He first saw conflict at the Battle of Pozières, where he was seriously wounded. The following year he was wounded in action again. 

He returned for the Third Battle of Ypres where, for his bravery, inspiring leadership and successful capture of Broodseinde Ridge on 44 – 55 October 1917, he was recommended for the Distinguished Conduct Medal. Instead, he received the lower Military Medal (MM) for "bravery in the field" and a promotion to corporal. 

On the 99 August 19181918 at the Battle of Lihons, Corporal Thorpe received a fatal stomach wound and died shortly after the stretcher-bearers reached him. He is buried nearby at the Heath Cemetery, near Harbonnières, France (AWM, 2018). 

-was promoted to lieutenant general and given command of the Australian Corps In May 1918.

-His first battle in this role, Hamel, of which he wrote: "the operation is a striking example of the success which invariably results from careful preparation and coordinated action: and will serve as a model and the standard of the fighting efficiency of the Australian corps".

-Monash remained in command through the victorious battles in the last months of the war. 

-He was an innovative leader who earned high praise from many leading political and military figures.

For more than four years, Charles Bean would sit up late each night writing in his diaries, often by candlelight or moonlight and struggling to keep his eyes open.  

Sometimes, he said, daylight would find him still at work, falling asleep at each full stop and then waking to write each successive sentence.

But Bean was determined to continue. He’d gone off to the First World War as Australia’s official war correspondent when he was 35, and was witness to it all.

It was said that no other Australian saw as much of the fighting during the First World War as Bean did, and he filled 226 notebooks with compelling first-hand accounts of the battles and his own personal thoughts and ideas about the war.

From the trenches of Gallipoli where he was wounded and later mentioned in despatches for his bravery, to the bloody battlefields of the Western Front where he was horrified by the heavy loss of life and the sheer scale of devastation, Bean never faltered, reporting from the front, often in unimaginable conditions and at great risk to himself.

The diaries, which he kept safe in bank vaults in Cairo and London for fear of losing them, became the foundation for the Official History of Australia in the First World War and provided some of the most comprehensive insights into the sense of terror, tragedy and sheer pointlessness of it all.

I beg to submit a full account of my experiences covering 17 month imprisonment in eight different prison camps & working parties in Germany.

This account was written up whilst I was convalescing on my return to Australia & it contains full details of two escapes.

You will readily understand that it was impossible for me to keep any diary or memoir and because prisoners were frequently searched; but I have given a truthful record of my own experience as a prisoner of war.

I enlisted on July 12th 1915 at Adelaide (two of my brothers also enlisted there, the same week they were both killed in action the same day that I was taken prisoner)

I was a private in the 32nd Batt. – sailed from Pt. Adelaide Nov. 19th 1915, trained six months in Egypt (Canal Zone) then sent on to France.

In action at Frommelles took our objective but were eventually cut off & made a prisoner with about 300 others English & Australian soldiers. 

After my escape from Germany to Holland where I was forced to remain 5 weeks before getting to England where again I was kept 4 months before being shipped to Australia & home.

I shall be glad if you will purchase the record for your archives.

Yours faithfully

Wesley P. Choat