Claude Henry Chute [56135]

  General Notes:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~chute/gp8560.htm#head5



Claude Henry Chute's service records, also from World War I, again contradict his birth records, listing his Place of Birth as Sydney instead of Woollahra. Unlike his brother, is point of entry into the armed forces is Enoggera, in Queensland.

Chute Claude Henry : SERN LIEUT :
POB Sydney NSW :
POE Enoggera QLD :
NOK F Chute Henry George
Series number: B2455
Control symbol: CHUTE C H
Contents date range: circa 1914 - circa 1920
Access status: Open
Location: National Office
Barcode no: 3249066

Chute Claude Henry : SERN LIEUT :
POB Sydney NSW :
POE Enoggera QLD :
NOK F Chute Henry George
Item barcode: 3249066
Series number: B2455
Series accession number: B2455/1
Control symbol: CHUTE C H
Contents date range: circa 1914 - circa 1920
Extent Location National Office
Access status: Open
Reason for restriction:
Date of decision: 12 Apr 2001

With no further identification of the full name, I'm assuming this record pertains to Claude Henry Chute.

[Official History, 1914-18 War: biographical and other research files:] Churchill W, Chute C H, Cilento W A, Clack R O, Clammer R, Clancy D, Clancy J S, Clare G W B, Clareborough J A, Clareborough J W, Clarence E A, Clarendon-Hyde G, Clark A, Clark A A, Clark A G, Clark B A, Clark C A, Clark C F
Series number: AWM43
Control symbol: A152
Contents date range: 1914 - 1968
Access status: Open
Location: Australian War Memorial
Barcode no: 507336

Notes courtesy of James O'Sullivan:
"I am curious why no 'Particulars Form' was submitted, perhaps by 1917 his mother was dead, or the loss of a second son was just too much and the form was never attended to, but all this is conjecture, I will endeavour to obtain further information on the parents. Note on this N1160, has Claude Henry Chute enlisting at Enoggera QLD, Enoggera is a suburb of Brisbane and across the Brisbane River from where I live, Forest Lake. James.
Claude Henry Chute
Lieutenant, 31st Battalion, Australian Infantry, A.I.F. [Australian Imperial Force]. Killed in action Wednesday 26 September 1917. Aged 33. His name is commemorated on the YPRES MENIN GATE MEMORIAL, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Has no known or identified grave. Son of Henry George and Fanny Clara Chute, of "Lyminge," Waratah St., Katoomba, New South Wales. Native of Sydney. Brother of Lance Serjeant Eric Cecil Chute. From information supplied by Chute's mother, he was killed in action at Polygon Wood. [North East of Ypres Belgium]. Refer to Lance Serjeant Eric Cecil Chute's military record and the image of the form titled - 'Particulars Required for the Roll of Honour of Australia in the Memorial War Museum'.
Ypres (now Ieper) is a town in the Province of West Flanders. The Memorial is situated at the eastern side of the town on the road to Menin (Menen) and Courtrai (Kortrijk). Each night at 8 pm the traffic is stopped at the Menin Gate while members of the local Fire Brigade sound the Last Post in the roadway under the Memorial's arches.
[Info source Ypres Memorial, CWGC [Commonwealth War Graves Commission] database].
<http://www.cwgc.org.uk/>
To the best of my knowledge, no additional 'Particulars Form' was submitted to the Australian War Memorial, by next of kin for this officer.
The Menin Gate Memorial Ypres Belgium.
After the Armistice was signed in November 1918, there were notions to build some form of memorial in the Ypres area. The Belgian Government offered two sites to the British for their use as memorials - the ruined Cloth Hall and the Menin Gate site. However when it was decided to rebuild the Cloth Hall to it's original majesty, the option left to the British Government was the Menin Gate. The memorial was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield and was built in the face of considerable construction difficulties, the spanning of the moat and the need to keep the road open to traffic. The Memorial was dedicated on July 24th 1927 by Field Marshall Lord Plumer, ten years after the terrible Third Battle of Ypres - the beginning of the campaign involving British and Australian troops, which ended with the capture of the village of Passchendaele by Canadian troops.
The Menin Gate is a prominent memorial, an integral part of the town of Ypres now spelt as Iepers, the Menin Road being the main thoroughfare passing through the Memorial, a daily reminder to the townspeople and visitors of the great sacrifice paid by British and Empire troops. Following the inaugural ceremony the last post was played by the Somerset Light Infantry, followed by a lament from the pipes of the Scots Guards.
It was this simple ceremony that prompted the local Superintendent from the Ypres police Force, Supt. Vandenbraamussche, to consider the idea of repeating the ceremony, following his discussions with the local Fire Brigade the ceremony was repeated nightly through the summer of 1928.
And so the tradition was born. With the exception of the period under which Ypres was occupied during the Second World War, the Last Post has been played every night since 11 November 1929.
During World War Two, the day the Germans were driven out of Ypres [6th September 1944], the ceremony was enacted that night.
[Refer montage image by J.O'Sullivan, Menin Gate].
[Info source Menin Gate, research by J. O'Sullivan].
[Menin Gate web page]
<http://216.219.216.235/>

Polygon Wood
Named so because of it's shape, resembling a closed figure of many angles. Prior to 1914, this wood had been used as a firing range by the Belgian Army.
[Info source JOS]

"...During September and October in the baffles of Menin Road Ridge, Polygon Wood and Broodseinde, the British Second Army took all of its objectives and held them against determined German counter-attacks. The baffles were so effective that they caused Ludendorif great concern; he wondered whether or not the German line in the area could hold at all. The set-piece victories had once again emboldened Haig who, against Plumer's advice, decided to press for more, even though the rains had returned. The resulting deluge, referred to by some as a monsoon, transformed the battlefield once again into a nearly impassable wilderness of mud. Slogging through mud that often reached their waists, first ANZAC troops then Canadian troops strove to reach the top of the last ridge and the village of Passchendaele. Due to the muddy horror of this futile portion of the battle, many refer to the entire offensive as the Battle of Passchendaele rather than its proper name the Third Battle of Ypres. Some men fell into water-filled shell holes and due to their slippery sides were unable to clamber out and drowned. Wounded men struggled in the clinging mud only to be dragged down to their horrible deaths. The Germans added to the plight of the forlorn soldiers by using mustard gas for the first time in the war. It had all gone terribly wrong. One soldier remembers his experience at Passchendaele:
"...Mud. We slept in it, ate in it. It stretched for miles a sea of stinking mud. The dead buried themselves in it. The wounded died in it. Men slithered around the lips of huge shell craters filled with mud and water ... [On] each side of the track lie the debris of war ... Here an arm and a leg. It was a nightmare journey ... Finally dawn broke, a hopeless dawn. Shell holes and mud. Round about rifles with fixed bayonets stuck in the mud marking the places where men had died and been sucked down..."
In the end the brave Canadian units seized the ruined village of Passchendaele and the Third Battle of Ypres dragged to a halt. Estimates vary widely, but both sides suffered over 300,000 total casualties during the struggle. To many of the British, Third Ypres ranks with the Somme as one of the twin disasters of World War I. The first and last phases of the battle were misguided and horrific. However, often lost in the shuffle are the successful battles fought under Plumer's direction...".
[Info source Polygon Wood, The Illustrated History of World War 1, by Andy Wiest, published 2001 by Amber Books Ltd, London. ISBN 1 897884 70 2]
[Polygon Wood web page and photo]
<http://battlefields1418.50megs.com/polygon_wood.htm> <http://battlefields1418.50megs.com/polygonwood.air.JPG>