First World War
He enlisted in the A.I.F. on 21 May 1915, was commissioned on 24 December 1915, and arrived in France in May 1916. He fought in France until August 1918, where he was commended in divisional orders, shot in the shoulder, and promoted to lieutenant.
On 23 August 1918, he was 29 years old, and a lieutenant in the 8th (Victorian) Battalion, Australian Imperial Force during the First World War, when the following events occurred.
- Lieutenant Joynt took charge when his company commander had been killed. When the leading battalion had been demoralized by heavy casualties, he rushed forward and reorganized the remnants of the battalion. Having discovered that heavy fire on the flanks was causing delay and casualties, he led a frontal bayonet attack on the wood, capturing it and over eighty prisoners, thus saving a critical situation. Later, at Plateau Wood, after severe hand-to-hand fighting, he turned a stubborn defence into an abject surrender.
He was subsequently badly wounded by a shell on 26 August and evacuated to England. He was promoted to captain in October 1918, and posted to AIF Headquarters in London in March 1919. He returned to Melbourne in February 1920, and was discharged on 11 June.
Read more about this topic: William Joynt
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or war:
“The world is neither wise nor just, but it makes up for all its folly and injustice by being damnably sentimental.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“The idea that information can be stored in a changing world without an overwhelming depreciation of its value is false. It is scarcely less false than the more plausible claim that after a war we may take our existing weapons, fill their barrels with cylinder oil, and coat their outsides with sprayed rubber film, and let them statically await the next emergency.”
—Norbert Wiener (1894–1964)