Location

Heath Cemetery is on the south side of the straight main road from Amiens to St Quentin—the N29, approximately 13 kilometres from Villers-Bretonneux. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission signposts on the main road direct visitors to the cemetery.

Latitude

49.872734 (49° 52' 21.84" N)

Longitude

2.672081 (2° 40' 19.49" E)

Death already imprinted upon his face

Heath Cemetery, Harbonnières, on the N29 (D1029). [DVA]

Just across the road from where Lieutenant Arthur Kemp, 46th Battalion, seized the German position on 8 August 1918 is Heath Cemetery, Harbonnières. Harbonnières village is a couple of kilometres to the south. On this busy road Heath Cemetery is passed by by thousands of vehicles a year; but few stop. By comparison with the cemeteries of the old Somme 1916 battlefield, or Ieper in 1917, the experiences of the soldiers and airmen of the 1918 battlefield are little known in either Australia or Britain. Heath Cemetery contains 1,491 burials, 910 of them Australian from the battles and actions of August 1918 when the AIF pushed across this plain from Villers–Bretonneux in the west to the Somme River in front of Péronne to the east, a distance of about 50 kilometres. Dates on the Australian headstones serve to remind us of some little-remembered battles: Lihons on 9–11 August, Proyart on 12 August; and Albert on 23 August.

Headstone of Corporal Herbert Ainsworth, Tank Corps, Heath Cemetery, Harbonnières. [DVA]

Among those who lie here are 110 Australians who were killed in action or died of wounds on that great day of the Battle of Amiens, 8 August 1918. But perhaps the men of the AIF battalions who struggled along the old Roman road from Villers-Bretonneux to the Morcourt Valley that day would want to remind visiting Australians that they owed much to the British soldiers who fought with them and protected them with their tanks. In Plot V, Row D, Grave 10 is Corporal Herbert Ainsworth, age 26, of the Tanks Corps who was killed on 8 August 1918 most likely in one of those many tanks destroyed by German artillery fire.

Headstone of Lieutenant Alfred Gaby VC, 28th Battalion (Western Australia), Heath Cemetery, Harbonnières. [DVA]

Here, too, is an Australian who typifies the experience of the infantry that day: Lieutenant Alfred Gaby, 28th Battalion (Western Australia), born in Scotsdale, Tasmania. Shortly after the 28th moved off into the mist on the morning of 8 August 1918, they encountered German wire and thick machine gun fire. The Australians quickly went to ground and the attack faltered. Their accompanying tank had not yet arrived but suddenly 'a figure was seen walking along the German parapet firing a revolver'. It was Gaby. He had found a gap in the wire and charged through himself to capture 50 Germans and four machine guns. Consolidating his company, he now led them on to the initial objective. Three days later Gaby again led his men forward with what was described as 'great dash' again capturing the enemy position. At this point he was killed by an enemy sniper. Gaby was recommended for, and posthumously received, the Victoria Cross, the shape of the medal clearly visible on his headstone in Plot V, Row E, Grave 14.

Headstone of Lieutenant Edward Bice, Australian Flying Corps, Heath Cemetery, Harbonnières. [DVA]

All around at Heath Cemetery are reminders that 8 August 1918 was a so-called 'all arms' battle. In a common grave in Plot 1, Row 1, Grave 12, lie two airmen of No 3 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps: Lieutenants Edward Bice, pilot, age 32, and John Chapman, observer, age 23. During the battle the squadron with its RE 8 aircraft was assigned three tasks. 'A' Flight would spot for the artillery; 'B' Flight would fly counter-attack patrols to spot concentrations of enemy infantry building up for a counter-attack; and 'C' Flight, to which Bice and Chapman belonged, would fly 'contact patrols' to spot Australian unit positions and relay this information back to headquarters. In the event, early fog and the near annihilation of the German positions left 'A' and 'B' Flights with little to do. In 'C' Flight, however, two of the 'contact patrols' were attacked by German Fokker fighters and Bice and Chapman were shot down in flames by nine enemy planes. Their bodies and their aircraft were later were found on the battlefield by Australian infantry and their identity discs returned to their unit.

Headstone of Private Leslie Hitchcock, Australian Provost Corps, Heath Cemetery, Harbonnières. [DVA]

A more unusual grave is that of Private Leslie Hitchcock in Plot I, Row H, Grave 18. Hitchcock was a military policeman, a member of the Australian Provost Corps. On the afternoon of 8 August, according to his officer, Lieutenant Gerald Freer in charge of a convoy of 1,000 German prisoners near Harbonnières, Hitchock was hit by a bomb from a German plane. Freer ran to him doing everything he could for the wounded man but he died ten minutes later. They buried Hitchcock nearby, possibly in either Lone Farm Cemetery or Harbonnières Communal Cemetery from both of which bodies were removed or 'consolidated' into Heath Cemetery after the war. According to Freer, the grave was:

… fixed up later with a small wooden cross with his name etc., on a bit of tin affixed thereto … Hitchcock was a well liked chap. He was booked to go to England in a few days, for the purpose of being married.

[Private Leslie Hitchcock, Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry file, p. 2]

Slogging up behind the infantry on 8 August 1918 were the unglamorous Australian pioneer battalions. While, in an emergency, they could be and were used as infantry, their primary purpose was to maintain the roads and tracks so essential to battlefield communication and the carriage of supplies. During 8 August, the 4th Pioneer Battalion advanced about three kilometres north of Heath Cemetery along the Somme River. That evening Captain Godfrey Manning and Sergeant Ernest Sumner went out to look for a position for Manning’s company to dig in for the night. So rapid had been the advance that there were still many guns, which the Germans had been unable to remove from the battlefield, very close to the Australian positions. One of these, concealed in a wood, fired at Manning and Sumner. As the shells began exploding ever closer to them, they decided discretion was the better part of valour and turned away. As Sumner later wrote:

Headstone of Captain Godfrey Manning, 4th Pioneer Battalion, Heath Cemetery, Harbonnières. [DVA]

… we had just turned our backs and were walking away when a shell burst a few yards in the rear of us … a piece of shell penetrated the centre of the Captain’s back, killing him instantly. I turned him over but I found death already imprinted upon his face and anything in the nature of first aid was absolutely useless … [I] had his body carried back to a small village named Morcourt … a cross was later erected on his grave.

[Captain Godfrey Manning, Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry file, p. 8]

Captain Godfrey Manning, 4th Pioneer Battalion, age 28, lies in Plot VII, Row C, Grave 2. On that fateful day, 8 August 1918, death imprinted itself on the faces of 110 Australians who lie in this cemetery, casualties of battle on 'a day of victory'.

Australian soldiers in a trench east of the Morcourt Valley, 8 August 1918. This was the objective of the eight-kilometre advance on that day which had begun at dawn east of Villers-Bretonneux. [AWM E02789]

Before leaving Heath Cemetery we should remember the men of the 46th Battalion from Victoria who wrested this position from the enemy on 8 August 1918. There are 11 soldiers of the battalion buried here, eight of whom were killed on that day and two of whom lie side by side. In Plot I, Row G, graves 15 and 16 are Private Thomas Nuth, age 17, and Private George Stanbridge, age 25, both from Melbourne. Information in the Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau file at the Australian War Memorial from those who saw them die, suggests that a shell from our own guns exploded behind them, killing them both instantly. Stanbridge was a married man with one child. Nuth was a youngster whose mother had given her consent for him to enlist for overseas service. It was his first action with the battalion. Thomas Nuth's brief service to his country entitled him to the British War Medal and Victory Medal, both of which, as his dossier in the National Archives of Australia indicates, were duly sent to his mother, Mrs Elizabeth Nuth of 264 Albert Road, South Melbourne, in 1922.