On Thursday 20 July 1916 the morning ushered in a sunny summer’s day as if to mock the slaughter and carnage that lay in the narrow space between the two forces. Thousands of wounded men sheltered in shell holes or in the grass; many were calling out to their comrades for help. Others who had survived the battle bled to death; their shattered bodies unable to cling to life. The beckoning hands and cries from no man's land tormented young men like Thomas, who had been ordered to remain in the frontline. Behind the relative safety of his parapet, Thomas would have struggled to reconcile his own fate with that of the many wounded and dead lying only a few metres in front of him. This surreal image must have itched an indelible mark into his psyche and tormented him for the rest of his life.
At around 10am on 20 July 1916 a request was made for a volunteer to venture into no man's land to rescue the highly respected Captain Mortimer, who was believed to be lying injured. This was a dangerous assignment. Only a few hours earlier, seven messengers were shot in succession during ill-fated attempts to deliver a message to the stranded 14th Brigade to retreat to their front line.
Incredibly, Thomas' section mate, private Will Miles, volunteered for this assignment. Carrying several water bottles, Miles hopped over the parapet in search for Mortimer. During this futile search for Mortimer, Miles attended to many wounded who had suffered serious shrapnel and bullet wounds. In 1926 Miles wrote to the Australian War Historian, Charles Bean, and described how during this venture he assisted one soldier who had been shot in the stomach and another who had been shot in the testicles.
During Miles' search for Mortimer, he became hostage to an English speaking German officer, who had taken aim at his head with a pistol. With arms raised, Miles was interrogated by the officer and was also photographed by a German soldier. As the conversation between Miles and the German officer became friendly, the officer understood that Miles' only intention was to assist the wounded. The officer asked Miles to go to his frontline and return with an Australian officer, as he wanted to negotiate an armistice that would guarantee the safety for each side to retrieve their wounded soldiers lying in no man’s land.
Miles returned with Major Murdoch (2) of the 29th Battalion, 'D' Company. The English speaking German officer spoke to Murdoch about the conditions of the armistice, which included blindfolding and holding Murdoch hostage during the period of the armistice. Unfortunately, the British High Command believed that the German's had ulterior motives for proposing this armistice and vetoed this initiative. This decision by high command caused many soldiers like Thomas to feel angry and resentful as they were prevented from rescuing many hundreds of injured soldiers. Despite this setback, many soldiers like Thomas used the cover of night to risk their lives rescuing the wounded in no man’s land.
(1) I have read many of Will Miles' letters and he was truly a remarkable man. It is difficult to imagine Thomas not having an affinity with this man.
(2) Ambition and mispresentation had wrongly credited Major Murdoch for arranging an armistice with the German's in earlier accounts of the history of the Battle of Fromelles. Further research and anaylsis by the astute war historian Charles Bean in 1926 revealed that it was Will Miles bravery that primarily lead to the chance meeting with the Germans and subsequently Bean edited later additions in his writings of WW1 to reflect the truth. Despite having been acknowledged in dispatches and recorded in the 29th Battalion's award book, Miles was never formally decorated for his act of bravery, which is arguably one of the most incredibly untold stories of WW1.
