AN emotional, trip of a lifetime, is how the Nowra RSL Sub-Branch tour on World War I battlefields has been described.
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Sixteen locals were part of the tour led by RSL secretary Rick Meehan which visited France and Belgium, touring famous battle sites like Ypres, Passchendaele and the Somme.
The tour also paid homage to a number of local members of the Waratahs.
Mr Meehan said the trip was fantastic.
“We couldn’t have planned it better,” he said.
“We had a great bunch of people on the trip, who were keen and had their own pilgrimages to do. We had a great tour guide, Brit Rob Deere, ex-infantry soldier, who was passionate and knew his stuff. He became involved in all the endeavors we were trying to accomplish.
“I think he also learnt more about our history.”
Mr Meehan said he came away from the tour with a different perspective on the war, the way it played out and also the British hierarchy.
“I don’t think they purposely went out to kill us all,” he said “this was the first war for everyone and we didn’t know tactics and how to fight and had to develop those skills.”
He said a number of the tour members had their own pilgrimages.
Russell Kent, from Shoalhaven Heads lost a number of relatives in the war including his great great uncle Private Yardy.
“He was the first of his family to ever go there,” Mr Meehan said.
Wes Hindmarsh’s grandfather on his mother’s side died over there.
“Our guide was able to take Wes to the hill they were climbing up, where the trench was and showed him where he died, although he had never been found,” he said.
Colleen Hetherington’s grandmother’s cousin James Ham was also killed and never found.
“We were shown where the battle was fought, it was a little paddock in the middle of a village,” Colleen’s husband Terry said.
“It was very emotional to go to the actual site where he was killed.”
“Everyone had a story and we accomplished everything we wanted to do for everyone on this trip,” Mr Meehan said.
One of the highlights of the trip was when three members of the touring party laid wreaths as part of the nightly service at Menin Gate.
“Brian Kenny became a rock star at Menin Gate,” Mr Meehan said.
Along with Wes Hindmarsh and Don Parkinson he laid wreaths to honour the Waratahs.
Each night at 8pm at Menin Gate, a service which includes reveille, a wreath laying and the ode is held.
It’s been held every night since since 1928, except during the second World War.
Mr Kenny proudly wore his uncle Bede Kenny’s replica Victoria Cross.
The MC recognised Mr Kenny wearing the VC and asked him to read the epitaph
“That was a huge honour,” Mr Kenny said “amazing”.
He said the words - ‘when you go home, we gave you our day so you can have your tomorrow’ were extremely fitting and moving.
The group made a remarkable discovery at the Toronto Avenue Cemetery in Belgium.
“Looking through the logbook we came across a name - Lance Corporal Robert William Kelly, 365th Battalion AIF, and it stated he was a native of Nowra,” Mr Meehan said.
“Each cemetery has a logbook and to come across a local was incredible. He hadn’t joined up as a Waratah, yet here he was in the Toronto Avenue Cemetery,” Mr Poulton said.
Mr Meehan said planning was already underway for next year’s trip.
Remembering the Waratahs
Waratah Centenary Committee chairman, Clyde Poulton used the tour to honour and visit a number of graves of the Waratahs.
He visited the last resting places of privates Andrew Tresidder from Berry, John Watts from Meroo and Thomas Scott from Kangaroo Valley, who were all part of the Waratahs.
“From that point of view the tour was successful,” he said.
“In the end we got to four of the five Waratahs graves we wanted to visit,” he said.
At each a poppy was laid.
“I didn’t go over there with any fixed ideas,” he said.
“I have always been fascinated by how war is fought, given the great shift from trench warfare to what they do now.
“I didn’t understand Flanders, northern France, southern Belgium. I had no idea the length of the battle field.
“I went over there not quite knowing.
“My primary purpose was to see where these guys [the Waratahs] fought and ultimately four locals died and were buried.
“We did that and that was a great thing for me and Rick as well, who was a major part of the Waratahs’ commemoration.
“The biggest thing from my perspective was seeing how beautiful, unfairly beautiful the countryside is. Where they are resting are magnificent sites.
“If anyone doubts they are in the best locations and looked after by the Commonwealth War Grave they should go and see for themselves.”
The Waratah march originated in Nowra and ended in Sydney.
“The original 50 who congregated at the Nowra Showground came from all over place, from the far south up to Kiama but they were predominantly guys from Berry, Kangaroo Valley, Meroo and Nowra,” he said.
“This was a World War 1 commemorative trip and all those people on the walls at Nowra, Kangaroo Valley or Berry, names you have looked at over years and years and think they were old men from a long time ago. We were able to see where they fought and in some cases died. It brought it all back like it was now.”
He said it was hard to explain the feeling when the group found the first Waratah grave.
“When I knelt next to his grave, I hoped I wasn’t the first local, or god forbid, family member to find this guy’s resting place,” he said.
“We still don’t know that.
“I will be going back through my records now with some of the family members whether they had actually found these resting places.
“It was a finalisation for me. We commemorated in 2015 and now found them in 2017.”
He said one thing that stuck in his mind, was when the group found LC Kelly from Nowra.
“Leading into the Toronto Avenue Cemetery you find a little memorial full of footballs and football boots,” he said.
“You think what happened there?
“You go down a little lane and you find little cemeteries. They were aid stations or casualty clearing stations. Just on the ridge where the battle was, there were all these men dying and they brought them out to these stations.
“But at the top of that hill was where the Germans and the English played soccer during a truce in hostilities.
“Those soccer boots mark that.”
Emotional trip to honour VC winning uncle
Brian Kenny’s uncle Bede was a member of the 2nd Battalion and was awarded the Victoria Cross in April 1917 at the Battle of the Somme, near the village of Hermies.
Private Kenny was instrumental in destroying a German pillbox which had a prominent position on a ridge overlooking where the Australians were.
He rushed the pillbox, which had the Australians pinned down, throwing bombs as he went, killing a number of the enemy, taking the pillbox and capturing a German captain.
The tour visited the location where Private Kenny showed his amazing courage and laid a wreath.
“It was a highly emotional time,” Mr Kenny said.
“To stand where the action took place was incredible.
“Our tour guide took us to through the village and a little country lane in Hermies. Through research and reports he had the co-ordinates. We walked about 500 metres down the lane and came to where the battle took place.
“He pointed out the chalk pit, which had been mentioned and through his knowledge he was able to show us where the pillbox and bunker would have been.
“The Germans were retreating along the Hindenburg Line and Bede’s platoon were trying to get in behind them to stop them escaping and came across the pillbox.
“It was very moving to there but it was also very sad. But I also had a sense of pride.
“The Australians fought so long ago for the motherland and achieved so much.”
The touring party tied a wreath on a barb wire fence to mark the occasion which Mr Kenny described as moving.
“A farmer was ploughing his field and he came across to see what was going on,” he said.
“He’d never had such a crowd in his laneway.
“He was wondering what we were doing on his property. Fortunately our tour guide spoke French and told the farmer why we were there and about the battle.
“The farmer had no idea and said he would let the village know about the significance of the site.”
He said one cemetery the group visited had 5000 headstones in a manicured garden.
“It was an unbelievable feeling to see that. But so many of the graves said ‘Only Known to God’ or ‘Remember us’ .
“In the ode we say we shall remember them - it’s a hundred years later and that was the request of those fellows way back then and we are doing it. We are still remembering them.”