Oliver Holmes Woodward

¹Oliver Holmes Woodward was born in Tenterfield, N.S.W. where he had graduated from the Charters Towers School of Mines in 1910.

In August 1915 he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force; he was commissioned and posted to No.1 Company of a newly raised Mining Battalion. Deployed in Armentieres, Northern France in the 1^st Tunnelling Company, Woodward won the Military Cross for blowing up a sniper’s post in no man’s land in June 1916.

Captain Oliver Holmes Woodward MM²

² In 1917, he was responsible for setting off the two main mines in the greatest explosion then known to humankind - 460 tonnes of ammonal explosive in 19 mines that, when set off, were described as "19 gigantic red roses [that] sprang suddenly from the ground". The blast was heard in London and, some say, felt in Dublin. It is estimated up to 10,000 Germans died instantly or in the battle that followed. Thousands were captured as they staggered, dazed, incoherent, unwilling and unable to fight on.

³ In September 1918, Captain Woodward was in charge of three groups of miners working on the road maintenance at Bony, near Amiens. Despite the intense machine gun fire and shrapnel explosions of their enemy, they were able to advance and thanks to its organization and surveillance of the road, the project was a success. Through his courage and resources Captain Woodward showed a good example to his men and he was awarded a Bar to his Military Cross.

In the last weeks of the war his section was attached to the 1st British Division for its advance to the Rhine. For the crossing of the Sambre-Oise Canal east of Le Cateau, his men, under heavy fire, built a tank bridge spanning the walls of a lock; Woodward received a second Bar to his Military Cross, an extremely rare distinction, and one of only four Australians to do so.

Sources:

¹ My Story of the Great War by Oliver Woodward

² https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/194926

³ http:adb.anu.edu.au/biography/woodward-oliver-holmes-9185/text16221

4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/96029299