World War I Battles
Diggers were rarely safe during World War I, even when they
were miles away from the front line.
Just at dawn he began to shell us. I thought the end had
come, as four chaps that were in the same room as I was, got
killed. A shell
landed in the street, only a few yards off.
This is a quote from the war diary of Private Charles
Robert Lumsden Smith, describing a German attack on a small French village 8 miles behing the line.
He was a country boy from Henty in New South Wales. The diary
describes his experience on the Western Front and provides a glimpse into a
life lived 100 years ago. He survived some of the deadliest battles of World
War I, and as a result of being gassed near Villers Bretonneux, he died at 33
years of age, leaving behind a young family.
Subsequent pages relate to the battles in which CRL Smith fought on the Western Front between May 1917 and October 1918 including –
- The 2nd Battle of Bullecourt
- 3rd Battle of Ypres
- Battle of Passchendaele
- 1st and 2nd Battles of Villers Bretonneux
- Battle of Amiens
- Mont Saint Quentin
- Saint Quentin Canal
- The Hindenburg Line Offensive
More battles will be uploaded soon.