8 August 1918 - a turning point of the Great War
Eric Berthon was a gifted all-rounder. At Haileybury College, Melbourne, he was an Honours classics scholar and proficient in French. He also captained the College cricket Eleven and football Eighteen, he was described as ‘a very reliable bat’ and ‘one of our best ruckmen’.’ At the same time as he was both head prefect and head of the school.
He won a scholarship to Ormond College at Melbourne University for 1916 and, after his first year of Arts for Law, he again won a Resident scholarship for 1917. Eric chose instead to enlist in the Australian Infantry Forces on 21 February 1917 – conditionally, as he was only 19 and needed his parents’ consent.
Eric sailed from Melbourne on 9 November 1917 and on 8 January 1918 he wrote to his father from Heytesbury Camp describing his travel from Colombo to Southampton, impressions of Suez and the Port of Alexandria, a risky boat crossing of the Mediterranean, the superb Italian navy at Taranto, train travel along the Adriatic through snow and vineyards, the Alps to Lyon in intense cold, and through Normandy, Caen and Cherbourg. Arriving in France in April 1918, on 6 May he wrote home from a dugout, describing its construction.
Advancing to Daours, he took part in the beginning of the great Allied offensive that would ultimately lead to the end of the war. German General Erich Ludendorff said of the day - ‘August 8th was the black day of the German army in the history of the war’
The Memorial’s archive holds many important detailed eye witness accounts of that day including Eric Berthon’s graphic diary account:
‘Picture a cool August morning grey with fog at the hour of 4.30 am. The wagons are all loaded and ready to move – the drivers go about harnessing their teams up in the dim glimmer of candles and camp fires. Suddenly out towards the Unknown breaks the roar of the artillery. The column moves up. Gun lightning clears the fog, monster guns belch forth death along the roads, beside hedges, among the trees….A continuous thunder fills the air. Mounted officers dash through the fog. Transport of all kinds chokes the ways. Everything goes forward – irresistibly it seems – but – comes the thought to many an anxious mind “Does he know – has he guessed”. The answer comes just after dawn and the guns light dispels the thickness of the fog. Long columns of men are seen marching from the line – some are wounded and bandaged – some carry our own wounded on stretchers – the columns are endless – they are Germans. We have broken through…….
Occasionally an enemy shell bursts near the roads, everything is bustle and the elation of success. Perfect organisation prevails. And yet one short hour ago this was No Man’s Land. As we feed the ammunition wagons the drivers tell of the advance – we have gone eight, nine, ten, twelve kilos or more. Enormous captures of men and materials are reported – the battle or rather the advance has been rich in picturesque incident. The 39th Battery opened on an enemy troop train with open sights and smashed it. German nurses and hospital staff have been captured - the tanks and armoured cars are far ahead pursuing the flying enemy. The casualties have been light.
Passing over the captured ground countless shell holes bear testimony to the intensity of the barrage. Dead horses and mules line the roads. The dead of all nationalities are strewn over the country. Everywhere is evidence of hurried flight. Occasionally a tank is seen useless and for ever out of action. German batteries are numerous. Often the gunners lie dead around their guns.’
At Busigny in October, while positioning battery wagon lines, Eric was hit by a shell and taken unconscious with stomach wounds to the American Dressing Station where he died on 13 October 1918, shortly before his twenty first birthday.
In the Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing file, Private M. J. O’Donohue reported that he ran from the same shell that killed Eric Berthon. He described the brilliant Berthon as short (he was 5’6”) and that ‘He came in a late draft, and was very quiet. I heard he could read German but I never spoke to him’.
Eric Berton’s eyewitness account is published on the Memorial’s website: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C89049
Read more eyewitness accounts of the Allied offensive on the 8 August 1918:
Diary of William Edward Peach, 1918-1919 https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C2126719
Diary of Eric George McKinnon https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C324055
Correspondence from Doctor Keith McKeddie https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C270190
Letters of Captain Daniel Sidney Aarons - https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C88918
Collection of Sir John Monash - https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1375981