100 Kiwi Stories: Just keep your head down

William H Johns.

99 William Henwood Johns went to war twice. Once he returned injured; the second time he never came home.

The Te Awamutu teacher sailed first to the Mediterranean with the 4th Waikato Mounted Rifles. Soon after the main landing he wrote to his parents, John and Martha, telling them that he witnessed the slaying of Captain Charlie Bluck.

"Poor Mrs Bluck," trooper Johns wrote, "that is the sad part. He [Captain Bluck] was strolling about on an outpost reconnaissance with the Sergt. Major when both ducked down as we thought. We soon found though that both were dead, sniped through the heart."

Private Johns reassured his parents that as long as he kept his head down in the trenches "one is fairly safe". In August 1915, Johns failed to keep his head down and suffered gunshot wounds to his left cheek. He was evacuated from Gallipoli, treated in a convalescent camp in Egypt and sent back to New Zealand.

Back on home soil Johns recovered and married. Eager to return to the front, he wrote to the military authorities seeking promotion.

"I went to the front with the main body and was in the firing line for 13 weeks," Johns said in a March 1916 letter. "For services rendered there I was mentioned in Army Corps dispatches."

Assessed by a medical board, Johns was found fit for active service. Senior commanders recognised his leadership qualities and accepted his application for a commission.

He completed his training, and, in December, Johns farewelled his young wife Caroline and sailed on the troopship Waihora with reinforcements for the Auckland Mounted Rifles. By now, the young lieutenant was a machine gun officer, part of the Allied offensive which began to enjoy some success as they pushed on from capturing the Sinai Peninsula.

Gaza was the next goal, with Anzac mounted troops given the task of taking Beersheba. The New Zealanders were ordered to take Tel el Saba, a heavily defended hill which would open Beersheba and its water wells to the attacking forces.

The advance started on October 30. By mid-afternoon, a unit led by Lieutenant Johns secured ground which allowed them to spray fire on enemy trenches. The NZ soldier did not survive the day or watch the dusty charge of Australian light horsemen across the desert plain into Beersheba. He was fatally wounded as the soldiers claimed the high ground. The nearby town was taken and the wells were secured before fleeing troops could destroy them.

There is a memorial to William Johns, and 33 other New Zealanders, in Beersheba War Cemetery in what is now southern Israel. Andrew Stone