DIGGER

“Dedicated to Digger Heritage”

Photo: The sons and daughter of Arthur Charles Hall VC proudly stand beside their father’s grave at St Matthew’s

Church, West Bogan, in Western NSW on the occasion of the renaming of the adjacent Coolabah-Brewarrina Road

after their father, who lived and farmed nearby after his return from the Great War until his death in 1978. Inset: Arthur

Hall, 54th

Battalion, at Buckingham Palace in 1919 following his investiture with the Victoria Cross.

March 2012 No. 38

Magazine of the Families and Friends of the First AIF Inc

Edited by Graeme Hosken

ISSN 1834-8963

DIGGER 2 Issue 38

Families and Friends of the First AIF Inc

President: Russell Curley ABN 67 473 829 552 Secretary: Chris Munro

Trench talk

Graeme Hosken

This issue Even before a DIGGER issue is posted each quarter, the next one is well into production. Luckily, there is

considerable pleasure involved in putting DIGGER together (because the pay is lousy!) and this March issue

has been no exception. Some wonderful stories and photographs arrive in the editor’s mail box or e-mail

inbox from our members, and in some cases, from complete strangers who find our website and make

contact with our association (these strangers often become members when they find out how helpful we are).

Patric Millar gives an account of the last 2nd

Bn men to be evacuated from Anzac while Tony Cunneen

analyses the tremendous work done by the Red Cross Missing and Wounded Enquiry Bureau. Harry Willey

provides a profile on Richard Gunter (34th Bn) and Phil Mannell contributes a poem found on a dead soldier

at Gallipoli. Geoff Lewis has the story of two men killed at Bullecourt and Daryl Barker has been doing

some of his own ‘Underbelly’ research. Ray Black has provided a terrific insight into the ‘history behind the

history’ of the 3rd

Bn, while Yves Fohlen profiles another soldier who fell in Yves’ beloved France. Andrew

Pittaway tells the story of a WA sportsman who didn’t make it to the full-time siren and Trevor Munro has

delved into the discovery of the Shellal Mosaic. Our in-house travel writer, Brett Arnfield, finishes this

issue with a lighter touch as he details his travails on the Western Front. Frev, Margaret, Maurice and

Sandra have provided page-fillers, which the editor appreciates receiving to plug those spaces at the end of

articles. Thanks also to Russell for presenting his thirty-seventh ‘Etched in Stone’ and for Jim Corkery (UK

member) for fact-checking against official sources. All up, another great issue for your reading pleasure.

New members The FFFAIF welcomes Mervyn Bendle, Elizabeth Briton, Hazel Cook, Bruce Day, Leonie Day, Patricia

Duncan, Anthony Falkenhagen, Chrissy Fletcher, James Geltch, Paul Graham, Malcolm Jurgs, Walter

Mitchell, Graham Senior-Milne, John Ralph, John Readford, Ivon Robson, Cherie Statham and John

Trethewey. Great to have you on board as members and possible DIGGER contributors!

Book on Hamel being planned British member, Paul Kendall, author of ‘Bullecourt 1917: Breaching the Hindenburg Line’, has nearly

completed his book, ‘Aisne 1914: The Beginning of Trench Warfare’. Paul is then moving on to look at the

first day of the Battle of the Somme. After that (in his spare time!) he is planning a book on the Battle of

Hamel (4th July 1918). If any member has a Digger-ancestor who fought at Hamel and has diaries, letters or

photographs (including any of the soldier) relating to Hamel that you would like to share, Paul can be

contacted via the Editor or by e-mail: paul.kendall193@btinternet.com.

Articles wanted June’s DIGGER 39 will be another 80-page issue if sufficient material is available. Now is the perfect time

to sit down and write that article you have been considering doing – whether it be on a soldier, nurse, pilot,

sailor, light horseman, or a battle or battlefield, etc. The Editor is only too happy to work with you in getting

your story published. Note: The Editor will be on leave March 17th to April 20

th, but e-mails will be read!

Suggestion for next membership renewal The DIGGER 39 mail-out in June will contain the membership renewal form for 2012/13 for the bulk of

members. It only seems the other day that the committee was chasing up overdue memberships for 2011/12!

You can make it easier on yourself (and the volunteer committee) by opting to take out a multi-year

membership (2 or 3 years available) when renewing this year. Don’t forget, you can pay by direct deposit.

Details will be on the membership renewal form sent with the next issue. Copyright © DIGGER 2012. All material in DIGGER is copyright. Subject to the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright Act 1968, reproduction in any form is not

permitted without written permission of the Editor or Author/s. DIGGER is published four times per year and is available to members only. Images from the AWM are

downloaded with kind permission of the eSales unit. Contributions of possible articles and illustrative material for DIGGER and any feedback should be sent to Graeme

Hosken, Editor of DIGGER, 2 Colony Crescent, Dubbo NSW 2830 or e-mailed to ghoskenaif@bigpond.com. Membership inquiries should be forwarded to

Membership Secretary FFFAIF Inc, PO Box 4208, Oatley West NSW 2223 (Australia) or e-mail to membership@fffaif.org.au. Standard membership is $50 pa and

concessional membership (students, under 18s, seniors) is $40 pa. Family membership is $50 for the first member, then $40 for each additional member residing at the

same address. Only one copy of DIGGER is included with each Family Membership. Gift and two or three year memberships are available. A membership form can be

downloaded from our website: www.fffaif.org.au. Telephone inquiries can be made to 0448 266 634. Please leave a message if not answered.

Founder and Patron-in-Memoriam: John Laffin

Patrons-in-Memoriam:

General Sir John Monash GCMG KCB VD

General Sir Harry Chauvel GCMG KCB

Patron-in-Chief:

Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce AC CVO

Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia

DIGGER 3 Issue 38

The 2nd Battalion’s last men to leave Gallipoli Patric Millar, Glen Innes, and Neville Kidd, West Pymble.

The Evacuation of Gallipoli is well-documented and has been the subject of much research. It is widely

recognised as a piece of military and logistical genius. It still is marvelled at for being executed without

raising the suspicion of the Turkish Army and for being completed without incurring a single death.

In this article we will look at how a number of 2nd

Battalion men remembered the Evacuation. In a

future article we’ll look at the makeup of the 2nd

Battalion’s final parties and detail what became of those

men. The information for this article comes from a wide range of sources, including ‘Nulli Secundus, the

Official History of 2nd

Battalion’ by Taylor and Cusack, CEW Bean’s ‘Official History’, ‘Reveille’

Magazine, the 2nd

Battalion War Diary, ‘An Impression Which Will Never Fade’ by Neville and the memoirs

of Captain Ken Millar MC.

__________________________________________________________

On 22nd

November 1915, Lord Kitchener decided that evacuation from Gallipoli was the best course of

action. Records show that at that time there were over 93 000 troops, 200 guns and more than 5 000 animals,

as well as vast quantities of stores and ammunition, on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Yet within two months

(following the successful departure also of the British forces from Cape Helles) there would be none. How

was it done at Anzac?

The Evacuation was undertaken largely at night with men

marching down to the Milo Pier site with sandbags on their boots to

muffle their footsteps. As they boarded the ships they dropped their

Mills bombs into the ocean and bid farewell to Gallipoli. Those that

remained went about life as normal, lighting cooking fires at night,

getting water, reinforcing trenches and firing occasional shots

across No-man’s land. By the evening of 19th December the

Evacuation was largely complete; only a handful of men remained.

These men were the so-called ‘C’ parties. [Right: Gallipoli

Peninsula, Turkey, 5th December 1915. Evacuation having been

decided upon, new piers were built, one of which, extended out to

the partially sunken ship Milo. Australian War Memorial Negative

number G01269.]

Let’s begin with an excerpt from CEW Bean, ‘Volume II –

The Story of ANZAC from 4 May, 1915, to the evacuation of the

Gallipoli Peninsula’. In this passage Bean describes the enormity of

the task faced by the ‘C’ parties:

The whole circumference of the Anzac line was now held by less

than 1 500 men under the ‘C’ party commanders. In the Inner Line

on Plugge’s Plateau was Colonel Lamrock of the 20th, with

flanking troops on MacLagan’s, Walker’s and No. 1 Outpost. With

the ‘B’ parties had gone a large proportion of the machine guns,

and the last catapults and trench-mortars. Since dusk seven of the

nine guns and howitzers of the N.Z. & A. Division had been

removed: the two others, together with the remaining nine of the 1st Australian Division, were now being

dismantled, and explosives were being fixed in their muzzles. [Volume II, page 891.]

Now with the scene set we’ll begin with the 2nd

Battalion Diary, which at that time was being written by

Lieutenant Harold Taylor. It gives a concise, almost clinical, account of how the Evacuation unfolded.

19 December 1915 0900 Fine day but cold. Nothing has happened so far to indicate the enemy knows of our scheme.

1200 Shelling to our left (Lone Pine) and in rear of our area continues at intervals. Possibly parties of men

detailed to stand and move about Gun Road at points visible to Gaba Tepe have drawn fire.

1500 All quiet along our front.

1715 ‘A’ Party commenced to move out according to previous instructions and time table, and all ranks with

feet muffled some carrying packs of ‘C’ class, grenade and some stretchers moved silently down the hillside

to point X.

DIGGER 4 Issue 38

1730 ‘A’ party under Major DI Ross numbering 6 officers and 240 others moved from Gun Road.

Everything is still quiet and nothing at all to indicate that enemy knows of our going is noticeable.

2140 ‘B’ party numbering 5 officers and 41 other ranks under 2nd

Lieutenant Youden moved off subject to

Orders issued.

20 December 1915 0200 ‘C’ party in small groups commenced to move out at 10 minute intervals until 0230, only 10 men and 5

officers including 2 signallers remained to keep up sniping. These men moved silently from post to post,

firing a round from each, giving the impression that the whole line was still manned. At 0240 these moved

out silently and quickly to point X. Thence to Milo Pier.

0315 Embarked on beetle barge and conveyed to SS Heroic.

0430 Left off Anzac for Mudros.

0900 Arrived Mudros.

The next account comes from pages 162 and 163 of ‘Nulli Secundus, the Official History of 2nd

Battalion’ by

Taylor and Cusack:

At 10.20pm according to Cass, there remained: at

headquarters Colonel Cass, Major Watson, Lieut Taylor,

two signallers, two runners; ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’ companies,

each one officer and ten other ranks. Casual firing was

carried on in the line with the Turks still unsuspecting. A

variety of ingenious devices had been evolved to carry on

the deception when the trenches had been finally

evacuated. The one in which most interest centred being a

rifle which was fired by water dripping from one tin to

another, and called by Cass the ‘Watermatic’. [Right:

The drip fire rifle, which was invented by William Scurry,

to deceive the Turks in the final hours of the evacuation of

Gallipoli Peninsula. Australian War Memorial Negative Number J00364.]

At 2am on December 20 all communications were disconnected and one officer and eight men left

from ‘B’ Company on the right. At 2.10 Cass returned to battalion headquarters, when one officer and eight

men left from ‘C’ Company, second company on the left. At 2.20 eight men left from ‘A’ Company – second

company from the right, and at 2.30 eight men left from ‘D’ Company on the left. There remaining now in

the whole of the Second’s sector only five officers and ten other ranks, who were busily firing into No-man’s

land. Those remaining were:-

At headquarters, Cass, Watson and two runners; ‘D’ Company Rowlands and two others; ‘C’ Company two

NCOs; ‘A’ Company, Lecky and two others; ‘B’ Company, two NCOs.

At 2.35 Cass sent the runners to tell Lecky to withdraw ‘B’ and ‘A’ Company men, and Rowlands to

bring back ‘C’ and ‘D’ Company men. All lights were extinguished and the ‘Watermatics’ finally checked.

The party then moved to headquarters, where they were counted by Cass, and proceeded to the beach via

points Y and Z, embarking on the second last ‘beetle’ to leave Anzac.

Cass said: ‘Actually I was the last one as I checked the men and officers as they passed me, although

Rowlands did want to be “last”’. They reached the ‘beetle’ at 3.15 am on the 20th, and were soon clear of

the shore with the evacuation an accomplished fact, without any loss, and deep were the sighs of relief. The

troops learned afterwards that among the stores destroyed were 3 500 gallons of rum.

The ‘beetle’ was about three or four hundred yards from the shore when the big mine under The Nek

was fired. Immediately, intense rifle and machine-gun fire broke out along the Turkish line and the water

was lashed by bullets. ‘C’ party were taken aboard the ‘Heroic’, and as she steamed off they looked for the

last time and the outline of those cliffs and saw in the sky the reflection of the big fires at Suvla.

Now we’ll move onto three separate personal accounts of the Evacuation, starting with Captain Roy

Harrison, who had a distinguished career with the 2nd

Battalion. He was the only officer from the 2nd

Battalion to serve from the Landing to the Evacuation at Gallipoli without injury. In February 1916 he was

transferred to the 54th Battalion which was raised in Egypt and went on to lead the 54

th into battle at

Fromelles, where he was killed on 20th July 1916. He is buried at the Rue Petillon Military Cemetery near

Fleurbaix.

In his letter to his fiancé, Emily Ellis, reprinted from ‘An Impression Which Will Never Fade’ by

Neville Kidd (2000), Captain Harrison makes some interesting observations and outlines the secrecy around

the operation:

DIGGER 5 Issue 38

Tel-el-Kebir, Egypt 13th January 1916

For some time prior to the evacuation of Anzac all our letters inwards and outwards were stopped,

so that we were quite cut off from our little world for a time.

We are not allowed to give any details of how the evacuation was carried out, but I can say that it

was a triumph of Australian organisation and discipline. Many thousands of our men were withdrawn from

positions where they were within a few feet of the enemy, without loss, and it all happened while the moon

made the nights almost as light as day. I was with the last party from the trenches at about 2 o’clock in the

morning, on Monday 20th December. We were taken off on a large barge and when clear of the shore parts

of the trenches were blown up and stores burned.

We were taken on board a transport and sent straight to Lemnos, where we disembarked. When we

got to our camp, all the men of the parties who were taken off in the earlier stages of the evacuation, lined up

and gave us a great reception. They were very relieved to see us all uninjured. The authorities expected we

would have 6 000 or 7 000 casualties at least, and cleared all the hospitals at Mudros, Malta and Alexandria

in readiness. However we did not lose a man, though a shell fell and exploded a few yards from my party,

just as we were approaching the beach. Wouldn’t it have been hard luck to get hit after getting right through

from the landing?

The next account comes from 2nd

Lieutenant Malcolm Cotton’s letter to his brother, Ken Cotton of ‘Alice

Downs’ station via Moree:

Tel-el-Kebir 6.1.16

EVACUATION. I was in charge of the company that night and at 10.30pm was left with 11 men. Then at

2.20am I was left with 2 men. It was a very exciting time holding the Company’s line with 2 men. Then at 20

to 3 we left and the Turks were still plugging away at our sand bags. I was the last man out of the

Company’s trenches and have the cartridge case of the last shot I fired over the parapet that night. We

walked from one post to the other, firing a shot from each, thus keeping up the constant ordinary sniping all

along the line. I am glad to get away as we would have had a very rough time of it during the winter.

The final account comes from a ‘Reveille’ article, ‘Hated to Leave’, written in 1932 by Captain CK Millar

MC, who was the only NCO to lead one of the 2nd

Battalion’s ‘C’ parties:

It was not until after the snowstorm and blizzard had swept the Peninsula, and we realised that life there in

the winter would be impossible, that credence gained ground for the ‘furphies’ that evacuation of the troops

was intended.

The staff work and organisation for the Evacuation were perfect in all details, but it is not my

purpose to deal with that phase, except to add my tribute, as a humble sergeant of the line, to the brains and

ability of General Brudenell White – that good Australian – to whom much of the credit for the success is

due.

To the old hands of the battalion, the idea of running away from Abdul was abhorrent. We had

beaten him at every meeting. We were well-entrenched to resist any attack on his part, and after May 18 we

would have welcomed any fresh attentions from him.

Then again there was the question of our dead mates. The Gallipoli campaign was a totally different

proposition to that of France. We lived at Gallipoli, with our dead alongside of us. Owing to the lack of

space our cemeteries were always under our eyes. The hardest feature of the Evacuation was in leaving

those dead comrades behind. They had died facing the impossible, and to us they had bequeathed a sacred

trust – to carry on and succeed. First the Landing thinned out the battalion, and we buried the dead

alongside of us; then May 18 took its toll, and the awful carnage of the ‘Pine’ filled a cemetery above

Shrapnel Gully.

Jack Murphy, in his notes for our History, states that as his party stole away from the line they took

off their hats passing the crosses, and old hard-bitten Anzacs wept silent tears and felt the remorse of a man

having let his mates down.

The first duty I can remember in connection with the actual preparation for leaving was the arduous

work of going down to the beach in full marching order just before dawn and returning again just at

visibility. The idea was to give the Turk the impression that the activity among the boats was due to

reinforcements arriving; not, as was the case, the taking of men and stores away.

This was a good scheme, but very hard on the troops who ‘played’ route marching up and down

those steep hills. The next puzzler for old Turk was the periods of absolute silence. It was uncanny and

nerve-wracking to be on Gallipoli and not hear one shot fired from a rifle on our side for days. Then there

would be periods when shots would be fired at a given time in the morning or night or at mixed times.

DIGGER 6 Issue 38

I am hazy about the actual final arrangements for the taking off of the troops, but the plans were

based on those which obtained among the other battalions, companies being divided into different parties,

and leaving on different nights.

The last party from the 2nd

Bn comprised only 14 or 15 men, each of three companies providing an

officer and two other ranks, the other company two other ranks, the balance consisting of the CO (Cass), his

adjutant (Taylor), with one or two runners. Despite that these figures are correct, 40 officers and other ranks

claim to have been in the last party.

Many arguments were provoked over the choice of the last party personnel. Old friends and mates

quarrelled and disputed length of service and seniority, and the company commanders had a torrid time

making and holding on to their selections. Volunteers were called for to make the final rearguard, and I

remember the splendid fellows – mates of mine of old ‘C’ Company – who quickly, and without hesitation,

clamoured for the honour of staying behind. To the best of my knowledge more than half the battalion were

evacuated by the second last night, leaving in the line the ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ parties of picked, fit men.

The ‘A’ party, which was the main body, pulled out immediately it became dark, and at intervals the

‘B’ and ‘C’ parties left. Then commenced the strangest, most anxious time that I put in during the whole war.

The battalion was holding Queensland Villas and Tassy Post, the trenches being so deep and well dug that it

was necessary to have artificial light in the day time. The firing bays were reached by going up a few steps

from the trench. I do not remember having seen in France a better made system of trenches than these.

Normally, our company of some 120 men were too few for the length of line we held, and after the

‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ parties withdrew, the silence hung like a pall. L/Cpl E J Kelly, a long lean ex-drover, was

my selected companion for the night. We had been section mates at Mena, and shared blankets there. Kelly’s

Gallipoli record was splendid. He had landed and ‘boxed on’ through the whole campaign, and it was fitting

that he should be left to see it out. The orders to us were to start from the middle of our company sector, one

to move to the right, the other to the left, and fire one shot from each firing bay, until we connected with the

man on our flank, and then work back again until we met, and keep this up until withdrawn.

The only thing that worried Kelly and I was Lone Pine and Quinn’s Post. We knew all about the

Pine system, and understood that Quinn’s was even closer to the Turk. The Pine was only a matter of yards,

and the combatants could toss back each other’s bombs if they were quick enough. We wanted to know how

troops could be withdrawn from these places without Abdul waking up to it, and if Kelly is as grey as I am

now, I am sure that thinking about the Pine that night and wondering how best to save one’s skin without

disgrace, laid the foundation of it!

The longest of nights has an end, and a runner going past to the left to bring in ‘D’ Company

warned me to be ready to follow them to ‘B’ sap. Along came Capt. Rowlands, Jack O’Connell and Bailey

from ‘D’ with Kelly, and we assembled in the sap. Colonel Cass called the roll, the senior of each company

answering, and without a further word he checked us out of the sap and led us to the beach. We were

challenged at several points, and checked off, but there was no delay, and on reaching Watson’s Pier we

immediately embarked, after throwing our bombs into the sea.

As the boat pushed off a mine burst in our old line, and the Turks opened rifle fire right along the

front. The bullets whined and spattered round the barge, and we made our last ‘duck’ to the Turkish fire, and

left to the enemy his native land, which he had so gallantly defended.

In his unpublished memoirs, Captain Millar MC added the following detail to the Evacuation:

The selection of other ranks to remain for the last day was easy, the tough part was the selection of the 10

men for the last party from each company. All these men were volunteers – it was expected that it would be

impossible to get away without losses. Two posts on Gallipoli were very close to the Turk, that was Quinn’s

Post and Lone Pine, both of whom could throw bombs at each other. I personally did not think it would be

possible to evacuate those two places without detection; we all wore sandbags wrapped round our feet to

deaden the noise of army boots. I am rambling a bit here.

To get these last 10 men caused a lot of heartbreaks, most of the original men and NCO’s left

wanted to be in it. Out of that 10 of each company, two had to be selected to be in the very last party. These

two from each company were left with only a haversack with rations and a water bottle, about 50 rounds of

SAA and 2 Hales bombs. Our packs and all personal belongings, except pay book and identity disc, were

taken away by the other parties; it was never expected that this last party would get off. Tom Mann who was

then Quartermaster Sergeant of the Bn gave me a spare water bottle full of naval OP rum; he said you and

Kelly might want this.

The selection in ‘C’ Company was made by Capt Harrison and he named Kelly and myself and being

short of any officer with experience my mate, Tiny Host (Sergeant Walter Host MM of Berry) took off the

DIGGER 7 Issue 38

other 8 OR. He protested to Harrison and to the colonel that he had prior right to be in the last two than I

had. Poor old Tiny, he was perhaps the greatest soldier of his rank I ever knew.

My selection by Capt Harrison was the finest thing that happened in my whole lifetime – the greatest

honour!! I was only 21 years of age and we had sergeants like (John) Broomhall and (Edgar) Harvey and

Tiny Host all urging to be in the last two. Kelly was a good pick as the junior member, and as we had no

officer, it was a great honour for me to be the senior NCO. I repeat that this selection by Capt Harrison was

the finest thing and greatest honour ever paid me in my lifetime of 75 years. I have felt depressed and weary

with the struggle to survive after illness and operations and especially in the great 1930 Depression when I

was unemployed with a good wife and two young sons to keep. I lifted my morale by thinking that in my

young days a man like Harrison thought I was good.

The Evacuation ended 239 days of the Gallipoli campaign and Australia’s baptism as a fighting nation. The

Gallipoli campaign would go on to be immortalised in history, but for those men, on that cold December

morning, I doubt that they were thinking of history. They were just glad to have survived the heat and flies,

the cold and snow, and all a very tenacious enemy could throw at them.

________________________________________________________________________

The Digger’s Commandments

1. Expect not thy Blighty leave, for it is written that the first shall be last and the last first.

2. If thy tasks be many and arduous, grouse not, for thou shalt not labour more than 24 hours each day.

3. Use not thy mess tins for shaving mugs, nor thy razors as pencil sharpeners.

4. Clean not thy dining utensils in the river, for the remnants of the stew may bring death unto the fish, who

hath not the constitution of the Digger.

5. Partake not of the rum, for though its taste is pleasant its issue is seldom.

6. Thou shalt at all times keep thy equipment burnished and thy chin strap down, for the war must be won.

7. Indulge not in ‘two-up’, for the ways of the knob spinner are unrighteous; neither shalt thou enter into

argument with him, for his ‘clique’ are as numberless as the sands of Sahara.

8. Thou shalt not apply for leave too often, for verily thou shalt be knocked back.

9. Heed not if thy Lance-Jack growls; moreover have pity on him, for his tasks are numerous and his francs

few.

10. After all, look not for peace, for verily I say unto you, the first ten years will be the worst.

Take heed therefore and keep these commandments, so that thy days of CB [confined to barracks] may be

few and thy pay-book free from corruption.

2058, ‘A’ Company

The above humour was taken from the ‘The 24th Battalion Journal’, contributed by Margaret Clarke of

Cardiff. The author is probably Corporal 2058 Ernest Hugo McColough, who was a 19 year old clerk from

Balranald when he enlisted on 15th July 1915. Ernest had the dubious honour of being evacuated from

Gallipoli with VD* and was crimed for being AWL several times in the UK and had a second occurrence of

VD in 1918. He was gassed on 23rd

July 1918 and rejoined his unit on 6th September. McColough married in

England in 1919 and returned with his wife on the Benalla in October of that year.

(* Ernest’s father wrote to the army on 16th November 1915, having found out that his son had disembarked

at Malta, sick. He was after any information concerning his son’s progress and the nature [father’s emphasis]

of his illness. ‘According to his last letter received by me last week he could not have been more than about

16 days in the trenches.’ The army’s response avoided any mention of Ernest’s ‘self-inflicted’ wound.)

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DIGGER 8 Issue 38

Two Bullecourt men: Harry Wilkinson and Charlie Chalk Geoff Lewis, Raglan

“Good morning; good morning!” the General said

When we met him last week on our way to the line.

Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of ’em dead,

And we’re cursing his staff for incompetent swine.

“He’s a cheery old card,” grunted Harry to Jack

As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.

But he did for them both by his plan of attack.

The General – Siegfried Sassoon

Two very ordinary names. Two young men, each from a small country town, who probably never met, yet

were killed within hours of each other at almost opposite ends of the AIF lines at the 2nd

Battle of Bullecourt

on 3rd

May 1917. One was my father’s cousin, a baker from Tumut in southern NSW; and the other was a

farmer from Stubbington, Hertfordshire, a village on the south coast of England. We discovered his

headstone while on the FFFAIF 2010 Commemorative Tour of the Western Front in Queant Road

Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery. The man from Tumut has no known grave.

Private 2995B Henry Cecil (‘Harry’) Wilkinson was born on 30th April 1890, the second eldest

son of ten children (four boys and six girls) to William Henry and Agnes [Dunstan] Wilkinson. His older

brother, Milton Wilkinson (1711) enlisted in the 2nd

Remount Unit, but was repatriated home within six

months because of illness. One of his younger brothers, Trooper 2834 Norman (‘Bob’) Wilkinson served

in the 2nd

Machine Gun Squadron ALH, alongside his cousin, L/Cpl 2807 Edwin William (‘Dick’) Bridle –

my great uncle.

The Wilkinson and Bridle families were among

the first white settlers in the Tumut area. From the 1830s,

squatters moved along the Blowering Valley (now under

water as a reservoir for the Snowy Mountains Scheme) and

spread out from there. Others established a range of small

businesses between the Murray River and Cootamundra

and Gundagai. Harry’s father was the licensee at the

Adelong Hotel until gold petered out and the family

moved into Merivale Street, Tumut. Harry was apprenticed

as a baker and continued in that trade until his enlistment

at Goulburn on 22nd

June 1916. Interestingly, a significant

number of young men from the Tumut area, many of

whom played Rugby League with Harry, enlisted at about

the same time. Mates together! [Above right: 1912 Ramblers RL team. Harry Wilkinson is arrowed.]

It was the name on the headstone of Private 4698 Charlie Chalk in

Queant Road CWGC Cemetery [Plot VI, Row A, Grave 26] that had caught our

eye. We thought that there must be a story here: ‘Charlie’ rather than the more

formal ‘Charles’ or ‘C’ inscribed on the stone. He was the middle child and second

son of Daniel Haines and Emily Jane Chalk, formerly of Saint Germans in

Cornwall. Charlie was born in the village of Bitterne in Hampshire at the

beginning of September 1889, but was educated at Blenheim House in nearby

Catisfield. His father was employed on the land, variously as a farm hand, fruit

grower and estate tenant farmer. Thus the Chalk family moved across the southern

parts of England in search of work. His elder brother had joined the Royal Navy

and was serving in a shore establishment in Portsmouth when war broke out. The

family was living at Hill Head near Stubbington on 22nd

October 1915 when

Charlie enlisted in Brisbane. [Above: Charlie Chalk’s headstone in Queant Road Cemetery.]

Initially, Harry was allocated to the 7th Reinforcements of the 56

th Battalion (5

th Division) which

completed its basic training at Liverpool. He was with the 56th when he departed from Sydney aboard

HMAT Ascanius on 25th October 1915. However, on 22

nd March 1916 he was permanently transferred to the

20th Battalion (2

nd Division) when encamped at Etaples.

Charlie’s journey to the Western Front from Hampshire was much more complicated than Harry’s.

As indicated above, his family originally came from Cornwall and moved south in search of work. Charlie

DIGGER 9 Issue 38

took the family tradition of migration to an extreme by taking a steamer to Australia. As a result of a close

examination of immigration and shipping records by Val Wilkinson (a member of the Buddong Society –

Harry’s family history group), it was discovered that he left Southampton on 19th February 1912 as a second

class passenger aboard the German vessel, Gneisenau, ex Bremen. He is recorded on the passenger manifest

as ‘Chas Chek’, a farmer with no numbered ticket for his voyage. The confusion with the names, we can

only assume, was that the clerk recording the names of the passengers, misheard Charlie. From the

handwriting on the list, the clerk was English but, of course, we know nothing of Charlie’s accent!

The Gneisenau stopped at Algiers, Genoa and Melbourne before berthing at Sydney on 4th April

1912. From there, Charlie made his way to Queensland and to the cane fields just north of Brisbane. He was

initially rejected by the army because of a ‘defective right eye’, but he later enlisted in Brisbane on 22nd

October 1915, giving his address as ‘Strathpine NC Line Queensland’. ‘NC’ refers to the narrow gauge

railway line that ran along the coast north from Brisbane to Cairns. ‘Strathpine’ was an important stop about

20 miles from Brisbane and was the centre of a cane growing area, providing the raw material for rum. Given

Charlie’s relatively short time in Queensland and his inexperience in this type of farming indicates he was

probably a share farmer.

For about three months, until 16th January 1915, the military kept Charlie in the 2

nd Depot Battalion

at Enoggera as a clerk – he had rather beautiful copperplate handwriting. He was then transferred as one of

the 12th Reinforcements of the 24

th Battalion (7

th Brigade) and departed from Sydney aboard RMS Moolan

on April 12th 1916. Upon arrival in England, he continued his training at Rollestone Camp, near Amesbury in

Wiltshire, with the 7th Training Battalion. On September 9

th, Charlie left for France, but his eyesight kept him

in the 2nd

Division Base at Etaples. Finally, on 30th September 1916, he was taken on the strength of the 26

th

Battalion.

Harry’s 20th Battalion (5

th Brigade, 2

nd Division) was raised in March 1915 at Liverpool NSW. A

core of its new recruits had served with the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN & MEF)

in New Guinea the year before. The first contingent left Sydney in late June and completed their training in

Egypt before landing at Gallipoli on 22nd

August. In December, they returned to Egypt and thence to France

in April 1916.

Before Harry arrived, the 20th had already fought at Pozieres – twice in the line – and then as

reinforcements in the mud of Flers (14th-16

th November). In the New Year, the men were involved in four

major battles, generally along the Hindenburg Line, following the German retreat to this heavily fortified and

well-prepared position. The battalion gained fame at Lagnicourt, where they defeated a counter-offensive by

a force nearly five times their strength. Harry’s first and only battle was at 2nd

Bullecourt. Their year ended

with work at Menin Road and Poelcappelle. Like all Australian forces, the 20th fought against the Germans in

the Spring Offensive of March fighting at Amiens and Mont St Quentin. The battalion was disbanded on 20th

April 1919, following its final action at the ‘Beauvoir Line’ and Montbrehain in October 1918 and the

Armistice.

As part of the 2nd

Division (7th Brigade), Charlie’s 26

th Battalion was raised at Enoggera in

Queensland. Its recruits were Queenslanders and Tasmanians. They also saw service at Gallipoli from 12th

September to 12th December, especially on the Suvla Flank. Later, they also saw action at Pozieres and Flers

and along the Hindenburg Line and the fortified villages: Warlencourt and Lagnicourt and at 2nd

Bullecourt.

Later, Battle Honours were awarded at Menin Road and Broodseinde where they were most successful with

‘peaceful penetration’ of the German lines. The battalion also fought at Passchendaele and Poelcappelle. The

final year of the war saw them active in the ‘Hundred Days’ with battle honours for Hamel, Amiens, Albert,

Mont St Quentin and the Hindenburg Line. In parallel with the 20th, their war also ended at the ‘Beauvoir

Line’ and Montbrehain. The 26th was disbanded a month after the 20

th Battalion for repatriation to Australia.

The context to Bullecourt Intelligence indicated that the Germans were generally retreating back to the Hindenburg Line. As the Allied

armies pursued the Germans, they discovered that the retreat to the Hindenburg Line was well-planned and

carried out, designed to create confusion among the British and French. Some villages were found to be

deserted; others were held by a token force; still yet others were strongly held only to be suddenly abandoned

during night-time. There was some severe fighting around others, such as Lagnicourt and Bapaume. Still

Gough remained cautious despite evidence of comparatively rapid advances. In April, a whole string of

villages was taken by I Anzac on the northern flank by the 4th Division. At the same time, the 5

th Division

seized a lesser number on the southern flank. The Battle of Arras began on 9th April, with the Canadians

taking the strategically important Vimy Ridge – at a tremendous cost. A real breakthrough seemed to be in

the offing. Events were to undermine this hope.

DIGGER 10 Issue 38

Following the tragic disappointments of 1916 on the Somme, the Allied High Command looked to

plan a ‘final success’ in 1917. Field Marshal ‘Father’ Joffre became the political scapegoat for the year’s

failures and was replaced by General Robert Nivelle, innovator of the creeping barrage, who announced a

plan that would see the Allies victorious in quick time. He had the support of the politicians, but not

necessarily of the French and British High Commands. Nivelle’s plan involved attacking the Germans in the

north and south of the line, while pinning them down in the Arras area. Haig and his staff would have

preferred to assault the enemy in the Ypres Salient but reluctantly agreed to help the French. It fell to the

Australians of the 4th and 12

th Brigades of the 4

th Division and the British 62

nd Division to ‘pin down’ the

enemy in the vicinity of Bullecourt. There may also be a chance that the Hindenburg Line could be taken

between Bullecourt and Queant.

The attack was initially set to be launched in the pre-dawn of 9th April, but was delayed due to cold,

wet and snowy weather. The Tank Corps came up with a variation that was to have a significant impact on

events at Bullecourt: the use of massed tanks in front of the advancing soldiers to break down the German

defences in the trench lines and give the attackers a ‘free ride’ to the main Hindenburg Line. Lieutenant

General Hubert Gough grabbed the plan, but the Australians were at best, lukewarm. Following delays

caused by the non-arrival of the tanks, the attack ready to commence on 10th April was called off and the

men returned from where they were laying in the snow out in No-man’s land.

Despite the disciplined and valiant

efforts of the Australians and their British

comrades, the attack launched the next day,

on 11th April 1917, failed, as experienced

men such as Captain Albert Jacka knew it

would. The British Official History

accurately described it as a ‘fiasco’. The

men of the 4th and 62

nd Divisions attacked

up a re-entrant on a very narrow front and,

as a result, were cut to pieces by machine-

gun fire from the front and from the left

and right flanks. By early evening it was

‘every man for himself’ as the exhausted

and dispirited men made their way back to

the railway embankment. The 4th Brigade

suffered 2339 casualties and the 12th

suffered 950 out of the two and a half

battalions sent in. The total of 3289 compares, in percentage terms, with Fromelles.

A close analysis of 1st Bullecourt is beyond the scope of this paper, but the obvious reasons for its

failure should have taught lessons that were ignored three weeks later on the same battlefield, against the

same enemy lines. These include: the haste in which the plan was made; the unpreparedness and failure of

the tanks to arrive at the point of attack and effectively participate in the battle (in their defence, the crews

were inexperienced and the few tanks present lacked armour plating); the knowledge the Germans had of the

ground and the quality of their troops and the lack of an effective artillery fire to support the men or to cut

the wire using the new ‘109’ fuses.

‘The British Official History’ claimed that In the whole course of the War few attacks were ever

carried out in such disadvantageous circumstances against such defences. [Quoted Carlyon p351.] John

Keegan [p327] sheets the blame to Nivelle’s plan and to the British for their too ready acceptance of it. CEW

Bean was less generous, attacking Gough for conducting an experiment of extreme rashness in language that

he had already directed against General Richard Haking following Fromelles.

Second Bullecourt

Death whining down from Heaven,

Death roaring from the ground,

Death stinking in every nostril,

Death shrill in every sound …

Back to Rest – Noel Hodgson

And so to 2nd

Bullecourt. The failure of the Australians and the British at Bullecourt in April was but only

one example of the inability of the Allied armies to break through the Hindenburg Line, despite a little

DIGGER 11 Issue 38

headway being made. Nivelle, Haig and Gough were disappointed. Paris and London were alarmed: this was

not going to be the breakthrough that Nivelle had sold them. However, both governments wanted to persist

with the offensive, despite the costs. Thus, the British renewed their attacks on 23rd

and 28th April but met

with little success, as had the French who attacked at Chemin des Dames between 16-25th April at the cost of

135 000 casualties. The French were to attempt the capture of the high ground at Chemin des Dames again

on 5th May. However, the German Field Marshal had kept a large number of his divisions in reserve to be

used only in counter-attacks to strike back immediately after each Allied thrust. The strategy was to prove

most effective.

The next British effort was to be made on May 3rd

by fourteen divisions on a front of sixteen miles,

the widest attack undertaken until then by British troops. [Bean: ‘Anzac to Amiens’ pp337-8.] On the

extreme left, the Canadians were to extend their line beyond Vimy which they had captured earlier. On the

extreme right, I Anzac and V Corps would hit their old objectives around Bullecourt and Riencourt. If

possible, they should take the Wotan ‘switch’ trench which ran at right angles to the Hindenburg Line,

roughly halfway between Riencourt and Queant. It was the ‘main road’ for Ludendorff’s reserves to the

Bullecourt defences.

There were two changes made to the plan for the May 3rd

attack. Following their failure, the

Australians did not wish to have anything to do with the tanks. Consequently, it was decided that a creeping

barrage, supported by machine-gun fire, would precede the AIF advance. In addition, an area of ground not

dissimilar to the Bullecourt-Riencourt field was found near Favreuil where tapes and flags were put in place

to familiarise the men with the proposed attack at Bullecourt. A fatal mistake was included in the ‘new’ plan:

German machine guns and light artillery at Queant were not destroyed, as the planners felt that there was no

threat from that quarter.

Harry Wilkinson arrived for his first taste of battle on 9th April from Etaples via Mametz, along with

137 other reinforcements. The 20th Battalion began to move north through Pozieres, La Sars and Bapaume, in

rain, to relieve the 50th at Vaulx-Vraucourt, about six kilometres from Bullecourt. The following day (14

th

April) they were in reserve at Vraucourt as the Germans had broken through the lines. Some contact was

made with the enemy and some guns that the enemy had previously captured from the 2nd

AFA were taken

back. In addition, the gap in the AIF line was filled by companies from the 19th and 20

th Battalions. On April

18th, they were relieved by the 8

th Battalion and returned to Vaulx-Vraucourt. The next day, they were back

in the front line and suffered some artillery strafing on and off all day. By the 20th, they were in camp at

Favreuil and spent the next few days bathing, checking equipment and indulging in games and sports. More

importantly, the 5th Brigade spent several days practising to do a trench attack [Battalion Diary]. Other skills

such as bayonet fighting and gas drill were honed.

April 25th to 27

th saw Harry and the men from both the 5

th and 6

th Brigades preparing for a ‘Night

Operation’. On the 27th they carried out a mock attack on the village of Sapignies from 4:00am to 6:30am.

The next day the practice was carried out with their ‘sister’ battalion, the 19th. On the last day of April, the

two brigades moved up to Noreuil. The 20th relieved the 25

th in rear support, with the 19

th in close support.

They appeared to be well-prepared for the up-coming attack against the Hindenburg Line.

Meanwhile, Charlie had been in action for much longer with the 26th Battalion. He had arrived in

France on 28th September 1916 with 127 other reinforcements as the battalion was in training around Albert.

In early October they were up in the Ypres Sector and later Sanctuary Wood. By the 27th October the

battalion had moved down to Dernancourt, where they saw some front line action which resulted in six

casualties, three of whom were killed. On 6th November, Charlie and his mates were engaged in the Cobham

and Maze Trenches in the Gueudecourt sector, where the last ‘minor’ actions of the Somme Offensive saw

the loss of 190 men, including 58 killed. As the freezing conditions of winter set in, they remained in that

area until the New Year.

Interestingly, in January 1917, despite the cold, much time was spent training with special attention

being paid for an offensive. As the weather ‘improved’, they moved from Fricourt to Contalmaison, engaged

in fatigues and trench support and arrived at the front line at Warlencourt on the 17th. In March, they were

engaged in an operation at Malt Trench, north of Warlencourt where they took and held their objective.

March 10th-18

th saw them back in training with attention being paid to ‘Battalion in Attack’ in open

formations and bringing out initiative in junior officers. [26th Battalion War Diary.] By the end of the month,

Charlie and his mates in the 7th Brigade were involved in the attack and capture of Lagnicourt which was to

be essential to the future attack on the Hindenburg Line. Captain Percy Cherry was awarded a posthumous

VC for his work here, in addition to his MC earned at Malt Trench earlier in the month.

In April, the 26th Battalion remained in the general Bullecourt area and had their first view of the

Hindenburg Line when they occupied a section of the Embankment from 25th

to 27th April. Here they were

DIGGER 12 Issue 38

engaged in ‘improving its position and making positions for ammunition dumps in view of the pending

Divisional attack on the Hindenburg Line.’ [My emphasis.] The orders for the 3rd

May attack came through

on 25th March. Note that the 7

th Brigade does not seem to have had the preparation and practice that the 5

th

and 6th Brigades enjoyed. This was because they were being held in reserve at Noreuil to where they moved

on 1st May. The following night Charlie was in position back at the Embankment.

At the same time, Harry’s 20th Battalion had moved forward to relieve the 25

th in close support and

‘spent the day devoted to final preparations for future operations’ behind the security of the Embankment

and Sunken Road. The 20th Battalion War Diary notes that the officers in particular spent a great deal of time

watching over No-man’s land. One must wonder what they thought of the flat country, the wire and trenches

about 1 500 yards distant on a slight rise, and the prospect of fighting in the re-entrant that had defeated their

comrades three weeks earlier.

In the evening, the Germans fired a few shells and light machine-gun fire, as well as sweeping the

Embankment with searchlights in response to small parties moving out to inspect the condition of the wire in

front of OG1 and OG2 that were to be the brigade’s first objectives. May 2nd

was a saw little change except

that the battalion’s objectives for the next morning’s attack were made clear. They were to go through OG1

and OG2 and attack the right half of Riencourt as per Operation Orders of 29th April. Harry, facing his first

experience of combat, and his mates rested and most of that night was spent moving up from Noreuil,

pausing at the Embankment because the moonlight was thought to be too bright; and were in place at the

jumping-off point near the Sunken Road by 3:00am. Harry would have been close to the open side of the

Embankment on the right.

The dispositions of the 5th, 6

th and 7

th Brigades were:

The 5th Brigade was on the right of the Central Road with the 17

th and

18th Battalions in the front and the 19

th and 20

th fifty yards behind. They

were to advance straight at Riencourt.

The 6th Brigade was on the left of the Central Road, with the 22

nd and

24th Battalions in the front and the 21

st and 23

rd again fifty yards behind.

To their left was the English 62nd

Brigade. The Australians had to attack

virtually straight ahead through OG1 and OG2 towards the Six Cross

Roads and then to the right of Riencourt and the Wotan switch trench.

The men of the 62nd

were to take Bullecourt.

The 7th Brigade was held back in reserve at either Noreuil (Charlie’s

26th), along the Embankment or on the right flank and slightly behind

the 5th Brigade.

The advance of the 5th Brigade Smith’s Brigade failed about as badly as any Australian formation ever failed on the Western Front.

– Carlyon p374

The Australian and British creeping barrage commenced firing at precisely 3:45am, as planned. Twenty

seconds later, the machine guns on the Embankment opened fire above the heads of the first waves of the

AIF – the 17th and 18

th Battalions – as they ‘jumped the bags’. Within five minutes the Germans opened fire,

raking the Australians with what Bean described as

torrential machine-gun fire. Exactly what happened

next, especially to the men of the 5th Brigade, may never

be entirely known. The sources reveal confusion and

chaos and a complete breakdown of communications. In

the latter case, Carlyon makes the point that Brigadier

General Bob Smith decided to site his Brigade HQ at

Noreuil, more than a mile behind the jumping-off point;

while Brigadier General John Gellibrand had his

closer to the action on the lee side of the Embankment

where, at least, he had some control [Carlyon p373].

Denis Winter maintains that At Bullecourt … [5th]

Brigade headquarters was one hour behind the action,

during which time the Australians were cut to pieces [p184]. [Above: The railway embankment which ran

parallel to the Hindenburg Line south east of Bullecourt. The tank shown in the distance broke down above

the shelter which housed the headquarters of the 48th Battalion (Lieutenant Colonel RL Leane) during the

DIGGER 13 Issue 38

first assault upon the Hindenburg Line (11th April 1917). The embankment was also the position of Brigadier

General Gellibrand’s headquarters (6th Infantry Brigade) during the second assault (3

rd May 1917). AWM

E01408.]

Almost from the beginning, indications were that the advance on the Hindenburg Line was not going

to go as well as planned. The 20th Battalion had left Noreuil at midnight to march up to the Bullecourt

battlefield and were ‘just’ in position at 3:20am – although some believe that the battalion was, in fact, late.

In any case, the two lead battalions were already in position at the jumping-off point when the 20th arrived.

Just as false dawn was making its appearance, the British and Australian barrage was launched ten seconds

before the fire from 96 Vickers machine guns opened up on the German lines.

From this point, as Bean has indicated, ‘The truth as far as is known’ is lost. Communications appear

to have broken down very early in the attack. Carlyon [p374] asserts that the 17th and 19

th Battalions were

‘lost’ from Brigade HQ for some time. The attack seems to have stalled almost as soon as it began, despite

the over-optimistic and misleading reports that were sent back to the various HQs. For example, it was only

much later that reports describing the heavy enemy machine-gun fire from Queant were revealed. Indeed,

several writers believe that the attacking formations did not go in on schedule

as reports had stated. Bean also notes that the 5th Brigade also moved too far

to the right and was slower than the 6th Brigade.

However, at 3:49am, Smith received a telephone report that ‘a good

start had been made’. Four minutes later, a wounded 20th Battalion man who

had made his way back to Battalion HQ in the Sunken Road, said that ‘the

men were advancing well ahead’. More confusion occurred when two red

flares were fired ‘toward the West’ which indicated that OG1 had been taken.

Later accounts indicated that this was not true. The German reply came at

3:55am when a ‘particularly heavy’ barrage came down on their left front. This is where Harry and the 20th

should have been. Two minutes later, it was reported that the 20th was taking heavy machine-gun fire from

the right from the Queant spur, but little notice appears to have been taken. Within five minutes, the sky was

lit by a multitude of red, white and green flares, origin unknown.

A description of what the shelling must have been like was written by Private 6322 William

McKenzie of the 3rd

Battalion, which was one of the battalions to later relieve the 6th Brigade: … with shells

landing everywhere. One landed right in the sap we were walking through, killing an officer and wounding

several men. It was something awful to hear the cries of the wounded in the dark: the sap being so narrow

that only one man at a time could pass along, so we had to walk over the dead and wounded. One would

never know whether the man under his feet was dead or wounded unless he heard a groan (or in some cases)

‘My God lads, don’t walk on me’. We put in three days and nights of the most awful bombardment ever I

wish to see or hear. In fact, old hands say it was the worst they have had since the war began. [DIGGER 37,

p9.]

At this point, one of the key events in the advance appears to have occurred.

All the sources note that at about 4:20am: An officer at the centre had given the order

to retire! We will never know who this officer was – Bean almost names him – but

the effects were significant. As the first lines turned back they ran into the second

lines advancing. To add to the chaos, Captain Herbert Edgar Parker, CO of ‘A’

Company 20th Battalion, was at 18

th Battalion HQ and stated that the attack was a

failure. (Parker was wounded and returned to Australia in July 1917.) Half an hour

later, Lieutenant Paul Jerome Timmins MC went forward to the Sunken Road

about 150 yards from the Embankment to ‘re-organise the men of the 20th’, but found

men from all four battalions. At 5:16, Parker reported that all his men [have]

disappeared at OG1 … I am alone. He was advised to return to HQ. At 6:55am,

Timmins reported that he only had 50 men from all battalions and the enemy were holding a trench about 30

yards in front of him. An hour later, he reported that he now had twelve men. He returned to the Sunken

Road HQ at 11:00am with eight men.

Half an hour later, another attempt was made to reorganise the brigade, but the numbers were: 17th

Battalion mustered a hundred men; the 18th, sixteen; the 19

th had a hundred and eleven; and the 20

th could

muster forty-four, who could only act as bomb-carriers, such was their exhausted and wounded state.

Certainly, Harry was not among them.

Bean maintains that, in fact, for the first waves of the 17th and 19

th Battalions the rout began at OG1,

when, in confusion and without leadership, the men paused for a few minutes while a barrage passed over

them. As soon as it had moved on, the Germans immediately opened fire with machine guns, mortars and

DIGGER 14 Issue 38

bombs. As they were on the extreme right of the attack, the 18th and 20

th Battalions were more exposed to the

fire directed from the Queant spur and Sans Souci mill (machine guns were placed there by the Germans

from the left of the ruins of Riencourt). In addition they were ‘skyline targets’ as they crossed the

Embankment, and climbed out of the Sunken Road and into No-man’s land. Tragically for them, Smith did

not perceive the threat from his right in his planning – where the artillery had been so neglectful.

It is almost certain that Harry was killed just as he had gotten under way. His war would have lasted

about twenty minutes. Machine-gun bullets and exploding shells had done their job. Yves Fohlen, in a

conversation at Small Cross Memorial in 2010, supports this theory, given where the 20th Battalion was at

the time and when the machine-gun fire from the right cut them to shreds [see above]. However, the fate of

the 20th Battalion is largely still unknown. Usually, the Battalion and Brigade War Diaries are the best source

of information on an attack; followed by Bean’s ‘Official History’. Paul Kendall’s ‘Bullecourt: Breaching

the Hindenburg Line 1917’, also barely mentions the 20th. In all four cases, Harry’s battalion receives scant

mention in comparison with the other ‘more successful’ battalions that fought at Bullecourt. In other words,

battalion and brigade HQs lost track of them on the field of battle while history has ignored them.

The movements of the 26th Battalion No account of 2

nd Bullecourt can be made without some reference to the 6

th Brigade which, despite all that

was thrown at them and the collapse of support on both left and right flanks, did achieve the impossible.

Several small groups of their number actually gained the objectives that they were set; only to lose them in

the face of fierce German fire, including flamethrowers and several massive and well-coordinated and

planned counter-attacks. They truly were Gellibrand’s Martyrs, as Les Carlyon described them.

As with the 20th Battalion, the 26

th receive little attention. Again the chaos of events between the

jump-off points and OG1 are confusing. The official 26th Battalion War Diary is, in itself, brief. However,

attached is a hand written ‘Report on Operations on Hindenburg Line 2/3rd

May 1917’ by Lieutenant

Colonel John Travers, CO 26th Battalion. Travers’ report is remarkably detailed and clear on the

movements of his battalion. Equally important is that he gives us an ‘elevated view’ – albeit a slight

elevation in the flat landscape from the Embankment – of events in front of his post.

Charlie’s 26th Battalion, as part of the 7

th Brigade, were given their orders on April 25

th and

discovered that they were to be kept in reserve and close support for the 5th and 6

th Brigades as they attacked

the Hindenburg Line. Of the four battalions, the 25th, 27

th and 28

th were more actively involved in the

fighting, ‘filling in holes’ where needed; while the 26th was kept in cases of emergency or the possibility of a

German counter-attack. Initially, the 26th were placed along the Embankment more or less behind the 6

th

Brigade on the left. The battalion had fifteen officers and 375 ORs ‘available to hold the line’. They arrived

close to 3:00am and three companies were placed along the railway track. Ominously, it was noted by

Travers that telephone communications were not completely established at zero hour. This was to be one of

the stories typical of Bullecourt.

The first message that Travers received in his HQ was that the British 62nd

Brigade had failed to take

Bullecourt. At 6:30am, when the sun was well and truly up, ‘A’ Coy of the 26th Battalion was sent into attack

by GOC 5th Brigade. At the same time, the entire 25

th Battalion was sent up and the 28

th moved up to hold

the Sunken Road. ‘D’ Coy was also sent up, supposedly to join the 6th Brigade at Six Cross Roads. It is

unlikely they ever made it. For the rest of the day, the ‘Bullecourt confusion’ reigned. Rumours came back

that ‘A’ and ‘B’ Companies were at OG1, bombing along OG1 or even occupying 200 yards of OG2. The

only confirmed action involved Captain Walter Gilchrist MC (17th Battalion), who mustered a combined

party of 5th Brigade and ‘B’ Coy of the 26

th Battalion and led them back to the Hindenburg Line. After going

about 300 yards, they found themselves within 40 yards of OG1 when they came under blistering machine-

gun fire. Already more than half of the 5th Brigade men had retreated. Taking shelter in bomb holes until

2:00pm, Gilchrist tried to lead them back but was killed. The few remaining 26th men expressed great

admiration for an officer in a green cardigan jacket who was killed. [Travers p7.]

At 5:00pm, GOC 7th Brigade ordered the 26

th back to the AIF defensive line that ran through

Longette and Noreuil for a ‘digging job’ on the left flank at 9:00pm. One hundred and forty 26th Battalion

men, along with about the same number from each of 22nd

and 28th Battalions, were moved urgently to

Longette to repel a series of German counter-attacks. The Australians ‘easily’ repelled the attacks. What

turned out to be a map reference in Charlie’s record indicated that he was killed there, probably by German

rifle or machine-gun fire, as they moved back towards the defensive line. Further, casualties for the 26th on

the day were comparatively light: sixteen killed in action (including Charlie); eight officers and 97 OR

wounded; and thirteen missing in action.

DIGGER 15 Issue 38

The 26th Battalion lost eight officers and 126 men. Unlike the majority of those killed at Bullecourt,

Charlie’s body was recovered and buried in nearby Buissy. Given this, it is possible that Charlie was killed

back at the defensive line; rather than when a company went forward with Gilchrist and made it to OG1

where deadly fire and bombs were brought down on them, as Kendall has implied [p334]. However, as

Queant Road is a concentration cemetery and contains bodies from the Embankment and the German lines,

there can be no certainty about this [comment from Yves – Ed].

In remembrance

From little towns in a far land we came,

To save our honour and a world aflame.

By little towns in a far land we sleep;

And trust that world we won for you to keep!

Canadian Memorial II – Rudyard Kipling

The fighting continued at Bullecourt as the 1st and 5

th Divisions came up to the line to replace the remnants

of the 2nd

Division. Attack was followed by counter-attack; barrage by barrage. A siege had developed. More

and more men from both sides were drawn in. Bean felt that the men of the AIF had been deserted by Gough

and the 5th Army as both the British and Australians tried to occupy Bullecourt and Riencourt. Parts of the

village were taken, only to be reoccupied by the Germans a few hours later. Lieutenant Rupert (‘Mick’)

Moon, an officer in the 58th Battalion, was awarded a VC for his actions on 12

th May as the Arras Offensive

was petering out. The same action saw 2nd

Lieutenant Simon Fraser, the inspiration for Peter Corlett’s

‘Cobbers’ statue at Fromelles, killed.

The Germans eventually gave up on 17th May, following the repulse of a counter-attack two days

earlier. They destroyed their trenches and dugouts and retreated, leaving the Australians and British to

occupy OG1 and OG2 as well as the ruins of Bullecourt. In late May, I Anzac left Bullecourt. They were to

move north to the Ypres Sector. The cost was 2 423 Australian lives. By this time, Bullecourt had virtually

no strategic significance; attention was now on Flanders.

Today, a visitor can stand between OG1 and OG2 in the

Australian Memorial Park in Bullecourt. The central feature is a large

bronze statue by Peter Corlett of a fully-kitted Digger looking out over

the battlefield [right]. It is an inspiring memorial and complements

Corlett’s other memorial at Fromelles. The plaque below reads: Sacred

to the memory of the 10,000 members of the Australian Imperial Force

who were killed and wounded in the two battles of Bullecourt, April-May

1917, and to the Australian dead who lie here forever in the soil of

France. ‘Lest we Forget’.

However impressive the ‘Bullecourt Digger’ appears, I believe

that a smaller, more intimate memorial has a more immediate impact on

visitors. This memorial [see page 39] consists of a stone plinth upon

which is mounted a charcoal-grey stone cross. On the left is a (recently-

added) separate vertical stone. Both the plinth and stone have bronze

plaques mounted from some of the families who lost men in the two

battles.

One inscription on the plinth reads: To the glory of God and in

the memory of 2423 Officers and other ranks serving the Australian

Imperial Force who fell in these fields and have no known grave, April-May 1917, R.I.P. The other

inscription reads: In memory to all the officers and men of the 18th Battalion First AIF who served and fell on

these battlefields of France 1914-1918. We forever remember the debt we owe.

La Petite Croix (‘The Small Cross’) Memorial is the work of three members of the Bullecourt

community and is sited where OG2 ran parallel to the Riencourt-Bullecourt Road. The cross was erected in

1981 by Mayor Jean Lataille, Edmond Delattre and Jean Lacour, and is engraved ‘REMEMBER SOUVIENS

TOI’. Over the years, a number of plaques dedicated to the Missing of Bullecourt by their families have been

affixed to the Memorial. The entire 18th Battalion is commemorated, as indicated above. The most recent

addition to the memorial reads: In Memory of Private Henry Cecil “Harry” Wilkinson 2995B 20th Battalion

AIF Killed on June 3rd

1917 At the Embankment opposite this Memorial. Harry has no known grave. A son

of Tumut (NSW). He served for a brief time but gave his all. Remembered by his family of the ‘Buddong

Society’. Harry is also commemorated at the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux. At the

DIGGER 16 Issue 38

time of writing, it is believed that Charlie’s name is inscribed on the

ceiling of the unique Memorial at Stubbington: a re-building of a

wooden shelter over the medieval town water pump [left].

References

Australian War Memorial: The War Diaries of: the 5th and 6

th

Brigades AIF; and the 20th and 26

th Battalions AIF.

Bean, CEW [1933]: Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-

1918: Volume IV: the AIF in France and Belgium 1917, Angus &

Robertson, Sydney.

Adam-Smith, Patsy [1978]: The Anzacs, Nelson, Sydney.

Andrews, Eric [1993]: The Anzac Illusion: Anglo-British Relations in

World War I, Cambridge UP, Cambridge.

Bean, CEW [1993]: Anzac to Amiens, Penguin, Ringwood.

Carlyon, Les [2006]: The Great War, MacMillan, Sydney.

Gammage, Bill [1975]: The Broken Years: Australian Soldiers in the Great War, Penguin, Ringwood.

Keegan, John [2000]: The First World War, Vintage, New York.

Kendall, Paul [2010]: Bullecourt: Breaching the Hindenburg Line, Spellmont, Port Stroud.

Laffin, John [1988]: Australians at War: Western Front 1916-1917 The Price of Honour, Time-Life, Crows

Nest.

Winter, Denis [1978]: Death’s Men, Penguin, London.

Endnotes: (1) *Harry’s name is listed as either Henry or Harry. He was christened ‘Henry’ but was

commonly known as ‘Harry’ at home and in the army. (2) Special thanks to Yves Fohlen and Val Wilkinson

for their contributions to this article and in keeping the memory of the Diggers at Bullecourt alive. (3) Photo

sources: Ramblers football team from ‘Tumut and Adelong Times’, Nov. 1912; Charlie Chalk’s headstone:

Graeme Hosken; Map of Bullecourt battlefield from ‘The Empire at War’; margin maps from Bean ‘Volume

IV’; ‘The Small Cross’: Yves Fohlen; Stubbington Memorial from Flickr; The Bullecourt Digger: Author.

________________________________________________________________

Church Army Soldiers’ Hostel, Buckingham Palace Hotel From the Bert Egan (20

th Bn) collection; contributed by Maurice Campbell, Dubbo.

One soldier is trying to get some sleep while his roommates consider where to spend their leave.

DIGGER 17 Issue 38

The Red Cross Missing and Wounded Enquiry Bureau in WWI Tony Cunneen, Beecroft

On the first afternoon of the landing on Gallipoli, 22 year old George White charged up the slopes of Gaba

Tepe and into the whirling chaos of battle. When the surviving officers of the 2nd

Battalion called the roll

after the fighting, George White did not answer his name. What had happened to him? His widowed mother

and older sister living in Epping, Sydney, heard nothing – just what they could guess from rumours, the

increasingly dramatic newspaper stories, then the depressingly lengthening lists of casualties in the

newspapers. No mention of George White – but an ominous sign was that his regular letters home had

ceased. Friends, neighbours, the Anglican Minister at St Alban’s in Epping, the local Member of Parliament

for Parramatta, Joseph Cook, made representations on the family’s behalf: all to no avail. George White

simply disappeared. His anguished mother’s plight was shared by thousands of others across Australia during

the war. Their quiet desperation for news is best represented by the plaintive, futile request of one family

who wrote to the army: “Can’t you please tell us what has happened to our dear boy?” There was a hideous

world of worry behind such a request.

Within days of the landings on Gallipoli there were a few brief mentions in the various newspapers

of Australian troops in action and vague references to suspected casualties – but despite the worry this news

caused to the relatives of soldiers, who had thought that the men were safely in Egypt, it was nearly

impossible to find out anything definite. The cryptic cabled reports in newspapers did little more than

intensify the concern and agitation in a population desperate to have solid news about their loved ones. The

army’s ramshackle system of dealing with casualty notifications was woefully inadequate to the unexpected

size of the task. There were questions in Federal Parliament over the appalling lack of information from the

battlefield. All people could do was pore over the casualty lists in newspapers to see who was injured, killed

or missing. It was not unusual for the first news of the loss of a loved one to be a mention in one of those

lists. Brian Pockley had been one of the first casualties in the war in 1914. A family friend recorded in her

diary of the desperate attempts to reach Pockley’s father before he read of his son’s death in the evening

paper. At least there were plenty of reliable surviving witnesses to Pockley’s demise. Something had to be

done for people such as the Whites who knew nothing of their son’s fate.

Mary Owen was determined to help. She was a well known, passionate supporter of the Red Cross

in New South Wales, and she urged her husband, the successful Sydney Equity Barrister, Langer Owen KC,

to set up an Australian Enquiry Bureau to help people such as Emily White. There was already such a

Bureau in operation in England which had been set up by an English King’s Counsel after the battle of Mons

in 1914, but it was too remote to help Australian enquiries. Langer Owen KC was a very suitable person to

set up an Australian Bureau. As another King’s Counsel he was used to collecting and weighing evidence.

This skill would make him, and any other lawyer, well able to sift the often conflicting accounts of what had

happened to a person in battle. He was also an excellent organiser, and quite senior in the rather close knit

and ‘clubby’ atmosphere of the influential Sydney legal profession. He was used to exercising his authority,

but combined this confidence with a profound sensitivity and compassion for those suffering the agony of

grief or worry. Furthermore, he had been the voluntary Chief Censor at the Pacific Cables Office in Sydney

since the start of the war, so he was well aware of just how news could be communicated by the rather

labyrinthine network of cables and relay stations which laced the ocean floors and landforms of the world. At

the time, Australia was at the end of a very unreliable, easily interrupted network of undersea lines which

snaked across the various oceans, and Langer Owen knew how to work the system. If one line failed then

another could be used via a number of relay stations located in such widely differing places as Gibraltar or

the Pacific Islands.

Langer Owen established the Enquiry Bureau’s first Sydney office in Woodstock Chambers at 88

Pitt Street in Sydney in July 1915. Similar Bureaus following Langer Owen’s initiative were established

soon after by lawyers throughout Australia.

The basic system which was established by late 1915 was that once an enquiry had been made by a

member of the public at the Bureau’s office in Sydney or any other capital city, men such as Langer Owen

cabled it to a designated Red Cross Searcher overseas. At first, the search for news from Gallipoli was

organised in Egypt by another Sydney barrister, Adrian Knox KC (who was later Chief Justice of the High

Court). He had travelled to Egypt then Gallipoli in mid 1915 as a Red Cross Commissioner to sort out the

rather shambolic state of the enthusiastic but disorganised charitable activities of both the Red Cross and the

different Comforts Funds.

Adrian Knox acted occasionally as a Red Cross searcher himself. Knox was a very well known

person and Emily White wrote directly to him requesting information on her son, George. Vera Deakin – the

DIGGER 18 Issue 38

daughter of the former Prime Minister, Alfred Deakin – was also a dynamic influence in establishing the

Enquiry service in Egypt after Knox KC returned to Australia. She too is recorded as having interviewed

soldiers about the fate of George White, and many other men in January

1916.

Vera Deakin managed cases through the designated searchers or by

writing to various hospitals or military units herself. People also wrote

directly to her and she maintained a huge correspondence with interested

parties. Information concerning casualties was gathered by a Red Cross

searcher locating comrades of the missing or killed soldier and asking them

what happened – not as simple as it sounds. Inefficient army records, the

scattering of wounded and the constant movement of soldiers meant that it

could be very difficult to find someone who was there, and of course many

were dead or wounded themselves. Rumours and misinformation abounded.

[Right: Miss Vera Deakin who established the Bureau in Egypt and became

the Honorary Secretary of the Red Cross Missing and Wounded Enquiry

Bureau in London. Australian War Memorial Negative Number

P02119.001.]

By November 1915 around 500 cabled enquires had been made by the Sydney Bureau on behalf of

the relatives of the Gallipoli casualties. Many more would follow. The various responses to these enquiries

were examined by some of the 50 or so barristers and solicitors who then worked part or full time at the

Sydney Bureau. At least the same number of lawyers was on call if needed. Not only did Langer Owen get

lawyers to help him with his enquiries, he got them to pay for three out of a total of thirteen full-time office

workers. The others were funded by the Red Cross.

The Bureaus went to great pains to reassure people that fees were not charged. Regular ads appeared

in the newspapers, inviting people to come in and talk and ask for help. While payment would be accepted if

offered, no one was under any obligation to part with money. The cable companies offered much reduced

rates for their services, and the lawyers worked free of charge. Any costs were met by donations.

Making an enquiry was only the beginning of contact between the Bureau and a worried family.

They needed someone to talk to about what was happening. The centre for personal contact in Sydney

became Langer Owen’s new, larger offices in Dalton Chambers in Pitt Street. The voluminous files in the

War Memorial do not do credit to the hours Langer Owen and the other lawyers spent with the families of

those missing or lost in action. Visitors could come as often as they wanted, and stay as long as they liked. It

was grief counselling on a grand scale. By the end of 1916, at least 200 people per day made their way to

Dalton Chambers, where they were met and given a sympathetic ear by one of the duty lawyers. Some

lawyers went out to interview returned soldiers. Men who were highly paid barristers or solicitors in their

professional lives, spent days working free of charge at places such as Randwick Hospital or the Anzac

Canteens in Sydney, interviewing survivors. Their careful accounts often echoed legal forms. A witness

interviewed in Sydney could be designated “most reliable” and his statement would carry more weight than

others. In Sydney, Langer Owen evaluated the evidence then formed a likely conclusion as to the fate of the

casualty. He would then invite the often grieving relatives into his office, or send them a letter, and give a

likely account of what happened.

Langer Owen was constantly available – to the extent that when the Sydney Bureau shut over the

Christmas/New Year holiday period, he advertised his private home phone number should anyone feel the

need to contact him. His motto and that of his staff was: ‘Trouble does not exist’. This assertive offer of

unlimited assistance indicated the efforts the workers at the Bureau would expend to help people. The motto

was just the right reply to make to a polite, deferentially class-conscious person, perhaps overawed by the

social standing of the Bureau’s staff, who would invariably begin their request for help with ‘I don’t want to

trouble you … .’ The Bureau’s motto was a welcome response to desperately worried people who had been

given little help by other overstretched authorities. The first wave of enquiries and subsequent cases concerned the fate of the many missing men from

Gallipoli. Red Cross searchers combed the camps and hospitals around Egypt, Malta and England, trying to

find witnesses to the death in action of men from units such as the 18th Battalion which had been tragically

massacred in their first bewildering days on Gallipoli in August 1915. There were still 150 men listed as

Missing from that battalion a year after their futile charge at Hill 60. Many of their bodies are still lying

unidentified on the slopes where they fell. One of the searchers who spoke to the survivors of the 18th

Battalion was Anthony Hordern, the son of the prosperous owners of the landmark Sydney emporium. He

was one of a number of prominent businessmen and professionals including William James Isbister, a

DIGGER 19 Issue 38

South Australian barrister, who had travelled to Egypt to assist with the charitable work amongst the

soldiers. The names of these searchers are recorded at

the bottom of the cards in the various files which

detailed their interviews concerning the fate of missing

men.

[Right: The Prince of Wales in Egypt in 1916. Mr

William James Isbister, a South Australian barrister, is

wearing the pith helmet at the front left. He was a Red

Cross searcher in Egypt whose name appears on many

enquiries from that time. AWM Neg. No. C01883.]

There were many courts of inquiry in Egypt in

early to mid 1916. In these sombre investigations the

fate of men such as George White of Epping was

decided. It was not easy to establish what had happened to the young man. The Red Cross Enquiry Unit

collected the various stories: one person claimed that George White was left at Quinn’s Post; another that he

had crawled off into the scrub after being wounded in the back; still one more said he was in hospital in

Birmingham. The rumours were not helped by the fact that White was such a common name. There were two

in the 2nd

Battalion alone. One was wounded and survived, and for a time he was mistaken for George White,

so poor Emily White went through a joyous relief of being told mistakenly that her son was wounded, only

to find out within a few weeks that it was not so. George White was finally declared having been killed while

crawling wounded back to the beach on the first day. His name was listed on a casualty list in the ‘Sydney

Morning Herald’ on 30th May 1916, along with scores of others lost on Gallipoli and whose fate was

unknown. By mid 1916 there were 4 400 cases on file in the New South Wales Bureau. The number would

soon expand dramatically, as more men were fed into battle. Soon after the official notification of George

White’s death, his older brother, John Stanley White, enlisted and in November 1916 sailed to war.

Later in 1916, Vera Deakin moved her centre of operation to England, following the Australian

troops who left for Europe. She would write an extraordinary number of letters as the Secretary of the

Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau operating out of 36 Grosvenor Place in the

centre of London. Her letterhead appears on countless enquiries to people trying

to track down the details of those missing or killed in action over the course of the

war. She was admirably helped by Miss Mary Chomley, the daughter of Judge

Chomley of Melbourne, who later headed the Prisoners of War Department of the

Australian Red Cross situated near Vera Deakin’s office in London. Both women,

who came from prosperous families, worked closely with the various Enquiry

Bureaus which formed in the Australian state capitals, as well as dealing with

enquiries made directly to them. They performed an outstanding service and each

of them was awarded a thoroughly well-deserved OBE in 1918 in recognition of

their tireless efforts. [Left: 21 year old Charlie Windeyer, killed in action at

Passchendaele and the subject of an extensive investigation by Red Cross

workers, which included his mother, Mabel who was working as a volunteer at the

time in England. Australian War Memorial Negative Number P07806.001.]

By late 1916, the bureau in Sydney was treated with something approaching reverential respect due

to the care with which Langer Owen dealt with cases such as that of Reginald Rankin. Rankin of the 13th

Battalion was lost in an artillery barrage on Gallipoli in July 1915. There were at least a dozen interviews

with witnesses in places as widely spaced as Moascar camp in Ismailia, to the 4th Australian General

Hospital at Randwick, trying to ascertain the exact details of his fate. Eventually the searchers located one

man who knew Rankin, who reported that he ‘lifted the blanket from the face to look at him (Rankin) for the

last time’. Such exact identification gave some sense of closure to relatives. Rankin’s mother lived at Yerong

Creek, a small town to the south of Wagga Wagga in southern NSW, so she was not able to visit Dalton

Chambers in Sydney. Langer Owen wrote her a succession of letters, outlining new details as news came in

from the various searchers. Mrs Rankin wrote of her gratitude in the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ on 8th August

1916 and said:

I am most grateful to Mr Langer Owen for trouble taken. At one time it seemed he had interviewed every one

of the returned soldiers of my son’s battalion, the 13th as he wrote me so many letters containing items of

interest, and no charge whatever was made for any of the information.

The total amount of cases under investigation ebbed and flowed according to the tides of battle.

After the Australian troops left Egypt for Europe there was a lull, then the number of enquiries increased

DIGGER 20 Issue 38

dramatically after the battles at Fromelles and Pozieres. Wartime censorship meant that the wave of casualty

notifications could be as unexpected as they were sudden. The enquiries continued through the evil winter at

the end of 1916, to climax with the cascade of actions of 1917. When a new enquiry was made, every

possible lead was followed up and the resulting information filed meticulously. Investigations could proceed

for years.

The problem of finding out what had happened to a casualty was a function of the nature of warfare

at the time. The persistent frontal attacks meant that waves of men disappeared into No-man’s land, and it

was only when a subsequent roll call was made after the battle that there was any indication of who had

failed to come back. Epic artillery barrages often buried battlefield graves or obliterated any men who were

caught in the open. Such was the fate of Albert Edward Smith of Surry Hills. He had the top of his head

literally blown off in the attack at Pozieres and was buried in a trench newly captured from the Germans and

then subject to intense artillery fire and counter-attack. His body was lost in the subsequent violence and

never located. There are poignant accounts of other men whose last resting place was marked by two pick-

handles roughly tied together by comrades, then lost forever in a torrent of shell fire. In these circumstances,

rumours, misidentification and false impressions obscured just what had happened to the casualty. Wounded

men were themselves often shocked and disoriented and thus unreliable witnesses.

Visitors to the Sydney offices were stunned by the

extensive collection of cards and filing cabinets containing

details of missing and killed soldiers. By mid 1917, in

Sydney alone, there were 30 624 cases under investigation.

By February 1919, there were 36 000 cases on file, and a

total of 25 615 cables had been sent to enquire as to the

fate of the men. A staggering 150 000 written reports had

been distributed to people in New South Wales alone,

regarding the fate of men killed or missing in action. Many

people received more than one report as new details

emerged as to the fate of their loved one. Across the

country more than 400,000 reports were sent out by the

end of the war. [Left: The Anzac Buffet in the Sydney

Domain, where people waited for the returning soldiers

and thence moved to Randwick Hospital. Searchers and families desperate for news of missing loved ones

spent hours waiting here to find out information. Australian War Memorial Negative Number P02427.001.]

Reading the many files suggests that the accounts were often sanitised. Invariably men died

instantly, or were unconscious, without pain, which was a major concern of relatives. Even the victims of gas

were represented as having drifted off into painless oblivion – most unlikely if the victim had been affected

by mustard gas. Another area of coy avoidance concerned the suicides – sometimes by severely wounded

men in great pain. The final accounts of these people invariably said they died in battle. For example, John

Rendall Street of Bathurst was with the 25th Battalion near Fromelles (on 29

th July 1916). He was the

nephew of Judge Phillip Whistler Street and was well known in his unit. His comrades were clear about his

fate. He was hit, probably in the spine and unable to move. Rather than being captured he put his rifle under

his chin and shot himself. The Red Cross interviewed five witnesses who confirmed the suicide in battle.

One stated that he was “extremely anxious that this report should not reach relations, who are in fairly good

position”. Accordingly the Red Cross Missing and Wounded Bureau was rather coy about his end, simply

stating that he received a “fatal wound”. But the relations were not to be fooled. Street’s sister, Margery, was

in London and had experience with the stories of returned men. She requested the full items. There is no

record of them being sent. Street’s fate was still shrouded in mystery when his brother in law, the Sydney

solicitor, James Arthur Dowling, travelled to England after the war and gained a Statutory Declaration from

an eyewitness – which confirmed the death, but still did not mention the manner of it. Dowling’s pilgrimage

to the European battlefields was typical of many who had the means to travel. His son, Max, was among the

dead at Pozieres.

The families of men listed as Missing were in a particularly hideous situation. Relatives oscillated

between wild hopes and black despair, which could not be resolved. Any rumour was eagerly devoured in

the hope that a missing son, husband or brother could be found. Was the missing man lying wounded in

hospital? Captured? If he was dead, how did he die? Where was his body? Grieving relatives were desperate

for any scrap of information, and the relatives of missing men contracted elaborate scenarios imaging their

sons dazed and wounded and suffering loss of memory in some remote hospital, unable to communicate their

details to the staff. Desperately worried mothers and fathers of missing soldiers would haunt the soldiers’

DIGGER 21 Issue 38

canteens and hospitals trying to find out about their loved sons. People outside of Sydney had to rely on the

Bureau to search on their behalf. It is hard to comprehend the enormity of the grief suffered by people such

as Emily White of Epping. In 1918 Emily White made the trip into Sydney by train again. This time it was to

hear the account of how her second son, John Stanley, had died of injuries received in battle. Thus, she had

given both sons to the war. Eventually the Red Cross Missing and Wounded Bureau closed its office

to the public in Sydney in March 1919 but continued distributing information

concerning any missing men until 1920. In July 1919 then Acting Justice Langer

Owen was presented with a Commander Order of the British Empire after four

years of “magnificent” service. The lady who first suggested the idea, his wife

Mary, had died in late 1917, worn out by the worry concerning her own son away

at the Front, as well as the tireless support she maintained for so many war related

charities.

[Left: Mrs Mary Langer Owen. She suggested the establishment of the Sydney

Red Cross Missing and Wounded Enquiry Bureau to her husband, Langer Owen

KC. She squandered her frail health in support of war-related causes. Her funeral

in 1917 was attended by the leading citizens of the state. Australian War Memorial

Negative Number H16363.]

Mary’s wonderful legacy is the extensive collection of files put together on

her suggestion by a team of lawyers led by her husband. These files were at first a

great comfort to the many grieving relatives of those who fell in action. They have

now become an important part of our national heritage, constantly used by

families, authors and researchers. The thousands of index cards, letters and testimonies on file in the

Australian War Memorial are a testament to the great efforts of a group of prosperous, professional men and

women such as Langer Owen KC and Vera Deakin, who saw the desperate need of people such as Emily

White of Epping and donated their energy and expertise to help out in time of war. The need was best put

forward by one distraught mother in Adelaide who wrote in 1915:

It is hard to lose him. All the light seems to have gone out of my life, and it has made an old man of his

father. He was always a good son. He has given his life for his country and no man can do more. But if only I

knew where he was buried!

________________________________________________________________

4th Reinforcements of the 34th Battalion From the Pte Bert Egan (20

th Bn) collection; contributed by Maurice Campbell, Dubbo.

This photograph, with two others, was found on a battlefield by Bert. One photo had ‘blood on one side’.

DIGGER 22 Issue 38

Three Diggers and a Kiwi in Paris Graeme Hosken, Dubbo

In July 1916 a small number of Australian soldiers from the 5th Division were selected to represent their

country and the British Empire in a Military Review to be held in Paris on Bastille Day. Careful attention

was paid in choosing the men for this honour, as they were expected to be on their best behaviour and would

be mixing with French dignitaries and soldiers from all Allied nations. In this article, three of the Australian

participants describe their experiences in Paris five days before they fought at Fromelles. A New Zealand

soldier’s perspective of the march is also included.

Norman Lovett [right] was a school teacher at Bearbung

(near Gilgandra, NSW) prior to enlisting and being placed

in the 1st Light Horse Regiment. He served and was

wounded on Gallipoli and transferred to the 1st then 53

rd

Battalions in early 1916. Norman was awarded an MC at

Fromelles and a Bar to the MC at Stormy Trench. His

continued good work with the 54th Battalion (which he had

joined in June 1917) saw him awarded a Croix de Guerre.

Captain Norman Lovett was killed on 6th April 1918 near

Villers-Bretonneux and is buried at Aubigny British

Cemetery.

On 9th July 1916, soon after his arrival from Egypt,

Norman attended a musketry school of instruction. Shortly

after, Lovett was detached as one of two junior officers in

charge of the Australian contingent to take part in the

Allied Military Review that took place in Paris on 14th July.

The Officer Commanding, Detachment, British Troops, for

the Paris Review issued a memo to those participating: The

attention of all ranks is called to the fact that they have

been selected to represent the forces of the British Empire

at the Military Review to be held at Paris on July 14th in

connection with the French Fete Nationale at the invitation

and as the guests of the French Republic. Soldiers will

realise that such a visit to the capital of their Allies is not

an occasion for relaxing their standard of good behaviour

and will strictly avoid any form of conduct leading to

unfavourable comment. The Commander-in-Chief confidently expects that the British contingent will

worthily uphold the reputation for courtesy and good behaviour which the British Army has tried to deserve.

Only 52 Australians marched in the parade [though numbers do vary – Ed.], in a composite company

alongside the Canadians. The Aussies proudly wore their slouch hats and their ‘cleanest’ uniforms, many of

which had to be borrowed or scrounged from mates. Norman Lovett was seated amongst the dignitaries and

viewed the parade from a chair just behind the French President – quite an honour for a young schoolteacher

and volunteer soldier from Wellington, NSW.

Norman wrote a letter to his mother on 22nd

July, describing his time in the French capital:

… Here dame fortune smiled on me, and that happened which resulted in the best experience I have ever

had, or I suppose will have again. My Colonel (Col. Norris), now dead, poor chap, came up one day and told

me that I was to proceed to Paris, first to report with five men of my battalion at Brigade Headquarters at

10am next day. Now as no Australian may visit Paris, unless he is a brigadier, I wondered what it all was.

However, I went to the BHQ’s and there found 20 other men from other battalions from the brigade, and

having been inspected by the brigadier was sent to the Div HQ’s. Here I found parties from the other

brigades of our division, and having been inspected by Gen. McKay, our Divisional Commander, was told to

report at a town _______ next day, where I would get all instructions. Here I found 600 men in all,

comprising Canadians, South Africans, New Zealanders, Newfoundlanders, Indians, and Australians (50 of

each of them) and 300 English troops, made up of Coldstream, Grenadier, Welsh, and Irish Guards, Welsh

Fusiliers, Rifle Brigademen, and Gordon Highlanders. Here we formed an Imperial Battalion, and then

found out we were to represent the armies of the British at a giant Review in Paris on 14th July (French

Republic Day).

DIGGER 23 Issue 38

We arrived in Paris on the 13th July. Our reception was tremendous. Our 600 men were housed in

the Eastern Pepiniere, one of the finest barracks in France. The 24 officers of the party were the guests of

the Republic at the Circle Militaire or military Club. On the 14th we paraded early at the barracks, and

marched to a huge square near the Place de la Republique. Here a South African, Capt. Clark; a Canadian,

Major Page; a New Zealander, Lieutenant Stevens, and an Australian (myself) were called out and taken

away in taxis. We drove along the Boulevarde to a building in the Place de la Republique, where a saluting

base had been made. Here we got out and were taken to where President Poincare was to review the troops

as they marched past. We were then met by a French officer, who in long and glowing terms welcomed us, as

the representatives of Great Britain, and introduced us to a number of foreign representatives, Russian,

Italian, Belgian, Japanese, Serbian, and Portuguese (all the Allies you see). He then turned to us again and

informed us that as we were the representatives of Great Britain we should occupy the place of honour, and

forthwith led us to four chairs, immediately behind the President’s chair …

The review commenced. First came the Belgian cavalry, infantry, cyclists, and machine gunners in

turn; next the Russians, who made a tremendous fine showing; then the Italians; then our representatives

headed by the Guards. At last it all ended, and we returned to lunch. Next day we were the guests of the

Minister of War, and in the evening of the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. The next day we saw Paris, or as

much of it as we could in the time at our disposal, and left for the trenches that evening.

Then occurred one of the most remarkable

incidents of the whole affair. We left the barracks for the

station at 7.30pm. We had not gone half a mile when order

was no longer possible. We reduced our formation from

fours, to two deep, then to single file, and from then on it

was, as my sergeant expressed it, a case of kissing one’s

way through a Paris crowd. Men, women, boys and girls

just grabbed one, squeezed, hugged, and kissed you and

passed you on to the next group. After nearly two hours of

this we reached the station and at last entrained. We

arrived two days later at our battalions. I arrived at 10am,

and found my lot in the firing line, and all the excitement.

Found we were attacking that night at 6pm. Rather a

sudden change of scene, eh? I can’t tell you about the

attack, except that it was highly successful, and our losses

were commensurate with our success. Quite a number of my

good friends gone …

Right: Norman Lovett is standing on the right in this group

of officers from various parts of the British Empire, brought

together for the Paris Review on 14th July 1916. Five days

later he would be wounded in the disastrous Battle of

Fromelles. [Courtesy Wellington (NSW) Museum.]

_______________________________________________________________

Private 2799 Cyril Tasman Boyd served in ‘D’ Company of the Victorian 60th Battalion following his

enlistment on 21st June 1915. He was stationed near Armentieres when chosen to march in the Paris

‘celebrations’, as he detailed in this letter home written two days after the march:

Paris

14 July 1916, Celebrations

16 July 1916

Mr Dear Home folk

There is no doubt you will get a surprise when you read the above address. You will be no more

surprised as I was when the order came through that I was to represent our battalion in the Review in Paris

on the 14th. We were preparing to pack up to go to the trenches (as I said in my last letter) when this very

welcome news came through. It gave me quite a shock I can tell you but of course wasn’t late at the

appointed place to be inspected.

I have written a few lines in my pocket wallet on the trip, so to save writing them again I will enclose

the pages. It is written very briefly, but it will give you a good idea of the good time we have had since being

DIGGER 24 Issue 38

here. There is no doubt that the French people think very well of the colonial troops (Aust, NZ, Canadian

and S Africans) for they have given us a reception that was never given a thought by the men themselves.

I have a very short time to scratch this note so must not write as much as the last mail. On this

occasion, it is the first time in history that overseas troops have marched through Paris, so yours truly can

long remember the 14th July 1916, and at the same time, you will I know be more than pleased to hear of me

being chosen as representative of our battalion. In a day or two now we will be back with our unit again, I

expect. Well folk, I must conclude hoping you are all well as it leaves me at present, also dear Maggie and

all at 385, with kisses for Mavis and Bronny.

I remain, your loving son and brother, Cyril.

‘Paris’ (sounds well)

Sunday 16th July 1916

‘As written in my note book’

Tuesday July 11th 1916 First order of the day was to move to the trenches at 9pm. I was selected to represent our company in test of

efficiency and eventually was one of the four to represent out Battn in the Review. Left ______ at 12am and

entrained at Quoix De Bas at 1 o’c[lock]. Stayed at _______ 36 hours in an English rest home.

Wednesday July 12th 1916 Left ‘Abbeyvilles’ [Abbeville] at 8am and arrived at Paris at 3pm. Had a grand reception and marched

through cheering crowds to ‘Le Pepiniere’ Barracks. We were given a great spread, and thoroughly enjoyed

the day.

Friday July 14th 1916 The day of the Review. A misty rain falling at Reveille and looked not too promising for the Review. Had an

excellent breakfast and Fall-in sounded. Left barracks at 7.30am for the combined parade at ‘Palais de

Invalides’. Formed up in mass at saluting base. Really a grand sight, soldiers of all the Allies being present.

The spot is one of Paris’s most beautiful places. Reviewed by President Poincare and staff. Five bands

played the French national anthem.

10.30am. Belgium led the procession followed by the

British detachment (including Aust, NZ, SA, Canadian

troops in that order) then Indians [right], Russians,

Italians, French cavalry & infantry, Algerians and

Ghurkhas. Had a wonderful reception through the

main streets of Paris. Millions of people lined the

streets and cheered us all in turn. The march ended at

‘Palais De Republique’. We then motored home to our

barracks with flowers hanging all over us. We met a

nice English girl and we made her our guide for the

afternoon. Motored (free of charge) to Rue De La

Blanc, Grand Boulevards, Grand Opera, Eiffel Tower

(highest tower in the world, 1 100 feet), Alexander III Bridge, Paris Gardens, President’s Palace and

arrived home to ‘Taine Street’ (the girl’s residence) to tea at 6.30pm. Left for barracks at 8pm. Was a little

tired, but couldn’t sleep for cheering crowds around the barracks.

Saturday July 15th 1916 A most beautiful day. Had leave from 12.30pm. Walked to ‘our guide’s’ place then to ‘Palais De Invalides’

(one of the most beautiful buildings in the world). Full of relics of Napoleon’s and also of the present war.

Saw Napoleon’s tomb. Only colonial troops allowed to go down through the tomb. Saw his hat, decorations

and swords. Crossed over to the Eiffel Tower and went up about half way, 500ft. A most beautiful sight all

over Paris. A very rare opportunity. Came back to the Grand Boulevards and saw the Review in cinema. No

charge for soldiers, so had plenty of that. Motored to Joan of Arc’s statue at National Museum. Some very

fine work to be seen. Had tea at ‘Riche’s Café’ in Grand Boulevard at the proprietor’s expense. Talk about

some class. It’s a wonder I’m not sick today. Arrived at barracks at 10.30pm. Nearly torn to pieces by girls

wanting souvenirs, etc.

Sunday July 16th 1916 A nice sunny morning. Supposed to have left this morning, but move cancelled. Later orders that we leave

here tonight. Having partaken of a good spread provided by the French authorities, we moved at 8pm.

Thousands of cheering people lined the streets and gave us a send off better than I, or Paris I think, has

DIGGER 25 Issue 38

before seen. You simply had to pull your way through the crowds, kissing, hugging, throwing flowers, etc etc.

We were in the boom right enough. Partly owing to the good war news, Parisiennes are full of excitement

and they were really sorry when we were steaming away from ‘La Chapple’ Station. I shall never forget this

trip and I will tell you all the news next time we meet. Hoping you will be pleased to hear of me in such an

historical occasion, and that you are all well and happy.

I am, Yours Ever, Cyril.

Three days later Cyril Boyd was killed in the Battle of Fromelles. He has no known grave and is

commemorated at VC Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial, France.

_______________________________________________________________

HR (Harold Roy) Williams served with the 56th Battalion and would become well-known after the war

through his books of war memoirs, ‘The Gallant Company’ [1933] and ‘Comrades of the Great Adventure’

[1935]. He devoted a chapter in his first book to the ‘Allied March through Paris’, from which these extracts

have been taken.

We rested next day in Estaires, a fair-sized village in the forward zone and crowded with estaminets,

drinking vin blanc and eating huge plates of fried eggs and chips, like children at a Christmas party. Late in

the afternoon on return to our billet I was met by my pal Fred with instructions to report to Captain

Fanning. He had a frown black as thunder on his face.

Suddenly he barked at me: “How would you like to go to Paris, sonny?”

“Me, to Paris!”

“Yes,” said Fanning, “Would like to be going myself.”

Then he rattled off his instructions, handed me one hundred and fifty francs, turned abruptly, and left

me standing staring after him with open mouth. I hastened to my platoon officer to find the reason for this

good fortune. It appeared that the French national day, 14 July, was close at hand, and the British, along

with the other Allies, were sending a detachment for a grand review in Paris. Our division had to send two

officers and about one hundred other ranks, eight from the 56th Battalion, and I was the corporal in charge

of the party.

My pals in No. 3 helped polish up my rifle and gear. Even my clothes were made up from among

them, so that I should have the best of everything in the platoon when I moved out in the morning. For me the

night was sleepless from excitement. With other parties from the 8th and 15

th Brigades ours entrained at

Sailly next morning in the trucks customarily used for carrying troops. At many stations along the route we

were joined by different detachments – Jocks, Tommies, New Zealanders, Canadians. That night we spent in

Abbeville and arrived in Paris next afternoon. We marched through streets draped with flags and lined with

people, who cheered us in great style, to a large barracks, and after forming up on the barrack square we

were taken up to our quarters. Ours were on the second floor, and when we had taken our equipment off and

claimed a bed each we crowded the windows and gazed down at the crowd in the street. Such a crowd! They

clapped us, sang, and continually requested us to respond with ‘Tipperary’. They seemed to regard us as

martyrs because we were not allowed out. Presently on the edge of the crowd appeared people with bottles

of wine, cigars, and cigarettes. We made ropes and hauled up the good cheer; but before we could

accumulate much of the stock several Tommy Red-caps came into our room and made us bring in the ropes.

But we had few complaints. For tea we were served with food to which we had been total strangers since

leaving Australia – delicious roast beef, three vegetables, pudding, and a can of beer and wine for each man.

Our breakfast was another meal for soldiers to remember, with wine and beer again as beverages.

The great march was worth living

for. Out in the sunlit streets lined by trees

brilliant with summer foliage, our hearts

were intoxicated, with the most wonderful

city of Europe – the music, the roll of our

drums, and the feeling that we were

representing the greatest empire in the

world’s history before the eyes of a city

whose every structure and monument

seemed to speak of glory and bravery

[left]. Is it any wonder that we kept step to

those drums, with feet that barely seemed

DIGGER 26 Issue 38

to touch the ground? I felt as though we were racehorses moving behind the barrier before the start of a big

race. My ignorance of Paris denies me knowledge of the route we took, but the most vivid impression

remains of those living streets, magnificent buildings, a river, and several stone bridges. After a long march

we entered the Tuileries. Here we formed up in close column, piled arms, took off our gear, and were

allowed to leave the ranks.

On our left was a full battalion of Russian

infantry [right] from a force then in the Champagne

sector. Clad in field-grey uniforms with round caps,

armed with the French rifle and the long, thin

bayonet which the French call ‘Rosalie’, these men

with their powerful bodies, short legs, and thighs the

thickness of young trees, had big dull faces wearing

the expression of working bullocks. On the right of

their leading company stood a standard-bearer

holding aloft a flag with some religious symbol

emblazoned thereon. Starting from the right of each

company, each file in turn brought his rifle to the

present. A group of mounted officers rode up, the

standard-bearer dipped the flag, and there went up something between a shout and a cheer from the whole

battalion, repeated three times to the dipping of the flag. A grey-headed officer, his breast ablaze with

decorations, saluted and gave some orders; whereupon the whole battalion piled arms, with their bayonets

still fixed, and broke off. We went among the Russians and were surprised to see that their equipment did not

contain a bayonet scabbard. We learned that they never unfixed bayonets because of some incident of a past

war. We appeared to be as much a curiosity to them as they to us. Every now and then a fresh detachment of

troops marched on to the ground. A very smart turn-out was a battalion of Belgians wearing a khaki uniform

with yellow facings and light-coloured trench helmets. They wore the long tunic similar in cut to the French

infantry, and carried a light spade as an entrenching tool.

Across the roadway were formed up French Colonial troops, squat broad-faced men from Cochin

China with horizon blue uniforms and large, queer-looking caps; fierce-faced brown men from Algiers; tall,

thin-legged, ill-shapen, black Senegalese. Away on the right was a mass of poilus in blue, with their officers

in red breeches, blue tunics, and caps gay with golden braid. The Chasseurs Alpins looked what they were,

the elite of the French infantry. They were clad in navy blue puttees, breeches, and tunic, and black velvet

Alpine caps were set at a rakish angle on their heads, and adorned with a silver bugle for a badge. Their

officers were a pattern of soldierly bearing – upstanding, straight as a rush, broad-shouldered, and all about

six feet in height.

After some time the

fall-in sounded. We formed

up, and stood at the present,

while a cavalcade of officers

attendant on the French

President, M. Poincare, rode

along our ranks. Then the

combined march began, out

through the great gates of the

Tuileries in column of route

with bayonets fixed. Upon a

platform on the right stood the

French President. Before

reaching the saluting base we

formed line, and as we

marched past he took the

salute to the strains of a

French military band. [Right:

Australians crossing the Place

de la Concorde, Paris, during

the procession of Allied troops on the French Fete Day (Bastille Day), on 14th July 1918. This is the only

picture of the march in the AWM collection. Australian War Memorial Negative Number E02727.]

DIGGER 27 Issue 38

Passing into column of route again we marched along streets packed with a cheering, clapping

crowd such as we had never seen before. The excitement of the crowd was wonderful. They pelted us with

flowers, and occasionally above the cries of “Bravo, Australia!” rang out a coo-ee which was music to our

ears. Along the route at intervals were posted French cavalry on coal-black horses – big men with steel

helmets, long black plumes dropping to their waists, steel corselets, and great black boots reaching to their

knees. With the sun gleaming on helmet, corselet, and drawn sword, they were a picture. In all the

excitement of the crowd, we could not help noticing the way in which they kept the route clear. [Below: A

postcard showing French infantry participants in the great march.]

At last we reached a large

barracks upon whose square we formed

up, entered army lorries, and therein

sped back to our barracks. The

wonderful march was over, but the

memory will be cherished as something

to be looked back upon with joy and

thankfulness by all Australians who took

part in it.

In the afternoon we were

allowed out on leave, with orders to

report back at 7pm. Outside was a crowd

of people impatient to invite us to come

and see the sights of the gay city. A big

New Zealander was my companion. We

declined all invitations and decided to

see the city on our own. It was a glorious afternoon. The boulevards were thronged with a crowd in holiday

spirit yet under restraint. Whenever we stood to gaze at the scene we became the centre of a curious group.

The kilted Jocks came in for the most attention; people seemed to want to know whether they wore trousers

underneath – much to the Jocks’ embarrassment. The manifest kindness and the interest of the crowds made

everybody see the thing in the right spirit. One middle-aged citizen pulled us up, and asked what country we

hailed from, and when I told him that I was an Australian, he seized my hand and said, “An Australian!

Welcome to our city. The deeds of your countrymen on Gallipoli have made such a name for Australians that

we French people hold you in the highest esteem, and wish to make you the guests of our city.” It was a very

pretty little speech and made me wish that I had really been an Anzac.

Back at the barracks in the evening the Australian contingent received a call from an Australian girl

who wanted to meet her compatriots. She said she hailed from Melbourne. She had with her two friends, a

Dublin girl and a Parisienne. They were loaded with cigarettes, which they pressed upon me and two other

Australians. The Melbourne girl told us how well we had looked in the march past; she and the colleen

brought a touch of home into the atmosphere. We stripped off our badges and gave them to the three girls.

As they left the soft-voiced Irish girl promised to try and find me as we marched out to the train on Sunday.

That departure was another exciting event. It was twilight when we fell in, and we marched out for

the railway station with bands playing and the sorrow of leaving Paris disguised in song. The crowd

adjoining the barracks was so dense that we only just had room to march in fours. But we had not gone far

when we were so crowded that we dropped into file. Each allied detachment had its own song. Our

“Australia will be there!” we yelled at the top of our voices. Evidently the song made a hit with the

Parisians, for one of their papers published it in French some days later. A mile from the barracks all

semblance of march-formation was lost. The Melbourne girl and the colleen found us and struggled with us

through a throng of people, mostly women, who caught our hands and tunics as we passed along and asked

to be kissed. The Irish girl told me that we were going through one of the poorer quarters of the city;

nevertheless, its inhabitants turned out to give us a send-off the like of which none of us had ever imagined

or will see again. The enthusiasm of the crowd was a frenzy; we were carried away by the spirit of it. Once

the column was blocked for several minutes, and an old grey-bearded man stood on the corner of the street

and sang “La Marseillaise” with a voice as clear as a bell and an expression which touched one’s soul. This

singer produced a wonderful effect on the crowd. They chanted the song in full deep chorus, and the intensity

of the feeling intoxicated us. As the human jam finally gave way and we moved on, a bent and aged woman

seized my tunic, saying something I could not understand. The colleen told me that she wished me to kiss a

curly-headed child held in her arms. I did so, and also kissed the old lady’s wrinkled and not over-clean

face. I lost the column, so tightly did she hang on to my tunic. At last the colleen made her understand that I

DIGGER 28 Issue 38

had to go on or I would be shot. Only my friend knew the route to the station; but for her I should have been

hopelessly lost. At the entrance to the station barriers had been erected, and as French police prevented any

civilians from entering with the troops, I took a farewell of my Irish friend there.

The train deposited us at Hazebrouck on 18 July and thence we travelled to our units by lorry. We of

the 56th reached our own at Bac St Maur, to hear that we had arrived back just in time for the “stunt” at

Fromelles.

_______________________________________________________________

William Nielsen was a New Zealander born in Carterton who enlisted, aged 20, in the New Zealand

Expeditionary Force and served as 24/1146 with the Trentham Infantry Regiment, 2nd

Battalion, 3rd

NZ Rifle

Brigade. The following extracts from his diary were found on the Internet and describes his involvement in

the march through Paris as a representative of his country.

I was in trenches 8 days and got a surprise trip to Paris (through the

previous raid) for a national review on the 14th July, as a representative

of the British Army.

There were 50 NZ boys, passed St Omer, Calais, Boulogne & camped at

Abbeville on the 11th.

Left on 13th for Paris, had great reception on arriving. Marched to the

Caserni la Peperineri [sic] barracks.

14th was the review & representatives were taking part from the whole

world. It was the best Military display I have ever seen.

Had leave from 5 to 8pm, & was rushed by girls, they all wanted to kiss us.

Had (15th) leave all day & met English Lady who took me all over Paris &

to finish went to the Count Chateau (where she was a guest) for afternoon

tea. Had a very enjoyable day & went to the theatre at night.

Didn’t get leave on 16th July, but the people were allowed in the barracks.

Met an English nurse & had a spree in the afternoon.

We left the barracks at 8pm for Station, & everyone of the crowd wanted to kiss us goodbye.

We couldn't march as girls, men, old women were hanging onto everyone & the only way one could get

along was to kiss them. Some of the loveliest girls I have ever seen.

Had to take a taxi 3 times to catch up as the NZ boys were in the rear of the procession.

We were covered with flowers and medallions, never seen such an excited crowd as the French, but they

couldn't do enough for us, so being unable to speak English, they could only kiss us to show their gratitude.

Arrived back at Abbeville 6am 17th, went to same camp again for the day & left at 9am, arrived at

Steenwerck Station 18th, got back to trenches at 10pm.

Endnotes: (1) The two officers from the 5th Division mentioned by HR Williams were Norman Lovett and

2nd

Lieutenant George Gordon Milne [served as Leonard Henry Dardier], seated front left in the photo

on page 23. In an amazing coincidence, Graham Milne, the UK grandson of Milne/Dardier, contacted the

FFFAIF with the same group photo in December 2011, not long after I had finished the draft of this article.

(2) Photos from 1916 were found using Google image search. (3) Cyril Boyd’s account was first published in

the newsletter of the ‘Friends of the 15th Brigade’, March 2011 issue. The material was transcribed by Cyril’s

great great niece, Julie Stevens. Used with permission of FOTFB. (4) William Nielsen’s diary transcript is

found at: http://www.angelfire.com/ky/dawnsplace/WilliamNielsen.htm. William Nielsen was discharged in

November 1917 after being wounded on a bombing raid at Flers on 30th September 1916. Note that his

surname is spelt incorrectly under the photograph above.

24th Battalion anecdote The 24

th Battalion Journal, September 1918

There is no doubt that the resourcefulness of the Australian soldier is an admirable quality. In a recent stunt a

‘B’ Coy officer lost the seat of his trousers, from some cause not specified, and shortly afterwards was seen

with a fresh covering in the form of a piece of a German waterproof sheet, which was kept in position by

numerous nails. The officer’s idea in selecting this material was never explained to his admirers, but as the

party had to cross a creek, it is surmised that he proposed to sit on a box of small arms ammunition and float

across.

Contributed by Margaret Clarke, Cardiff.

DIGGER 29 Issue 38

Lance Corporal 1443 Richard Gunter, 34th Battalion Harry Willey, Scone

With heavy rain falling on the night of Thursday, 11th October 1917, Dick Gunter, a 34

th Battalion

Headquarters signaller was proceeding along the railway line to his appointed assembly point, near

Zonnebeke. Halting just after midnight, he moved to one side of the narrow cutting, seeking shelter from the

cold wind and the rain as he waited his turn to pass through. A single German shell, fired at random,

exploded in the cutting. The concussion from the shell killed Dick and two of his mates. Five hours later the

34th Battalion launched their unsuccessful attack against Passchendaele. [Below: The Defy Crossing, located

at the end of Broodseinde Cutting on the Ypres-Roulers Railway. This point marked the limit of the

Australian advance in the initial attack on Passchendaele Ridge. Photo taken 12th October 1917, the day that

Dick Gunter was killed. Australian War Memorial Negative Number E01165.]

Born at Moonan Flat, NSW, on 2nd

May

1895, Richard Clarence Gunter was the fourth

son and the sixth child of Samuel Gunter and his

wife Annie Maria (Simpson). ‘Dick’, who had

been educated at the Moonan Flat Public School,

gained employment as a general assistant with

Messrs M. Campbell & Co, Ltd (Merchants and

Importers) at their Rouchell store in 1914.

On 18th January 1916, after being

accepted for overseas service, he was given a

reference from the store manager, Mr R

McMullin, which was endorsed by the managing

director of Campbell’s stores, Mr Humphries.

Three days later, Dick, John and Robert

Field and Garnet Cyrus Crossing were given a

send-off at the Moonan School of Arts. When

attested at West Maitland on 26th January, Dick was 20 years and 9 months old, 5 foot 9 inches (157cm) tall

and weighed 9 stone 9 lb (62kg). His religious denomination was Church of England. He named his father as

his next of kin and arranged for two-thirds of his army pay to be paid to his father.

Entering camp at West Maitland on 9th February, he was assigned to the signalling section of ‘B’

Company of the 34th Battalion (9

th Brigade, 3

rd Division). After training at Rutherford and Kiama Camps,

Dick embarked at 4.00pm on 2nd

May (his 21st birthday), onboard HMAT A20 Hororata, sailing from

Sydney to England.

Disembarking at Plymouth on 23rd

June 1916, the 34th boarded a train and travelled 260 miles on the

Great South-Western line through Devonport and Somersetshire to Wiltshire on the Salisbury Plain. They

then marched two miles to their designated training camp at Lark Hill. On 16th July, Major General

William Riddell Birdwood, the British commander of the Australian and New Zealand troops, handed over

command of the 3rd

Division to Australia’s Major General John Monash. Monash proceeded to put the

men through a training routine that far surpassed the training given to any other Australian division. After a

month of fitness training, Dick was taken to a rifle range where, shooting from 6.45am till 9pm, he registered

a perfect score.

Dick found training ‘monotonous, long and laborious’. With only one in twenty allowed weekend

leave, during which they had to remain within three miles of their camp, Dick was restricted from going

beyond the four closest villages, Figeldean, Dorrington, Millstone and Amesbury. At Amesbury he visited a

church that had been built centuries earlier by the Romans. He also attended the weekly services conducted

by the Bishop of Salisbury, who preached to the 8 000 Australian troops stationed at Lark Hill.

Against the wishes of the men, Monash ordered them to turn down the brim of their hats and place

the large rising sun badge on the front of their hats. This made the 3rd

Division stand out from the other

Australian divisions.

Dick was made lance corporal on 7th November, two weeks before he departed for France with the

3rd

Division. Arriving in France the 34th Battalion took over part of the “Nursery” sector near Armentieres.

On 5th March 1917, Dick attended a 14 day signal school, gaining the highest marks of the 40

participants, before he returned to the front line. He attended a further training school from 29th May till 13

th

June, and then worked in the army repair shop until he rejoined his battalion on 7th September.

DIGGER 30 Issue 38

On the night of 10th October 1917, drenching squalls commenced at 7.00pm. When their promised

tents failed to arrive the men were forced to sleep in the open. General Hubert Gough phoned sixty year old

General Herbert Charles Onslow Plumer, suggesting the planned attack be postponed. The next night, with

the rain still coming down in torrents, the Germans fired gas shells at the Australians as they advanced along

the railway line. Fortunately, the strong winds dispersed the gas.

Led by Captain Clarence Smith Jeffries and Captain Telford Graham Gilder, the men halted at

the head of the column while the two officers inspected the Broodseinde railway cutting. As they waited the

Germans fired the single explosive shell that killed Dick Gunter and two other signallers. A fourth casualty

was Private 1435 William Henry Burt of Martins Creek, who died two days later from his wounds. It was

recorded that ‘there just wasn’t time’ to bury the bodies, which, according to one witness, were still lying

there three days later.

[Left: According to a Red Cross statement by L/Cpl 772

Eric Green, 34th Bn Signals Section, Dick Gunter’s death

occurred near the (civilian) cemetery at the cutting past

Zonnebeke railway station, so this photo must have been

taken very close to the spot. Australian War Memorial

Negative Number E01163.]

During this 24 hour period the 3rd

Division suffered 3 199

casualties. One hundred and forty-four of those killed,

including three officers, were from the Newcastle and

Hunter area. Eight have their names on the Scone War

Memorial Gateway. Captain Clarence Smith Jeffries was

awarded a Victoria Cross for his actions on 12th October

during this battle.

Three weeks later when news of the death of Dick Gunter was received at Moonan Flat, Church of

England Minister, Reverend Adolphus Peter Elkin BA conducted a very moving memorial service for the

fallen soldier from the area. The church, which was filled to overflowing, was draped in purple and green,

the colours of the 34th Battalion, while an Australian flag covered the pulpit. Reverend Elkin preached a very

moving and impressive sermon, during which he made reference to each of the district’s fallen soldiers.

Dick left his estate to his mother, who had repeatedly written to the Army records department

seeking further information on the fate of her son. Her quest for information began when she read in ‘The

Sydney Morning Herald’ of 23rd

April 1917 that Lieutenant RC Gunter had been awarded a Military Cross.

Annie must have been very disappointed to learn that the award had been made to Lieutenant RC Gunter

of the 43rd

Battalion and not Lance Corporal RC Gunter of the 34th Battalion.

It would be 5th October 1922 before Sam Gunter received Dick’s memorial plaque and 14

th March

1923 before he received his son’s Allied Victory Medal No. 38116. Dick’s memorial scroll with the King’s

message had been received 5th October 1921. The army continued to ignore Annie, answering most of her

inquiries with a request for either Dick’s father’s address or proof that his father was deceased.

Following the Armistice, Sam and Annie Gunter donated a marble tablet in memory of their son,

which is now on the wall of the Moonan Flat Union Church, just to the left of the altar.

It was 18th September 1928 before Sam Gunter was informed that Dick’s name had been placed on

the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial at Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Endnotes: (1) Private 1527 John Field served with the 54th Battalion. He died

of disease on 24th October 1917 and is buried at Le Havre. (2) Private 240

Arthur Robert Field, 33rd

Battalion, returned to Australia 4th July 1919. (3)

Private 737 Garnet Cyrus Crossing, 34th Battalion, was also killed on 12

th

October 1917. (4) The other signallers killed with Gunter were Canadian-born

Private 919 Robert Douglas Wilson of Cessnock [right], and Private 2282

Ernest Adolphus Calov of Wingham. [Photo of Robert Wilson: AWM

Negative Number P01920.005.] (5) Robert Wilson’s brother in law also served

in the 34th Battalion and was killed at Messines. He was Private 872 Henry

Gault Phee, KIA 19/7/17. (6) Calov’s brother, L/Cpl 3125 Frederick

Leopold Calov, served with the 56th Battalion and died of wounds received at

Polygon Wood, 27/9/17. He is buried in Lijssenthoek Cemetery near

Poperinghe, Belgium. [Additional research by Graeme Hosken.]

DIGGER 31 Issue 38

‘From the Dead’1 Contributed by Phil Mannell, Canberra

In forwarding the following lines from Gallipoli, Private S. J. Lake2, 3

rd Battalion, 1

st New South Wales

Brigade, writes: ‘I found amongst some dead man’s effects the enclosed verse, which I copied. It was

enclosed in an unaddressed envelope, together with a spray of leaves, a sprig of wattle, an ivy and a gum

leaf. It was evidently meant for postage later on. Beyond the initials there was nothing to show to whom it

belonged.’

TO KATE

The leaves you sent across the sea,

They brought a breath of home to me.

It seemed that in the three-leaved spray

With each dear leaf a lesson lay.

The golden wattle bloom so rare

Brought golden youth to do and dare -

Australia’s best to write their name

Upon the priceless lists of fame.

The rose of England cannot vie

With wattle blooms when our men die.

The ivy leaf will do for me:

It breathes of a tenacity.

And bids us hold what we have won.

And cling on till the war is done.

The old gum tree was made to last,

And weather many a wintry blast;

So we against the foe must stand

For liberty and our homeland.

A purple cotton bound the same;

This points the loyal road to fame.

Each comrade wears a talisman

To bring him luck, if luck it can.

Some wear a rosary of beads

To help them on to noble deeds,

And some a cross, that Providence

May slay an evil consequence.

Some, portraits of their girls divine,

With eyes like stars and lips like wine,

Who may for those across the foam

Take on the man who stays at home.

All I had on was my old disc,

To show who fell and took the risk;

But now I wear a batch of leaves

Sent from the land where my heart cleaves;

And should a foeman cross my track,

And if his steel should press me back,

To find a way and make the room

He’ll have to crush the wattle bloom,

And cut the clinging ivy strand

With strong and no uncertain hand.

But if he breaks the old gum tree-

Why, then, of course, he’ll do for me.

Australian leaves sent here by you

May bring me luck and see me through.

Gallipoli Peninsula.

H.R.3

DIGGER 32 Issue 38

Endnotes:

(1) First published in ‘The Argus’, Saturday, 7th October 1916, page 6. (Article corrected in NLA Trove, 12

th

November, 2011.) (2) Private 952 Sydney James McFarlane Lake was a 21 year old seaman, who was

born at Bunyip, Gippsland, Victoria in 1893. He sailed with the original contingent of the 3rd

Battalion and

after service at Gallipoli transferred to the 1st Light Trench Mortar Battery in April 1916 and to the 1

st DAC

in November 1917. He was wounded twice in France and returned to Australia in October 1918. (3) Private

Lake landed at Gallipoli on 25th April 1915 with the 3

rd Battalion and was attached to the Trench Mortar

Artillery from 24th August 1915. He was evacuated sick from Anzac on 2

nd November. While in the Trench

Mortars he would have been in contact with other units in various parts of the line, so that makes it harder to

establish who the poet, ‘HR’, could have been. However, a search of the roll of honour for men killed on

Gallipoli with those initials produced the following list: 634 Harry Rafton (18th Bn); 2012 Harry Raistrick

(3rd

Bn); 1400 Harold Rasdell (14th Bn); 1810 Herbert Redmond (4

th Bn); 456 Harry Reid (2

nd Bn); 737

Henry Reidy (5th Bn); 2026 Harry Reynolds (6

th Bn); 476 Harrie Rickard (9

th LHR); 42 Henry Roberts

(8th LHR); 51 Herbert Robertshaw (6

th Bn); 2184 Harold Robinson (7

th Bn); 262 Herbert Rowland (7

th

Bn); 1863 Harold Rumney (12th Bn) and 337 Heinrich Ruwoldt (10

th LHR).

Postscript by the Editor: Which of these men may have been the composer of ‘To Kate’? The poem wasn’t

published in ‘The Argus’ until October 1916, well after the Evacuation, so that doesn’t help narrow down the

period in which it may have been found on Gallipoli. However, as the bulk of Lake’s time on Gallipoli was

with the 3rd

Battalion, it seems sensible to begin with the assumption that the poet was also in the 3rd

Battalion, or if not, belonged to the 1st Brigade (1

st to 4

th Battalions). This shortens the list of possible

composers to Raistrick, Redmond and Reid.

Private 2012 Harry Raistrick (3rd

Bn) was a 19 year old grocery shop assistant and single. He was from

Bradford, England, and emigrated to Australia when he was aged 19. He was killed at Lone Pine between 7th

and 12th August, having only joined the 3

rd Bn in the field on 30

th July. Would he have developed the strong

attachment to wattle, gum leaves and Australia evident in the poem in such a short stay in his new country?

Probably not.

Private 1810 Herbert Redmond (4th Bn) was aged 28 years when he was killed at Lone Pine on 6

th August.

He was employed as a shire maintenance worker and railway fettler before the war near Guyra. He was also

single. Somehow it is hard to see Herbert as a wordsmith of anything but bush poetry.

Private 456 Harry Lansbury Urquhart Reid (2nd

Bn) was killed on 2nd

May (though one report says he

was shot dead on 25th April). He was educated at Fort Street School and had attended NSW University

before becoming a civil servant. He was single, aged 25, and from Drummoyne. His level of education

makes him a prime candidate for the poet, given the poem’s sophisticated levels of literacy and imagery.

None of the three men’s service records contain correspondence from a Kate, but interestingly,

Reid’s personal effects consisted of a brown paper parcel of letters. Could these have been from ‘Kate’? We

know she sent ‘HR’ the three leaves through the post, so she may have been a frequent writer to ‘HR’.

Could it have been any of the other ‘HRs’ in the list? Harry Rafton can be ruled out as he was

engaged to Miss Esme Hoskins of Annandale. Harold Rasdell was single and 20 years old when he was

killed on 8th August. He was a fencer from Lexton, Vic. Henry Reidy was killed on the day of the Landing.

He was married to Jean, so he can be ruled out. Harry Reynolds was killed at German Officer’s Trench on

7th August. He was aged 23 and single at the time of his enlistment, and had been employed as a packer

before the war. Harrie Rickard was a 20 year old single butcher when he enlisted. Harrie was killed on 3rd

September at Hill 60. Henry Roberts was married to Lily Roberts of Lower Tooting, London. He was killed

at The Nek. Herbert Robertshaw was another killed on 25th April. He was single and a student when he

enlisted. Harold Robinson was another married man on the list – his wife’s name was Ada. Herbert

Rowland was also killed at the Landing. He was a single sawyer from Brunswick. Harold Rumney was an

unmarried orchardist, but, like the others, there is no ‘Kate’ mentioned in his service record. Heinrich

Ruwoldt, like the majority of these men, was single. He was aged when 29 years when he was killed on 29th

August 1915.

To sum up, none of the soldiers’ files mentions a Kate. If we exclude the married men, it still leaves

numerous possibilities as to the identity of the poet. My preferred candidate remains Harry Reid; not only

because of his education level, but also based on the hectic events of the Landing and Lone Pine, it seems

unlikely that Lake would have had time to go through a dead man’s effects at those frantic times. Reid was

killed when the 2nd

and 3rd

Battalions were taking over the RMLI trenches at the head of Monash Valley. It is

possible that Reid was killed on 2nd

May by shrapnel on the way into the trenches via Shrapnel Gully or by

enfilade fire once in the trenches.

DIGGER 33 Issue 38

‘Marginal truths’: Corporal 2716 Len Jones, 3rd Battalion Ray Black, Dural

I have always had a fascination for the personal stories and personalities of our Diggers. With it comes a

frustration, because even though some letters sent home survive, they tend to omit the earthy and the ugly

truths. ‘Let us not alarm our families with the brutal, gory reality of the trenches and confirm their worst

fears.’

I have a copy of ‘From Randwick to Hargicourt’, the unit history of

the 3rd

Battalion written by one of its officers, Captain Eric Wren, Croix de

Guerre. I found my copy [right] in a militaria shop. It was in far from mint

condition, having been read and re-read many, many times by its original

owner, Corporal 2716 Len Jones, HQ Signals, 3rd

Battalion.

This copy has so many indefinable dimensions to it beyond its

printed text. With its battered cover, yellowed pages – many of them loose – I

felt it had so many stories to tell us from the many reunions Len had taken it

to, where there would be laughter and moments of awkward pauses when the

names of those mates who did not return were spoken. These and many other

unwritten stories are trapped forever within its covers and pages and will forever remain untold.

If a copy of a book has a soul, this is one of them.

This indefinable soul comes into focus with the many comments Len wrote in its margins: some

simply adding facts, some personal opinions, some grimly humorous and some scathingly critical.

Len assisted Eric Wren in the writing of the book and I’m sure many of Len’s comments at the time

were a bit too frank for publication.

Len’s marginal comments start with Gallipoli. I have put an asterisk where Len wanted to comment.

His comments appear below each extract, in the italics.

__________________________________________________________

Every Saturday for over a year I went down to Eric Wren’s house at Strathfield. He relied on me because he

lost his arm at Pozieres and five of my sig section were KIA by a salvo of 5.9s. Offr. Sgt. Cpl. and ORs, just

‘fate’. I hopped over with D Company.

Page 50

‘Turks could be seen advancing in open order from Scrubby Knoll* towards the 400 Plateau. A few shots

were fired at them, but the range was too great to be effective.’

* Mustapha Kemal’s HQ but we didn’t know it.

Page 59

‘It was a cruel circumstance that, after sticking so tenaciously and bravely to his key post until Tuesday,

McDonald* should have his arm badly shattered by Turkish bullets.’

* He came back to the Battalion in France. Never decorated.

Page 75

‘Beach and water parties cultivated the habit of bringing back from their contact with other troops all sorts of

weird tales, popularly known as “furphies”* or “latrine wires.”’

* From Victoria. Furphy was contractor for the latrines from where all rumours originate.

Page 111

This page lists the officers and men* who were decorated thus far at Gallipoli, including a VC to Private

Hamilton.

* A miserable issue but as Gen. Walker, GOC, 1st. Div said when he took over from Bridges. ‘You are in the

Army to fight, not to get medals and if you get them you will continue to earn them.’

Page 116

‘Many picturesque “Soldiers of Fortune” fought with the AIF. Perhaps the most remarkable among many

was Private Williams* – at least, that is the name by which he was known in the Australian unit. He

originally landed at Helles on April 28th with the French Foreign Legion, but shortly afterwards deserted and

by some means which were never made known … found his way to Anzac where he cheerfully and

unofficially attached himself to the 3rd

Battalion.’

* I remember him well. He was useless on parade but he was so good at drill he showed everyone up.

Page 120

‘That night came a heavy snow storm*, and the following day looked like the Kosciusko country in the

depths of winter.’

DIGGER 34 Issue 38

* Men who had never seen snow ate it in spite of my advice. Their lips, tongues, etc all swelled up. The line

however survived. By now, Anzac was being shelled by the two German cruisers in the D’elles.

Page 120: The Evacuation of Gallipoli, December 20th

‘At 2.20a.m. on the morning of the 20th, Lieut. D. V. Mulholland and 20 other ranks* left the lines.

* I left at 2.20 a.m.’

Page 123

‘Quietly, quickly, but in an atmosphere of inexpressible sadness, those last men filtered through the mazy

trench systems to the beach to pass through that last cordon of gallant fellows, commanded by Captain Phil

Howell*.’

* Killed next to me at Passchendaele 1917.

Page 134: Egypt, then on to France

‘The journey (to Alexandria) was made in open trucks* and the troops arrived at the seaport at 7.30 a.m. on

the 22nd’

.’

* Try it sometime, especially stopping and starting. It was bitterly cold.

‘The food on the Grampian was very poor.* The ship had just returned from the Persian Gulf after

discharging a contingent of British troops and had not time to revictual.’

* Iron rations.

Page 138: On the road towards Paris

‘Every four hours a halt was made when refreshments* were provided by the French authorities.’

* Café, cognac and fresh bread!

Page 141: Training

‘All ranks were also made acquainted with “tear gas”, a chemical concoction with a peculiar odour

resembling pineapples, and with the power of irritating the eyes* in a most distressing manner.’

*All the tear ducts dried up.

Page 151

‘Some assistance was rendered to the raiders by Second Lieut. R.F. Bulkeley* and his patrol who

reconnoitred the enemy wire. Heavy retaliation followed.’

*Dick Bulkeley, KIA by our own guns at Mouquet Farm.

‘On the night of July 3rd

, the persistent work of the patrols was rewarded by the capture of a German prisoner

of the 20th Bavarian R.I.R. Incidentally, it was the battalion’s first prisoner in France. The actual capture was

made by Private “Nugget” Byrnes,* a big burly sundowner with an infectious smile.

‘In a final struggle, Byrnes reached the height of his ambition by presenting his German opponent with a

glorious black eye.’

* On his own private patrol. KIA at Bullecourt.

Page 153

‘One company commander struck trouble at St Ouen. The madame* at his billet refused to allow the troops

to use soap in the horse trough. The company commander tried to soothe the outraged feelings of the woman

in his best French. The result was tragic.’

* The French could never get over the Aussies always washing and bathing.

‘On July 12th, the battalion marched out of St Ouen for Vignacourt. On the following day it continued its

journey to Allonville*.’

* In 1918, 56 men were killed by one shell. [John Laffin records 13 killed and 56 wounded – Ed.]

Page 162: Pozieres

‘At 8pm., the companies moved off in single file and reached the front line without incident, except the rear

half of D Company which was neatly cut in half by a traffic control man who misdirected it to the right.

After wandering in the darkness, the “tourists” were eventually reunited with their company*.

‘At 12.28 am, two minutes before zero, our barrage fell on the German front line with an intensity not

hitherto experienced by our men. Explosions fused into one continuous roar. No order could be heard unless

shouted into the ear.’

* With the result that Cpl McKenzie and I finished up in no man’s land 5 minutes before the hop over.

Page 167: Pozieres

‘Shortly after daybreak the first contact plane appeared. It was flying low along the new front line at a height

of about 200 feet, and green flares, in groups of three were immediately lighted at intervals to indicate to it

the extreme limit of the advance*.’

* I signalled to him with the ‘Venetian blind’ device. ‘Mad’ Callaghan (KIA Passchendaele) kept Fritz

snipers down whilst I was out in front.

DIGGER 35 Issue 38

Page 172: Pozieres

‘Just prior to the advance, Lieut H.S. Chapman, the battalion signalling officer, was examining a map in

company with Major D.T. Moore and several signallers, when a high velocity shell hit the back of the trench.

Chapman was killed by the concussion and Sgt. Signaller, W.A. Oates was blown to pieces. Strange to relate,

Oates predicted, while at Gallipoli, the actual date of his death*.’

*On Gallipoli, Oates asked me when the war would finish. He himself wrote on a beam, July 25 1916.

Page 173: Pozieres

‘Some of the lads were so tired that they just dropped off to sleep, fatigue quite overcoming their desire for

food. As the day brightened, a miscellany of dusty, clustering figures slept profoundly in the poppy dappled

fields about the camp*.’

* Fritz trained every gun he had each side of Pozieres onto us. There was not a square inch of ground not a

shell hole.

Page 182: Pozieres

‘A couple of old German gun pits* were seized and occupied on the front of the new line (Thiepval

fortress).’

* I got into Fritz’s lines with a wounded man – and got out again before they realised who we were.

Page 183: Mouquet Farm.

‘… the 10th Battalion began to relieve the 3

rd from the trenches opposite Mouquet Farm. At the time the

German artillery was laying a shrapnel barrage on all tracks and communications trenches*.’

* Phosphorous shells. Mouquet Farm was not taken until late Sept by Canadians.

Page 192: Flers

‘After a tiring march over very muddy, sloppy, congested tracks we bivouacked near Fricourt* under hastily

erected tarpaulin shelters.’

*All that was left of the big village was two bricks and “This is

Fricourt”. [Right: The ruins of the Chateau at Fricourt after

several bombardments. Situated on the northern side of the Somme

River in France, the village of Fricourt was captured by British

forces in July 1916, and was the site of a staging camp for

Australian troops moving to the front during the Somme battles of

1916. Australian War Memorial Negative Number C03091.]

Page 193

‘At noon next day the companies, acting independently,

abandoned the mud-hill and floundered forward through the

crawling press of traffic to relieve the 11th Middlesex Regiment in close support at Trones Wood.*’

* There were four woods here all taken at very high cost. South African Bde was practically wiped out at

Mametz and Delville and never fought again. Trones, Delville, High, Mametz.

Page 194

‘The front line companies moved out into No-man’s land and dug a new trench 150 yards in front of the old

one, which had become just a wet, muddy ditch, quite uninhabitable.*’

* Flers was the worst part of the Somme. That’s why they put us there.

Page 195

‘Lieut-Col O. G. Howell-Price had just given the order for one of our machine guns to retaliate when he

appeared to stumble and fell across Loveday’s arm. Loveday thought he had fainted, but on lifting him up

found his own arm covered with blood. The Colonel had been shot in the face, the bullet lodging in the base

of his skull.*’

The luck of it. Being Bn gas NCO, next day I went over the top to a listening post with a cylinder of air for

alarm and was stuck in full view of Fritz up to my chest in mud and so a good C/pl hopped out and pulled me

out. This is where the Col was wounded.*

Page 198

‘Almost immediately German flares went up behind our men, and Loveday knew that the 1st Battalion attack

had failed* and this, his, position was practically untenable. However his orders were to hold on.’

1st Bn men on the left got stuck to their armpits in mud and shot. * We found them later ‘just standing there’.

Page 199

‘Loveday, who considered that Sergeant York* had done enough fighting that night to last him a year,

explained the position to him and asked if he would try and get back with a message. After delivering the

message he was told he could go to the reserve line and rest. He refused point blank, saying that he was

“going back to the boy (Loveday) and the mob”.’

DIGGER 36 Issue 38

* Yorky, from Yorkshire. KIA Bullecourt.

Page 200

‘Later in the day Lieut Bishop and nine men were killed by the short shooting of British *heavy artillery.’

* Nine inch howitzer. A lousy gun.

Page 203

‘Rudkin* remained with us for a further ten months until he was badly wounded at Broodseinde.’

* Stopped the base of a shell in his face. I fixed him up. But he always stayed in the country when he got

back.

Page 204

‘Orders were received on the 14th for four officers to the front line gave reason for the belief that the unit

would be on the move again.’

I went on leave from Buire with Justy Hudson. Sick with flu I lay on Ribemont Rly Stn for 3 hours in the snow

but Justy got me onto the train. At Bouchy near Rouen, a nursing sister got me off the train but as she was

getting the ambulance I got on the train for Havre and Blighty.

Page 205

‘Canteens were few and far between thereabouts, and even a hard walk of two or three miles was not

considered fruitless if it produced an extra tin of coffee and milk or a couple of spare “Tommy Cookers”.*’

* Solid fuel which would boil a dixie.

Page 206

‘For a few hours at least you were safe from that freezing, soaking sleet that sifted persistently down from

the dark and lowering winter sky.’

We had to rub our feet with whale oil. An impossible task and then couldn’t clean our hands to eat.

Page 208

‘On Christmas Day the unit lost Padre B. C. Wilson, who was transferred to the 3rd

Division. What a great

chap he was and how the men loved him! His place was taken by Stacy Waddy*, a former headmaster …’

* NBG.

Page 210

‘In the first hour some thirty shells fell in dangerous proximity. The fuses being timed for demolition

purposes, each huge projectile had to penetrate some fifteen feet of earth before the explosion.*’

* We had them at Pozieres. We had the power buzzer ‘mud wireless’ set here and Fritz knew it.

Page 223: The Battle of Hermies

‘Apparently with the idea of impeding the advance of our artillery and transport, a number of trees bordering

the roads had been felled by the Germans and lay sprawling in the way.*’

* Many booby traps such as duck boards out of line. Put it straight and ‘bang’.

Page 231

‘After daybreak the Germans began to collect their wounded, the stretcher-bearers coming out with Cross

flags. Our own wounded were sent back at the same time. Before long, however, the Germans who had

retired were seen to be digging in behind their stretcher-bearers, about a hundred yards or so away.*’

* They also brought up a MG and enfiladed B Coy killing young Saxby. Afterwards I went up with Sergt Eric

Saxby, his brother, and carried the young chap back.

Page 241

‘Particularly prominent in the defence was the N.C.O. in charge of the extreme right post, Lance-Cpl A.

Hudson,* of the bombers who, in the face of the determined pressure of this heavy onset, had been forced to

give ground temporarily.’

‘Kaffir’ Hudson*, brother of ‘Justy’. Cow cockies.

Page 245: Second Bullecourt

‘Throughout the operations the battalion had despatched many carrying parties to the rear to bring up large

supplies of ammunition, bombs and rifle grenades. Sometimes less than 50 per cent of these parties

succeeded in returning through the German fire, that of the light and heavy trench mortars and the machine

guns being particularly troublesome.*’

* I stayed on with Sigs of 2nd

Bn, kitted telephone strapped to my chest, firing at flame throwers. Last man of

3 Bn to leave. Was in charge of a post. All Sigs C Coy KIA so was sent there. 30 secs after I left all the post

were KIA. The 1st Brigade was now not fit for action. All 1

st Div had many ‘huge’ boils and scabies.

Page 246: Second Bullecourt

‘Casualties: Captain J.G. Tyson, killed; Lieut R.R. Morgan, died of wounds; Lieut A.G. Cormack, wounded;

Second Lieut M. McL. Keshan, wounded. Other ranks, 56 killed, 245 wounded, 8 missing. (The Bn went

into Bullecourt with a strength of 17 officers and 543 other ranks.*)’

DIGGER 37 Issue 38

* Cpl S. (Maggie) McGee awarded the MM. KIA Aug 1918 Passchendaele. We were up against the Lehr

(Instructors) Bn of the Wurtemburgers, the ‘Cockchafer’ Regt and the 4th Grenadier Guards. All fresh

troops, 6 foot two, 200 lbs and then we licked ’em, lousy boils and all.

Page 247: The Third Battle of Ypres

‘The 3rd

Bn had suffered to such an extent in the Bullecourt fighting that in two companies immediately

afterwards only a bare 30 men had answered the roll call.* These gaps were to some extent made good by the

return of “old hands” from schools and from the base depot.’

* The lead swingers were cleaned out of London. Arrived with officer’s caps, tunics, ‘Fox’ puttees etc. Some

had been there since ANZAC.

Page 249: Ypres

‘On July 12th the units of the first Brigade lined the Albert-Amiens road while King George went by. A staff

officer* appearing on the scene selected Private Jack Dean – the wit of the unit – as a likely man to

question.’

When Brig. Leslie* asked Private Jack Dean if he had any other brothers like him, Jack said ‘Yes, two, a bit

taller but not so well built’. A miner from Cessnock.

Page 251

‘The move eastwards of the battalion began on August 9th, when it marched some 12 miles to Grand Sec

Bois.* Curiously enough, this march through the Hazebrouck area coincided with a heavy bombardment of

the railway junction by German long range guns, and many civilians seeking a temporary refuge in the fields

passed the marching troops.’

* This is where I billeted two companies in Grand Marquette Farm. It was lousy with fowl lice and supposed

to be kept empty for troops.

Page 252

‘Instead of garrisoning the front line continuously in strength, the Germans, since the advent of Ludendorff

on the Western Front, now held the forward area by means of scattered posts, with machine gun nests (many

of them in concrete blockhouses known as *“pillboxes”).’

Haig once said that,* ‘As a useful article of warfare its success was greatly exaggerated’. The idiot. He had

never seen one or attacked a nest of them. … They were the Muskatoon Bn and highly skilled and brave men.

Page 254

‘Snipers and machine guns also caused endless trouble. Second Lieut P. I. H. Owen,* son of our beloved old

colonel, was this day killed by a burst from one of these guns.’

* First time in the line.

Page 256

‘The move forward again commenced on the 30th, after a church parade in the morning*.’

* Padre Wilson, now a major with 3rd

Division, said just to help us: ‘Some of you here today won’t be here

next week. So say your prayers and stop swearing etc.’

Page 257

‘Enemy aircraft, very active throughout this offensive, now bombed the column, inflicting numerous

casualties* on the 1st Light Trench Mortar Battery, which happened to be marching in rear of the battalion.’

* I was in advance with Lieut McDonald, resting at the 55th Bty HQ. We were there when the Bty was

‘obliterated’ by 5.9s. Only one of the LTM Bty survived and he reported to our Adj with one broken mortar.

Page 260

‘Among the killed was *Major P. I. Howell-Price, D.S.O., M.C., brother to our late C.O.’

* Just a yard behind me around a traverse. The explosion deafened me for 2 hours. Blew me over.

Page 262: Broodseinde Ridge, 4.10.17

‘Battalion headquarters was established in *one of the row of pill-boxes where the bomb fight had occurred.’

* The Fritz MG men came out with Red Cross brassards on their arms. They were promptly ‘despatched’.

Page 263: Broodseinde Ridge, 5.10.17

‘But, after a slight delay, the relief was completed by 10.30 pm., our companies then moving back to the

positions on Anzac Ridge* that we had occupied on October 3rd

.’

* This is where Bluey Ryan and I carried down two badly wounded Tommies. I had one on my back and one

on the stretcher.

Page 264

‘That night the battalion moved back a further stage by bus to the Wippenhoek* area.’

Fritz bombed us. It was an artillery park*. In an estaminet, Madame et Filles dived into the cellar leaving us

to help ourselves.

DIGGER 38 Issue 38

Page 265

‘The roads and railways were continually under the observation of German aircraft, and it was only by

destroying them* and preventing their reconstruction that the enemy could obtain any relief from the British

shell-fire which harassed him day and night.’

* Fritz now using ‘crash fire’. Every gun say for 5 mins then another, then another 20 at anytime. A

psychology stunt, you never knew when he would start again. With everything else in war, we got used to it –

if we lived long enough.

Page 267

‘It was, writes Sergeant A.E. Bray, of A Company, a quagmire within a quagmire*. It was a wonder to us

that human beings had ever been able to walk across such ground, let alone fight across it successfully.’

* It is on record that a staff officer from G.H.Q. actually came up and said, ‘By gad, how do you chaps

manage to fight he-ar. One cannot even walk on it.’ I suppose that he got out. He was left up to his waist in a

shell hole. No doubt for that he got a D.S.O. on returning to G.H.Q.

Page 271: The winter of 1917-1918

‘A happy Christmas season was spent in Ramilles camp* with ‘beaucoup biere’ and other comforts, supplied

mostly from the battalion canteen.’

* Lamp post corner. No corner. No bloody lamp post but the sign ‘1 200 miles to Griffith Bros’.

Page 277: The defence of Hazebrouck

‘The blow fell on March 21st against the Third and Fifth British Armies.’

Fritz had an extra 40+ Divs from the Russian front.

Page 279: Strazeele

‘The first to give way was the Portuguese Division*. Many of the British divisions engaged had already been

worn out in the fighting on the Somme the previous month.’

* The ‘Pork and Beans’ didn’t even offer a fight. In fact, Fritz just ignored them. But the result was that the

line fell apart. As luck would have it they were to be relieved that night.

Page 281

‘They’re coming. So it was almost instantly decided to defend Strazeele, a vital spot on the main road to

Hazebrouck*.’

* We were told to hold Hazebrouck, the key junction to Boulogne and Calais. If Hazebrouck went – fini la

guerre.

Page 281

‘Strazeele was deserted … an old man advised the Australians to go into the houses and help themselves to

whatever they needed. One Digger* came out of a prosperous looking home dressed in corsets, a canary

coloured waistcoat and a frock coat. From somewhere he commandeered a perambulator which was loaded

to capacity with bottled Bock.’

* A 2nd Bn man. He also had 2 pairs of corsets. One at the back and one at the front. It was the C.O.

(Moore) who told me to sober him up. I took him into a farm. When I got back the pram was empty. C.O.,

Adj., RSM had the doings but I asked for and got a bottle.

Page 289

‘A party, estimated at 150 attacked B Company on the left, but was annihilated by a withering fire* from

rifles and Lewis guns.’

* Bluey Tipper: ‘You count the bastards and I’ll stack ’em’, KIA.

Page 289

‘Private G.A.E. Gilbert,* a mere boy but already holder of the Military Medal and Bar, put up an outstanding

performance.’

* KIA, 1918.

Page 292

‘Baillieul,* in the meantime, had been very heavily shelled and bombed and eventually captured.’

* Baillieul, the lace town up on the hill, made a great sight on fire.

Page 298: The advance to victory

‘While in the captured post, Lieut Loveday* received severe abdominal wounds.’

* A great soldier.

Page 298

‘An American officer and two sergeants strolled into the line. After greeting Loveday in the usual breezy

Doughboy style, and shedding their equipment, Loveday out of the corner of his eye saw the American’s

equipment* disappear around the bay of the trench – and reappear.’

* Quite true. I got a few good articles from them.

DIGGER 39 Issue 38

Page 313

‘The most interesting capture at Rosieres, however was the giant 11.3 inch ‘railway’ gun*.’

* Was at Central railway station for many years.

Page 313

‘The German artillery* was aggressive during this period, but most of the shells fell harmlessly in

unoccupied areas.’

* Hit on the head by a dud bomb, I was carried to advanced dressing stn with concussion. I ‘came around’

as the Red Cross train was ready to move. The head sister saw me on the stretcher and said, ‘What’s the

Aussie doing here? Never mind, shove him on the puff puff and clear the decks. OK, take it away.’ I woke up

in Havre.

Fini la guerre.

I was lousy with scabies.

Page 328: Hargicourt

First Div now ‘finished’.

Len wrote a final ‘Marginal Truth’ on the last page of the

penultimate chapter [right]. Len, I think, has spoken for so

many Diggers who had not lived to tell their truths as they saw

it, and those who survived probably wanted to bury their

memories along with their mates. These unwritten memories are

now gone, which makes Len’s words so rare, powerful and

heartfelt. They speak for so many:

I shared a task with men of every type and every social station, and was admitted to a fellowship so

rare, as almost to justify the beastliness that made it possible.

There is at least this to be said for war. You live simply, if at all, and you do so in the company of

men at their best, spurred to a passionate unselfishness by a common purpose, which at other times,

is lacking.

The tragedy of war is that the sense of fellowship it engenders seems unable to survive the coming of

peace.

It is an arresting paradox, that, mutual service, the seed of that all embracing sympathy which would

make war impossible, appears to flourish best in a blood soaked soil.

__________________________________________________________________________

More plaques added to Bullecourt’s La Petite Croix Roadside Memorial to the Missing

Yves Fohlen, Quessy

Yves has sent some photos to share with members of the latest additions to the Memorial for the Missing

located between Bullecourt and Riencourt. As you can see, the new stone to the right of the cross is being

filled with plaques from families honouring the death of an ancestor, lost on the Bullecourt battlefield in

April or May of 1917. The added plaques are in memory of: Pte 908 David Lohman (24th Bn); Pte Arthur

Copeman (46th Bn); L/Cpl William Madden (22

nd Bn); Pte 6346 George Sweeney (15

th Bn); Cpl Bert

Smythe (3rd

Bn) and Pte 2995B Harry Wilkinson (20th Bn). The last two soldiers have ancestral links to

FFFAIF members: Margaret and Stephen Clarke and Jaqueline Kennedy; and Geoff Lewis, respectively.

DIGGER 40 Issue 38

Sapper 4868 James Edward Devine 4th & 1st Australian Tunnelling Companies

Daryl Barker, Wasleys

Whilst watching the recent television mini-series ‘Underbelly Razor’, I

noticed that one of the main characters portrayed in the series, ‘Jim

Devine’, was an ex-soldier of the AIF. I thought I would see what sort

of soldier James Devine was and why he may have taken the path of a

career criminal in the 1920s and 30s. In speaking to my friend, Trevor

Munro in Dubbo, he also quoted an interest in Jim, because Devine had

in fact served as a military policeman for several months while in

England. Reading Devine’s service file it was quite clear that he was not

cut out for the military as he was constantly absent without leave

(AWL). The following is a chronicle history of James service in the

AIF. [Right: A mugshot of Jim Devine from 1923.]

James Edward (‘Jim’) Devine was born in Brunswick,

Victoria, around 1893. On 16th February 1916, Jim and his brother

Frank enlisted in the AIF at Brisbane. Both brothers listed their

occupations as shearers and stated that their mother, Mrs Theresa Devine, resided at Lamrock Ave, Bondi,

NSW. Both Jim and Frank were allocated to the 1st Reinforcements of the 4

th Australian Tunnelling

Company on 22nd

May. On the unit embarkation list, Jim’s address was recorded as Fitzgerald Street, North

Perth, WA, and his brother’s address was that of his mother in Bondi, NSW.

From 1st April 1916 until 9

th May 1916, Jim was appointed acting corporal before reverting back to

sapper on 10th May. The 4

th Australian Tunnelling Company embarked from Sydney aboard HMAT Warilda.

Jim arrived at Plymouth, England, on 18th July 1916 and, following their disembarkation, the 4

th Tunnelling

Company proceeded to No. 4 Camp at Perham Downs.

Whilst at Perham Downs, Devine was charged with being AWL 4th-5

th August 1916. He was

awarded 168 hours detention and forfeited nine days pay. On 29th August 1916, the 4

th, 5

th and 6

th Tunnelling

Companies proceeded to France via Plymouth. The tunnelling companies disembarked at Etaples the

following day, when the 4th Tunnelling Company marched in to the 2

nd ADBD. The 4

th Tunnelling Company

was later assigned to the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company and Frank was taken on strength of the 1

st ATC

on 30th September 1916.

Jim Devine had only been with the Tunnelling Company for less than two months when he was

admitted to hospital sick (illness not recorded) on 27th November 1916. On 5

th December 1916, Jim was

admitted to the 2nd

Canadian CCS, and then on 7th December 1916 he was transferred to No. 4 Ambulance

Train. Later that day he was admitted to the 8th Stationary Hospital. On 14

th December 1916, whilst at the 3

rd

Rest Camp, Jim was transferred to the AGBD at Etaples, and marched in to the French depot the following

day.

After a little less than two months, on 13th February 1917, Jim was transferred to England for

‘Permanent Base Duties’. When Devine returned to England he reported to No. 2 Command Depot (CD) at

Weymouth. Jim was admitted on 17th February 1917 to the isolation hospital suffering from VD, and then on

19th February 1917 he was admitted to the Verme Hospital. Jim was discharged from the hospital and

returned to No. 2 CD at Weymouth on 24th February 1917.

Whilst at Weymouth, Devine was charged on 26th June 1917 with the offence: ‘London, 7

th June

1917 – Absent from 3pm, 7th June 1917, until apprehended by Garrison Police at 9.30 pm, 20

th June 1917’.

Jim was awarded seven days confined to barracks and forfeited 14 days pay. On 9th July 1917, Jim was

transferred to the No. 1 CD at Perham Downs.

On 12th August 1917, James Devine married sixteen year old Matilda (‘Tilly’) Twiss at the Sacred

Heart Church, Camberwell, England. (Matilda was a working prostitute who was later to become an

infamous brothel owner in Darlinghurst, Sydney.) Jim was admitted to the 1st ADH at Bulford suffering from

VD on 22nd

August 1917. On 6th September 1917, Jim is recorded as having escaped from the hospital.

Devine was readmitted to the 1st ADH on 7th September 1917. He was discharged from hospital on 21

st

September 1917 and marched in to the No. 1 CD at Perham Downs on 24th September 1917.

Upon reporting to Perham Downs, Jim was charged with the following offences at Bulford: (1)

AWL from midnight, 5th September 1917 till 4pm, 7

th September 1917; (2) AWL from noon, 18

th August

1917 till 4pm, 21st August 1917. Jim was awarded three days field punishment No. 2, and with 17 days in

custody awaiting trial, he forfeited 28 days pay (partly concurrent with his VD forfeiture). The next entry in

DIGGER 41 Issue 38

Jim’s service record is rather surprising due to his periods of AWL and VD – he was transferred to the Anzac

Provost Corps at Tidworth on 26th September 1917.

From the 2nd

to 15th January 1918, Jim was attached to the Australian Provost Corp (its new title as at

1st January) in London. On 11

th February 1918, Jim was charged by the Australian Provost Corp in London

with the offence: ‘London, 7th February 1918, AWL from 9.30am 7

th February 1918 until apprehended at

5pm on 9th February 1918’. James was awarded 168 hours detention and, including the two days awaiting

trial, a total forfeiture of 12 days pay.

On 16th February 1918, Jim was again admitted to the 1

st ADH, Bulford, suffering from VD. The

same day that he was admitted to hospital, Jim was transferred from the Australian Provost Corp back to the

1st Australian Tunnelling Company. After 47 days in hospital suffering from VD, James was discharged from

hospital on 3rd

April 1918. However, he was readmitted to the 1st ADH the same day – reason ‘not yet

diagnosed’.

Whilst at Bulford, Devine was again charged with being AWL, from 2400 hours, 10th April 1918 till

1200 hours, 11th April 1918. He was awarded a forfeiture of 1 days pay. It is not recorded when Jim was

discharged from hospital, though he is recorded as marching in to No. 2 CD at Parkhouse on 17th April 1918.

On 7th May 1918, Jim was charged with the offence: ‘Absent from Convalescent Training Depot, 1.30 pm

Muster parade without leave, 6th May 1918’. He was awarded three days FP No 2.

On 9th May 1918, Devine was reported as being AWL from the Convalescent Training Depot,

Parkhouse. A court of inquiry held at Parkhouse on 3rd

June 1919 declared James as an ‘illegal absentee’. On

5th August 1918, Jim was apprehended in London. A district court martial was held at Parkhouse on 20

th

August 1918, where Devine was charged with being ‘AWL from Parkhouse, 9th May 1918 till apprehended

at London, 5th August 1918’. James pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to 120 days detention,

including the periods 9th-27

th August 1918 and 20

th-27

th August 1918 when Jim was held under charge. He

forfeited a total of 220 days pay. Devine was admitted to the Lewes Detention Barracks on 28th August 1918.

Devine was discharged from the detention barracks on 11th November 1918 and marched in to the

Overseas Training Brigade at Longbridge-Deverill the next day. (It is recorded by the OTB that James was

AWL on 11th November 1918.) The following day Devine was again reported as being AWL. A court of

inquiry held at the OTB on 5th December declared Jim as being still absent.

On 11th July 1919, Jim Devine was apprehended in London. He faced a district court martial held at

Sutton Veny on 4th August 1919, when he was charged with being ‘AWL, in that he at Longbridge-Deverill

at 0900 o’clock on the 13th day of November 1918 absented himself without leave from O/S Tng Bde until

he surrendered himself into custody at London at 2200 o’clock on the 11th day of July 1919’. James was

found guilty of the charge and was sentenced to nine months detention (the period under charge from 23rd

July-4th August 1919 forfeiture concurrent).

Jim was admitted to the Lewes Detention Barracks on 30th August 1919. However, he was to spend

only a little over a week in detention, as on 8th September 1919 Jim was granted a ‘remission of sentence’

when he embarked aboard the Transport Ship Rananga for return to Australia. Whilst aboard the Rananga,

James was charged with being ‘AWL from 2200 hours 3rd

October 1919 to 2359 hours 6th October 1919’,

and was awarded a forfeiture of 10 days pay (total forfeiture 14 days pay). The Rananga arrived in Sydney

on 29th October 1919. After disembarking, James returned to Queensland where he was discharged from the

AIF on 30th November 1919.

Jim was waiting at Circular Quay, Sydney, when ‘Tilly’ arrived aboard the ‘Bride Ship’ Waimana on

13th January 1920. Upon Tilly’s arrival in Sydney, she recommenced her career in prostitution before

proceeding to becoming a prominent leader as an owner of numerous brothels, illegal drug distribution and

crime gangs (predominately during the ‘Razor Gangs’ period).

Jim acted as a stand-over man and engaged in other criminal

activities. He was imprisoned several times in the 1920s and

30s, as well as being charged for three murders. He was found

not guilty each time and acquitted.

Their marriage was marred by alcohol and violence,

and the couple separated in 1940 and were divorced in early

1944. Tilly remained in Sydney where she continued to run her

brothels. Jim eventually moved back to Melbourne where he

worked as a warehouse storeman. James Devine is thought to

have passed away in the 1960s.

[Left: Jim and Tilly Devine.]

DIGGER 42 Issue 38

‘A day in a driver’s life: Ypres – 17th October 1917’ Driver HO Bastian, 9

th FCE; contributed by Graeme Hosken.

Quite a number of AIF soldiers served with the private-equivalent rank of ‘driver’ in WWI. Often men from

the countryside who were experienced with horses, drivers played an important role in getting equipment

and supplies to the men at the front, especially in the artillery and field engineer units. The following article

was written by Driver 9820 Harold Ormonde Bastian of the 9th Field Company Engineers, as part of an

essay writing competition in connection with Divisional War Records.

Midnight! The picquet awoke us to prepare for the road. Our luck was out, for it was raining and the night

black. Stumbling in and out of shell holes half full of water, we made our way to the horses, harnessed up,

and then hooked into wagons, previously loaded with Engineer materials.

All ready, the column moved into

position in the seemingly endless traffic

stream moving forward. Passing the Cloth

Hall and Cathedral ruins, looming weirdly in

the darkness, we reached the cemetery and

were blocked, just as Fritz commenced

shelling a fifteen inch gun a hundred yards

on our right. The minutes were anxious, for

we must keep our positions and take our

chance, so with feelings of relief eventually

we proceeded on our way. [Left: A view of

the ruins of the Cloth Hall at Ypres, showing

transport in the foreground, moving up with

supplies to the troops in the forward area.

Australian War Memorial Negative Number

E01179.]

Leaving the cobbles we ploughed

into the mud of Menin Road. At the Lagoon there was an hour’s delay in the cold and rain, whilst ahead of

us tractors were drawing out heavy guns. Onward again, past Bavaria Dump, we topped the ridge, and Fritz

was shelling. Suddenly on the road, thirty yards ahead, there was a blinding flash and deafening report, as the

shell burst. The horses reared, but “steady good horses, all safe”, and forward through the smoke we dashed

past the danger spot. Down by the advanced dump we could see shells bursting, but “C’est la guerre”, the job

must be done, and arriving at our destination, unloading was expeditious. Heads then for home, and as each

yard took us out of danger, so nerves relaxed their tension.

The break of dawn showed how desolate was

this shell-torn ground, littered with disabled tanks,

broken wagons, overturned guns, dead animals, and all

the horrors of a modern battlefield. There were lines and

lines of artillery, and as we drew abreast, the guns

opened a morning salutation to the enemy with the

gunners glorifying in their task. The scene truly was [an]

inferno. [Right: An Australian transport wagon passing

along the Menin Road near Taylor’s Dump in the Ypres

sector, shortly after the spot had been shelled by the

enemy. Note the dead horse and discarded wagon on the

left. Australian War Memorial Negative Number

E01082.] Back then to our camp where our horses,

comrades in work and danger, were fed and watered, and men breakfasted. We slept till dinner time and then

there was feed and water again for the horses and dinner for ourselves, after which we groomed up and

overhauled harness, making ready for next morning’s trip. Feed and water once more and tea. Finally we

turned in, hoping Fritz would not be over bombing to disturb our slumbers till midnight.

Source: Unit War Diary for the 9th FCE, AWM 4, Item No. 14/28/19 (January 1919), available on the AWM

website.

DIGGER 43 Issue 38

Private 4068 Ernest Harold Robson, 12th Battalion Yves Fohlen, Quessy, France

On 29th July 1915 in Melbourne, English-born Ernest

Harold Robson enlisted in the AIF. He stated he was a

farmer by trade and was aged 30 years and 7 months. For

a few weeks Harold was attached to the 5th Battery

Artillery and was then transferred to the 12th Infantry

Battalion’s 12th Reinforcements. [Right: Studio portrait

of Harold Robson. Australian War Memorial Negative

Number DA12413.]

Here is a letter Private Robson wrote to his sister,

Miss HG (‘Gertie’) Beaumont, and a brother, of 65

Coltman Street, Hull, England. [Changes have been made

to improve punctuation – Ed.] Dear Sister & Brother

Just a line to see if you are still in the land of the

living or not. It is a long time since I heard from you.

Things are looking very bad out here through the war. I

suppose there is no work at all going on at home.

You will be a bit surprised to know I have left

Leongatha after two years and two months. Well, it was

this way. Mr Martin is very old, nearly eighty, and he is

giving the dairy business up and so there was nothing for

me to stop for. I left on the 30th of August.

Well now, this is the greatest surprise you ever

had in your life. I came down to Melbourne to see if there was any work going on and everything was at a

standstill, so what was I to do? Instead of walking about here long, I went last Friday to the Victorian

Barracks and joined the Australian Expeditionary Force for the Front. I am in the 5th Batt. Artillery. We are

now in camp at Broadmeadows, about ten miles out of Melbourne. I don’t know how long we shall be in

camp, but not long I think, as we are to go to Aldershot for a few weeks training before going to the Front.

We are getting five shillings a day in camp and as soon as we get on the boat to sail for England we

get six shillings a day, so that is better than being in the country. The officers in charge were making

arrangements yesterday about our pay after we leave here and I asked them to bank all mine, except a

couple of weeks every quarter I shall want a little in my pocket, and if anything should happen to me you will

be alright. I have had papers and one thing or another to sign stating the nearest relative and full address

and everything, so I think everything is in order.

It is a grand life I can tell you. We are busy training all the day then we have concerts at night in the

big marquee, plenty to eat and everything. Now Gertie, I don’t want you to trouble yourself about me as I

shall be alright; I dare say the luck to go through the war in safety. I shall be able to come and have a look

at you before embarking for Australia again so keep good heart.

It will be no use answering this letter as we shall be well on our way to England by the time you

receive this one. They are busy getting ships fitted up for the troops now. There are twenty thousand from

Australia; we have seven thousand at Broadmeadows Camp. We sleep eight in a camp [tent] so you can tell

there are plenty of camps [tents] about.

It was a good thing I had my teeth seen to last summer or I should not have got in the force. I had to

get all double teeth on the bottom row; it cost me ten pounds. They are very dear out here.

I don’t think I have any more to say this time. I don’t know where I shall be when I write again, so

please remember me to all friends. So now trusting you are all well and wishing you all good-bye,

I remain your affectionate brother,

Harold.

After leaving Australia on 4th April 1916, Harold disembarked at Marseilles in France and was taken on

strength of the 12th Battalion on 17

th May 1916. From 18

th May till the last week of June, Harold and his

comrades held some positions, or were in support, in the Fleurbaix sector. Then, after a short spell, the 12th

Battalion reached the Somme sector. In the night of the 22nd

/23rd

July 1916, Harold took part in the assault

against Pozieres and was listed as missing.

DIGGER 44 Issue 38

A statement in the Red Cross Files made by 2609 Private Leslie Hassen, ‘D’ Company, 12th

Battalion, whilst a convalescent in No. 1 ADBD, Etaples, on 25th August 1916 reads:

Lister, Love and I volunteered for stretcher work at Pozieres on July 25th. We found Robson badly wounded

and started to bring him in. Love and I carried the stretcher and Lister was third man. As we went on we got

lost, MG bullets and shells were flying in all directions. We found ourselves about 15yds from the German

trenches. Lister got wounded in the leg and made straight for the German trenches. He limped along with his

hand on his leg. We saw him get right up toward the parapet. No doubt he was taken prisoner. The fire got

worse and we had to place Robson in a shell hole and abandon the stretcher. We had to leave him there. His

wounds were very bad, he was mutilated all up one side. He could not live. Love and I lay in a shell hole

nearby for several hours. At 11.15am we made a bolt for it. We had got about 10yds when Love went down

under MG fire. He fell, apparently dead. I crawled into another shell hole and stayed there until midday,

when I made another run for it and got in safely. I have not heard anything further about any of the men, but

feel sure Love and Robson are both dead, and that Lister either killed or a prisoner.

According to some documents, Robson was initially buried in the Sunken Road Cemetery, southeast of

Pozieres, and 3½ miles east north east of Albert. But 20 years after his death the following letter was written:

19 February, 1936.

Sir,

I am directed by the Imperial War Graves Commission to inform you that it has recently been

possible to trace the grave of 4068 Private E. H. Robson of the 12th Battalion A.I.F. who was believed to be

buried in Pozieres British Cemetery and whose name appears on a special memorial there bearing an

inscription to that effect.

The grave of an unknown soldier was found at a point north-east of Pozieres and, in order that the

grave might be properly maintained in the future, the remains were carefully exhumed and reverently

reburied in Grave 12, Row B, Plot 1 of London Cemetery Extension,

High Wood, Longueval. When this was done Private Robson’s two

identity discs were found and from these, and from an examination of

the Commission’s records, it is established that this is his grave. In

addition a silver watch and small medal were found.

I am to ask you kindly to inform the relatives of the discovery of

his grave, and to notify them that a headstone will be erected upon it in

due course and that the special memorial will be removed from

Pozieres British Cemetery. The two discs, by which the remains were

identified, the watch and medal are being sent to the Officer-in-Charge,

Base Records, Melbourne, where the next-of kin can claim them.

On a cold wet autumn Sunday, I went to London Cemetery Extension

near High Wood. I easily found the grave of Harold’s final resting

place. There is no epitaph on his headstone. I took the photo attached

and decided to write this article for the Families and Friends of the First

AIF following Harold’s wish to please remember me to all friends.

Endnotes: (1) Private 2638 Thomas Arthur Lister, 12th Battalion, was KIA, 23

rd/26

th July 1916. Aged 21,

he was the son of Arthur Henry and Ada Lister, of 325 Kingston Road, Raynes Park, Surrey, England. (2)

Private 1768 Herbert Walter Love returned to Australia 27th July 1917. (3) Private 2609 Leslie Richard

Hassen returned to Australia 27th September 1917. He was awarded the Military Medal for conspicuous

gallantry and devotion to duty under fire. At Ligny on 26/27th February 1917 Private Hassen [and Private

1872 George William Taylor] were company messengers and repeatedly ran with messages over very

difficult ground from the front line to company headquarters at Wheat Trench, a distance of 800 yards under

heavy fire from machine guns, snipers and artillery. Private Hassen previously mentioned on 1/8/16 for good

work at Pozieres.

LOST – A Digger’s resolve to keep on the ‘square’. Apply ‘sore and sorry Aussie’, Grand Place de la Boob,

Paris.

LOST – Tired feeling and a desire to grouse. – Original Anzacs on the way to Aussie.

‘The Field Newspaper of the 24th Battalion’. Contributed by Margaret Clarke, Cardiff.

DIGGER 45 Issue 38

Who really did find the Shellal Mosaic? Trevor Munro, Dubbo, with thanks to Bruce McEwan.

Credit for the discovery of the Shellal Mosaic (which is on permanent display at the Australian War

Memorial) is currently recorded by the AWM as having been made by signallers from the 5th Light Horse

Regiment’s signal section, namely Corporal Lovell-Shore and other members of his section on 17th April

1917. However, I vaguely remembered (not so many years ago) reading the caption on the Mosaic at the War

Memorial giving acknowledgement for the discovery to a Captain Jordan of the Military Mounted Police

(MMP).

A recent article in the ‘Gallipoli Gazette’ re-sparked my interest in the Mosaic. The article, by Bruce

McEwan, laid claim for the discovery of the Mosaic to Sergeant Wallace McEwan (Bruce’s father). After

communicating with Bruce I asked him if I could use his article as the basis of my own story, as I have a

keen interest in Australian military police from the Great War, as well as a general curiosity about the

Mosaic.

My initial draft to Bruce received a polite but lukewarm reception, so I decided to do some deeper

research. I began by purchasing a copy of the 1973 version of the Australian War Memorial publication,

‘The Shellal Mosaic’. The section at the start of the booklet dealing with the discovery of the Mosaic simply

stated that: The Shellal Mosaic was discovered on the 17th of April, 1917, during the second battle of Gaza.

The footnotes on that page were more detailed, and noted:

Various opinions have been expressed as to the identity of the actual discoverer of the Shellal Mosaic. Ivo

Holmes in his article in the ‘Anzac Day Commemorative Booklet’ (Brisbane, 1936) gives credit for the

discovery to Sergeant W.O. McEwan of the 6th Light Horse Regiment and Captain A.F. Jordan (cp. also A.

Rowe’s article in ‘Life’, 1st September, 1919, p. 197). However, the true discoverer would appear to be

Corporal (later Sergeant) E.E. Lovell-Shore, who was in charge of the party of signallers, and whose claims

are supported by Brigadier General L.C. Wilson (who commanded the 5th Light Horse Regiment at the time)

and other authorities.

I endeavoured to clarify the original discoverer by looking at some of the primary source material held by the

Research Centre at the Australian War Memorial. Requesting files AWM 16 4386/1/6 and AWM 38 3DRL

6673/729, I was thrilled to be handling much of the early correspondence in relation to the finding of the

Mosaic. However, little of it dealt with the initial discovery. What I did find were lots of memos and letters

justifying the move by Australian forces to have the Mosaic removed back to Australia. What I also saw was

an equal claim by New Zealand to possession, in what was supposed to be a joint ownership of the Mosaic.

A catalogue from Melbourne, where the Mosaic was initially held, simply stated: The Shellal Mosaic

was discovered on April 23rd

1917 by an officer of the Australian Light Horse – not even ‘17th April’, as is

agreed by both the signallers and Sergeant McEwan. Presumably, the officer this caption referred to was

Captain Jordan. So incensed was Wallace McEwan when credit for the discovery was changed to

acknowledge Lovell-Shore, that he and several men of his troop submitted signed affidavits to the Australian

War Memorial. Given more time I would have loved to have located those statements.

The actual unearthing of the ancient convent’s floor in early 1917 was made by Turkish troops, who,

when digging a trench, were impeded by the floor of the convent. They damaged part of the Mosaic as they

attempted to dig through it. Presumably, the Turkish soldiers would have shown some interest in the intricate

Mosaic floor that they had uncovered, but nowhere near the interest that Padre Maitland Woods would later

show. His interest would ultimately lead to the Mosaic’s excavation, storage and subsequent transfer by the

AIF to Australia.

The Mosaic became a popular talking point amongst both officers and men, and the AIF in Egypt

produced a coloured publication dealing with the Mosaic and showing its image. The publication was a

popular souvenir that could be purchased for three shillings and sent home to friends and family in Australia

and New Zealand.

Apparently, McEwan always laid claim to having discovered the Mosaic and having taken an active

interest in it. McEwan claimed that on the morning of 17th

April 1917 he had been the senior NCO in charge

of his detachment of MMP (Military Mounted Police) from the Anzac Mounted Division and had ordered his

men to bivouac after the division’s night ride from Deir-el-Belah. His men did so in existing Turkish

trenches, just off the main road in the Shellal region. This is apparently when McEwan and his men found

the ruins. McEwan realised the significance of the partially uncovered floor in amongst the Turkish trenches

and brought it to the attention of his commanding officer. He also ordered his men not to further disturb the

site.

DIGGER 46 Issue 38

McEwan’s original unit was the 6th Light Horse Regiment, and he would always have a close

allegiance with his original regiment. At the time of the Mosaic discovery, McEwan was serving

permanently with the MMP. (Captain Jordan was also originally from the 6th Light Horse Regiment and, like

McEwan, had served with that regiment on Gallipoli.)

The officer originally credited with the discovery was indeed Captain Alfred Frederick Jordan,

the APM (Assistant Provost Marshal) for the Anzac Mounted Division.

McEwan’s son, Bruce, holds the wonderful photo [above], which shows his father cleaning part of

the Mosaic. If you look closely at the photo, you can see what appears to be a rifle cleaning brush lying to his

left.

After all these years it is difficult to verify McEwan’s claims to be the discoverer of the Mosaic.

Unfortunately, the war diary compiled by the APM (Captain Jordan) for the Anzac Mounted Division (which

was only commenced in April 1917), doesn’t make mention of the Mosaic’s discovery. An entry made by

Warrant Officer ICJ Holmes when he compiled a brief history of the Egyptian Section of the Australian

(previously Anzac) Provost Corps in 1919 (held by the AWM) does, however, make this comment:

On the night of April 16th operations against Gaza were resumed. The Anzac Mounted Division moved out

from Deir-el-Belah at nightfall and marched to Shellal. The Australian Mounted Division left Khan Yunus at

the same time and also marched to Shellal, taking up a position on the left of the Anzacs. Several days severe

fighting then took place, and although no prisoners were taken by the Anzac Mounted Division and very few

by the Australian Mounted Division, the Police were kept fully employed controlling traffic and acting as

guides and gallopers. Police casualties were 1 killed in the Anzac Division and 1 man wounded in the

Australian Mounted Division. It may be mentioned that it was during these operations that the famous

Mosaic pavement at Shellal was discovered and partially unearthed by Capt. AP Jordan, APM, Anzac Mtd.

Division and two of his NCOs …

On April 24th Capt. AP Jordan relinquished the post of APM Anzac Mtd. Division, and proceeded to Cairo.

No. 299 Sergeant WO McEwan took charge of the Divisional Police until Lieut. Watts assumed duties of

APM on May 4th. Captain Jordan returned to the division for a fortnight during July while Lieut. Watts went

to Cairo on leave.

DIGGER 47 Issue 38

McEwan’s claim about being the discoverer of the Mosaic is more than credible. As senior NCO in charge of

the MMP for the Anzac Mounted Division, he probably would have been with the Divisional HQ

Detachment which was generally at the head of the column. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that upon

the column’s arrival at Shellal, he and his men would have quickly taken up their positions; particularly

bearing in mind that Shellal was an important river crossing and traffic control on that crossing would have

been a MMP priority.

The Anzac Mounted Division was tasked with establishing water points at Shellal. Again, part of the

MMP tasking within the division was to regulate access to the water points and maintain discipline around

them. McEwan claimed that the signallers didn’t move into the Mosaic’s area until several days later due to

shelling of the locality. (The Australian War Memorial states that the area of the Mosaic had been used by

Turkish signallers as the feature was on high ground, making the site also attractive to the Australians sigs.)

That shelling was substantial, coming

from artillery and aeroplanes dropping bombs.

Indeed, one of the MMP, Trooper Charles

Austin, was killed by such a bomb at Shellal on

17th April (the trooper noted by Holmes in his

history). The photo at left shows Austin’s

original grave with those of four other men.

Austin’s grave is the one in the centre. He was

part of the 2nd

Light Horse Brigade’s MMP

Detachment. The photo shows Sergeant Bert

Toone (Austin’s sergeant) and another trooper paying their respects.

The Mosaic’s excavation was later championed by (then) Captain Chaplain Maitland Woods. An

amateur archaeologist during peacetime, Woods quickly set about gaining formal permission for a proper

archaeological dig. Following is a description of the Mosaic floor given by Major JH Bisdee VC, to a

newspaper back in Tasmania. Bisdee had obviously been given a tour of the Mosaic’s site by Maitland

Woods. At the time, Bisdee was back with the 12th Light Horse Regiment, but he had spent several months

with the Anzac Provost Corps towards the end of 1916. He would also command the Australian Provost

Corps Egyptian Section during 1918 and 1919. Bisdee wrote:

On the top of a small hill near the Wadi Ghuzzi near Rafa there has

been a small chapel, and the floor, about 12ft x 20ft., is most

beautiful Mosaic work, representing ‘I am the Vine, ye are the

branches’. At the base is a vase from which a vine is growing, which

winds all over the floor in scrolls, in which are symbols represented

by various animals. Just above the vase is an illuminated cross, on

each side of which are peacocks in all their glory of colour. Above

the cross are tiers of vases with fruits, on one of which are two birds

eating the fruit; in another figs, piled up with green leaves on top;

and a third vase represents beautiful glass. On each side are the

animals each in its scroll, a ram lamb, a turkey, ibis, quail, lion,

tiger, pheasant, flamingo, and others which had been spoilt and

picked out. To the top was a dog chasing a hare, and above all was

an inscription in Greek, partly broken away. This was translated for

me by Padre Maitland Woods, and reads:- ‘And he provided

generously for the Church … and the holiest of us all … And the

most beloved of God, George. Founded in year 622 after ___

(Christ)’.

Underneath this is a

fish, the head in one

place, the tail in

another. The Greek

for fish is Ixvus.

The Mosaic is put

down in half inch

cubes of white and coloured stones and the colours are most beautiful. The hill on which the chapel was built

has gradually worn away by water, and part of the floor has gone with it, but nearly all of it remained until

the Turks discovered it by starting to cut a trench through it, and spoilt a lot, but probably it would not have

DIGGER 48 Issue 38

been discovered otherwise. Padre Maitland Woods has now got permission to remove it all in sections, so as

to preserve it, but I don’t know what is to come of it eventually. It seems wonderful to discover such a gem

right here (Shellal), with nothing near it for miles. It is about two miles from Tel el Fura (Arabic, Hill of

Horses), which I described to you as the Crusaders’ stronghold, and it must have been there before the

Crusades. Speaking of Fura, I also went up and had a look over it, and found evidence of concrete cisterns,

granaries, and graves about 8ft underground. The Turks had dug a deep trench here too, and in one place

they came across quantities of parched wheat, evidently a storehouse which had been burnt down. The wheat

is quite whole, but black and scorched. In

another place we found the bones of dead

crusaders. Some of the skulls were very thick,

some were very thin. Besides building up this

immense mound, they dug a moat around it

and probably dammed the Wadi so as to get

the water in. I also found some stones, which I

am sure M would say were stone axes, if so

they must have been dug out of the moat, for of

course the crusaders were armed with much

more formidable weapons. It is all very

interesting, and we daily come across some

object of interest.

The photo above right is from about 20th

April 1917 at the Shellal Wadi Ghuzze [Australian War Memorial

Negative Number 102826]. It shows the engineers drawing water from the wadi and chlorinating it, prior to

it being sent to the various units. The AWM photo caption describes how the Mosaic was located on the hill

to the right in the background. Tel el Fura is the feature in the left background, described by Bisdee above.

The ‘M’ that Bisdee refers to is presumably Maitland Woods.

What is not so easily discovered is where all the Shellal Mosaic ended up in Australia. Apparently,

several portions of the Mosaic ended up in parishes with which Maitland Woods had a personal connection.

In Patsy Adam-Smith’s book, ‘The ANZACS’, she recorded that Maitland Woods had worked with a squad

of about thirty British Royal Engineers for nearly two weeks to prepare the entire Mosaic for removal. Most

other sources state that the engineers were, in fact, a mixture of Australian and New Zealand engineers,

rather than British. Originally, it was thought some 62 flat boxes would be needed to hold the Mosaic, but it

appears that only 51 were used. (It is interesting to note in an unknown NZ source that Maitland Woods

made reference to the Mosaic being uncovered by shell fire, with no mention of Turkish soldiers digging a

trench. A later claim was that the Mosaic had been discovered by New Zealand troops in June 1917!)

The boxes were sent back to the Anzac

Kit Store at Cairo for safe-keeping. During the

excavation, bones were also found under the

floor. Maitland Woods presumed these to be

those of Saint George (mentioned within the

inscription). It was these bones and the Greek

inscription [shown right, in its box: AWM

A02068] that Maitland Woods wanted to be

sent to St John’s Anglican Cathedral in

Brisbane, where they were to be placed under

the altar. (Others speculated that the bones may

have been of a local priest named ‘George’.)

The earlier photo of McEwan shows him

cleaning the Mosaic near the Greek inscription,

which did remain with the rest of the Shellal Mosaic and forms part of the AWM display. Another small

portion of the Mosaic was apparently promised to St James’ Anglican Church in Sydney. St Anne’s Anglican

Church, Strathfield, is reported to have three circular sections of the Shellal Mosaic. This is incorrect – the

Mosaic pieces it holds are of a similar style and antiquity but are not from Shellal.

The Mosaic discovery was well-reported back in Australia. After much correspondence and

discussion defining the term ‘war trophy’, the AIF was allowed to ship the Shellal Mosaic to Australia. The

Mosaic was transported to Australia aboard the troopship Wiltshire in October 1918, and was offloaded in

Melbourne.

DIGGER 49 Issue 38

The illustrations on the bottom of this page show two detailed plans, one drawn by Sapper FL

McFarlane and the other by Captain Briggs (both New Zealanders). They are very detailed drawings of

what was uncovered. The plan shows that the Turks had indeed dug into and damaged the Mosaic. It is also

apparent that not all pieces of the uncovered portions have ended up at the Australian War Memorial on

display.

By comparing McFarlane’s sketch (bottom left) with the photo of the AWM Mosaic (bottom right,

AWM ART40979], those parts of the Mosaic which did not end up in the AWM can be identified. The

second illustration made by the New Zealand officer, Briggs (from ‘The Burlington Magazine’) was of

similar detail. It shows the bottom right of the Mosaic as missing, indicating it was probably drawn at a

slightly later stage. What is evident from both illustrations is that as

well as the portions allocated to the churches, other small pieces

were probably removed as ‘souvenirs’.

Bruce McEwan stated that his father was incensed by what

he regarded as the poor handling of the Mosaic, and the

inappropriate removal of parts of it, rather than keeping the Mosaic

together. The temptation could have been there amongst the men

who helped with the removal of the Mosaic to ‘keep’ a few tiles.

The Mosaic would also have attracted many curious souvenir

hunters up until it was secured and removed from its site.

Wallace McEwan stated that there was a ruby that formed

the eye of one of the birds in the mural, and that this went missing

during the official excavation. If you look at the relevant portion of

the Mosaic at right you can see that the body of the bird has been

souvenired and possibly its eye removed. McFarlane’s sketch

shows the bird’s body intact, presumably at the start of the formal

excavation (although the exact dates of the sketches are not known)

but in Briggs’ sketch the bird appears as it does in the photo – its

body removed. Likewise, the right peacock’s tail has disappeared;

perhaps the birds’ plumage were the most colourful tiles and hence

attractive to souvenir-seekers.

Personal Pars – Lt. JL Noble has been seen in The Strand. Not a bad place to cool off. He writes to say that his fighting

weight is 7st 3lb, or 7.5 in his shoes. The lieutenant will need to secure a little more ballast for the football season. In a

note to the editor, he mentions Capt. Bowden, Lt. Carne MSM and Lt. Pocknell MC, and says ‘We are doing really

well’. He does not specify what they are doing, but he says he met a lady friend of the editor’s in London. The editor

has applied for immediate Blighty leave.

‘The Field Newspaper of the 24th

Battalion’

Contributed by Margaret Clarke, Cardiff.

DIGGER 50 Issue 38

3435 Private Bertie (‘Dido’) Cooper, 16th Battalion AIF Andrew Pittaway, Fremantle

Bertie Frederick Cooper was born in Fremantle, WA, in 1892 to George and Emma Cooper. The family

lived in South Street, Fremantle. He had two brothers, George and Harry, and of his sisters: Olive was born

in 1890; Daisy in 1895 and Muriel in 1898. Bertie was educated at Fremantle Boys School and after leaving

school took up work as a woolclasser. Bertie was a great sportsman and excelled in Australian Rules

Football, going on to captain the South Fremantle Football Club in the Western Australian Football League.

During his playing days he was given the nickname of ‘Dido’.

Bertie enlisted in the AIF on 29th July 1915 and the medical officer found him to be 5 feet 8 inches in

height, weight of 154 lbs, chest measurement of 35-37 inches, fair complexion, brown eyes and brown hair.

His religious denomination was Church of England. Bertie was sent to No. 21 Depot Company where he

stayed until 23rd

August 1915 when he was transferred to the 1st Depot Battalion. On 27

th September 1915,

Bertie was allotted to the 11th Reinforcements to the 16

th Battalion AIF.

This group trained in WA through October 1915 and on 1st November 1915 boarded the transport

ship, HMAT Benalla, in Fremantle Harbour for the journey overseas. They disembarked at Suez on 24th

November 1915 and were marched into the reinforcement training camp. Bertie and his group no doubt

expected to be sent on to Gallipoli, but due to the evacuation of that battlefield by the Allies, his

reinforcement group was kept in Egypt. It wasn’t until 7th March 1916 that Bertie finally joined the 16

th

Battalion at Tel-el-Kebir camp.

The 16th Battalion spent the next few months training in the Egyptian desert and on 1

st June 1916 it

embarked from Alexandria for France. Arriving at Marseilles on 9th June 1916, the battalion were sent north

to the region of Armentieres, where they would gain their first experience of trench life on the Western

Front.

They would only stay here a few weeks before they were sent south in July 1916 to join in the Battle

of the Somme. The 1st and 2

nd Australian Divisions had captured Pozieres and had advanced the line towards

Mouquet Farm. The 4th Division came in and relieved the 2

nd Division and continued to push the line

forward. Bertie suffered severe shell shock at Pozieres and was evacuated to hospital, but returned to the

battalion by 15th August. After a week in the line the 16

th Battalion were relieved.

In late August the 16th Battalion returned to the front line and attempted to capture the German

strongpoint of Mouquet Farm. The assault initially gained ground but the Germans swarmed at the

Australians through their defence system built beneath the farm and ultimately the attack failed. Bertie was

listed as missing, though this was soon changed to ‘Killed in Action’.

In March 1917 it appears that Bertie’s body was found, as reports came from the British 25th

Division that their grave registration unit had buried Bertie near Mouquet Farm. His burial was witnessed by

a Reverend L Dickenson. However, after the war was over his grave was not located and Bertie is therefore

commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.

‘The Western Mail’ had a section in their sports pages where it was stated that The casualty lists of

the past week convey the sad news that Bert Kneale*, the young West Perth forward, had been killed in

action, and that ‘Dido’ Cooper, the South Fremantle back man and captain is missing. Cooper was a grand

type of footballer and it is to be hoped that it may turn out that he is a prisoner of war.

Unfortunately it was not to be and Cooper was one of many WAFL footballers to pay the ultimate

price.

Endnote: * Corporal 3381 Bertram Hugh Kneale, 4th

Pioneer Battalion, KIA 1st September 1916. He is also

commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.

[Right: South Fremantle Footballers who enlisted in the AIF.

Bertie (‘Dido’) Cooper holding football front row. Others in

the photo include, back row, L to R: 3424 Pte William

Carter 16th

Bn; 3569 Pte Charles (‘Tich’) Wetherall, 4th

Pioneer Bn & 9th

FCE; 3437 Pte Maurice Corkhill, 16th

Bn;

3521 William McGillvray MM, 16th

Bn and 3795 Pte

Nathaniel Giles MM, 11th

Bn. Front row, L to R: 3449

Private William Cleave Doig, 16th

Bn & POW; Bertie

Cooper; 539 L/Cpl Arthur O’Donnell, 16th

Bn and 4553

Pte Sam Metherell, 11th

Bn. All the men pictured apart from

Bertie Cooper survived the war.]

DIGGER 51 Issue 38

Seeking information on Major AJS Hutchinson, 58th Bn Graeme Hosken, Dubbo

Major Arthur Justin Sandford Hutchinson of the 58th Battalion was recommended for the Victoria Cross

for his actions on 19th July 1916 at Fromelles. The recommendation for the VC by Brigadier General H

Elliott reads:

At Petillon on the night of 19th/20

th July 1916, Major Hutchinson displayed conspicuous and gallant

leadership. On the evening of the 19th/20

th July, a message came from 5

th Division that the 61

st Division on

our right would renew the attack at 9pm on the Sugar Loaf Salient and notwithstanding that the previous

attack by a battalion had manifestly failed, Major Hutchinson led the two Companies of the 58th Battalion

under his command in the most gallant manner under an appalling fire until he fell riddled with bullets close

under the German parapet. His life and the lives of his men were gallantly given in the hope of aiding the

attack of the 61st Division, which unfortunately was not made.

The recommendation was endorsed by Major General McCay and supported by the statements of

Lieutenant HJ Boyd and 2nd

Lieutenant H Dardier. Hutchinson was not awarded a VC and was not even

mentioned in despatches. Perhaps the last sentence of the recommendation provides a hint as to why

recognition was not forthcoming.

The 5th Division was the last of the (then) four Australian divisions to arrive on the Western Front

from Egypt, and within three weeks was thrown into the Battle of Fromelles. Not surprisingly, family and

friends back home in Australia were unaware of the 5th Division’s move to France, and the first inkling of the

move in many households would have been the notification of the death or wounding of their loved one.

Arthur Hutchinson’s fiancée wrote to the Minister of Defence seeking information:

Being engaged to Major AJS Hutchinson, I am naturally very worried at having received a telegram

forwarded on to me by Rev. Hutchinson, saying ‘Officially reported missing, twentieth July, Major AJS

Hutchinson, Ninth Light Horse Regiment’.

Having had letters from Egypt of June 3rd

date saying he was in command of a company in 58th Battalion;

which we since have heard is in France, I am writing to ask if you would be kind enough and can tell: Is

Major Hutchinson now in the 58th B. in France, or in Egypt, back in the 9

th LH he left Australia in at first, as

Lieut? Then he was in 8th LH, and then we got a cable from Cairo, 31/5/16, saying he was in 58

th Bn.

It would help so much in every way if you would be able to find out any particulars as to if he is still missing,

as the anxiety is so great. Hoping to hear from you.

Sincerely.

Gladys Forrest.

Regrettably, there would be no good news for Gladys, as the response informed her that it should be

assumed that Arthur was in France with the 58th Battalion. A court of inquiry held on 6

th August 1916

concluded: That the officer was killed in action unless during the ensuing six months his name should appear

in any Hospital List or in a List of Prisoners of War. In April 1917 Hutchinson’s status was changed from

‘missing’ to ‘killed in action on 19.7.16’. His body was never found and he is remembered in the VC Corner

Cemetery.

Endnotes: (1) Arthur Hutchinson was a special graduate of the Royal Military College at Duntroon where he

was trained between February 1912 and November 1914. (2) Gladys was living at ‘Allahleigh’, 31 Erina

Street, Launceston, Tasmania. Google Maps street-view shows the home still standing and well-maintained.

(3) Thanks to Graham Senior-Milne (grandson of 2nd

/Lieut George Milne alias Leonard Dardier) for

pointing me towards this story. Milne/Dardier appears in the article on the Paris March (page 22-28).

A war piano returned to Australia ‘The Register’ (Adelaide), Tuesday, 18

th May 1920

A unique article of interest is to be seen in the Main Hall at the Peace Exhibition. This consists of a

‘Wertheim-Australian’ piano that was put on board the transport SS Medic at Port Adelaide in September

1914, for the use of our soldiers. After nearly six years of active service in transports, in various camps and

hospitals in Egypt, France and England, it was returned to South Australia by the SS Ceramic in April,

1920. In unshipping it, carelessly it was smashed against the side of the launch and damaged. It travelled

across the world and back again, enduring the heat and dust of Egypt, the cold and frosts of England and

France, yet through it all has returned in splendid condition, the tone quality being excellent. This is a

splendid testimony to the superiority of Australian manufactures.

Contributed by ‘Frev’ Ford, Montrose.

DIGGER 52 Issue 38

The Arthur Hall VC Way Graeme Hosken, Dubbo

Arthur Hall was a young station hand from western NSW when he enlisted in the AIF. He was awarded the

VC for his bravery over two days of fighting at Peronne on 1st/2

nd September 1918. He then returned to

farming, moving to the property ‘Gundooee’ near Coolabah, south of Bourke. Apart from a stint in the home

forces in WWII, Arthur remained working his sheep and cattle property and was a pillar of the local

community until his death in 1978.

FFFAIF member David Harrower was one of a small group of Coolabah and district residents who

decided to convince the (then) Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) to change the name of the Coolabah-

Brewarrina Road to the ‘Arthur Hall VC Way’. Not only did they convince the RTA and the State

Government to support their proposal, they managed to arrange for the Governor of NSW, Professor Marie

Bashir AC CVO, to attend the renaming ceremony, hastily but skilfully organised for 8th December 2011.

The day began with a service of remembrance for Arthur Hall VC held at the Church of St Matthew,

West Bogan. I was fortunate to be invited to this service (as I had contributed my research on Hall to the

Mitchell Library historian) which was literally held in the mulga scrub at a small bush church built with

timber cut from ‘Gundooee’ many years ago. The church and Hall family burial plot had been ‘spruced up’

for the occasion, with builder and former Byrock publican and historian, David Creenaune, constructing a

solid timber fence around the cemetery. The Bishop of Bathurst, Richard Hurford AOM CStJ, led the service

and dedicated the Arthur Hall VC Way plaque on a stone wall at the entrance to the burial plot. Wreaths

were then laid by Air Vice-Marshal Kevin Paule representing the Chief of Defence Force, the local State

MP, the Hall family, Shire Presidents and representatives of the organising committee.

Those at the church then travelled into the village of Coolabah to join around 300 people at the

Community Hall for the Dedication of the Arthur Hall VC Way. Speakers included: the Mayor of Bogan

Shire; the Hon. Kevin Humphries MP; The NSW Governor, Marie Bashir; Dennis Hall and the Mayor of

Brewarrina Shire. This was followed by a luncheon provided by the CWA (excellent food!). David Harrower

arranged for the Corrective Services Band to entertain the crowd (great music!).

The Hall family attended in large numbers to pay tribute to their father, grandfather and great

grandfather. The AWM arranged for Hall’s VC and service medals to be on display (well guarded by the

local police) and the Mitchell Library brought along Arthur Hall’s wartime diary. The whole day was

wonderfully organised and the residents’ sense of pride in their community and history was very evident.

The renaming of what was ‘Main Road 70’ as the ‘Arthur Hall VC Way’ has set a precedent for

other communities to follow, and there seems little doubt that the RTA (now Roads and Maritime Services)

and the NSW Government will receive any submissions to name roads after other VC winners in a very

positive way following the success at Coolabah. Congratulations to the organisers and Coolabah community.

Clockwise from top left: The Church at West

Bogan; The cleared and

newly fenced Hall family

cemetery; One of three

plaques (the other two are

at the beginning and end

of the road); Hall’s grave

decked with the wreaths;

Official guests at Arthur

Hall’s grave.

DIGGER 53 Issue 38

From Beaumont-Hamel to Bernafay Wood ... and back again (or, straightening out a twisted Twingo and other adventures)

Brett Arnfield, Mentone

Back in October 2008, my great mate Ross (‘Crooky’) Cruickshanks (whose grandfather Horace had served

on the Western Front with the 16th Australian Light Railway Operating Company) and I repeated a

pilgrimage I’d done with my cousin, Peter Gardiner, nine years earlier [see DIGGER 33].

Just to set the scene, at the time this story takes place we’d been travelling for eight days, and having

come down from Flanders had made it as far as the Somme. Here we made our base at a fantastic B&B right

in Bernafay Wood (the renovated historic Montauban Railway Station, run by Jean-Pierre and Christine

Matte). We’d been out and about all day and in that time had managed to complete a rough figure-of-eight

circuit that spread from Mametz to Heilly, Vignacourt, Amiens, Pozieres, Auchonvillers and all points in

between. It had been raining throughout the latter part of the day as well, so with evening closing in, we were

on our way back to our digs, driving east out of the little village of Beaumont-Hamel and looking forward to

the first well-earned beers of the day. Funny how things can suddenly change.

Only a kilometre or so out of town we spotted a

couple of small cemeteries lying off to the left in farm

fields. Looking at each other, on the spur of the

moment, we thought as one: ‘What the heck. We won’t

be back this way for a long time, so one more stop-off

before we call it quits for the day won’t hurt.’ As you’re

about to hear, we should have kept driving.

Turning off the road onto a greasy little farm

track, Crooky took off, because let’s face it, for

someone as full of the joy of life as my old mate, dirt

roads and small, front-wheel-drive rental cars are one

hell of a combination. With grey clouds hanging

ominously overhead, we bounced and slid our way

along, following the twin wheel tracks out to the first of

the cemeteries [New Munich Trench British Cemetery, shown above, from www.cwgc.org].

We had made it perhaps halfway there when all of a sudden there was an almighty BANG! In the

fading light we’d failed to spot a huge pothole right in the middle of the track that the farmer had obviously

tried to fill using a huge rock. Needless to say, the car bottomed out, right on top of it, sweet as a nut.

Such was the force of the hit, that, as one, we both reflexively looked down at the floor of the

Renault Twingo (mainly to see if it was still there) and the subsequent look that passed between us spoke

volumes. Crooky was the first to speak, casually remarking in a masterful demonstration of understatement:

“That was a bit of a bump, eh comrade?”

“Too right,” I replied.

“Ah, don’t worry, we’ll be fine as long as we haven’t cracked the sump.”

We continued on, at a more sedate pace in silence, both listening intently for the first tell-tale sounds

of an engine block about to disintegrate. When we pulled up at the cemetery I was the first out. Looking back

towards the road, my heart immediately sank, for marking our progress up the track was a stark, black line of

oil. Bugger.

As Crooky got out, probably hoping against hope, I indicated behind as casually as I could: “That’s

not good, is it mate?”

On glancing back, Crooky’s eyes immediately bugged out like organ stops and he did a silent

impression of Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’, that had to be seen to be believed. But in the next instant, he

sprang into action.

“Quick! Back in the car! We’ve got to get this thing back to the road before it loses all its oil.” And

with that, we quickly reversed back along the track (avoiding the rock this time) to the relative safety of the

asphalt.

Once there, Crooky switched off the engine and the Twingo was transformed into the most

expensive billy-cart ever, as we coasted back downhill into Beaumont-Hamel. Once there, we pulled up on

the side of the road at the main (in fact, the only) intersection in town, just across from a farmer’s courtyard.

We seemed to be in luck, as he was just heading out on his tractor to hold up traffic somewhere.

Crooky bounded across to him and asked in his own unique blend of ‘Franglais’ about the possibility of

perhaps getting some sort of help. He may as well have saved his breath. The farmer just sat on his tractor

DIGGER 54 Issue 38

and stared impassively down at Crooky with the kind of

blank expression that said he had no idea what this (highly)

animated Antipodean was on about, or cared for that

matter. After a minute or two, Crooky picked up on this

himself and gave up, reluctantly having to acknowledge the

conversation, like the Twingo, was going nowhere. As the

farmer chugged off, humming happily to himself, Crooky

trudged back to where I was standing near the car. I didn’t

need to ask how he’d got on. His body language said it all.

[Right: The Twingo, with Crooky, parked at the Beaumont-

Hamel intersection.]

What to do? Luckily, Crooky remembered that he

had a card with the B&B’s contact details, so in

desperation, he rang the number. By pure good luck, Christine answered. She and her husband Jean-Pierre

happened to be at that very moment in Albert buying a part for their washing machine, and they came and

picked us up. We left the Twingo there. On the way back to Bernafay Wood, in appreciation for their

kindness in helping us out of a very sticky situation (the alternative was a walk back of at least 15 kilometres,

but if you were to ask Crooky there was no alternative), we offered to take them out for dinner. They both

protested that it wasn’t necessary (like all nice people do) but we insisted and they, very graciously, accepted

our invitation.

Jean-Pierre knew a little restaurant in a nearby village run by some friends of theirs. “Hard to find

for tourists”, he explained, but assured us the food was good. Christine went in, but no one was there. “They

obviously have enough money”, observed a deadpan Jean-Pierre. No matter, he knew another place, so we

stopped in at ‘Le Poppy’ at La Boiselle to make a reservation, came back to Bernafay Wood to get ready for

dinner, and had a couple of quiet beers sitting out in the driveway outside our digs before returning to the

restaurant with Jean-Pierre and Christine.

‘Le Poppy’ proved to be very nice, and Jean-

Pierre and Christine were wonderful company. We

talked of our children (their two daughters, one about

to have her first child; they would be grandparents in

their late 40’s). [Left: From l to r, Jean-Pierre,

Christine, Crooky and Brett inside ‘Le Poppy’.]

Jean-Pierre had a severe stroke in February

2006 and was only then, over two years later, starting

to walk with a stick. Very sad for such an obviously

vibrant man, but to his great credit, he still has a

laugh. It must sometimes frustrate him though, as he

told us, “Before the stroke, I did all things fast”. He

also used to work at the museum in Albert, take

battlefield tours and hunt for relics around the area.

He was in hospital for six months in Amiens and

Christine drove in to be with him every day. They’re a wonderful couple and to see them together, it’s

obvious that after all these years, they still mean the world to each other.

Over dinner, we told them about our little mishap with the car. Jean-Pierre just laughed and

suggested that if we’d pulled some Euros out, the farmer’s English may have improved a lot. He also told us

of the exploits of his grandfather who, after being evacuated from Dunkirk during the Second World War,

volunteered to come back to work with the resistance near the Belgian border. An amazing story.

After having had a very enjoyable night, we arrived back at Bernafay Wood. Being able to spend the

evening getting to know Jean-Pierre and Christine turned out to be the silver lining to the grey cloud that had

literally ended our day. Once inside, we paid the bill for our last three days with them and Christine rang and

organised a cab into Amiens for us for 8.45am the next morning. With the bill and cab taken care of, that was

pretty much it, so we said our goodbyes and headed off to get some sleep. It had been a huge day. Checking

the bill on the way back up the drive to the old station building, we noticed that she’d neglected to charge us

for the eight beers and bottle of red we’d had from the room. Very nice of her.

We were up at 7.30 the next morning to shower and pack, and once we were all squared away with

our gear stacked in the driveway, all there was left to do was have a coffee (and wash and dry and put away

the cups for Christine of course) and wait for the taxi to turn up, which it did, bang on time.

DIGGER 55 Issue 38

I left a couple of slouch hat Anzac Day badges on the kitchen table for Jean-Pierre and Christine to

remember us by. They were a lovely couple and had been great to us. Perhaps in the years to come they

might dine out on the story of having saved the two Australians who killed their rental car in a field near

Beaumont-Hamel from a very long walk. I hope so.

With the cab loaded, we drove out of Bernafay

Wood under a leaden sky, little knowing that the

brooding dullness overhead, was setting the mood for

the rest of the day. It was going to be another long one.

[Left: The Twingo in happier times at the B & B,

which was formerly the Montauban Railway Station.]

The bloke who drove us to Amiens was a nice

enough chap, and like most of the people we’d come

across, he had slightly more English than we had

French and we passed the initial part of the trip making

the kind of awkward but well-intentioned small talk

you always do. Through it, we gathered that he knew

Jean-Pierre and Christine, and after pointing a few

things out to us along the way to Albert, we all soon

settled down (the way you always seem to do in these situations) to look out the windows at the passing

scenery in polite silence.

As we neared Amiens, the driver confirmed once more if it was indeed the Avis office that we

wanted, and seeing our nodding heads, plunged into the peak hour traffic of a French regional centre. Lucky

we had him, because if we’d have been left to our own devices amongst all the one-way streets, narrow

lanes, scooters and pedestrians, I’m certain we’d still be there, with me trying to convince Crooky it wasn’t a

good idea to go just a little way up a one-way street.

At last we arrived, ready to drop off the keys and pick up our brand new car. And we could well

have missed it, as all the Avis office’s frontage consisted of was a driveway that disappeared deep into the

interior of the building, and a glass shopfront window. Not even a seat in the small reception area.

As the driver pulled up on the sidewalk out the front, Crooky had all his bits and pieces out and was

ready to go. He went in ahead, while with the help of the driver, I got the bags out of the back of the van.

If there’s one thing you’ve got to admire about Crooky, it’s his absolute belief that things are going

to happen, and happen the way he sees them happening. And that’s all there is about it. The accident the

previous day wasn’t a problem, just a small set-back. Crooky already had it all worked out. We’d find the

nearest Avis office (Amiens) the next day, give them the keys, tell them where the car was, get a new one

and drive off to continue our safari. Simple? Non. The irresistible force was about to meet the ‘objet

immeuble’.*

By the time I’d got the bags into reception, I found Crooky standing there with his papers in his

hand, locking eyes over the counter with an impassive, stocky French bloke in an Avis shirt who obviously

spoke less English than we did French (or pretended to). Luckily for us, our driver had followed us in.

The gist of the conversation we walked in on seemed to be:

“Look, the car’s undrivable, these are my papers, here’s the key, where’s another car? I know you’ve got one

lying around here somewhere, come on, you blokes always keep one up your sleeve ...” (In French) “You did

what? Where’s the car? Why didn’t you call the roadside assistance number?”

It was at this point our taxi driver stepped in, God bless him. He seemed to say to the Avis guy:

“Look, they’re really not bad blokes, give them a break”.

The Avis guy looked doubtfully at our driver while I pulled out the map we’d used to mark our route

that day so he could see for himself exactly where we’d left the car.

A little bit more to-ing and fro-ing and finger jabbing at papers, and the Avis guy made a call. He

came off the phone (and I swear I detected a slight smirk) and announced, “Pas de voiture. C’est pas

impossible”. No car. He then added that another one wouldn’t be available until midday the next day.

Disaster!

Seeing the looks on our faces at this cheery news, he then as a final gesture, gave Crooky one of

those impassive Gallic shrugs that put me in mind of Bill Bryson’s portrayal of a similar incident he’d once

encountered, describing it as being: “... one where they drop their chin to belt level and try to push their ears

to the top of their head with their shoulders ... It translates roughly as, ‘Life is a bucket of s**t, monsieur, I

quite agree, and while I am prepared to acknowledge this fact, I shall offer you no sympathy because,

monsieur, this is your bucket of s**t’.”

DIGGER 56 Issue 38

Refusing to be beaten, Crooky tried again. He hit this guy with some of his best shots, but he didn’t

bat an eyelid. A whole day out of our already limited itinerary at this point was not an attractive option. We

were now faced with having to amuse ourselves for 24 hours in Amiens, and while we would have been

quite prepared to ignore the gossip, the idea of shacking up together for a night at the Amiens Hilton and

cooling our heels for a whole day didn’t exactly appeal. I know overseas travel involves being flexible and

being prepared to go with the flow to a certain extent (as my wife always reminds me), and there would have

been lots of interesting things to see in Amiens, but that wasn’t what we had come here to do. This down-

time was already cutting into what I’d planned to show Crooky and some things would now have to

regrettably be culled from the list.

By now our taxi driver had to get going (I guess he had a living to make) but before he did, he spoke

to the Avis guy once more, obviously seeing if he couldn’t work something else out for us. He must have

said something that softened his stance a bit, because with another call and some more tapping on the

computer keyboard, a result was produced. A rapid-fire conversation in French followed, after which our

driver-cum-interpreter explained that it had been arranged that if we got another cab to a garage in Albert, a

tray-truck would follow us to where we’d left the car in Beaumont-Hamel, where all we then had to do was

record the fuel level and kilometres travelled, leave the key with the tray-truck guys and come back to

Amiens in the cab, where another car would be waiting for us at 2pm. After starting out a bit fractious,

Monsieur Avis had turned out to be a good bloke.

So, finally bidding our original driver (who I must say did us a great turn), goodbye, another cab was

called and we were soon winging our way back to Albert. Our new driver found the garage and we went in

with him to meet the towing guys. We showed them the map, they nodded and there was a bit of banter and

laughter in French between them and our driver, probably something along the lines of: “So these two

boofheads really killed a car in a farm field? Wait till the boys at the estaminet hear this one!”

Ridicule, even when it’s deserved, can be hard to take at the best of times, but the edge to it is even

keener when you know it’s being done, but can’t understand it.

We travelled in convoy up

to Beaumont-Hamel, did what we

had to do, and were back at the

Avis office just after midday,

arriving to find a well-used sign

hanging inside the glass door that

proclaimed: “Shut for lunch. Back

at 2.” So we did the same. [Left:

The scene of the Twingo disaster.]

Dragging our bags down

the road and just around the corner,

we found a nice little brasserie run

by the whole family: Mum, Dad

(behind the bar), a daughter and

two sons (younger versions of Dad,

also behind the bar); the kids all in

their mid-twenties. We sat down

under the awning on the sidewalk

where we could stick our bags against the wall, and ordered a couple of beers. All in all, it had been a pretty

full-on morning, where hopes had gone from being high on the expectation of just a small glitch to the plan,

to being dashed when told of the 24 hour wait for a replacement car, to being somewhat restored. We had

effectively lost the day in which I had planned to take Crooky through the country between Corbie/Villers-

Bretonneux and Peronne, covering the ground the Australians fought over from Anzac Day 1918 through to

8th August (the ‘Black Day’ of the German Army) and up to Mont St. Quentin in early September.

While I pulled out the map I had pre-marked today’s route on to try and cobble together a way we

could pick up some of these sites on our way back out to Rouen in a couple of days time, Crooky had just lit

up when Mum arrived with the beers. She was lovely. Seeing our cases, she offered to let us put them inside

out of the way in a little corner near the bar. Thanking her, we stood up to move them inside, and just as we

did, the rain that had been threatening all morning decided to come down. Under the awning on the crowded

sidewalk was clearly now no place to be, so we followed while she set us a table inside.

The place was pretty full, as most of the offices in the surrounding buildings had obviously closed

for their two-hour lunch as well, but Mum kept a pretty good eye on us and looked after us well. A ham and

DIGGER 57 Issue 38

cheese omelette later, with a glass of red and some coffee and cheese, and it was nearly two o’clock. Time to

get the show back on the road.

We paid our bill and five minutes later were back up the street at the Avis office where, true to his

word, our new best friend had a brand new, dark blue Nissan Micra waiting for us. Crooky fixed up the paper

work while I got the bags loaded, then after getting directions from our mate on the best way to get out of

Amiens to Peronne, we were off. In the end, he couldn’t have done more to help us, so it all ended well. He’d

directed us onto the ring road that, as the name suggests, completely encircles Amiens. All we had to do was

pick the right off-ramp. Not as easy as it sounds, but we managed it.

As we drove due east along the Roman road out through Villers-Bretonneux (now the N29) towards

Peronne, the day was at last starting to clear up. Turning left onto the road to Peronne (the N17) at Villers

Carbonnel, we were soon in the southern outskirts of Peronne and, not really knowing where our pub for the

next three nights (the Hotel St Claude) was, we must have looked a sight as we drove into the centre of town,

both in that curious attitude of the tourist who doesn’t have a clue where the hell he’s going, leaning forward

from the waist, neck retracted right down between the shoulders so you can see through the top of the

windscreen (I don’t know why this is necessary, but you always do it when you don’t know where you’re

going) heads swivelling like our necks were made of rubber, on the lookout for that little brown sign that

would reveal its whereabouts.

We needn’t have worried. We soon spotted the aforementioned sign which led us straight to the main

square with the Hotel d’Ville (Town Hall) at one end and Le Centrale Brasserie at the other. Parking the car,

we saw the St Claude’s Best Western sign down a side street that led straight off the square next to Le

Centrale. It was great to be back in Peronne, a place Pete and I had used as a base nine years earlier. We got

the bags down from the square and checked in.

With the gear stowed, we hit the street, out the front and around the corner to have a look through

the Historial de la Grand Guerre, a tri-lingual museum that, as the name suggests, traces the history of the

First World War from the viewpoints of the three main protagonists: France, Great Britain and Germany. It’s

all very cleverly set out and takes you through the various stages, from the origins of the war right through to

the consequences of it. I couldn’t wait to get back there, and I knew with Crooky being the way he is with his

history, it was going to make a huge impression on him.

Thanks to my earlier visit, I was able to tell Crooky that the old castle the museum is now part of

was originally built at the beginning of the 13th century and was of course badly damaged during the capture

of Peronne by the Australians in September 1918. Prominent among those forces was ‘Pompey’ Elliott’s 15th

Brigade, in particular the 58th Battalion, one of whom was my relative, Alec Dawe. As we walked towards

the Historial, I reflected on the fact that he would have been running around these very streets almost exactly

90 years ago, but under very different circumstances.

It took until 1938 for

the facade of the castle to be

restored. The museum took a

little longer. Initiated in

1986, it was designed by the

architect Henri-Edouard

Ciriani and opened to the

public in 1992. So with my

old mate suitably informed,

we crossed the bridge over

the old moat, walked through

the arched doorway set between the two massive towers that formed the

entrance, bought our tickets, and went in.

Endnotes: (1) Photos above show the Peronne ramparts and moat as they appeared in 1918 (right) and in

2010 (left). The entrance to the museum is over the bridge and through the archway. 1918 postcard supplied

by Yves Fohlen. Contemporary photo by Graeme Hosken. (2) Quote from Bill Bryson’s book, ‘Neither here

nor there’, p55. (3) Lance Corporal Horace Robert Cruickshanks’ final unit was the 2nd

Light Railway

Operating Company. (4) Private 2153 Alexander (‘Alec’) Dawe served with the 58th Battalion. (4) The

Editor found the Amiens Avis office on Google Earth street view, and in an amazing coincidence, captured

outside the office by the mobile camera was a Twingo on the back of a recovery vehicle! Turns out the two

gentlemen in the photo weren’t Crooky and Brett, but it appears they weren’t the only tourists to experience

Twingo ‘problems’ in the Somme Valley.

DIGGER 58 Issue 38

EETTCCHHEEDD IINN SSTTOONNEE ((Edited by Russell Curley)

This is the thirty-seventh in a series of extracts, from John Laffin’s “We Will Remember Them - AIF Epitaphs

of World War 1”, which will appear in successive issues of DIGGER.

The first episode on the theme ‘Brief and Beautiful’

Place names in bold type are cemetery names

There is so much to be said for brief epitaphs, and they can carry emotional strength, especially

when the words are well chosen. Some families strove for an active simplicity that still conveyed a powerful

message. One such epitaph is:

IT IS WELL

It appears on the headstone of Sgt Percival S Blick, 44th Bn, who was killed on 29 September 1918 during

the fighting to break the German’s Hindenburg Line defences. He is buried in Bellicourt British Cemetery,

France. ‘It is well’ shows a calm dignified acceptance of fate, hinting at a strong faith and a disciplined

reaction to adversity.

A NOBLE LIFE

NOBLY ENDED

Drvr R. Ogilvie, 5th Bde Field Arty, 5.8.17 (23)

Dickebusch New Military Cemetery Extension,

Belgium

PEACE AFTER STRIFE Pte H. J. Gibb, 14th Bn, 7.6.18 (45)

Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, France

HE SERVED HIS FELLOW MAN Gnr J. L. Lawrence, 7th Bde Field Arty,

7.10.18 (43), Bellicourt British Cemetery,

France

HE GAVE FOR US Lt F. W. Appleton, Croix de Guerre, 14th Bn,

8.8.18 (36), Cerisy-Gailly Military, France

EVENING SHADOWS FALL Pte G. G. Ray, 14th Bn, 31.5.18 (29)

Allonville, France

FAITHFUL TO GOD

AND DUTY TO LOVE

Pte S. E. Beverley, 14th Bn, 31.5.18

Allonville, France

DEATH DIVIDES

MEMORY CLINGS

Sgt J. Henderson, 25th Bn, 25.12.17 (25)

Underhill Farm, Belgium

EVER THY NAME SHALL BE

GALLANT AND BRIGHT

Gnr F. Uther, 7th Bde Field Arty, 18.10.17 (26)

Ypres Reservoir, Belgium

LIFE IS SERVICE 2/Lt R. V. Swain, 47th Bn, 7.8.16 (21)

Warloy-Baillon Communal Cem Extn, France

A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN 2/Lt M. E. Kozminsky, 7th Bn, 19.8.16

Warloy-Baillon Communal Cem Extn, France

A CHRISTIAN SOLDIER Pte S. N. Kingham, 34th Bn, 24.2.17 (19)

Trois Abres, France

ONE OF THE UNRETURNING HEROES

ONE OF THE NOBLE DEAD

This is the epitaph of Lt D. R. Stephen MC, 44th Bn, who died on 28.3.18, aged 28, and is buried at Villers-

Bretonneux Military Cemetery, France. Lt Stephen had won his MC only two months before at Mont

Farm, near Deulmont, for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty when he led a fighting patrol of one

sergeant and 18 men into No-man’s land. By skilful handling of his platoon he trapped one party of Germans

in a building and captured two of them. As the enemy withdrew, Stephen encountered their support group

and fired on them. He suffered no casualties among his patrol and, in the words of his citation, ‘he set a fine

example to his comrades of devotion to duty’.

DIGGER 59 Issue 38

DIGGER Quiz No. 38: ‘Campbell’s challenge’ 1. Which Australian infantry brigade had the sad honour of having the highest death toll in the Great War?

2. Who was the recipient of the Victoria Cross from the 28th Battalion?

3. Who was awarded the VC while serving in the 26th Battalion?

4. At what time did the 1st Brigade (NSW) land at Anzac Cove?

5. Who commanded the 1st Brigade on Gallipoli until his death on 27

th April?

6. At what time did the Headquarters of the 1st Division land on Gallipoli?

7. A deserter from the 48th Battalion was shot dead in Charleroi during the attempt to apprehend him in 1919.

What was his name?

8. Who was the 48th Battalion soldier awarded the VC?

9. Sergeant 3246 Alfred Herbert Cornish of the 48th Battalion was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal.

What group of men was he in charge of?

10. The feature named ‘Johnston’s Jolly’ on Gallipoli was named after whom?

Barford: then and now The postcard below left was found in the collection of Private 6315 Bert Egan, 20

th Battalion. Barford is in

Wiltshire and must have been visited by Bert Egan when he was camped on Salisbury Plain. The second

photo [right] is a Google Maps screen capture of the same scene today. This shows how easy it can be to

‘walk in the footsteps’ of the Diggers, either on the ground or via your computer.

Maurice Campbell, Dubbo, is the custodian of the Egan collection and DIGGER hopes to use more of Bert’s

photos and postcards in future issues. If any member has previously unpublished photographs that you feel

would make a good cover picture or page-filler for DIGGER, please contact the Editor.

_________________________________________________________________

AIF PERSONNEL Nearly 80 Per Cent Native Born

SYDNEY, Jan. 24. - Interesting light is thrown upon the composition of the Australian Imperial Forces by a

letter addressed recently to Mr. WJ Braithwaite, of Liverpool, by Captain Mackintosh, Officer-in-Charge of

base records.

Mr. Braithwaite had been moved to make inquiry by the allegation, frequently repeated, that the Australian

Army was composed largely of units of British birth, and that it was not essentially an Australian force. As

this became a question of the composition of the actual embarkations, rather than of the enlistments, which

were made in various States, the places of birth had to be worked out, with the following results as now

given from base records: Queensland, 28 253; New South Wales, 88 250; Victoria, 92 553; South Australia,

27 761; Western Australia, 8 042; Tasmania, 13 104; United Kingdom, 64 221; New Zealand, 4 214; Other

British countries, 2 246; Foreign countries, 3 137; Total, 331 781.

This summary shows that 77 per cent of the men of the AIF who left Australia for the Front in the Great War

were native born.

Perth’s ‘Western Mail’, 31st January 1929

Contributed by Sandra Playle, Pinjarra

Article found on Trove website

Coming up in July: the Annual John Laffin Memorial Lecture. Speakers and venue to be advised in June’s

issue of DIGGER. If you would be interested in giving a talk one year, please contact the committee.

DIGGER 60 Issue 38

Answers to DIGGER Quiz No. 38 1. The 7th Brigade, in which the 25th Bn lost 965 men; the 26th Bn, 832; the 27th Bn, 742 and the 28th Bn, 939, with a total of 3 478

deaths. The 7th Brigade formed part of the 2nd Division. [DIGGER would like to have more articles on the 2nd Division – Ed.]

2. Lieutenant Alfred Edward Gaby, posthumously, for valour east of Villers-Bretonneux, 8th August 1918.

3. Lieutenant Albert Chalmers Borella, on 17th/18th July 1918 east of Villers-Bretonneux.

4. The 1st Brigade (1st to 4th Bns) landed between 7.30-8.00am on 25th April 1915.

5. Colonel Henry Normand MacLaurin MID.

6. Around 10am on 25th April.

7. Private 1485 Percy George Stafford. [A fascinating but rather shameful ‘service’ record! He was ruled ineligible for his service

medals and the Memorial Plaque, but appears on the Roll of Honour – Ed.]

8. Private James Park Woods, 18th September 1918, near Le Verguier.

9. Cornish was in charge of the battalion cooks. He was regarded as ‘one of the strongest links in the chain of the battalion success’.

[Medal citation extract.]

10. Lieutenant Colonel George Jameson Johnston, Commander 2nd Field Artillery Brigade.

Pozieres Memorial – After the recent recapture of Pozieres it was found that our battalion memorial there

had been slightly damaged by shell fire, one of the stays to the cross, on which was engraved the word

‘Pozieres’, having been splintered and knocked off. Sgt Laing MM, who has taken a keen interest in the

memorial, visited the old battlefield and brought the damaged portion of the woodwork back to the battalion

as a souvenir. He also immediately had the memorial repaired in conformity with its original design, so that,

with the exception of a few shrapnel marks on the beam, it is none the worse for the renewal of hostilities on

that historic field. The damaged piece of timber is being forwarded to the war memorial as a souvenir.

‘The Field Newspaper of the 24th Battalion’

Contributed by Margaret Clarke, Cardiff.

Family membership fee review The committee has reviewed the Family Membership fee structure and is confident that a reduction in the

current rate of $50/$40 (i.e. $50 for the first member and $40 for each subsequent member) to $50/$30 for

regular family adult membership and $40/$20 for concession family adult membership can be achieved with

little impact on the association’s overall finances. This new rate should apply to new and existing Family

Memberships from 1st July 2012. Full details will be included in the renewal notice accompanying the next

DIGGER issue and be available on the website by June.

DIGGER 38 contents

Cover photo: Arthur Hall’s family at Coolabah 1 Pte Harold Robson, 12th

Bn 43-44

Trench Talk & contact/membership details 2 The discovery of the Shellal Mosaic 45-49

Second Battalion’s last men off Gallipoli 3-7 Pte Bertie Cooper, 16th

Bn 50

Bullecourt men: H Wilkinson & C Chalk 8-16 Major AS Hutchinson, 58th

Bn 51

Photo: Inside Buckingham Palace Hotel 16 War piano returns home 51

Red Cross Missing & Wounded Enquiry Bureau 17-21 Dedication of The Arthur Hall VC Way 52

Photo: 4th

Reinforcements/34th

Battalion 21 Beaumont-Hamel to Bernafay Wood 53-57

The Paris March, July 1916, and participants 22-28 Etched in Stone 58

L/Cpl Richard Gunter, 34th

Bn 29-30 DIGGER Quiz No. 38 59

‘To Kate’: A poem from the dead 31-32 Barford (UK): then and now 59

‘Marginal truths’: Cpl Len Jones, 3rd

Bn 33-39 Birthplace statistics on AIF personnel 59

Developments at Bullecourt’s La Petite Croix 39 Answers to DIGGER Quiz No. 38 60

Spr James Devine, 1st & 4

th Tunnelling Coys 40-41 Pozieres Memorial (24

th Bn anecdote) 60

A driver’s day: Dvr HO Bastian, 9th

FCE 42

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