal at the top of Hindley street. The family subsequently moved to the Gorge, and later to the Metcalf section, on Sixth Creek. The deceased and his late brother (Mr. Charles Smart) were engaged in carting by bullock team copper ore from the Burra Mine to Port Adelaide. The Smarts soon afterwards settled at Golden Grove, where the deceased returned after a successful nine months at the Forest Creek diggings in Victoria. On the way to the diggings the party with which Mr. Smart was connected was attacked near the Coorong by an over whelming number of aboriginals, who took the ducks the white men had shot and demanded their weapons. The lives of the travellers were probably only spared by the timely arrival of another team, on the approach of which the blacks fled. For years the deceased remained in the Golden Grove district, and was trustee for the local cemetery. He then moved to Narridy where he engaged in farming. In 1851 the deceased married Miss K. A. Roberts, a daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Roberts, the first captain of the Burra copper mines. There are four daughters, Miss R. Smart, Mrs. John Nicholson and Mrs. George Weston, of Narridy and Mrs. Bert Fidock  of New South Wales, and six sons. Messrs John Smart, of Belalie North; Thomas, Robert, William, and Alex Smart, of Redhill; and Arthur Smart, of Narridy: also 37 grand children and eight great-grandchildren. Deceased had been a reader of The Observer for years. 

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page4492516