Miraculous escape in the horror of the Western Front
A hastily stashed novel was the difference between life and death, as ELLEN WHINNETT reports from Villers-Bretonneux, France.
AS Private Albert Lightfoot readied himself for battle that April night 100 years ago, he closed the book he was reading and placed it in the gasmask pouch around his neck.
A little hardback novel about life in colonial Africa by Rhodesian-English author Gertrude Page, it had just been published that year, 1918. It was called The Edge O’ Beyond.
And at 10pm on April 24, as Lightfoot and his mates in the Australian Imperial Force charged the German lines in a battle that would ultimately liberate the French village of Villers-Bretonneux, the book would save his life.
A bullet struck him in the chest, tearing through the book’s cover and its pages, but not reaching his torso.
Afterwards, Lightfoot would record the moment in a note written on the inside cover.
“Bullet hole made in the battle field in France, April 24, 1918,’’ he wrote, matter-of-factly.
Twelve hundred of Lightfoot’s fellow Australian soldiers were not so lucky, and would not make it home from that bloody battle on the Western Front.
Their gallant efforts repelled the German invaders and saw the French and Australian flags raised over Villers-Bretonneux the next morning, April 25, exactly three years after the disastrous landing at Gallipoli.
Now, a century on, Lightfoot’s relatives are travelling to France to display the book at the Franco-Australian Museum, a small memorial built at the Victoria School in the village, named for the children from Victoria in Australia who raised the money to rebuild it after World War I.
They will then travel to the Australian National Memorial several kilometres away in the fields where 2100 Commonwealth WW1 servicemen are buried, and the new $100 million Sir John Monash Centre, a striking museum and memorial honouring Australian sacrifice across the Western Front, will be opened.
Lightfoot’s great-nephews Danny and Wayne Duke, and their cousin, Lightfoot’s greatniece Jan Kornweibel, will make the journey with Lightfoot’s precious book.
Danny Duke, 71, said the bullet appears to have gone right through the book but did not strike his great-uncle in the chest.
But it’s possible it deflected into his wrist, as records show Lightfoot was shot and wounded that night in an injury that saw him evacuated to the UK and ultimately discharged from the army.
“He was admitted to hospital and (the records) say the wound was to the left wrist,’’ Mr Duke said.
“The book saved his life in effect and contributed to his efforts in the liberation of Villers-Bretonneux.’’
Lightfoot was born in London on March 12, 1890, and emigrated to Australia when he was 21 years old, joining his sister Louisa in Perth.
“He was 5’3’’ (161cm), so relatively short and until a certain time you had to be 5’6’’ (170cm) to enlist,’’ Mr Duke said.
“At some stage they dropped that to 5’2’’ (158cm). He’d wanted to enlist before that.’’
A house painter, Lightfoot was also a talented artist, mostly painting landscapes. But like so many young men in that era, he answered the call to serve his country in the military.
In 1915, when he was 25, he enlisted with the Australian Imperial Force and in January 1916 shipped out for Europe, leaving Fremantle aboard His Majesty’s Australian Transport ship Borda.
Joining the 51st battalion in Egypt in April that year as the AIF doubled its strength, Lightfoot went on to fight in some of the bloodiest and most important battles along the Western Front.
These included Pozieres and Mouquet Farm in France in August and September that year, where the 51st battalion suffered casualties equivalent to a third of its strength.
“He then got himself involved in other battles in the outpost villages in 1917,’’ Mr Duke said.
According to the Australian War Memorial, the 51st battalion went on to fight the battle of Messines in June 1917, then the horrendous conflict at Polygon Wood and Passchendaele in Belgium in September.
Lightfoot, a true Aussie larrikin, had fallen foul of the army’s disciplinary procedures, and been docked five pounds and five shillings in wages after being found guilty in May that year of “conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline.’’
“He had mimicked an officer on parade,’’ Mr Duke said.
But when the time for action came, Lightfoot, his book safely tucked into his pouch, focused on his duties.
The Germans had taken Villers-Bretonneux on April 24 in the first “tank on tank’’ battle of the war.
Fearing the Germans were within range of capturing the strategically important larger town of Amiens, the Allies counter-attacked. Two Australian brigades, the 13th and the 15th, launched a surprise attack that night at 10pm.
The fighting was ferocious. By morning, the Germans had been driven back by Australian and British troops, Villers-Bretonneux was back in
French hands, and the victory was considered a turning point in the war.
But it came at a high cost – 1200 Australians were killed, as many again were wounded. Lightfoot, despite his book, was among the casualties.
Mr Duke found Lightfoot’s hospital admissions in his service records while researching his family’s war histories. “On April 26 he was admitted to the lines of communication hospital wards. On April 28, a record was made of his wrist injury. Left arm.’’ he said. “On April 29 he was admitted to the 5th Southern General Hospital in Portsmouth in the UK.’’ The details of his injuries are not known, but they were serious enough to have him evacuated to the UK. Lightfoot’s war was over. Details are patchy, but it seems he went AWOL for part of one day in the UK and forfeited a day’s pay.
He rejoined his unit on July 5. Where he was based for six months is not clear. “Then on January 15 he embarked for Australia, arriving in February, and by April 1919 he had been discharged,’’ Mr Duke said.
“After he returned to Australia he went back to housepainting and tried his luck in the WA goldfields.
“The story is he rode the rails, hitched around on freight trains.’’
Albert Lightfoot never married or had children, and much of his life story remains unknown, and untold. Few of his paintings still exist. Mr Duke has only one photograph of him, and none of him in uniform.
He had lived with relatives and Mr Duke remembers him from his childhood in Perth, when he lived nearby.
“He was a fairly quiet man,’’ Mr Duke said.
“I recall him being a bit of a larrikin. He would have been subjected to (war) trauma but that was not reflected in his actions.’’
Albert Lightfoot died in August 1957 in a veterans’ home in Perth.
“When his room was cleaned out after he died, a .38 calibre revolver was found, which was immediately handed over to the police,’’ Mr Duke said
“It appeared he’d carried it all around the goldfields.’’
Danny Duke’s extended family has an extraordinary record of military service.
His paternal grandfather Andrew Henry Duke, husband of Louisa Lightfoot and brother-in-law to Albert Lightfoot, served at Gallipoli and along the Western Front, and was awarded the Belgium Croix-de-Guerre for his leadership at Passchendaele in 1917.
He survived the war, and years later took 10 years off his age and re-enlisted in World War II.
Danny’s maternal grandfather, George Henry Tempest, enlisted in 1915 and served all along the Western Front.
All four of Albert Lightfoot’s nephews served in WWII, and Danny’s father, Raymond Duke served 31 years in the Australian Army. Danny Duke, from Oatlands in NSW, is a retired major who served in the regular army and the army reserves.
Mr Duke said the family had decided to offer Lightfoot’s book for display to the smaller Franco-Australian Museum because of the vast size of the collection held by the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
The museum, which was recently renovated, is a testament to the links between Australia and Villers-Bretonneux, where the locals still acknowledge the sacrifice of the men who came from the other side of the world to save their village.
More than 8000 people are expected to attend the dawn service at the Australian National Memorial on Anzac Day, as the people of France and Australia come together to reflect of the actions of Albert Lightfoot and his brothers-in-arms a century ago.