An Anzac on the Western Front: The Personal Reflections of an Australian Infantryman from 1916 to 1918

By: H.R. Williams

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Synopsis: &“A remarkably candid and graphic account&” of the World War I service of a member of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Britain at War Magazine). Having enlisted in 1915 and serving in the 56th Battalion Australian Imperial Force, Harold Roy Williams arrived in France, from Egypt, on June 30, 1916. He describes the horrors of the Fromelles battlefield in shocking clarity and the conditions the troops had to endure are revealed in disturbing detail. Surviving a later gas attack, Harold Williams&’s subsequent postings read like a tour of the Western Front. Following the Somme, there was the mud and squalor of the line south of Ypres, the German Spring Offensive of 1918, the Battle of Amiens—frequently described as the most decisive battle against the Germans in France and Flanders—the capture of Villers-Bretonneux and, finally, the assault on Péronne. Injured at Péronne and invalided back to the United Kingdom, Williams survived the war to return to Australia in 1919. An Anzac on the Western Front is his vivid description of his service in the First World War—an account that was described as &“the best soldier&’s story . . . yet read in Australia&” when it was first published. &“Williams&’ experience was defined by his rise from private soldier to platoon commander and he confined his writing to it. This is a story of cold, hunger, injury, fear, humour, friendship and death . . . So bloody good.&” —War History Online