Lest We Forget...

APRIL 25th - ANZAC DAY

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       There's a small cemetery up in the Adelaide Hills, at Cherry Gardens, set well back from the road in thick stands of pines and gums and acacias. Among the scatter of graves and stones is this one, dedicated to Pte Cecil Claude Ahrens.

        Cecil was the youngest of the five children of William and Elizabeth Ahrens, and on the 1st of November 1915, aged just 18 - listing his mum "of Upper Sturt" as his next of kin - like so many other young men, Cecil joined the AIF in Adelaide, having previously done a year's service in the part time Army Cadets in Stirling.

        Cecil did his basic training in Adelaide, and in March 1916 he embarked for France on the troopship "RMS Mongolia", finished his training there, and in July 1916 was assigned to the 50th Infantry Battalion.

        On the 13th of August 1916, Cecil and the 50th were deep into the hell that was the offensive battle of Mouquet Farm on the Somme, and the Battalion, like all of the Australian units around them, suffered heavy casualties, and on the 16th of August, after just a month of active service, Cecil was one of the hundreds that was reported as "Missing in the field". It was later recorded that he died on that day, and was "Buried at Mouquet Farm", and some reports suggest that he was killed in his trench by a shell burst.

        The truth is, in the fog of war, Cecil simply disappeared, and has no known grave, one more soldier whose final resting place is "Known only by God".

        Nine and a half million Cecils died in WW1, the "War To End All Wars". Fifteen million died in WW2. Then Korea. Then Vietnam. Then... Then... Now Ukraine, the Middle East. Clearly the politicians and generals of the world have learnt little since Cecil made the "ultimate sacrifice" in 1916, certainly haven't learnt that no-one wins a war, there are just varying degrees of losing.

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