Not Forgotten, 2896 Sergeant Thomas Montague DAVIES, 51 Battalion AIF, World War 1

Private Thomas Montague Davies, listed on the war memorial as M. Davies, was a farmer from Woodlands Farm in Benjaberring, born in Casterton in Victoria. At the time of enlistment both his parents were deceased and his next of kin was listed as his brother W.H. Davies who was farming with him in Benjaberring. He enlisted on 11 July 1916 at Perth having served 12 months with the cadets in Northam, embarked for England on H.M.A.T. A8 Argyllshire from Fremantle on 9 November 1916 and was in Codford camp. He proceeded to France on 9 May 1917 and was taken on strength in the 51st Battalion.

Arriving in France on 12 June 1916, the 51st moved into the trenches of the Western Front within a fortnight. It fought in its first major battle at Mouquet Farm in August and September, and suffered casualties equivalent to a third of its strength in both of the attacks it launched, on 14 August and 3 September. After Mouquet Farm, the battalion saw out the rest of the year, alternating between frontline duty, and training and labouring behind the line. This routine continued through the bleak winter of 1916-17.

Early in 1917, the battalion participated in the advance that followed the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line. On 2 April it attacked at Noreuil, a village which had been fortified to delay the Australian advance. Later in the year, the focus of the AIF’s operations moved to the Ypres sector in Belgium. There the battalion fought in the battle of Messines between 7 and 12 June and the battle of Polygon Wood between 26 and 27 September. Another winter of trench routine followed.

With the collapse of Russia in October 1917, a major German offensive on the Western Front was expected in early 1918. The 51st Battalion assisted in the repulse of a large German attack on 5 April, launching a critical counter-attack late in the day. The German threat remained until late April, and in the early hours of ANZAC Day 1918 the 51st participated in the now legendary attack to dislodge the enemy from Villers-Bretonneux.

As part of the German Spring Offensive on the Western Front German
forces using infantry and tanks captured Villers-Bretonneux, near Amiens, from exhausted British defenders on 24 April 1918. The Australian 13th and 15th Brigades were brought forward and in a model of a well-planned and co-ordinated night attack successfully recaptured the town. On 25 April 1918 Monty Davies sustained a gunshot wound to the abdomen at Villers-Bretonneux and was admitted to the 5th Casualty Clearing Station where he died of his wound on 26 April 1918 at the age of 22. He was buried in the Crouy British Cemetery, 10 miles north west of Amiens.

Sergeant Davies was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. His brother, William Herbert Davies, continued on the farm, Woodlands, in Benjaberring.