DIGGER. Magazine of the Families and Friends of the First AIF Inc. March 2017 No. 58. Edited by Graeme Hosken ISSN

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1 DIGGER Above, main picture: Australian graves at Noreuil, France. Courtesy Heather Ford. Inset: Silk postcard from Private Duncan McCallum, 16 th Bn, 1 Feb Courtesy Wendy Mahoney. March 2017 No. 58 Magazine of the Families and Friends of the First AIF Inc Edited by Graeme Hosken ISSN

2 Families and Friends of the First AIF Inc Patron-in-Chief: His Excellency General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC (Retd) Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia Founder and Patron-in-Memoriam: John Laffin Patrons-in-Memoriam: General Sir John Monash GCMG KCB VD and General Sir Harry Chauvel CGMG KCB President: Jim Munro ABN Secretary: Graeme Hosken Trench talk Graeme Hosken. This issue DIGGER 58 is our colour issue for 2017, featuring a colour cover and two-page centrespread. Thank you to those who contributed the colour images. This issue contains several outstanding letters written by soldiers describing their wartime experiences. John Jensen (1 st Bn) wrote his letter in 1915 after being wounded on Gallipoli and sent to England for treatment and convalescence, while Duncan McCallum (16 th Bn) gives an incredible insight into the hell of First Bullecourt and his treatment as a prisoner of war in Germany. We are indeed fortunate to have access to such first-hand experiences, thanks to Daryl and Wendy. Other letters and diary extracts throughout this issue of DIGGER enable us to better understand events from 100 or so years ago. If you have an article for the June or September issues, please contact the Editor. New members Kevin Beard, Evan Evans, Debbie and Greg Rogers, and Barry Roy are welcomed to the association. Information sought on 4 th Machine Gun Battalion Member Greg O Reilly is writing a book on the history of the 4 th Machine Gun Battalion (made up of the former 4 th, 12 th, 13 th and 24 th Machine Gun Companies). If you have any information on the men in the battalion or the earlier companies, such as photographs, letters and diaries, Greg would love to hear from you. Greg can be ed at g.oreilly@sctelco.net.au. (Greg s grandfather served in the 4 th MG Battalion.) See Greg s first story for DIGGER, beginning on page 24 and supplemented by an appendix in COBBeR 5. Colour photo captions The silk postcard on the front cover was sent by Duncan McCallum (see page 16) to his brother Alex and sister Bess in On 1 February, 1917, Duncan wrote: Just a card to let you know I received yours yesterday. I am leaving for the firing line in the morning. I am keeping well, but the cold is something awful. Will write again when I have had a go at Fritz. Let Mum know you received this. With best love, Dunk. Noreuil Australian Cemetery contains the graves of 182 Diggers, most killed in the advance to the Hindenburg Line and during the Battles of Bullecourt. Page 38, clockwise from top left: Australian Tunnellers Memorial, Hill 60, Belgium; Pillbox on Hill 60 (both from Wendy Mahoney); Sydney Mail cover Special France Issue, July, 1917 (courtesy John Ramsland); Photo taken by Greg O Reilly at Fritz s Folly near Gueudecourt: We went to find the exact place where my grandfather was seriously wounded and his No. 2 on the Vickers was killed (L/Cpl Charles Frederick Lee, No. 2612) on Feb 14, 1917, during the freezing cold winter. My grandfather had been carrying out indirect fire in support of a 57 th Bn raid on Sunray Trench (middle distance between my cousin and his wife) and the Germans retaliated. In the background the clump of trees is the Canadian memorial and Stormy Trench, where Harry Murray earnt his VC. Greg s cousin is holding a Mills bomb, which he picked up thinking it was a shell shard. He soon put it down; Morchies Military Cemetery (Frev); Headstone of Pte 3363 CJ Metelmann, 57 th Bn (Frev). Page 39: The Bullecourt ( Slouch Hat ) Memorial; View of part of the Sunken Road ; Bullecourt village from the 1917 battlefield; The Bullecourt Digger statue; Battlefield walking tour signs (all from Greg Knight). The Belgians Have Not Forgotten The Belgian Ambassador to Australia opened this travelling exhibition in Dubbo in January, with a number of FFFAIF members present at the launch and able to speak to the ambassador afterwards. The Editor presented Mr Bodson with several copies of DIGGER. The exhibition is now heading for Hervey Bay & NZ. Copyright DIGGER All material in DIGGER is copyright. [Note: Opinions expressed by authors in this magazine are not necessarily those of the FFFAIF.] 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 ed to ghoskenaif@bigpond.com. Membership inquiries should be forwarded to Membership Secretary FFFAIF Inc, PO Box 4245, FORSTER NSW 2428 (Australia) or 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 $30 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: Telephone inquiries can be made to or Please leave a message if not answered and a committee member will return your call. DIGGER 2 Issue 58

3 Private 955/3082 John Jensen DCM, MM 1 st and 33 rd Battalions Daryl Barker, Wasleys. Daryl has recently released his book, Their Duty Done: A military service biography of the Wasleys and District volunteers of the Great War. He has kindly allowed DIGGER to publish this extract on a very brave soldier and writer of one of the most graphic letters describing his experiences at Gallipoli. Some editing has been done to reduce length. For a copy of Daryl s book, contact the Community Group (wasleyscommunitygroupinc@gmail.com) or Daryl at djbarker@dodo.com.au. Price is $25 + postage. I t is believed that John Jensen was born Jens Karl Jensen at Spalding, South Australia, on 3 June, 1891, to parents Jens Lawrence and Louisa Rachael Jensen (nee Lierich). John was residing in New South Wales when he enlisted in the AIF at Randwick, NSW, on 19 August, On the attestation form, John stated that he was 25 years old and employed as a bush worker. He gave his residential address as c/- GPO Sydney and nominated Mrs D Farrell of Wasleys, SA, as his next of kin. John was allocated to H Company, 1 st Battalion, which embarked from Sydney aboard HMAT SS Afric on 18 October, The Afric joined the convoy at Albany, WA, which then sailed via Colombo, Aden, Suez and Port Said before arriving at Alexandria, Egypt, on 5 December, The battalion disembarked at Alexandria and by 9 December they had arrived at Mena Camp outside Cairo, Egypt. On 5 March, 1915, John was admitted to No. 2 Australian General Hospital [with measles]. He was discharged from hospital on 7 March. [John was held back from going to Gallipoli but his fortune changed and he landed on 25 April, unlike the other reinforcements who did not land until 7 May. Note: His service record shows him arriving on Gallipoli on 7 May, but his letter below confirms that he landed on 25 April.] John was badly wounded on 14 May, 1915, and the following day he was admitted to the Hospital Ship Gascon. John was evacuated to Alexandria, where on 19 May he was admitted to the Greek Hospital suffering from a gun shot wound to his face and a fractured left cheekbone. On 9 June, John was evacuated to England aboard the Hospital Ship Goorkha. [John disembarked at Southampton on 21 June and was admitted to the Ducie Avenue School, then an auxiliary hospital affiliated to 2 nd Western General Hospital at Manchester.] The State Library of South Australia holds a letter written by John to his aunt whilst he was convalescing in England [Source Jensen, Jack, D7720 (L)] and it is used here with permission. Australian & New Zealand Base Depot, Monte Video Camp, Weymouth, Dorset. Aug 28 th 1915 Dear Aunt Hannah I am writing you these few lines hoping they find you quite well as they leave me. I suppose you must have been a bit worried when you read about the landing at Gallipoli. You know a letter takes such a long time to go from here to Australia & even then you can t say very much in a letter when it is written. I think the last time I wrote to you from Egypt was from Heliopolis. I was just getting over the measles then & I left a day or two after I wrote to you. When I got out to the camp they were just going away & as I had been in hospital for so long they thought I would not get out in time & they had filled up my place so I had to join the reinforcements. I can assure you it broke me up a bit when I found out that I could not join my own battalion I had to leave my mates, the ones I had joined with last August & go among strangers. However, there was no get away from it so I was sent to a place called Abbasieh [Abbassia]. A few days afterwards the troops all moved away to Alexandria except the reinforcements & we were left behind. A day or two afterwards however they picked out six of us to fill the places of some who had gone sick & I happened to be one. At first I could not get back to my own company but I managed that later on after we had landed at the Dardanelles. The last few days we had in Egypt I DIGGER 3 Issue 58

4 shall never forget as three nights running there were riots in & about Cairo. On Good Friday there was a big row in one of the main streets in Cairo. I think I told you once before that Cairo is a very immoral place, in fact they say that it is the worst town in the world. Some streets there are nothing but brothels & houses of infamy where every possible vice under the sun exists. Of course some of our men had been going to these places & had got diseases of different kinds & as a whole our chaps had a grievance against these places. Finally, to finish up with, one of the Manchester soldiers who were also stationed in Egypt found his sister in one of them. She had left England as a servant to some lady who had taken her to Egypt & left her there. I dare say you have heard of that sort of thing; it is called the white slave traffic here in Egypt. Anyway, this girl went from bad to worse until finally she was found dancing in what they call a Can-Can hall, that is a dozen or so women dancing perfectly naked in a big hall exposing their persons to every kind of indignity, both by themselves & also the onlookers. It is just as well that I cannot tell you everything that goes on here as it would only grieve you. This Manchester chap managed to have a talk with his sister & tried to get her away. She was only too willing to go but the people she was with would not let her & they threw the brother out of a window; as a result he was in hospital for nearly a week. When he got right he came in the camp & told our chaps & asked them to help him. At first they could not find the girl again but at last she was found in a particularly vile house. This was a day or two before Good Friday & that day being a holiday about 500 of our chaps & some New Zealanders & English troops went in to raid these houses. When they got in there a good many got drunk & they were joined by a great many more, also drunk, so the affair ended in a riot. They got the girl out first & then set fire to the houses. The affair started about four o clock in the afternoon & was kept up until nearly midnight. Shops were raided & windows broken everywhere. I was on guard that day & we were called out to go & stop it, but only twenty of us could do nothing against nearly two thousand. They had a fire in the street & were throwing the furniture out of windows two & three storeys high on to it. Some of us went in & tried to put it out & a chair came out of a window three storeys high & hit one chap & nearly killed him. We carried him away & a few minutes after a piano came out of the same window & fell with an awful crash on the pavement. All the strings seemed to break at once & it went off like a cannon. After that the Military Police charged the crowd on horseback, firing their revolvers into them, but the crowd threw broken bottles & stones at them. One policeman got badly hit & one eye cut out with a broken bottle & two of our chaps were hit by the revolver shots. About eight o clock five hundred Manchester troops came with fixed bayonets & were told to charge. They charged alright, but they wouldn t go for our men so they gave them their rifles & our chaps threw them on the fire. Then they turned & ran & our fellows followed them up with sticks. A while after, the South Australian Light Horse came but the horses wouldn t face the fire & smoke. A little after eleven o clock the Westminster Dragoons came. They looked alright as they were coming down the street with all their swords drawn & their horses going straight through the fire & smoke. This very soon cleared the street & then we went for the houses & took everybody prisoner that we found. We got about fifty Australians & some New Zealanders. The girl who was the cause of all the trouble was sent to England. She was taken charge of by the YMCA. The men in camp collected over forty pounds to pay her passage & expenses back to England. Of course the money was handed over to the YMCA. Next night a riot started in the canteen of the Abbasieh [sic] camp. Somebody caught an Arab who was employed at the canteen making water in a tub of beer. The Arab was at once pulled & half killed. All the beer casks & tubs were broken & spilt & all the groceries & goods stolen & the place burned down. The guard was called out again, but by the time we got there everything was over & the camp was quiet, except for the fire still burning. On Sunday evening the New Zealanders burned down a picture show. The man had advertised a boxing match & doubled the admission & then showed just the same pictures as he usually did. So they burned his place down. A few days afterwards I left for the Dardanelles. We went straight to a Greek island called Lemnos & stayed there a few days. This was where Will had been for nearly two months. You remember when I wrote from Heliopolis, I told you Will had left Egypt. We left Lemnos about April 24 th & landed on April 25 th at Gallipoli. The third brigade landed first at four o clock in the morning & we landed at 6 o clock. We were lucky getting ashore as nobody was hit in the boat, although shells were falling all around us. A big shell dropped close to the boat & nearly upset it when it exploded. DIGGER 4 Issue 58

5 As soon as we got on to the beach a shell fell right into my platoon & killed one & wounded six, three of whom died afterwards from the wounds. The man at one side of me was hit in the stomach & the man right in front was hit in the side of the face, the bullet taking his eye right out. A few yards further another shell dropped among us, knocking over 9 or 10, the officer included. About two hours afterwards when they made a count there was only thirteen left out of fifty. The sergeant who counted shook his head & said he didn t like it as thirteen was an unlucky number. A few minutes afterwards he was killed himself. We held that ridge for three more days until the Turks drove us out & we had to retire a quarter of a mile. During all those three days I lay in one little hole & never closed my eyes night or day or ate a bite of food. When my own water bottle was empty I crawled out to the dead ones & took the water off them. My rifle was in my hand all the time & sometimes it was that hot with the shooting that I couldn t touch any of the iron part. All those three days, which I will never forget, I was not touched once, although I had two dead men fall into my hole. One chap brought up some ammunition to me & just as he was giving it to me a bullet hit him & he fell in on top of me. He just said, I m gone, & died. On the Tuesday night we could see the Turks in front of us in a terrible big force. So we had orders to retire back on to the second line as soon as it got dark. This we did & crawled away about a hundred yards when we heard the Turks coming. They kept shouting Allah & jumped over the trenches & into the ridge where we had been. We stopped then & fired a few more shots & they lay down & started firing where they saw the flashes of the rifle. We kept on going back & stopping & firing a few shots & then going back again. After a while they got a machine gun going & kept on sweeping all over us with it, but the shots were going too high. Just as we were getting near our second line, which was a good trench, they started to shell us & the man next to me got hit in the back. The corporal who was the other side of me got hold of one arm & I got the other & we started to half drag & carry him into the trench. When we were quite close to it another shell burst & a piece hit me in the right thigh. I fell straight down & seemed to lose all power of my leg for a while I thought it was broke. The corporal who was a big man (over seventeen stone) caught hold of my hand & dragged me & the other chap into the trench. I found out then that my leg was only bruised & a few days after I could walk as well as ever, although I was still black for a month. We were the last ones to leave the ridge & we were very sorry to have to do it after holding it so long. I did not get a chance to put my bayonet into any of the Turks but the corporal who was next to me bayoneted two who had nearly got into his dugout. After we got back into the trenches things were pretty quiet for a while. I only saw one other man killed, although a good many were wounded. We were getting on alright just digging trenches & taking our turn in the firing line. The tucker was pretty good & we were getting a fair amount of sleep & rest. One day we got orders to move from some our own trenches & take up some of the Fourth Battalion ones. Then our troubles started again. While we had been digging & working hard, they had been resting & their trenches were no good. One of the first to go was our quartermaster who had charge of the stores. A whole shell which did not explode hit him one night & blew him to pieces. We picked up the pieces of him on a blanket & took them away & buried them. The next to go was our captain. He was hit on the head & died almost instantly. A few minutes after I got it myself & eight others at the same time. We were all standing in a place where a big gun had been & the Turks must have thought the gun was still there, as they started to shell it pretty heavy. I did not get the first one although the man alongside of me did & another man just behind me got one in the back. He fell down singing out something awful. I think a bullet hit him in the spine. Another chap & I started to take him to shelter when another shell went off & hit him again in his groin. I had hold of his legs at the time & the other chap had hold of his arms. He started singing out again that we were hurting him so we put him down & sang out for a stretcher. While we were waiting for it to come, another shell went off & I got one just below the eye. I went a bit dazed & fell over backwards & as I lay on the ground another shell went off & I got one in the neck & one in the leg. That seemed to wake me up a bit & I crawled away out of the road. Just after I got away, the chap who was hit at first got another one. I saw him afterwards but he died on the hospital ship. After a little while the Turks stopped their shelling & then they started to take the wounded away. I was about the last one they took. They just dressed me & then let me lay down & have a rest. I was able to hobble down to the first field hospital in the gully but when I got there I was feeling too weak to go any further & I was still bleeding a good deal from the throat so they DIGGER 5 Issue 58

6 carried me down to the shore on a stretcher & sent me aboard the hospital ship. They had just put a dressing on me & had not washed me or anything & I was all covered in blood. They had also put a bandage over my eyes so that I could not see anything. When we got to the ship they just hoisted me on board & put the stretcher on the deck & left me there. It must have been about midnight & I stopped there for an hour or two. Then one of our officers who was on board wounded came walking along & nearly fell over me. He asked me who I was & where I belonged & I told him. He asked me if I could walk & I told him I thought I could, so he gave me a hand & took me along to a bed. Then he took my clothes off & washed me & got me a clean shirt. I asked him to only put the bandage over one eye so that I could see out of the other one & this he did. In the morning an Australian nurse came along & looked at me. Hullo, she says when did you get here? I told her. Who put you in this bed? she says. So I told her again. Oh the cheek of him, she said. I ll speak to him about it. I asked her for a drink of water & she told me there was plenty of water in the filter just on the other side of the ship. Another chap got up & went across & got me a drink. An Indian doctor came during the morning & dressed me again, but after that I had great trouble to swallow as the bullet had gone through my throat & I used to keep vomiting up the blood I had swallowed. At first I had great trouble to get anything soft to eat but at last the Indian doctor said I was to get milk, so then I was alright. The ship stayed there two days after I got aboard & then went down to Alexandria. When we got there the doctor asked if I could walk & I told him I thought I could. I got down the gangway alright & into the ambulance & away to the Greek Hospital. When we got there I got out of the ambulance & walked to a seat & sat down. Presently they called me to come into the receiving room & as soon as I got up I collapsed & fell down. Two Greek boy scouts ran & got a stretcher & put me on it & carried me inside & put me to bed. The next day they put me under the X-ray to locate the bullets & the next day they operated. They took the one bullet out of my leg easy enough & the other one out of my mouth, but the one in the throat was too deep to get at. They took all the blood & stuff out of my throat & I could swallow quite easy after that. Of course, they kept me on milk & light food for a while but I soon got better & in about 10 days was out of bed. The Greek people were very good, although some of them could not speak English at all. There was one old woman on at night & if ever I wanted a drink I just used to point to my mouth & she would run away & get me a cup of milk. There was some Greek ladies who used to come every day or so, sometimes in the morning & sometimes in the afternoon. They could speak English very well & I always used to ask them if I wanted anything. The Sultan of Egypt came & had a talk with us one day & brought cigarettes & chocolates. He seems a very decent one to speak to & he can talk English very well. After I was there about three weeks they came & told me one day that I was going to England. They didn t say when or how, but one morning I felt someone doing something at my wrist so I woke up & looked at it & I had a label tied on with my name & number & regiment & the extent of my injuries written. A while after one who could speak English came in & I asked her what it was & she told me then that I was going to England that day & sure enough before dinner I was on the hospital ship & by evening we were on our way. We stayed a day in Malta & a day at Gibraltar, finally getting to England on June 21 st. We landed at Southampton & got a hospital train from there to Manchester. It is six hours ride from Southampton to Manchester & we got there at half-past two in the morning. It was long summer days then & it was coming light by three o clock. I was taken to Ducie Avenue which had been a school but was turned into a hospital soon after the war started. Of course, they were all English nurses there but they are far better than our own Australian nurses. The people in Manchester treated us very well. We were not allowed to go outside the hospital & there was an iron railing all around, so we used to go out & sit by the fence & the people used to bring us all sorts of things. I used to get on an average a dozen eggs every day & any amount of cakes & fruit & lollies. I used to keep all the chaps in bed with cigarettes that I got at the fence. I also made any amount of friends & lot of people wanted me to come & stay with them as soon as I got convalescent. I stayed in Manchester three weeks & then got a move on to Accrington Convalescent Home. The nurses there were all voluntary; they used to come & work a week or so & then the next week some different ones would be there. Some of them were very well off but they used to come & work away scrubbing floors etc & washing dishes & doing all sorts of things. Every day when it was not raining we used to go over mills & factories. I saw the cotton there from where it went in rough to where it came out cloth. Then I was in the dye & printing works DIGGER 6 Issue 58

7 where they dye all the cotton stuff & make the prints. Another time we went to a factory where they make mangles & wringers & carpet sweepers. They employ a lot of women & girls in the mills, especially in the weaving sheds. They always talk about the poverty of the people in England but I m hanged if I can see it. In Lancashire the people all wear clogs but this is not a sign of poverty. They do it on account of the very wet weather they always have. The women & girls usually wear shawls over their heads when they go to work but I think that is mostly for the cold. Of course the girls in the towns here do not always have their best clothes on like the town girls in Australia. They always remind me more of the country girls. One thing: they are always tidy & clean. All the best of the men here have enlisted now & those that remain do not like to speak too much to us in case we might ask them to enlist. Another day while I was at Accrington we went to a dairy farm. You know here in England they have to keep all their cows in big byres during the winter on account of the snow & of course they must be all hand fed. They make big stacks of turnips & carrots & mangolds [mangelwurzels]. This goes with the hay & grain for cow feed during the winter. I stayed at Accrington for a little over a fortnight & then I got my discharge & was sent to Weymouth. When I got there I was not feeling very well & when I went up before the doctor he marked me unfit & said I was to go before a board & I would most likely be sent back to Australia. A day or two after, I got 14 days furlough & a railway pass to Edinburgh. I went up to London & stayed one night at a Soldiers Home called the Union Jack Club & next day I left London at 2 o clock in the afternoon & got to Edinburgh at half-past eleven that night. I stayed in Edinburgh a few days & had a good look round. I went to see the old castle. It is very interesting to see it & the crown jewels & all the old armour & cannons & dungeons. It is also very interesting to see Holyrood Palace where Mary Queen of Scots lived. You can see her bedroom & books & a lot of other things. I also went out to see the Forth Bridge. This bridge cost about three million pounds to build & is considered to be one of the greatest engineering feats of the world. After that I went down to Glasgow & had a few days there. I went out to Loch Lomond & had a trip on that. Then I crossed to Belfast in Ireland. Belfast is a very nice place; it is nearly all new & a nice clean city. It is mostly factories & mills. There are great ship building yards there too & some of the biggest ships in the world are built there. I saw the Olympic & the Britannic lying in the docks & they are two of the biggest in the world. This is the part of Ireland they call Ulster & the people are half Protestants & half Catholics. Sometimes they meet & have terrible fights. There is one street which divides the two different quarters of the town & each side comes half way along it & then start to pelt one another with the cobble stones out of the street. These stones are big round ones & they call them kidneys in Belfast. The chap who was taking me around told me that before the war started a soldier dare not walk down that street. If he did he would soon be chased out of it with stones, but when I went down along it everything was quiet enough. Then I went down to Dublin & stayed a few days there. I did not care much for it. Some of the back streets are nearly as dirty & narrow as the Cairo streets. Dirty women & children are everywhere & at night the streets are full of drunken men & women. You see the women come out of public houses with the jugs of beer in their hands & dirty ragged children following them. Some parts of the city are all right. There are very nice public gardens & the River Liffey runs through the centre of the town. You can see dirty women selling fruit & apples & fish in the dirty back streets. I have heard them calling out six herrings for a penny but I would not like to eat them. I went down to Killarney from there & had a few days on the lakes. Killarney is a very pretty place. You go & see Muckross Abbey & Ross Castle. I had a row out on the lakes to Innisfallen Island & I got a bit of Irish holly off it. I will send it to you some time later on. There are a lot of poor people about there. It was Fair Week while I was in Killarney & everyday people were coming in with pigs & cattle & poultry, selling & bargaining them in the streets. There are a lot of men knocking about there too doing nothing but they would never speak to me. They won t enlist & they don t like talking to any soldiers in case they might ask them to join. I did not care much for Ireland. The people always think that they are hardly done by & are always complaining about something. Just now they are all for the Home Rule & while everyone else is doing their best just now, the Irish people as a whole are just going along in their old way making all the trouble they can. I came back to Dublin & then crossed over again to Manchester. I DIGGER 7 Issue 58

8 had a few days there. I think Manchester is my favourite place but I suppose that is because I was in hospital there so long. Most of the men in & about Manchester who are fit & able have joined the army. A lot of them landed at the Dardanelles the same time as we did & of course there was a lot of them killed & wounded & this makes them very good to us when we go there wounded. After I left Manchester I went on down to London & stopped there for a few days. London is a big place but I cannot say that I care much for it. You notice in London a good deal of the slums like Dublin, only the children are not quite so dirty. You also notice a lot of women drinking but I did not notice so many lying drunk in the streets as in Dublin. There are lots of sights to see in & about London but everybody is on the make & even the boys in the streets chase you for pennies like the Arab boys in Egypt. They all know the Australians & Canadians & they know that we get more money than the English troops, who only get 1/- a day. I left London & got down here to Weymouth last Saturday. I was eleven days over my furlough so I had 25 days altogether. Weymouth is a nice little place on the South Coast of England where all our chaps go when they get out of hospital. Our camp is all wooden huts with a stove & electric light in them. When I came down here I went before the doctor & told him I was fit & well so he put me into a fit platoon. I cannot see out of my eye very well as yet but it is getting better & I hope to be alright & able to see as well as ever very soon. If the doctor doesn t examine me again for eyesight I will get away with the next draft to the Dardanelles. I would not like to be sent back to Australia before the war is over. You see so many going about who will not enlist & the excuses they give would make your hair turn grey. One young chap who was asked to join said what had he got to join for? He had no wife, no children & no parents depending on him, so why should he fight? Let those fight who had something to fight for. These sort of men make you feel ashamed & you want to get away to your own men again. Of course, the prospect of getting wounded again or killed is not very pleasant but I have seen some of my best mates killed & they died like men & if I can do the same I will be quite satisfied to go now. We all know we must die some time. If I am wounded again I will be able to bear it as I did the last time & if I am crippled I shall have to bear it as many another young chap is doing & I shall know at least that I have done my duty to the country which I have got my living in. If I have the good luck to get through it all, I will be able to go back to Australia contented, knowing that I have done my best. If I do not write too often you need not worry, as when we get in the trenches we are kept working & are glad to get all the rest we can & sometimes writing materials are hard to get as we often have to leave all our things behind & only take food & ammunition. If you watch the papers you will see the casualty lists in them & if I get hit again it will be in the papers long before a letter can get there. You know my number, 955 & my name, J Jensen & my regiment, 1 st Battalion New South Wales, so you will be able to pick it out. In case I should get killed I would like you to let a friend of mine know. His address is Mr R Colverwell Queanbeyan NSW. If anything happens to me, don t worry at all. If we are not too meet again here, I trust we shall meet in the next world. But don t think I am trying to frighten you at all, only now that I have been there once I know what I have to expect & I am fully prepared for anything, but I can see my duty & I know you would not wish me to do anything else. Before I left Australia I made over 2/- a day to the old lady & she will get it every week or fortnight, that is 14/- a week, as you know doubt know that we are paid for seven days a week. I told you last time that I would send you some post-cards to keep for me until I got back but I think I will send them to Wasleys along with my old tunic & cap & a few other things. I think that is all I have to tell you this time. I will write again when we are going away so hoping this finds you well. I remain Your Loving Nephew J Jensen DIGGER 8 Issue 58

9 Having recovered from his injuries, John marched out from the Australian and New Zealand Base at Weymouth, England, with the No. 7 Draft to rejoin the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force on 4 October, John reported to the ANZAC Advance Depot, Mudros, on 18 October. The following day he was transferred to Sampi Camp, Mudros, where he rejoined the 1 st Battalion. John returned to the Gallipoli Peninsula, but on 8 December, 1915, he was admitted to the 1 st Casualty Clearing Station with defective vision. On 10 December, John was transferred to the Hospital Ship Castle and admitted to No. 1 Australian General Hospital, Heliopolis, on 14 December, On 19 January, 1916, John was discharged from hospital for return to Australia for discharge. He embarked from Suez, Egypt, aboard the Hospital Ship Karoola on 20 January. On 14 November, 1916, Jensen was discharged from the AIF in Sydney as medically unfit. Even though John [left] had been discharged from the AIF on medical grounds, just 13 days later, on 27 November, 1916, at the Sydney Showgrounds, John re-enlisted in the AIF. On his attestation form, John honestly declared that he had previously served in the AIF and that he had been discharged medically unfit. John was allocated to the 21 st Reinforcements to the 1 st Battalion on 16 December. Left: John Jensen, Sydney Mail, 19 July, Jensen was reallocated on 18 January, 1917, to the 7 th Reinforcements to the 33 rd Battalion, which embarked from Sydney aboard the HMAT Anchises on 24 January. John disembarked at Devonport, England, on 27 January, 1917, and marched into the Isolation Camp at Plymouth. On 2 April, 1917, Jensen marched into the AIF Details Camp at Fovant. He marched out from Fovant on 7 April, 1917, and reported to the Training Battalion at Durrington, England. John was transferred to the newly raised 62 nd Battalion on 28 April, From 27 June to 18 July, John attended a course at the 16 th Brigade school (possibly a promotion course). Jensen was appointed lance corporal on 18 July, Due to the heavy casualties suffered by the AIF divisions during 1917, the 62 nd Battalion was disbanded and John proceeded overseas to France via Southampton on 23 August, 1917, as a reinforcement to the 3 rd Division. The following day he marched into the 3 rd Australian Division Base Depot at Rouelles, France. John marched out from the depot to join the 33 rd Battalion on 31 August, 1917, and rejoined his unit the following day. On 11 November, at his own request, John reverted to the rank of private. Jensen was granted leave to Paris on 18 February 1918, rejoining his unit on 25 February, Suffering from scabies, John was admitted to the 11 th Field Ambulance from the 26 to 28 April. On 16 August, 1918, John was sent to the 4 th Army Rest Camp, rejoining the battalion on 26 August. In September 1918, John was recommended for the Military Medal. The recommendation reads as follows: For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during the operations near Bray on 22/23 rd August, Pte Jensen was in charge of a special section to maintain liaison with the 47 th Division on our left. He carried out his duties in a highly efficient manner and made good the gap that occurred. Singlehanded he rushed and captured a machine gun and crew. While consolidating the final objective, he went forward with a captured machine gun and successfully covered this work. His skilful and timely handling of the gun undoubtedly saved us many casualties. Throughout he displayed a courage and initiative of the highest order, and largely contributed to our successful holding on while our left flank was in the air after withdrawal of the troops on the left. [Promulgated in the London Gazette dated 14 th May 1919 and also promulgated in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette dated 15 th September 1919.] In October 1918, John Jensen was recommended for the Distinguished Conduct Medal: Private Jensen has on all occasions distinguished himself by his great gallantry and devotion to duty. He has taken part in six battles since March 30 th and in each has displayed irresistible dash, and utter disregard of personal danger, splendid initiative and distinguished himself in raids. In the August operations he did especially good work in charge of liaison sections; on two occasions he DIGGER 9 Issue 58

10 captured German machine guns and crew in face of heavy fire, and then fired these guns to great effect. He has always volunteered for any dangerous or difficult tasks, and has always achieved the fullest success. This man has been on service since He is an exceptionally keen and enthusiastic soldier, and has always set a magnificent example to the whole of the battalion. [Promulgated in the London Gazette dated 3 September 1919 and also promulgated in Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, No. 135, dated 11 December, 1919.] Jensen proceeded on leave to England on 11 October 1918, returning on 27 October. From 7-9 December, John was admitted to the 9 th Australian Field Ambulance with catarrh. From 24 December to 20 January, 1919, Jensen attended a course of instruction at the 13 th Veterinary Hospital. John [right, Sydney Mail, 6 August, 1919] was discharged from hospital and returned to his unit on 20 January, From 16 February to 12 March, he was detached to a school and then on 19 March, John was detached to the Divisional Guard. On 24 March he was detached to a school ex Divisional Guard. On 3 April, 1919, Jensen was transferred to the Australian Infantry Base Depot, Le Havre, France. He embarked from France on 9 April, disembarking at Southampton the following day. He reported to No. 2 Group at Sutton Veny. John was admitted to hospital on 29 May, 1919 (reason not recorded, nor is his date of discharge). On 16 June, 1919, John Jensen was returned to Australia aboard the Ormonde. Whilst at sea, John is recorded as being discharged from the ship s hospital, therefore he may have been a patient when he embarked. John disembarked in Sydney on 4 August, 1919, and was discharged from the AIF on 26 December. John Jensen married Florence Francis Campbell in John was a land holder near Griffith, NSW. John answered the call to arms again during World War II when he enlisted at Katoomba, NSW, on 7 June 1942 (N347293). He was a staff sergeant serving with the 19 th Battalion, Volunteer Defence Corps, when discharged on 30 September, The battle of Mont St Quentin must have made an impression on John, as he named his farm Mont St Quentin. John Jensen DCM, MM, passed away on 10 September, 1949, aged 58. The following brief obituary, dated 13 September, was placed in the Sydney Morning Herald : Jensen, John DCM, MM. 1 st Bn, 33 rd Bn, 1 st AIF, Sept 10 at Yaralla Military Hospital, Concord of Wyena Road, Pendle Hill, dearly beloved husband of Florence F Jensen, also late of Mont St Quentin, Farm 1947, Yenda; late president 1936, Wade Shire, Griffith, aged 58 years, At Rest. Endnote: John s brother, Private 571 William Lawrence Jensen, served in the AIF with the 10 th Battalion. ACTION REPORT This is the journal of the recently formed Shire Military Club that exists to promote the military s involvement in the Sutherland Shire (NSW) since The club also aims to list and recognise any men and women residents who have served in all conflicts and in the Army Reserve and National Service. Nothing to do with firearms and they are non-political. [ 20 PAGES PAPERBACK ] $5 POSTAGE FREE WAR BOOK SHOP 13 Veronica Place, Loftus NSW Phone: warbookshop@bigpond.com We have a regular meetings open to anyone use the contacts above. DIGGER 10 Issue 58

11 The first saving of Villers-Bretonneux Letters from Private 203 Vivian Walter Veale, 33 rd Bn. Transcribed by Bill Durrant, Currumbin. A soldier s letter home to his mother, describing the lead up to the Defence of Villers-Bretonneux by the 9 th Australian Brigade, and the successful Defence itself, leading up to the 19 th of April when the 9 th Brigade handed Villers-Bretonneux over to other Units. Printed in the Armidale Express & New England General Advertiser, 30 July and 2 August Information in square brackets are annotations from Bill. Bill hopes that the opening of the Sir John Monash Centre at the Villers-Bretonneux Australian National Memorial in 2018 will remind people of the Australians involvement in stopping the German drive toward Amiens, and that the Australian involvement did not just start on 24 April, 1918, when the second German assault started to recapture the town, but began with the 9 th Brigade s defence of the town earlier in April. Strenuous Campaigning. WITH THE 33rd BATTALION. What a Mobile Unit Means. Pte Viv. Veale, one of the two soldier sons of Mr and Mrs H Veale, of Armidale, writes home from a Birmingham Hospital, under date 9/5/18, as follows: I know you will be surprised when you see where this hails from but don t be worried, as your humble will soon be OK again. In the first week in March [8 March] our battalion left Ploegsteert Wood [the front-line in the St Yves Sector] after ten days fighting and went some distance back to a place called Bellebrune, in the Boulogne area. Supposed to be out for six weeks spell, but when a fortnight out the Huns made a big attack and we got notice to move to the front immediately, destination not known. We were to be a mobile division (the 3 rd ) that is to hop in where the line is showing any weakness. We left at 3 o clock on the afternoon of the 23 rd March and tramped and tramped until midnight, and then halted until morning awaiting the arrival of a train, at a place called Lottinghen. It arrived at 6 am. During the waiting we built fires along the roadside, and groups of men sat round each and welcomed the warmth. Our band played selections at intervals. Besides us, there were the 34 th, 35 th and 36 th Battalions, one Pioneer and one Engineer battalion, a company of machine gunners, trench mortars, and transports, so for miles the roads were all fires, burning brightly. It was a great spectacle. A YMCA hut was handy and supplied thousands of men with a cup of hot cocoa, supplied by the Australian Comforts Fund. This is a very generous and helpful fund, and too much cannot be said on their behalf. We entrained at 6.30, and at 4.30 we detrained at a place called Abeele and then marched three miles to billets (haysheds). We were tired and hungry, and after tea we turned in, but at 2.30 in the morning we were roused up, and in full fighting order we were loaded into motor transports, and went some miles to a place called Steenvoorde. We stayed there for a night and a day. On the 26 th we were off again, and packed into a train after a 13-mile march. We were in all night and on the 27 th we arrived at Doullens, and after marching all day arrived near the battlefront at Artois-en-Pas. Here the enemy were being held, so again we went to bed, removing no clothing or boots. It so turned out we were not wanted here, and we were off again at 5.30 on the 28 th, on a six-mile march and into motor-transports again. We rode for eight hours. During these movements we had little or nothing to eat, and were very tired and footsore; and never had a wash since leaving Bellebrune. We next arrived at a place called Heilly and stayed on the outskirts for a few hours, resting, and when night fell we got into fighting order and went through the village to the defences ahead. A push was made by the English and New Zealand troops, with us in reserve. Everything went off OK, so we were again not wanted. On the 30 th we again went 10 miles per boot to a fine city called Corbie, staying here in reserve for four days and nights. This is on the Somme, where the fighting was so severe for the last two years. At Corbie we had plenty of food, and wine, beer, champagne, eggs, fowls, etc., and pianos galore. But a home like that did not last long. On the 5 th April we went further on the Somme, travelling by night to a place called Cachy, with the French troops on our right. We arrived at billets at 2 am and slept until morning, and then over comes an enemy Gotha aeroplane and gave the show away. Half an hour later Fritz started shelling the village and all hands evacuated quick into an open field behind, and then in a couple of hours we rallied and found our various sections. We went into a dense wood and remained until noon. It was here we finally prepared for battle. On Easter Saturday, at 3 o clock, we set out to find the Huns position. He was supposed to be in Hangard Wood, on our direct front. Our colonel (Colonel Morshead) said his position or stronghold had not DIGGER 11 Issue 58

12 been observed, so the job for the finding fell to the 33 rd Battalion. Anyhow, we advanced on over open country and into the wood. When half-way through we found and surprised the enemy, and a tough struggle began. We got a devil of a time of it, too, but the cavalry came to our relief, and then we got him on the run and out of the wood, capturing prisoners and guns. The British cavalry are a fine body of men and are fresh at it, being but very little in action as yet. We advanced yards and consolidated, with the wood in our rear and dug in and were then relieved by Tommies. The next morning at 3.30 we tried a stunt, and got what several Tommy battalions failed to do. Our 34 th Battalion were in reserve to us, and came up at a critical moment. Their casualties were three slightly wounded; ours were 14 killed and 120 wounded and missing. Some more of the old hands went under. W Cooper came through OK. Perc was stretcher-bearing and had a tough time, but came through safely. About five days later we moved further to the left to a fine city, called Villers-Bretonneux, which had been evacuated by civilians. Here we were in reserve, the front line being yards ahead. We had two days peace here and were living in luxury, until Fritz started shelling the place. We then took up our abode in the cellars, but one of our section mates (Pioneers) remained in the house and would not come down with us. He said he would be alright, and early next morning three shells fell on the building, making a wreck of the place and killing our poor mate. We buried him in the flower garden at the back. Another shell blew in the stable at the place where we were billeted, and killed two of our transport horses, a dog, a calf, and some fowls. Two days after this, with ten hours shelling preceding, Fritz made an advance. Three of our companies were in the line, supported by the 35 th and 36 th Battalions in reserve. The pressure of the enemy s attack was on the flanks on the Tommies. He broke through on both by sheer weight of numbers massed formation and we then were obliged to fall back or else be cut off and taken prisoners. We went back to the village in good order, fighting as we left. We then quick and lively took up positions in the village. We had machine guns and bombs at every hole and corner to meet him. This place had to be held at all costs. The artillery of both sides had ceased, not knowing where the troops were. It was rather exciting, and we eagerly waited for Fritz to show his nose. Myself and six others were on the corner of some cross streets, near headquarters, and were told by our colonel not to retire until ordered, but to hang on as long as possible. Your humble was first gunner, and at every sign of an enemy head I let him have it. We, in this way, held him for 2½ hours machine guns and rifle fire kept him back. So at last our reserves arrived, and also two battalions of North Londoners. They went through our defences at the run, and caught Fritz nicely and mowed them down. We also (the company) went forward. My section hung on at headquarters, and while here a Tommy officer came up and asked us what we were doing there. We refused to budge, and he off [sic] into headquarters and found the colonel. Our corporal was sent for and explained the case and the Tommy officer got a severe reprimand and sent about his business. He said he thought we were his battalion men. Anyhow we scored. This day Fritz was driven back yards further than from where he left. A few days later we shifted more into the heart of the village, and for the 13 days we were in the place we were under shell-fire all the time. It was nerve-racking. We shifted to fresh cellars three times after the buildings above had been blown in on us, and on the 18 th April [actually 17 th April] the enemy put a heavy barrage of gas shells into the village for 48 hours nothing but gas shells and heavy shrapnel fell. It was dull weather and damp, and the gas hung low in a thick blue haze. Of course, we had to knock about and do our work in it. We wore our gas masks until we nearly smothered, and finally had to take them off when we got sick. So the result was that only about 20 men of our battalion escaped. All the officers, even to the colonel, got it. I went out to it on the 18 th at about 9 o clock at night, and was led up to the dressing station by a pal who could see a little. A fresh doctor had taken over ours was gassed. I was totally blind and my voice almost gone. This gas affects the eyes and voice. Right: Lieutenant Colonel Leslie James Morshead, 33 rd Battalion, AIF. AWM H I was in the station for three hours, awaiting the horse ambulance. It came eventually, and at 3 in the morning everything was taken off me. I was DIGGER 12 Issue 58

13 put in a chair and the doctor got to work. I was then nearly suffocating, and frothing at the mouth. My eyes were forced open and some liquid poured in, which nearly burnt my eyes out, and then a sort of woollen mask was put on my face. It was like ammonia of some sort. I fought for breath then, but after a time I got some ease and laid on the stretcher for an hour or so, and then left by Red Cross car to a place called Longpree [Longpré-les-Corps-Saints]. After various trains and cars, I was aboard the boat for Blighty. I could see a little then. The nurses and sisters look after us well. I was at Rouelles (France) for a night, and this was the first place I was allowed to sit up. I couldn t see anyone, though, and I was on a milk diet and felt extra weak. My eyes were washed and castor oil dropped in them twice a day. I had three different medicines a day and had an hour, three times a day, over an inhaler, and was allowed to smoke cigarettes. In fact I was told to smoke them, and several were given us each day. They gave fine relief. I landed at last in London and then got to Birmingham, 130 miles from the city. It s a fine place, and the hospital grounds contain nine large buildings, each a hospital containing six and seven wards. I m in F Block, No. 2 Ward. A big staff of nurses is here. I ve been up now for four days, and am feeling much better. After my eyes got well enough to read and write, I got a big sty on one. Our uniform here is blue coats and long trousers, white soft shirts, and a red tie. The food is very scarce here in hospital. I may be removed to an Aussy s hospital in a day or so, and then after a few days convalescent leave back to France again. Perc, I guess, was very anxious at not seeing me show up. He was not in the village, as the band was back some miles. The men: Private 203 Vivian Walter Veale enlisted on 1 December, 1915, and returned to Australia on 11 December, Perc was his brother, Sergeant 2405 Percy Ninis Veale, 33 rd Bn, enlisted 29 April, 1916, and RTA 24 January, W Cooper was Private 233 Walter Lionel Cooper, 33 rd Bn, enlisted 16 February, 1916, and RTA 19 October, Lieutenant Colonel Leslie James Morshead, appointed lieutenant in AIF 13/9/18, 2 nd Bn and later CO of 33 rd Bn, CMG, DSO, MID (five times). Commanded 18 th Brigade and 9 th Division in WWII. Awarded KCB. Sir Leslie James Morshead died in 1959 Ed. Excerpt from the Memoirs of Pte 3178 Gordon Watson Kiely, 59 th Bn Contributed by Ian Kiely, WA, courtesy of David Huggonson, Weston. Gordon Kiely relates the events of 19 June, 1918: W e were in supports at the time, immediately behind the front line. The area surrounding us was very lively, as the battalion on our left were busy attacking to straighten the line, in preparation for our big push which finally ended the war about five months later. [With me was] my old mate, Pillbox Lacey always hungry good on the tooth was his favourite expression. He was a happy soul, with a perpetual grin. [Pte 3189 George Lacey, 59 th Bn.] We had some food stored around in the long, straight communication trench [when] a shell landed just in front of me. The blast from the explosion picked me up and shot me along the trench about ten feet, where I collected George ( Pillbox ) and flattened him. I had received two pieces of shell; one of which shattered my wrist, whilst the other penetrated my gas mask canister and cracked a couple of ribs over the heart. Now here is where my luck was evident, for had I been in a standard trench, I could not have moved that distance. Hence things would have been more awkward, so I considered myself lucky. It was now about 1.00 am in the morning of 19 June, 1918, and after applying the normal field dressing, which was not a great deal of use too small. I wanted to get to the company headquarters; to do so, normally one had to traverse three sides of a square, totalling about half a mile. However, another of my mates, Bill Logan, who had rejoined the unit after being wounded at Villers-Bret only a couple of hours before I was hit, reckoned he knew the short cut, as the headquarters was directly behind our position. [Pte 2935 William Mickey Logan, 59 th Bn.] Well, we set off through the barrage of shells and got lost. Finally, we arrived at a spot. Bill asked if it was HQ, only to be told, This is where you started from half an hour ago. Bill came in from some abuse mainly from me, I guess. Finally, we set off to follow the right track i.e. the three sides of the square. Sometime in the afternoon I arrived in the casualty clearing station and from there to the field hospital, where I underwent an immediate operation. This hospital was just a huge marquee with eight surgeons working flat out no antiseptic control whatsoever. From here I travelled in a hospital train to Rouen General [Hospital] for a few days, then by hospital ship to England. By this time I was a stretcher case, having developed what later proved to be septicaemia. DIGGER 13 Issue 58

14 One family s sacrifice: Gibbs father and sons Stephen Brooks, Barooga. R ichard Horace Maconochie ( Mac ) Gibbs MC, 2 nd lieutenant, 6 th Battalion AIF, enlisted in May Richard (from Colac, Victoria), embarked from Melbourne in January 1916, at 23 years of age. Gibbs, a university medical student prior to enlistment, was later transferred to the 59 th Battalion and promoted to the rank of lieutenant. Lieutenant Gibbs was killed in action on 19 July, 1916, at the Battle of Fromelles, a terrible day for the Victorians of the 59 th Battalion. He has no known grave and is commemorated at VC Corner Australian Cemetery Memorial, Fromelles, France. A witness stated that He [Gibbs] was killed over towards the German line in the charge on the night of July 19 th at Fleurbaix. I saw him go down hit either by shrapnel or a bullet. I was quite near him at the time. I don t know if his body was recovered. Another soldier said, I saw Lieut. Gibbs when I was coming back from trenches between the two lines at Fleurbaix, he was dead, and I was lying beside him for a long time. Richard Gibbs was posthumously awarded a Military Cross for his actions in battle shortly before his death: At Petillon on the 19 th /20 th July 1916, when his Company Commander was seriously wounded immediately prior to the order to charge, Lieut. Gibbs took charge and led his men over the parapet. By his example the men were spurred on, and although advancing under a galling machine-gun and rifle fire he kept his men moving steadily forward in perfect line and order. Lieut. Gibb s calm and collected manner gave his men the impulse necessary to carry them as far as it was possible to go. Right: Photograph of 2 nd Lieutenant Richard Horace Maconochie Gibbs, 6 th /59 th Battalions AIF. AWM P Richard s younger brother, also a student, 1951 Private John Harbinger Gibbs, 5 th Battalion AIF, had enlisted just prior to his older brother. He became very ill with enteritis while serving at Gallipoli during August 1915 and was evacuated to Egypt. John Gibbs was later attached to Administration Headquarters in London, but caught a severe cold in early He never really recovered and was very weak and had lost considerable weight when he was repatriated to Australia in July 1917, where his father, Ronald H Gibbs, a doctor of some renown in Colac, took over his medical care. Despite having his son shifted to Colac where Dr Gibbs could personally care for his son, the boy died of illness at his father s home in Colac on the 13 October, 1917, still only 20 years of age. John Gibbs was sent home with what was called phthisis, a medical term for wasting away which is no longer in technical use, but was commonly used to describe tuberculosis of the lungs. Left: John Harbinger Gibbs. AWM P The two boys father, Major Richard Horace Gibbs, did not serve overseas, but at the outbreak of the Great War, Doctor Gibbs was residing and working as a practitioner and surgeon at Colac, Victoria. As a civilian he became involved in securing recruits for active service in the AIF and conducting medical examinations of volunteers. Following the loss of his two sons, Richard Horace Gibbs gave up his practice and devoted his work to the medical care of sick and wounded soldiers who had returned to Australia. He was gazetted a major in the AIF and appointed senior surgeon at No. 16 Australian General Hospital at MacLeod in Victoria. DIGGER 14 Issue 58

15 Major Gibbs was killed in a tram accident in Melbourne in July, He was on his way to the military hospital in Melbourne on 13 July when, attempting to alight from a tram, he slipped and suffered injuries which caused his death shortly after. Right: Major Richard Horace Gibbs, Senior Surgeon, No. 16 Australian General Hospital. AWM P Postscript: Stephen had the privilege of driving Doctor Richard Gibbs restored 1910 Model T Ford around Colac [left]. Letter from the Front, 1916 Found on Trove. Private George Woods, son of Mr and Mrs George Woods, of South Gundagai, writes to his mother from France. His letter is dated July 31, 1916, and runs as follows: Well, I m one of the lucky boys who came safely through the great Pozieres affair. Our battalion bore the brunt of the attack, and took three lines of trenches. Talk about a hell on earth! You couldn t imagine what it was like. I suppose, however, the papers have told you all about it. Ah! But it hurts to think of it! Two of my best mates were killed. Jack Leck, formerly of Adelong (where his father was once postmaster) had all his teeth blown out and also his left eye. Poor chap! A small piece of shrapnel struck me just over the kidney, barely breaking the skin. I posted a form to be cabled to you yesterday. Have lost my pack and several other things. Had two bonser souvenirs (Prussian Guards officers helmets) for you and Rene but they were buried with three men. It is a common occurrence to get buried. As for fighters, the Germans are rotten. They kept throwing up their hands and pleading for mercy. Our boys cannot be beaten. Nothing will stop them. Pozieres is honeycombed with shell holes and brick dust. I was destined not to be killed, as a six inch high-explosive shell blew me clean out of a trench into a shell hole 12 feet away, and a gas shell burst so close to me that it knocked me backwards. Had it been anything else well, I would not now be writing this letter to you. We won t go into action again for some time. Will soon write again. Hope they don t mix me up with another Woods, and cable you I m wounded. That is how my pack was lost. Am feeling very tired completely knocked up, but apart from that I m OK. Am very thankful to be out of Pozieres. Don't worry about me, as I m not to be hurt after the Pozieres experience. Writing under date 5/8/16, Private Woods says: I wrote a long letter to you a few days ago, and gave it to a sergeant to be censored, but it now appears he does not know what became of it. Met three Jugiong lads yesterday, with Doug Carr [Pte 3279, 1 st Bn, DOW 20/9/17]. I have finished with the firing line now, and have been transferred into the Divisional Signalling Corps, and don the old bandolier and leggings once more. Except for a cold, I m alright again. When we came out of the Pozieres battle (all that were left of the battalion) we were dog tired. We had had no sleep for six days, and the incessant boom of the guns upset our nerves, and we were!!!!! Have operators from Germanton [later renamed Holbrook Ed.] and Tumut as pals. I will either be operating, or will be in the cable section in future. Source: Tumut and Adelong Times, 5 October, The writer was L/Cpl 4355 George Woods MSM, 3 rd Bn/1 st DSC. RTA 12 May, He was a postal electrician of South Gundagai before enlisting, age 20. DIGGER 15 Issue 58

16 Private 6303 Angus Duncan McCallum, 16 th Battalion Wendy Mahoney (nee McCallum), Kelscott. A ngus Duncan McCallum ( Uncle Dunc ) was born in Thebarton, SA, on 10 September, 1880, and was the fourth child of Hugh and Margaret McCallum. After the death of his father, he and his mother moved to WA. Dunc tried several times to join the AIF but due to heart problems and a cardiac murmur (which runs in the McCallum family), he was not enlisted until 21 August, Dunc was appointed to the 20 th Reinforcements to the 16 th Battalion and embarked on the HMAT Suffolk on 10 October, After the usual training in England, Dunc embarked for France on the Princess Clementine on 25 December, After more training, he was taken on strength in the field on 11 February, Below right: Duncan McCallum, standing at rear, holding a starter s pistol for his brother Alex. Two months later Dunc was wounded and captured during the First Battle of Bullecourt. He was interned at Dulmen (Company 54, Group 3). Before Dulmen he was twice taken off the Red Cross trains and put in hospital in Cambrai and at Mons. At Dulmen he ended up working in a coal mine on the banks of the Rhine. Beginning on the next page is a letter Dunc wrote on 20/1/19 to his brother, my great uncle, Alex McCallum MLA, which I was fortunate enough to obtain from his Repatriation Files at the National Archives. Although in that letter, Dunc says that I have my photo in uniform supplied by the Red Cross, unfortunately, I haven t been able to locate that photo and the only few photos I have of him are courtesy of the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library and used with permission. Dunc returned to Australia on the Nevasa, arriving on 13 April, 1919, and was discharged on 3 June. He joined the West Australian Government Railways, where his father, and later his brother Archie, (my grandfather) were also employed. Dunc worked as a railway porter at Swanbourne Station for 16 years. He married Whilemina ( Minnie ) Denyer in 1919, and they lived in a tiny flat with Dunc s mother until he purchased a house in Cottesloe. Several times during their married life, Angus was forced to apply to the Repatriation Department for assistance to purchase furniture and other necessities for the two of them. They had no children. Below left: Dunc standing on right of the back row. Seated on the right is my grandfather, Archie James Valentine McCallum, Corporal 2860 Railway Unit, and Reinforcements and Special Draft (February 1917 October 1918). As a result of his war injuries, Dunc suffered ill health for the rest of his life and died of cancer and kidney failure on 28 October, Despite the difficulties he experienced in life, his Death Notice describes him as a man of remarkable personal charm with a kindliness of character which won him close friendships. I did not learn of Dunc s existence until several years ago, and when we visited his grave in the old forgotten part of the Fremantle Cemetery [right] I was very sad to see it in a sad state of repair. After a lot of correspondence with Veterans Affairs I was able to prove that he was entitled to the standard military plaque which they duly sent me. The plaque is yet to be installed. In two months we will be attending the 100 th Anniversary of the First Battle of Bullecourt which will no doubt be a very sentimental time for us! Dunc s account of his capture and imprisonment begins on the next page. DIGGER 16 Issue 58

17 M any years ago our own Australian poet, Adam Lindsay Gordon, wrote a poem on the eve of his exile from England to Australia, entitled To my Sister. It began like this: Across the trackless sea I go No matter when, or where, And few my future lot will know And fewer still will care. It is just about 2½ years since across the trackless sea I went, no matter when or where, and few my future lot did know, but past events have shown, there were quite a few who cared, and foremost amongst them my only sister. I will try and give you an account of how I came to be taken prisoner and since. We landed in England on Dec 2 nd, 1916 after a glorious passage of eight weeks and three days. We left England again for France on December 28 th. We were camped in France at Etaples. We underwent a very severe training at a place nicknamed the Bull Ring. Here we commenced all over again, all the drills we had been doing, day after day, for seven long months in WA. This did not tend to improve our temper; the only thing it improved was our language!! At last orders came to go up the Line to join our battalion. Everyone was pleased to get away from Etaples. We had been sleeping 15 men in a tent, and packed like herrings. Only one man could get dressed at a time as there was scarcely room to turn around. This was the coldest winter they have had on the Continent for 30 years and our sufferings from the cold were terrible. We left Etaples on Feb 6 th in cattle trucks on a bitterly cold morning with a foot of snow on the ground. Someone pinched a dixey [dixie] from the railway siding and filled it with coal from the engine and made a fire. This was placed in the middle of the truck, and I can afford to laugh now when I think of the 30 men trying to get warm around this fire. I had a bad turn while we were waiting to board the train. I had put on over one stone on the voyage over to England, but the poor food and the hard training we went through at the Bull Ring took it all out of me, and I am ashamed to say that I fainted. This, however, had one advantage: it gained me a good place near the fire all the way up the line. We left the train about 10pm that night amidst another snow storm and had to tramp about five miles to the well-known town of Albert, where we camped again in tents for the night. We were now in sound of the big guns. We left camp at six next morning for a 12-mile march with full packs, up to join our battalion at a place called Mametz. We reached Mametz during the same afternoon after a very wet and weary tramp, smothered in mud and wet through, only to find the battalion were in action at a place called Flers, but were coming out next day for a spell. Next day I had my first experience of seeing men fresh from the firing line, and the sight of them brought home to me that our part in the business had only been a picnic up to then, and had the effect of stopping a lot of my growling. We rested here a couple of days and then went to a place called Quarry Siding to do fatigue work. Here we had to build light railways running from the main line to the trenches; there were branches in all directions for the purpose of getting up rations and ammunition, and they were a great success. They were known as the Anzac Light Railway. This was all pick and shovel work, and the frost and snow being so severe made it doubly hard. Anyhow, I survived it for six weeks. This is the sort of SPELL they give you when you come out of the firing line. On April Fool s Day we left for Bapaume; this meant another 15-mile march. The Germans had just left Bapaume, and our big guns were going up and they had made an awful mess of the roads, and the Germans in their retreat had done their dirty work well. We passed village after village reduced to ruins, not a house standing, only piles of bricks and the little graveyard around the ruined Church. In Bapaume itself a few buildings were left standing; amongst them being the Town Hall. Our own 11 th Battalion from WA were in advance of us, and some of them slept in the Town Hall. The Mayor of the town and the MP for the district also slept there. One night, up went the Town Hall and all its occupants. We marched into Bapaume next day and were put to work digging for the bodies. When the Mayor s and the MP s bodies had been recovered, operations ceased, and some of those boys are still under those ruins. Here I had my first experience of dugout life, but there were plenty of ruined buildings about and we were able to get plenty of wood and iron, and made some real Palace Hotel dugouts. We had some very heavy work around Bapaume repairing roads to let our big guns and transport wagons get through; the Germans had put mines in all the cross-roads as they left, and they took some filling up. DIGGER 17 Issue 58

18 We were working just outside Bapaume laying a cable to another village, when over came the German planes and saw us digging. They went back and let their artillery know, then over came the shrapnel. They shelled us all the rest of that day but no damage to speak of That s where I received my baptism. Next day, April 6 th, we entered the support line of trenches at a village called Noreuil. This was all night work. We had to keep out of sight all day as the German planes were always over in the daytime and we had to carry ammunition up to the front line in the dark. This was an awful job. It was raining or snowing the whole time and we had not seen the sun for weeks. We had guides to take us to the front line, but one night our guide got lost and had us walking about for four hours. I had a box of gas shells weighing about a hundredweight, and it was no joke falling down shell-holes one minute and the next up to your knees in mud. Fritz was always sending up planes, and of course he could see us, and then he would send us over a few shells just to break the monotony. I can tell you I learned to speak several languages on those excursions. The night we got lost we nearly wandered into the German lines; we were just pulled up in time by one of our Australian officers who put us on the right track. After about a week of this work we were quite used to the shells as we were getting it all day and were out in it all night and only had a few casualties. Previous to this I had been through a course of training on the Lewis machine gun ( The Suicide Corps ) and I was No. 2 Gunner on a reserve crew. It was in these supports I spent my first Easter from home. I will never forget that Easter Sunday, all the big guns on the Western Front blazed away for two hours on the Hindenburg line. We were laying between the lines and our guns, and had these shells passing over our heads, and what a row! On April 10 th we were lined up and told we were to go over the top. We were shown a plan of the trench we had to take and the way to get to it. I will just explain to you how they generally plan to take a trench. The scouts go out the night before and lay down a long white tape, halfway between our trench and the Germans barbed wire. The party on defence always had barb wire in front of his trench, if he has time to put it up, and the Germans had miles of it. The first wave crawls out and lays down on the tape, the second wave of men lay 50 yards behind the first, and the third and fourth wave likewise. Then the artillery open what they call a barrage on the barb wire. They blaze away at the wire for 15 minutes and they then lift their range onto the enemy s first trench while the men get through the battered wire and get as close as they can to the enemy trench. Then all of a sudden the barrage stops dead and in you go and dig them out with your bayonet, if you can. On this night we left our dugouts about 3 am and got into an old railway cutting. The Germans were 800 yards away. We were told the barrage would open at quarter to five and stop at 5 am. I was in the first wave over. I was absolutely the last man on the right flank. We got out and laid on the tape and we were waiting for the barrage to open. While lying there I saw the Jocks attacking a village on our left [Bullecourt]; saw the shells bursting in hundreds and the village catch fire. This was just at daybreak and the snow was on the ground, and the glare from the burning village and the bursting of shells was a grand sight but awful. It was fast getting daylight and we had been seen by the Germans and they began to shell us, and we were told to retire. Our artillery had not opened fire something had miscarried and we were told to get back to our dugouts the best way we could. It was daylight now and we made a beautiful target against the snow, and talk about a scramble! It was just like a football crowd going home, and he didn t forget to pepper us. My number nearly went up on the way back. We had been carrying ammunition all the evening before we went over, and of course, had no sleep. We had had no bread for four days, only bully and biscuits, and not had a hot drink for the same period, as we were not allowed to make a fire. The ploughed fields we had to cross were too much for me, so I kept to the hard road and chanced the shells. One landed just about 10 yards behind me and blew me off my feet; two boys ran to me but I got up with nothing more than a good shower of pebbles and mud. I wished I had got one that morning, it would have saved a lot of hard work and worry since. That night we had to go up again. This time we were told there would be no artillery but each company would have two tanks. Up we went to the same old railway cutting, and for me, never to return that way. The whole of the 4 th Brigade were going over this time (4 000 men). The trench we were after was before Bullecourt and extended to the right to another village called Riencourt. The orders were: we were to leave the sunken road (as they call the cutting) and hop over at 5 o clock. The tanks were to go first and mow down the wire. It was to send up a green light and then we were to charge. What happened was this The tanks went ahead alright but they kicked up more row than a steam roller. The Germans saw them and began to shell them. I was in the first wave laying on top of the cutting when the first shell passed that close over my head I felt it scorch my neck. It landed fair in the cutting and killed two of my closest DIGGER 18 Issue 58

19 pals two brothers Geo. and Sam Buckingham two married men from East Perth. They had seven youngsters between them. [Ptes 6237 George Henry and 6238 W Samuel E Buckingham, KIA 11/4/17.] It was now 5 o clock and the order came first wave over over we went. The result was we passed the tank before it reached the barb wire and it was unable to use its guns as we were in front of it, and then he saw us coming and opened his machine guns on us. He had a machine gun every 10 yards. You know the noise a motor bike makes going at full speed that s the nearest approach to the noise of a machine gun I know, so you can try and imagine a few hundred motor bikes racing at you together. We could see the sparks flying off the wire in front and the bullets cracking like stockwhips around our ears. A sergeant fell right in front of me. I went to him but he told me to go on. I went on till I reached the wire and what wire it was a mass about 10 yards wide. I was looking for a post to climb over when Lieutenant Aarons, my company officer, came along. (He is an old Fremantle lacrosse player) and a good game fellow [later Capt. Daniel Sidney Aarons, MC & Bar]. He said: Come on boys, we have to get over it. I used the butt of my rifle to hold the wire down and walked across from post to post and got over without a scratch. The bullets were still whistling all around me. I could feel them hitting the wire while I was walking over it. I could see the boys falling all around. One by one they would go down with just a groan. Once they fell on the wire there was no getting off. They kept the machine guns on the wire and it was getting black with our brave wounded boys, and the groans and cries began to get louder and louder. I can tell you it made a man keep his teeth shut. I went about another 30 yards and struck another mass of wire just the same as the first. I was one of the very few who got through the first wire and I went over the second in the same manner as I did the first. A few of us made a rush for the trench. I went straight to the first dugout and threw a bomb down. There was a yell. Another boy stood on guard at one side of the door when we saw a German crawling up saying Mercy Kamarad. He was badly hit and died soon after. He told us his kamarad [comrade] was still there but we found him too bad to crawl up. He had got it in the back. Our orders were to hold the first trench. The second wave had to take the second trench, so over they went after the second trench and gave us time to pick ourselves up and look around. We doctored the wounded German up as best we could and gave him a drink and some biscuits. He turned out to be the means of saving a few of our lives. When I had a look at myself, the corner of my sheepskin jacket was full of bullet holes and I have often wondered since how I got through that hell of lead without a scratch. It seems almost impossible to think that any living creature could possibly get through it without stopping something. I doubt if the Glorious Light Brigade faced anything worse than the 4 th Brigade faced on that fatal morning of April 11, I am going to celebrate that day henceforth. I had been given lots of good advice from the old heads to keep my head down, but one of the first things I did when I got cooled down was to have a look over the top my number nearly went up for the second time. I got a shower of dirt right in the eyes. I fell back in the trench with fright and said to myself blind. When I got over my fright I found it was only an eyeful of dirt. Two of us went along to a bush on the parapet to see where that shot came from. I saw two German helmets just over on my left. I had a shot at one and it went up in the air and they didn t appear again so I have counted that one to me. We had been in the trench about an hour and it was broad daylight when along came one of our tanks and stopped right over the top of the trench I was in. I could see the bullets bouncing off it like hail stones, and they began to shell it. I saw a shell hit it and stand it right up on end. At the same time something hit me right inside the left knee. I called one of the boys who was near me and he took off my putty and there was a white fluid coming away from my knee-cap. Looked at the other side but it had not gone through. It was quite a long time before it began to bleed. They told me I went all the colours of the Union Jack so they took me down a dugout where the wounded German was, as the shells were beginning to arrive by the score and the trench was getting blown about a bit. The boys that had gone on to the second trench were getting pushed back and the dugouts were all full of wounded. Then the boys began to gather up the wounded men s ammunition. We could only carry four bombs each and they were soon used up. Then someone called from the top, Anyone that can walk had better try and get back. Someone shouted up, Are you going to leave the wounded? There was no answer. We had three men of the 14 th Battalion who were tying up the wounded in my dugout. One of them went up to investigate. They told him the Germans were bombing us out and we had no ammunition, and to try and get back. He came back and stayed with us. Several more came down and said the Germans were all around us and no-one could get back. They were knocked over as fast as they put their hands up. My leg had gone up like a balloon and we were half frozen and had had nothing to eat since the night before. I was just in that state I didn t care what happened. We could hear the Germans coming along the trench, hear DIGGER 19 Issue 58

20 them bombing the dugouts as they came along, and we knew we were gone a million. No ammunition, helpless to put up a scrap if we had it. I said to myself, This is the end of a perfect day. The boys of the 14 th who were with us dragged the wounded German up to the mouth of the dugout and made him yell to his mates. When they saw him he told them we were all wounded and were good kamarads, and that saved our bacon. I was the first to be hauled out and my leg [was] useless and very painful so the 14 th boys took turns to carry me on their backs. They took us along the trench where the shelling was not so bad and put us in another dugout, and kept us there till 4 o clock in the afternoon. We were then taken out and I was carried for about three miles across fields, sitting on a long handle shovel, to the village of Riencourt. Our own artillery was shelling the trenches now, and a lot of our boys were knocked out as they were being taken back. All the wounded were put in a large livery stable yard and I saw some awful sights there. Several men died in that yard. We were then put in German wagons drawn by three ponies and taken about another three miles to a dressing station, and had to stand all the way. Here we were put into a room about 12 ft square with an asphalt floor and were given a drink of black coffee but nothing to eat. Anyone that had a bandage on was left as they were all night. The others were dressed by the German doctor. We had to sleep on the cold floor without blankets. They threw in a few straw mattresses but the worst cases had to have them. Next day we were given one slice of black bread and coffee. This was the first bread I had for 36 hours. In the afternoons they began to shift us in motor vans with stretchers and it was late in the night when the last van left, and I was unlucky to be an odd man, and had to stay in this room all night on my own. Two little French boys sneaked into this room and gave me a few biscuits, and I gave them my collar badges and they were in great glee. I did not see any more of my own battalion corps until I reached Germany. Next day I had more bread and coffee and was put on a motor ambulance with two wounded Germans. We had nearly an hour s ride to Cambrai. It was an awful rough ride and my leg was very painful, and I screamed all the way. I will never forget that journey. Here I was put into a hospital that had once been a convent and here I also met the only decent German I have seen. He was the doctor and could speak a little English. I had all my clothes taken off the first time for five weeks and was put on the operating table. He put a syringe to my knee and took out a half a cup of humour and told me in a few hours more it would have been blood poisoning. Then he said, I hope you sleep well now and I did. This was the third day now and my leg had not been looked at before. It was an awful size and I was afraid I would lose it, but it soon went down. I saw some awful sights in this hospital shattered legs and arms that had not been looked at for three days, going septic and quite green. I was at this place about five days when I was put on a hospital train for Germany. I had been travelling one night when the doctor came along the train taking temperatures. I was put off the train with some others at the famous town of Mons as being unfit to travel. I had a bad time at this place. I was there a week but I only remember two days. I was delirious most of the time. We were in a large hospital five storeys high, and every floor was filled with wounded. The doctors were working from 8 in the morning till 10 at night. I was given some horse flesh here but I could not manage it. I was again put on a Red Cross train for Germany. I had a beautiful view from the window of the lovely green fields of Belgium. It was on this train we first realised we were prisoners of war. There were some German wounded on the same train, and at every stop Red Cross girls came along with hot coffee and cake, but nothing for the English swine. We were 18 hours without a drink, all sick and wounded men how different if we had only been going the other way. Just 12 days from the time I was wounded I reached Germany on the morning of April 25 th (Anzac Day). My thoughts were far away in good old Australia that morning. I was put in hospital as soon as we reached Dulmen my leg had been put in splints at Mons. I was examined and put to bed. It was a wooden bed with a wooden bottom. The mattress was filled with paper shavings and was damp and sodden with blood from other people s wounds. It was impossible to put your head under the blankets without a gas helmet on. The doctor came around at 9 in the morning. If you had pain he would dress you. If you had no pain, you were alright. There were two of our own Red Cross men to look after us but they were generally in their own room playing cards. The only ones to do anything for us were our own fellows that could walk. English, French and Russians were all in the same yard. I had a young Russian about 17 years old for my batman. I had to smile when I had a letter from you saying the people that were chosen to care for the sick men were the kindest people in the world. I wish you could have seen my nurse. The food here was awful. We had one slice of bread at 5 in the morning, no more that day. A Frenchman brought the bread around and threw it on your bed. He always managed to throw mine right on my sore knee. At midday we got a bowl of stewed mangelwurzels and at night a bowl of black coffee. DIGGER 20 Issue 58

21 I was in this ward about two weeks when my splints were taken off and I was told to try and walk. The next day I was discharged from the hospital. I could not walk without a stick but that did not bother the Germans. I just had to go about, but my little Russian found me a strip of a box and I hopped about with this for about a week. I was then put in the general camp and met a lot of my own pals again. We were all in rags and as thin as jockeys. Most of our boots had been stolen while in hospital and we were given wooden clogs. I can afford to laugh when I look back and think of the sights we used to look, but it was not a laughing matter then. The Russians were dying like flies. Every day at 2.30 there was a funeral procession, and a party would be picked out to carry the coffins to the cemetery. There were always seven or eight Russians to bury. I was eight weeks in this camp before I tasted a cup of tea. There were a lot of English Tommies getting their Red Cross packets and living well, and they would not give you a crust. We used to cadge the old tea leaves from them and boil them up and kid ourselves it was lovely. It was just eight weeks before I got my first Red Cross packet of food from England. They generally contained one tin bully, one tin fish, one tin rations and tea, sugar, jam and butter, and Quaker oats. We were supposed to get two of these per fortnight and three loaves of bread. If these packets arrived regularly we lived well, but very often we were three and four weeks without anything. We got a good blue uniform and boots and underclothes every six months, so when these began to arrive we were well fixed. I have my photo in the uniform supplied by the Red Cross. We had a very hard and rough time while we were waiting for these packets. I walked into the hut one day and an Englishman was frying bacon. I thought that was the finest smell I had ever smelt. I had to go away down the end of the yard to get out of the way of it. On August 16 th my name was called out to go on a working party. We were told we were going to a farm and we were in good spirits, as we knew the farms were the best places for food. The farm turned out to be a coal mine belonging to the Steinkehlen Rheinprussen Bengwork in Rhineland, just on the banks of the Rhine. There were prisoners working at this pit and I happened to be the only Australian. There were 600 Russians, 200 French, and 200 English and later on, 200 Italians arrived. This meant another five weeks without packets as my address had to be altered, but the English boys were very good to me. They were all fine fellows, mostly Regular Army men, all captured early in the game. These men knew what suffering was. When they first went to the pit they, with the French, refused to go below. They were all flogged and stood to attention from 5 in the morning till 10 at night, and were then taken in and given a bowl of soup. They did this for 28 days in the middle of winter till at last the Germans gave in. I met a namesake of ours [McCallum] belonging to the Cameron Highlanders. He adopted me as soon as I went there and we were great pals. I have just spent a pleasant week at his home in Glasgow. I was not sent down the pit, but put to work on top where they make the coke. This was a task job. Every man had a certain amount to do and had to stop there until it was finished. I had four ovens of coke to shovel and wheel into railway wagons per shift. The ovens hold about five tons so we had to shift about 20 tons of coke per day. We had to wear wooden clogs to prevent escape. This was terrible hard work and I had blisters on my feet from the clogs, and blisters on my hands from using the shovel, and blisters on my arms from the sun. In fact, I was all blisters. This Kokeri work was known as the Torture-Chamber. If the boys in the pit tried to escape or broke any rules down the pit, they were given seven days work on the Kokeri. There were only four Englishmen working on this job and 20 Russians, and a few Italians and French. We began at 6 in the morning and were taken into barracks at 5.30 in the evening. If our four ovens were not finished, we had to come out again at 6 with the night shift and work until you finished. I have seen men there from 6 in the morning till 10 at night, but I never had to go back once, thanks to a young Frenchman. He was an old hand there. He would finish about 4 o clock and always came and gave me a hand. This poor beggar was burnt to death later on. I was one of the first English ever to work on this job, and the sentries were very afraid we would escape. They were always behind us. They carry their rifle by the sling over their shoulder, and they had a nasty habit of hitting us just on the hip-bone. I did not lay on my side for weeks, my hips were black and blue, but when they came to know us better they were not so bad. I am bringing home a souvenir in the shape of a broken finger from the butt of a German rifle at this pit. I was on this job for four months and then I was given a job on top of the ovens, charging the furnace. This was not so hard as the other job but the heat in the summer was terrific. We had small bags over our hands as everything was hot. We were walking on hot bricks all day and had to tie up our sleeves around the wrist to keep the flames from shooting up the arms. Every night we would come off shift with no eyebrows and our hair singed around the outside of our cap. We worked 24 hours every second Sunday from 6 Sunday morning, all Sunday night, till 6 Monday morning with three breaks for meals. We had no DIGGER 21 Issue 58

22 sentries over us on this job. We had an old German Pole in charge and he was a decent old pot. We did much as we liked but still the work had to be done. It was Sunday s work that hurt me. It was then I used to think of the girl I left behind me and wonder who s kissing her now, but I stuck this work right through the piece till two days after the glorious news came. The only spell I had was four days with the flu in fifteen months. The pit did not work Sundays and they had four days off at Christmas, and two days at Whitsun, but the Kokeri never had one sleep in. The first rough hand I had put on me in Germany was by the doctor at this time. I went sick one day. I hurt my back shovelling coke and could hardly bend. When he saw me he knew I was not an Englishman as I was very dark. He asked me if I was an African and I told him an Australian. Then he said, You volunteered? I said yes. He told me it was all the same if I was sick or not, I would have to work until the war was finished. He caught me by the arm and threw me right out of the hospital door. Another time I had my hand badly crushed between two wagons, but the boss sent me up to the doctor. He tied me up and sent me back to work. The boss sent me back [to the doctor] as I could not work. The doctor gave me a note for eight days light work, so they gave me a job messing about with one hand. He was determined I would not get a day off. I would dearly like a few minutes with that doctor. Several Russians down the pit chopped their toes off to get sent back to the Lager at Munster for a spell. We had four slices of dry black bread per day and a bowl of the same old Mangles soup, and a bowl of black coffee, but the English seldom had need to touch the German food as our packets kept us going, but the poor Russians suffered terribly. Every Englishman had a Rusky batman to do our washing and we gave them any food we could spare, as they had no Red Cross to look after them and had to depend entirely on the Germans. They are an awful class of people, quite uncivilised. They can neither read nor write and some didn t even know their own names they only knew their prison number. The French are a filthy crowd and awful Jews. The half of them are pro-german and would crawl on their knees to the Germans. They gave themselves up in hundreds during this war. I have seen English prisoners coming into Dulmen without hats or coats or even boots, while the French come in in over-coats and kit bags as if they were prepared for the journey. I was just as glad to see the last of the French as I was the Germans. Our sleeping rooms at this time were very clean. Of course, we had to clean up ourselves. Men would take turns every day to sweep the barracks. When it was finished the officer would inspect it. If it did not suit him, the men who did the job would be sent down the pit to do another shift, so you can bet it was kept clean. We had good iron beds and straw mattresses [and] steam pipes around the rooms to warm it in the winter. We had a yard about 100 yards square and were not let out. The mine was on the next block. Many weary hours I have sat and watched the great wheels at the pit head going around and round, thinking about you all, wondering and wondering if it would be over this year or next, or if I would be lucky enough to live to see it out. I never had any doubts what the result of the war would be. The only thing that worried me was: would I be able to last it out? I knew that no God would ever allow these brutes to be supreme after the awful things I have seen them do with my own eyes. We always tried to be cheerful. Dickens says, It is difficult to smile with an aching heart. We did many difficult things, and the Lord only knows our hearts were aching. We had a sing-song every day our packets arrived. It was so easy to get down-hearted, and once you went down, there was no getting up. We buried two fine fellows at that shaft simply through worry. Only last March we got news the Germans had pushed our people back to Albert. We refused to believe it. We knew how far back Albert was. We had all been there before, but when some new prisoners came who had been captured there, we knew it was only too true, and the Germans were jubilant, and I can assure you there were some sad English hearts in Germany those few weeks. One fine young fellow dropped his bundle completely and threw himself down the shaft. He had been working at this pit over two years. He is buried in a little village called Moers. We put a beautiful stone over him costing the English boys at the shaft marks. If he could only have kept his pecker up another short six months he would now be enjoying some of the good things we have talked about so often. Thackeray says, As the tender twig is bent, so the tree grows. I have seen the tender twigs being daily bent by toil at that mine. Boys and girls from 10 years of age I have seen them on a cold winter s morning plodding to work through the snow with an old shawl around them, their feet wrapped in canvas and stuck into great wooden clogs. These youngsters had to work their 12 hours a day, their fathers and mothers [were] also at the mine. If they did not work they got no bread. How many times I have thought of our own free happy youngsters. They should thank God every day of their lives that they are what they are, and that they are where they are. DIGGER 22 Issue 58

23 A hospital was attached to this mine for the benefit of men who had gone to the Front. If they got sick or wounded, they were sent to this hospital. As soon as they were convalescent they were sent to work at the mines. If they refused to work, they were sent back to the Front. A German soldier coming home on leave had to work all the time. If they refused to work they got no bread, and a man losing a day s work would have to go before the magistrate. He would send him to the doctor. If the doctor said he was all right, he would be sent to the Front. If he was too old to go to the Front, he would be fined. Thus it is all over Germany. Surely Kipling must have lived in Germany when he wrote, I am proud to be British today. At last the silver lining began to appear behind the great dark cloud orders were given: Any prisoner found with a German newspaper would be punished. We knew there was something happening. We got the papers from the civilians working with us and saw Bulgaria had turned it up. Austria wanted an armistice. The Germans were very excited. They were all very pleased and used to tell us we would be in England by Christmas. This was the news I had been waiting to hear for 20 long months, and it came that sudden we could scarcely realise it. The night the Armistice was signed I was on night shift and I did not hear it until next morning. The boys had been up all night celebrating the glorious news. I saw brave men weeping tears of joy that day. Some of them had been working in the pits for 3½ years. We were kept working till two days after the Armistice was signed, then we all left the mine together, amidst great rejoicing, for Munster, and now I am back again safe and well once more amongst civilisation after spending a glorious holiday in Scotland. I have almost made up for all the food I missed and all the sleep-ins I didn t have during that awful nightmare in Germany, and I am booked to leave England on Wednesday, January 29 th, by the Nevassa for the best spot on earth dear old Australia land of our birth. Although I was unlucky to be captured, old Kitchener said, We are not prisoners... Prisoners of honour, it showed we had been the enemy. Milton himself says, He serves who only stands and waits, so I think you brother can say without boasting, I have done my bit. I must thank you a thousand times for all your kind loving letters and know that these experiences of mine may interest you a little, and hoping to be with you within the next few weeks. As I commenced this by quoting Lindsay Gordon, I will conclude it also by quoting him when he said: And I d live the same life over, If I had to live again, And the chances are, I ll go Where most men go. Source of article: 1934: Copy of letter by ex-member dated Repat file of D McCallum, naa.gov.au. Photos, Left: Close-up of Dunc s headstone; Right: Plaque to go on Dunc s grave. DIGGER Quiz No. 58: Campbell s challenge : Prisoners of War 1. Which country/empire had the greatest number of its soldiers captured during WWI? 2. How many Australians serving with the AIF were taken prisoner from 1915 to 1918? 3. Which of these four Dominions of the British Empire had the most officers and men taken prisoner? (a) South Africa (b) Australia (c) Canada (d) New Zealand. 4. Which 22 nd Battalion AIF officer wrote a book on his experiences as a POW during WWI? 5. How many AIF soldiers were taken prisoner during the First Battle of Bullecourt? 6. Who took the responsibility for sending Red Cross parcels to Australian prisoners during WWI? 7. How many Australian soldiers died in captivity during WWI? 8. Which German Prisoner of War camp had the largest escape of Allied prisoners? DIGGER 23 Issue 58

24 Unidentified Officers of the 12 th Machine Gun Company Greg O Reilly, Greenwood. The photograph below appears in the AWM Collection as H00177 and is captioned Outdoors group portrait of unidentified officers of the 12 th Australian Machine Gun Company behind four of their Vickers Mk 1 machine guns. Greg has identified all of the officers and here tells their stories. Their names appear below. Back left to right: 2 nd Lt Bernard O Reilly; 2 nd Lt Claude Napier King; 2 nd Lt Edward Maurice Cullimore MC; 2 nd Lt William Gregson. Front left to right: Lt Peter Grieveson; Capt Harry Wolseley Crouch MC; Capt David Stacey Amherst Martin MC; Lt Allan Fergus Taylor MC; Lt Errol Phineas Congrieve Upton. I first encountered this photograph some years ago when researching my grandfather s military career. It was taken at Delettes on 12 November, 1917, a month after the unit was engaged in the mud and blood of Passchendaele. In this photograph my grandfather, Bernard O Reilly, was then a newly appointed 2 nd lieutenant, having been awarded a King s Commission and he stands on the left of the back row. Bernard had recently rejoined the unit after being seriously wounded at Gueudecourt, some eight months before. Also identified very quickly was his lifelong friend, (then) 2 nd Lieutenant (3110) William Gregson, whom he first met at Gallipoli in the later stages of that campaign. The two men in front of Bernard in the image appear in another platoon photo from August 1916 found amongst my grandfather s things when he died. I set myself the task to find out who these men were and what they did during the war. First I had to develop an understanding of the unit in which they served. The 12 th Machine Gun Company (12 th MGC) was formed during the doubling of the AIF in March The 4 th Brigade (the 13 th to 16 th Battalions), under Monash at Gallipoli, had half its experienced troops transferred to the 45 th to 48 th Battalions to create the 12 th Brigade. By 1916, machine-gun companies in the British Army were held at brigade, rather than battalion, level as they had been at Gallipoli. Thus the 4 th MGC was attached to the 4 th Brigade and the 12 th MGC was with the 12 th Brigade. The 4 th, 12 th and 13 th Brigades formed the 4 th Division. Later on, when the MG companies were formed into battalions, they would adopt the same number as its division. Thus, the 4 th Machine Gun Battalion belonged to the 4 th Division. For related reading, members are directed to Greg s appendix on the history and tactics of the 12 th Machine Gun Company and the 4 th Machine Gun Battalion in COBBeR 5, ed to members in March DIGGER 24 Issue 58

25 Overview of the officers in the photograph With the exception of Claude King, all of the men in the photo would survive the war and serve out their time with the 12 th MGC. Surprisingly in such an elite unit, two of the men would face court martials in In what was not unusual for the AIF, three of the men contracted venereal disease during their service. With the passage of time we can now see these events in a much clearer context. They were typically adventurous, young single men who, for eminently logical reasons, probably did not expect to survive the war. At a time when the value of a front-line soldier s life on both sides had become virtually worthless to military commanders, overbearing Victorian sexual morality would seem deeply hypocritical to most soldiers. In living each day as though it were your last, sexual encounters would not appear to be an overly great step backwards in moral turpitude, even to some of the most deeply religious of men. The AIF itself had moved on from the pre-gallipoli days of sending men home in disgrace for failing a short-arm inspection, to dealing with it in the same way it would a wounding or other illness, except that a soldier was not paid for the duration of their treatment, as VD was considered to be self-inflicted wound. Had the war continued much longer, the 12 th MGC (now the 4 th MG Bn) would have been greatly affected by the six-month leave about to be granted to all the 1914 men, of whom there were seven such men in the photo. All but King had seen active service on Gallipoli, and five of them landed on the first day with the 4 th Brigade; two others would arrive with the light horse reinforcements a few weeks later. Nearly all the men fell sick with one serious illness or another during their Gallipoli service. The only exception to this was Alan Taylor, who appeared to be amazingly durable. O Reilly, Grieveson and Cullimore would be there till close to the end of the Anzac campaign. Their wounds were serious enough to have them evacuated, and they had sufficient time to recover their physical condition in Cairo or England and return to Gallipoli in relatively good health. If we are to understand these men, then we must comprehend what occurred when the unit war diary blandly states such things as the company did good work or a counter-attack was attempted but was easily repulsed. The majority of the men in this photo had at one time or another been the No. 1 on a gun during a German attack. Most of these men had probably killed during the course of the war at least 20 or more Germans in direct fire and probably a similar number in indirect fire. For a few of these men, quite a lot more. The reality of the situation was that whilst being a machine gunner was unquestionably dangerous, these men only occasionally lost the battle of No-man s land. They would have seen the German dead strewn in front of them, and heard many of the wounded crying out in agony within earshot of their posts. Such things must have formed memories that were difficult to erase, and with it a burden that may not have eased over time. Probably, never before had so few soldiers killed so many enemy in the field of battle as did the WWI machine gunners. There is a very good reason why so many Victoria Crosses (and no doubt Iron Crosses) were awarded for taking out machine-gun posts. Lieutenant Bernard O Reilly, Cross of St George (4 th Class), 16 th Bn/12 th MGC/4 th MG Bn As I will write more about my grandfather in a later issue of DIGGER, this is just a brief outline. Bernard O Reilly was the only Roman Catholic amongst these men. O Reilly landed on Gallipoli on the morning of 25 April, 1915, as a private and was wounded for the third time as a lieutenant in their last action of 19 September, He was awarded one of nine Russian Cross of St George medals given to the Australians for actions at Pozieres, Fromelles and Romani. Bernard died in 1975 at the age of 86 years. Lieutenant Claude Napier King, 12 th MGC/4 th MG Bn Claude Napier King was born in Charters Towers. He was the son of Dr W Moore King and was working as a surveyor when he enlisted in March His father managed sugar refineries for CSR in Brisbane, Sydney and Auckland after having been brought out here from England by the company. Claude had spent a number of years in the Pacific Islands prior to enlisting. During the war years, Dr King would invent a machine for cutting up material into small swabs for bandages. The device is now held in the Australian War Memorial. Having been a 1 st lieutenant in the Intelligence Corps of the citizen forces (militia), King was only briefly a front-line private, and even then acted as a NCO for most of that time. He is unique in this group in that he served only in the 12 th MGC. His brother, Sergeant Major Colin B King, also enlisted and was with the artillery when he was wounded and repatriated back to Australia in [Staff Sgt Colin Baumgardt King, 12 th FAB.] DIGGER 25 Issue 58

26 King reported sick with mumps a few days after the company had returned from a 17 day stint in the heavily-shelled and snow-covered trenches around Gueudecourt in January 1917, and did not rejoin the unit until nearly two months later. He was soon off to Officers Training College in England for five months. This was unusual in the group, in that the others, were all appointed under a King s Commission ; that is, the rest were appointed in the field rather than through a lengthy spell in England for formal officer training, something Gregson later wrote about as a source of pride, tinged with regret at not having six months in England away from the front. King returned as a 2 nd lieutenant to the unit in September 1917, and was thrust into the heavy fighting around Passchendaele. He was promoted lieutenant not long after the photo was taken in December At the beginning of May 1918, Claude presented to hospital with syphilis. This was a serious illness in the age of pre-antibiotics and he returned to the unit after a 51 day stint in hospital. For the 8 August attack east of Amiens, King was allocated to No. 1 Tank and assigned to the two guns and crews transported within it. The men slept beside the tanks and at 4 am on 8 August they rumbled forward towards the starting line. The carefully planned attack drove the Germans back across a wide front. Captain Alan Taylor wrote in the company diary: The tank which carried Lt King and crew went slightly beyond the final objective, where it was subjected to heavy artillery, machine-gun and rifle fire. When turning to come back it caught on fire, but the personnel escaped, saving one gun and several ammunition boxes. A large party of the enemy tried to rush the party immediately they got out of the burning tank, and a fierce fight took place. The gun saved from the tank was immediately brought into action by Lt King and Corporals Pritchard [Cpl 386 Daniel Pritchard DCM] and Prentice [Cpl 291 George Norman Prentice MM] and the enemy party was annihilated. Great credit is due to this officer and two NCOs. Lt King was shot from behind and killed a few minutes later. The guns which went forward in tanks were then organised for action in case of a counter-attack. Every opportunity was taken to inflict losses on the retreating enemy and the casualties caused by these guns must have been considerable. Harry Murray wrote that: Lieut CN King was killed in action on the 8 th ulto. at about 1 pm after reaching the final objective. The men who were with him at the time state that he was shot through the head with a rifle bullet and death was instantaneous. Owing to the activity of the enemy snipers, his body could not be approached before several days had elapsed, during which time the sector was taken over by the 4 th Brigade. An official notification was received that Lt King was buried by the 13 th Battalion, and enquiries at present being made to ascertain if this information is correct. Lt King was killed at R.13.a (1 500 yards NW of Proyart). Claude Napier King is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Australian National Memorial. Lieutenant Edward Maurice Cullimore, 15 th Bn/12 th MGC/4 th MG Bn An Englishman by birth, Edward Cullimore enlisted at Mount Morgan in Queensland in September 1914 and was allocated to the 15 th Battalion (as Private 276), landing at Anzac Cove on the afternoon of 25 April, from where they were rushed into the line on the left flank of the beachhead. On the first day (and not for the last time at Gallipoli), the 15 th Battalion was left in a dangerously exposed position and had to withdraw under fire. The 15 th helped establish and make safer Pope s Hill and Russell s Top, and took their turn in the 4 th Brigade s rotation at the crucial Quinn s Post, which it shared mostly with the 16 th. Cullimore was wounded in the left arm by a shell burst near his machine-gun pit during the fierce fighting in the recapture of Quinn s Post at the end of May 1915, something he shared in common with O Reilly and Harry Murray. Within weeks of returning to the Peninsula in July, he fell sick with dysentery and was evacuated prior to the 15 th s ill-fated attempt to capture Hill 971 to the north of Anzac Cove. Cullimore rejoined his unit in September and remained until his battalion evacuated the Peninsula. He was promoted to corporal on the doubling of the AIF, then further promoted to sergeant one month later. At Pozieres on 8 August, 1916, he took two guns forward and to the left of The Windmill to reinforce the area that had previously been held by Sergeant David Twining of the 48 th Battalion [later Capt Twining, MC, MM, CdeG]. The men here were dangerously exposed and worked hard to shore up their positions. Edward sent five men back to collect more of the gun gear once they had consolidated their posts. Shortly after, an extremely violent bombardment, which continued through much of the night and included gas and phosphorus shells, caught these men in the barrage and only two of the five returned to the front line. DIGGER 26 Issue 58

27 The machine guns were subsequently located by the Germans, presumably because of the damaging effect of their direct fire during the night, and at 5 am the next morning they were subjected to a concerted attack by short-range mortar fire. Some five minenwerfer shells fell amongst them, killing a number of the crew, without eliminating their threat and the line was held securely. In a battle where confusion reigned, Cullimore s clear recall of the events described above leading to the death of Private 2737 Percy Cook [read Cook s AWM Red Cross file Ed.], show him to be an intelligent and thoughtful man, albeit one who had by then become somewhat immune to the horrors of what he had seen and done. In the aftermath of the attack, one man risked facing the barrage to seek help for Cook (whose leg was almost blown off above the knee) and others at a dressing station, only to find the stretcherbearers were barred from going forward to assist due to the heavy shellfire. Eventually, bearers arrived, not to carry Cook to the dressing station, but to dress his wounds only. They eventually got Cook back to the dressing station but he died just as they reached it. Cook was buried in a shell hole several days later. In freezing cold in February at Gueudecourt, Cullimore was wounded in the chest when a shell landed on company headquarters. He was evacuated to England and did not return until June 1917, missing the disaster at Bullecourt. Cullimore rejected commissions within the infantry sections of the brigade to accept a promotion to 2 nd lieutenant within the 12 th MGC, replacing 2 nd Lieutenant David James Hamilton who was killed in the attack at Messines in June In an intense bombardment of the company s positions at Polygon Wood near Ypres, Cullimore took over G Battery when Lieutenant Trimble was wounded and oversaw the timing of the lifting machine-gun barrage and ensured all the guns were successfully synchronised. He also did good work in ensuring his guns were brought to bear on the many counter-attacks the Germans attempted. Cullimore s battery lost three of its eight guns to shell fire during this time and he was recommended for a Military Cross for his gallantry. The MC was denied, and he received a congratulatory card instead. On 10 October, 1917, in what should have been an ominous warning to the commanders, Cullimore reconnoitred the front line with Captain Crouch to find the 5 th MGC practically wiped out prior to the attack at Zonnebeke by the 47 th and 48 th Battalions. In the dreadful morass at Passchendaele, Cullimore was the only officer to get his battery into position prior to the attack, and his battery was also the only one which responded to the subsequent SOS flare when the Germans successfully counter-attacked the northern flank of the 48 th. Edward s pluck and organising ability was highly regarded by Captain Martin, who submitted numerous applications for immediate reward on Cullimore s behalf, all of which were denied. Martin did, however, ensure his promotion to lieutenant in November. It wasn t until March 1918, after persistent recommendations from Martin, that Edward was finally awarded a Military Cross for conspicuous good service, gallantry and ability in the field from 22 September, 1917, to 24 February, On 23 March, 1918, Cullimore reported in sick and was away for several weeks; ill-health would dog him for much of the year. At Amiens in August, all the other crews were being taken forward in tanks, but Cullimore took six guns forward in horse-drawn half-limbers, timing their positioning to coincide with the arrival of the 48 th Battalion. The guns were brought to bear and heavy losses were inflicted on the Germans as they retreated. In the company s last action in September, Cullimore was kept in reserve. However, he organised and led the resupply of SAA using horses and limbers under difficult conditions, to ensure any attempts by the Germans to recover lost ground would fail. The then OC of the company, Captain Taylor, was wounded during the action but stayed at his post until the following day, when he relinquished command of the company to Cullimore. After the company s withdrawal from the front line, Edward Cullimore, along with Harry Murray and Bill Gregson, was one of 217 men (only one other from 4 th MG Bn) selected from the 1 st and 4 th Australian Divisions to form an Australian Mission to assist the Second American Corps in training prior to their first major assault. After the war, Cullimore returned to Queensland, settling near Rockhampton where he farmed an orchard, winning prizes for his mandarins in In 1931, Edward defended himself on a charge of assault in a dispute with his neighbour. His neighbour s employee had shot his dog in front of him after it had chased their calves. Clearly unperturbed by the firearm his neighbour carried, Edward immediately jumped the fence and struck the man. Cullimore conducted his own defence but was found guilty and fined five shillings with costs. In 1936 Edward married Amelia Ann Searle but they do not seem to have had any children. Cullimore died in 1978 at the age of 87. DIGGER 27 Issue 58

28 Lieutenant William Gregson MID, 16 th Bn/12 th MGC/4 th MG Bn/4 th DSC William ( Bill ) Gregson (3110) was employed as an assayer at the Golden Horseshoe mine at Kalgoorlie, WA. He made numerous attempts to enlist but was rejected due to his requirement for a hernia operation. After undergoing the operation, Bill was further set back, having contracted typhoid fever four weeks after the operation. He was rejected again because of the scar the operation had left, despite appealing to the Perth authorities to let him join. He was rejected again on the grounds of his chest measurement in Kalgoorlie but went to nearby Boulder, where he was passed fit. Bill s departure from Kalgoorlie was further delayed due to his sister having contracted diphtheria. Gregson eventually joined the 16 th Battalion in July 1915 and embarked in September. He was taken on strength at Gallipoli, probably in November. He is the youngest man in the photograph and would turn 20 the day after it was taken. His father, L/Cpl 925 John Gregson, would join up at the beginning of 1917 at the age of 45. As a loco engine driver, John was assigned to the Railway Corps, later being detached the 268 th Company, Royal Engineers. He would finish the war in the 5 th Australian Broad Gauge Railway Operating Company. At some point, Bill Gregson was taken under the care of an experienced private, Bernard O Reilly, who is believed to have saved his life at some point in the northern trenches at Anzac. They became lifelong friends and when O Reilly died in 1975, Bill Gregson took the time and effort to write to my family to describe some of their shared experiences. Gregson spent several months at Gallipoli, though much of it after the fighting had died down. In the reorganisation of the AIF, Gregson and O Reilly were both transferred to the 48 th Battalion. Three weeks later Bill was transferred to the 12 th MGC. He wrote in 1975: In early 1916 when we returned from Gallipoli we were at Tel El Kebir, near the Great Lakes connecting the Suez Canal when they called for volunteers to form a new unit to be called the 12 th Vickers Machinegun Company [sic]. Barney and I were privates in the 16 th Infantry Battalion; we volunteered, went across and about 12 of us were picked out of the 30 that went. We went through a hard course of training in the desert and were soon moulded into a first-class fighting unit, all picked men. Both men were appointed corporals in the company and would later be promoted all the way to lieutenants, with each promotion, except that of to sergeant, occurring at the same time. Gregson was made signaller with the MGC and was with them at Pozieres. In October he was promoted to the rank of lance sergeant. In February 1917, Bill reported to hospital with venereal disease, which kept him away from the line for three months. Due to his role as a signaller, Gregson is not often mentioned in the diaries, though he does seem to take his turn in supervising front-line batteries after his return from the Machine Gun School in Camiers in late August From March to April 1918, Bill was detached to signal school, then later transferred to the 4 th Division Signalling Company, at a time when wireless communication was being rapidly developed. In the Battle of Epehy, Gregson did something to warrant a mention in despatches, though no record of his good work seems to have survived. After the 4 th Division s final action he, along with Cullimore and Harry Murray, joined the Australian Mission a sure sign that he was a respected and responsible officer. After the war, Gregson married Ethel Blackburn and they had four sons. In the early 1920s, Gregson tried a number of different ventures before establishing Gregson s Auctioneers, a successful auctioneering and valuation business. This well-known name in Perth is still used by his descendants, who continue on in the industry. Bill Gregson retired back to England in the 1970s, to what my grandmother described as a castle. He was the last man in the photograph to die, passing away in his early 90s. Lieutenant Peter Grieveson, 16 th Bn/12 th MGC/4 th MG Bn Peter Grieveson (375) was born in Manchester, England, and had served more than six years in the Royal Marine Light Infantry before he enlisted with the AIF. Allocated to the 16 th Battalion, he was transferred from B Company to the machine-gun section (MGS) with Harry Murray and Percy Black. Both he and Clifford Tiny Hatcher MC (330) would go on to be officers of the 12 th MGC. In 1934, a claim was made in the Western Mail newspaper that Grieveson was the best shot he ever saw with the machine gun. Writing under the pen-name Sikh, a nickname acquired from his time at Gallipoli when he sported a pigtail in solidarity with the Ghurkhas he was fighting with, Bert Sykes [Captain (339) Herbert James Sykes] gave the final arbitration: DIGGER 28 Issue 58

29 Peter wasn t the best shot in the 16 th MGS for all that. Peter was only one sample of what our Sergeant Major (Cyril Longmore) turned out in the way of crack shots at Blackboy in There were six of the originals that Peter could not beat. Tiny Hatcher was greased lightning, Percy Black and Sgt Demel [KIA 2/5/15] were deadly. Reg Sykes [No. 340], George [Pte 705 H George] and Peter Grieveson snakelike in movement, but they could not drop on the target in the split-second accuracy of the three first mentioned. Whether he was the best of the 16 th MGS remains in conjecture; it is not in dispute, however, that Grieveson was an exceptionally skilled No. 1 on a machine gun. Apart from Crouch s brief journey to South Africa, Grieveson was the only man in the group with any significant military experience prior to joining the AIF; his tattoos on both forearms were a reminder of his time in the British Army. On landing on the afternoon of 25 April as a corporal, Grieveson s battalion went straight to Pope s Hill, which they spent the next few days securing. In the 16 th s ill-fated attack up Dead Man s Ridge toward Bloody Angle, Grieveson received a gunshot wound to the right forearm and was evacuated soon after. During his convalescence in England, Peter married Rebecca Platt on 15 June, 1915, in a registry office in London. Grieveson returned to his unit on the Peninsula in October and was promoted to sergeant prior to the Evacuation. With the reorganisation of the AIF, Grieveson was initially transferred to the 4 th MGC, however, he was soon transferred to the 12 th MGC, receiving his commission at the same time. Like many men in the 12 th MGC, it is unclear what Grieveson did at Pozieres, but it was sufficient for him to be promoted to lieutenant in October He fought with the company throughout 1916 and 1917, and from the company diaries it appears he was occasionally given critical tasks to perform. Grieveson is probably unusual in this group, in that his promotions seem have more to do with his bravery and skill in operating a gun as opposed to siting and commanding one. His education may have been more limited than the other officers, but Grieveson certainly knew his way around a battlefield. A few days before Bullecourt, Grieveson took A Section forward and they were subjected to heavy shelling, with six casualties resulting. He was relieved in the line by Upton, prior to him going over the top. In the Battle of Polygon Wood, Taylor and Grieveson and 37 other ranks were kept in reserve (as a nucleus) during the operations. In what would become common in 1918, Grieveson and six gun teams were later used as a battery in support of the 1 st Division s operations. In January 1918, Peter was detached to the Australian Machine Gun Training Depot at Grantham. In March, for reasons as yet unknown, he faced a court martial and was found guilty. Presumably, because of his extensive service, he was only reprimanded, though the sentence does not appear to have been confirmed. Grieveson returned to France in October For much of 1919 he had leave and non-military employment in England before returning to Australia in November He left for Australia without telling his English wife, whom he left behind with a baby. In December 1919, a desperate Rebecca Grieveson wrote to Base Records Office, seeking the whereabouts of her husband and stating she had not seen or heard from him and was in financial difficulties. After the war, Grieveson moved to Wyalkatchem in the wheat belt of Western Australia. After this (presumably unsuccessful) venture he moved to Melbourne in 1923 and later that year had a London address, then one in Leicester, both associated with the theatre industry. Despite returning to the UK, he does not seem to have had any contact with his wife, as she wrote again to the army in 1924 saying that she had received no support or had communication from Peter since Grieveson was back in Australia by January, It is not known what became of Rebecca Grieveson. In what was perhaps common amongst some returning soldiers, Grieveson married again (perhaps bigamously*), to Ellen Dennis, and had a number of children. It was not a particularly happy union. In both 1947 and 1950, Grieveson viciously assaulted his wife after bouts of drinking and was found guilty on both assault charges, as well as being found in possession of a revolver, which his wife had hidden from him for her safety. In a sad indictment on the values of the age, he was merely fined. In 1953 he was fined for his son s (Peter junior s) non-attendance at school. Peter Grieveson died in 1956 in Victoria at the age of 70. [* Grieveson said he was single in 1920 when discharged.] Captain Harry Wolseley Crouch MC, 6 th LHR/12 th MGC/4 th MG Bn Captain Harry Crouch MC was the fifth of seven sons of Frederick and Ada Crouch, who also had three daughters. Frederick Crouch came to Australia in 1854 from London and established a business in Casino, NSW. On selling up and moving to Sydney, he later became the Member of Parliament for Richmond and DIGGER 29 Issue 58

30 president of the Randwick Bowling Club. Frederick was also known for his philanthropic endeavours as a director and honorary treasurer of the Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children. Two older brothers would also join the AIF: Lieutenant Frederick Crouch served as a dentist in the Australian Medical Corps and Driver Albert Clarence Crouch served with the 105 th Howitzer Battery. Albert would finish the war suffering from exhaustion and psychosis, though making a full recovery in the early part of Aged 32 years on enlistment, Harry Crouch was the oldest and shortest in stature (5 4 ) of the men in the photo. Perhaps for the first time in warfare, being tall and strong was no longer a great advantage; rather, being able to move and think quickly, and make yourself a small target, greatly improved your life expectancy. Crouch excelled in judgement and in setting an example for his men. Crouch s good decisionmaking and bravery meant that he, more often than not, had the dangerous task of reconnoitring the positions for the company in the line that they were to enter, an unpleasant and dangerous but extremely important task. He finished his career as adjutant to Harry Murray, making Crouch somewhat a high achiever himself. Harry Crouch came from a farming background and had enlisted for the Boer War, joining the 5 th Australian Commonwealth Horse. The war had been concluded by the time his ship arrived in Durban in 1902, and so Harry returned to Australia without seeing action. With the 6 th Light Horse Regiment, Crouch landed at Gallipoli in mid May, probably as part of their 26-man machine-gun section. By the middle of June, the 6 th LHR were losing over two men a day through sickness. Crouch reported sick on 23 June but managed to return to his unit the next day. By August, his gastritis had become so severe that he required evacuation from the Peninsula and he did not return to service until February Crouch passed an officer s examination and was taken into the 12 th Machine Gun Company on its formation in March 1916, having been promoted from trooper to 2 nd lieutenant. He showed enough at Fleurbaix in the Nursery Sector to be promoted to lieutenant prior to heading south to the Somme. At Pozieres on the afternoon of 14 August, 1916, Crouch was checking on the machine guns under his command south of the Bapaume Road, halfway between Pozieres and Martinpuich. One of the gun posts under his command had been blown up, killing two of the men. [Sgt 371 John Francis Leo McInerney, an original 16 th Battalion member who had been recommended for gallantry the week before in the difficult conditions defending the Pozieres Ridge; Driver 1356 Joseph Lloyd Kelly, a 13 th Battalion Gallipoli veteran from Scotland.] Crouch recovered the weapon and put it back into action in the intense fighting north of Munster Alley. The battle for control of this part of the trench system had been particularly vicious over the preceding three weeks. There had been four VCs awarded (Leak, Blackburn, Castleton, and Short of the Green Howards) and a bomb fight in which grenades had been thrown by the British and AIF in an 11 hour period. After Pozieres, Crouch showed skills that would later hold him in good stead in his successful business career. He went in to bat for Private 2355 John Francis Coyle, giving a personal reference for leniency at Coyle s Field General Court Martial. Coyle had gotten drunk in the aftermath of their first time in at Pozieres and had slept in, missing the company s march to its next destination. Crouch vouched for him, explaining that Coyle had been shell-shocked in the line and that he was otherwise a good soldier, and as far as he knew had no prior disciplinary issues (though this was probably not true as Coyle had been cautioned the previous month). Coyle still received a 12 month sentence from Major Imlay of the 48 th Battalion, but that sentence was suspended by Major General Sir HV Cox, GOC of the 4 th Division. Not only did Coyle avoid hard labour, he was not returned to his old unit, the 45 th Battalion, as would normally have happened. Coyle would go on to become the 12 th MGC s most decorated soldier, receiving a Belgian Croix de Guerre for his work at Messines and Ypres, a MM at Dernancourt and a Bar to the MM in the company s final actions at the Hindenburg Line (Le Verguier, 18/9/1918). He would be commissioned, and was a lieutenant at the time of his discharge. (Of this soldier, more will be written.) In the extremely cold winter of 1916/17, Harry Crouch was promoted to temporary captain as deputy to Captain Martin. After Bullecourt, he was promoted permanently to captain. In the Battle of Messines in June 1917, where 19 mines were exploded to launch the attack, Crouch and members of the 12 th MGC went forward in respirators through thick clouds of gas from the German counter-barrages. In organising indirect fire support for the 3 rd Division, Crouch was wounded for the only time during the war. His wound to the back of his right shoulder was not life-threatening and he returned to the unit two weeks later. (Crouch was granted special leave to the UK not long after.) Returning to the company in July, Crouch was made acting OC of the company whilst Captain Martin was at a machine gun school. DIGGER 30 Issue 58

31 Crouch was on leave in the UK during the attack at Polygon Wood, but returned for the action at Zonnebeke and went forward in the mud to reconnoitre the area with Cullimore prior to the attack. In December, he was detached to the Machine Gun School at Camiers until January, when he returned again as acting OC for several weeks. At Dernancourt, Captain Martin stated Capt Crouch rendered valuable service, presumably in the reconnoitring, siting and supervision of guns in the right sector with Lieutenant (1029) James Pontin. Pontin, who would later throw rocks trying to convince the Germans the Australians were there in greater numbers than was actually the case, would win a Military Cross at Dernancourt for his actions. Bean quotes part of Pontin s report verbatim in his history (Volume V, p200-1). Prior to the Battle of Amiens, Crouch was again given the important task of reconnoitring the line prior to the attack. Later in August, Crouch was made adjutant to Harry Murray in the 4 th Machine Gun Battalion. After the war, Harry started his own business around 1920, importing motor vehicles and trucks into Australia. He brought in Federal trucks, then Diamond T trucks and later White trucks. HW Crouch Pty Ltd of Camperdown became, after some difficult years during the Depression, a very successful enterprise, with the business continuing on with his son until it was sold in In 1923, Harry married Marie Jenkins at St Peter s Anglican Church in Cremorne and they had a number of children. Crouch attempted to re-enlist for World War II, however, as he was well into his 50s, he was offered only sedentary jobs, which he refused. Crouch died in 1976 at the age of 93. Captain David Stacey Amherst Martin MC, 1 st LHFAmb/12 th MGC/46 th Bn David Martin was the officer commanding 12 th MGC at the time the photo was taken. He was just 20 years old and only slightly older than Gregson. He was awarded his Military Cross at Dernancourt but faced a general court martial (GCM) only months later. Of this outstanding officer, more will be written in a later issue. Lieutenant Allan Fergus Taylor MC, 13 th Bn/12 th MGC/4 th MG Bn Allan Taylor was born in Yarrawonga, Victoria, in 1892 and spent much of his life around the New South Wales and Victorian border, and was living in Lockhart prior to his enlistment in Sydney. Taylor would rise more slowly to the rank of captain than Martin or Crouch, but he would finish as the company s last officer to command it in battle, only to walk away from the unit nine days later on a boat to Australia on 1914 leave. He had certainly done as much as anyone in the AIF and it is difficult to find a more deserving case. Taylor was an original member of E Company (Private 571) of the 13 th Battalion and landed at Gallipoli on the evening of 25 April, Ordered up to Russell s Top, the 13 th Battalion would be forced to crawl back through the thick scrub the next day whilst the Turks inflicted heavy losses. Taylor would be wounded with the 13 th in the ill-fated attack at Bloody Angle on 2 May. It was an important but costly learning experience for Monash, the 4 th Brigade commander. Promoted while on the Peninsula, in August at Hill 60, Taylor was blown up by a Turkish shell and buried. He, not surprisingly, became shell-shocked and had a badly bruised shoulder. Taylor made a recovery and was away from the unit for only a week after a brief spell on Lemnos. He would later describe it as going cranky for 48 hours but was none the worse for it. The 13 th Battalion would do as much as any unit in their time at Gallipoli, and Taylor was with them almost the whole time. In a remarkable feat of endurance, he is the only one in the photo that did not fall prey to sickness on the Peninsula. Whilst the fighting and losses may have been greater in France and Belgium, Gallipoli stood out as a place of sickness and deprivation. Taylor was taken on strength of the 12 th MGC as a 2 nd lieutenant prior to leaving for France. At Pozieres, Taylor was out with his guns with little cover, and under shellfire that Ray Leane (then commander of the 48 th Battalion) described as simply his worst experience of the war. Taylor would receive a congratulatory card from Major General Cox, but no copy of the citation is on the AWM website. In the frozen trenches around Gueudecourt, Taylor would finally report in sick with a slight case of laryngitis. His condition deteriorated in the next two weeks, and he ended up in hospital in England for over a month. Taylor rejoined the unit in April, and for the remainder of 1917 he would be the unit s transport officer and second-in-command in the absence of Martin or Crouch. In the development of the machine-gun barrages, much of the logistical problems fell upon the transport officer. Preparing for these events takes organisation and planning and clear thought processes. DIGGER 31 Issue 58

32 The transport officer also fulfilled the critical task of ensuring the guns did not run out of SAA. Ammunition is the one commodity that cannot be done without, no matter how heavy was the shelling. Machine-gun posts without filled ammunition belts would undermine the entire defensive structure of the front line. At Polygon Wood and Zonnebeke, Taylor deserved the utmost praise from Captain Martin for keeping the batteries supplied at crucial times during these battles. Martin s recommendation for an award for Allan was rejected, and Taylor would go on to do good work at Dernancourt (though this time a recommendation for an award was not forwarded on). At Amiens on 8 August, 1918, Taylor was in charge of the company s 16 machine guns. It was decided that 10 guns would go forward in five tanks, with the remaining six to be brought forward in two half-limbers by Cullimore and Lieutenant Prendergast. Taylor wrote in his report: I met the 2 officers at Q23c, just as the battalion was about to attack. Owing to the weakness of the enemy resistance I decided that it would be quite sound to wait until the infantry had covered half the distance and then rush the limbers as far forward as possible, thus saving the personnel unnecessary exertion. I told the officers that would be done, and as it turned out, the guns were taken by limber within 200 yards of the final objective, and were there in time to inflict heavy losses on the enemy as he retreated. Taylor sells himself somewhat short, as his Military Cross citation states that in siting his guns, Taylor was exposed to very heavy enemy machine-gun and shell fire. His Military Cross was presented to him two days before he left on the boat for Australia. Interestingly, in Bean s description of the events (Volume VI, p586-7) he describes Taylor as an accountant when clearly his application papers and embarkation roll stated labourer. In the final action of the company in September 1919, Taylor was wounded but remained at his post for a further two days. He would leave for Australia soon after. On the boat going home, Taylor found out that the war was over and knew that all his friends he left behind would survive. He arrived in Sydney in December 1918 but his attempts to return quietly to Lockhart were in vain, and bunting was on display on various business places in his honour. Taylor married Jesse McKenzie less than three months after arriving home and they had five children. For two years after the war he worked as the staff officer for Invalids and Returned Soldiers prior to joining the Victorian Police Force in Allan served in the Victorian and New South Wales police forces for over 30 years. In 1931 he was shot in the chest by a man who drew a revolver when cornered. The bullet deflected from Allan s ribs and he was not critically injured. They did not find the assailant. Allan Taylor* died in 1972 at the age of 80. [*First name spelt as Allen, Alan and Allan in records.] Lieutenant Errol Phineas Congrieve Upton MID, 13 th Bn/12 th MGC Errol Upton was born in Mudgee, the fourth son of five brothers, three of whom enlisted. By the end of the war, the Upton brothers would all serve together in the 12 th MGC. His elder brother was Sergeant 430 Thomas Charles Upton MM and Bar, and his younger brother Corporal 7588 Vivian Upton. His father, Tom Upton, was one of Lithgow s best known residents and the family was well-known in the district. Errol appears to have been somewhat of a larrikin. An avid souvenir hunter, he returned from the war with a large collection of revolvers, caps, swords, bayonets, gas masks, French and German brass shell cases, compasses, officers charts, maps, photos and other items. Errol enlisted in late October 1914 and was assigned to the machine-gun section of the 13 th Battalion, which landed in the evening of April 25 th. The 13 th Battalion spent most of the first six weeks rotating in and out of Courtney s Post, alternating with Jacka s Mob, the 14 th. Upton wrote home about Gallipoli, stating he was about half a mile from the beach where he was able to go surfing. He also claims having paid half a crown for a tin of milk to have with his rice. In early June he received a shrapnel wound to the finger and within two weeks he was evacuated with typhoid. A few weeks after that Upton came down with influenza and took no further part in the activities on Gallipoli. In the reorganisation in early 1916, Upton was promoted to corporal, then a couple weeks later to the company s quartermaster sergeant. At Pozieres, movement of essential supplies was a particularly dangerous task. The food was prepared some five miles back and escorted forward by Upton on horseback for further distribution by storemen of the company. Upton described the war, quite accurately as it turned out, as being an artillery and machine-gun competition, with an occasional use of the bayonet. DIGGER 32 Issue 58

33 Errol reported in sick in October 1916 and was in hospital until January. When he returned to the company he found he had been replaced as quartermaster. Later in the month he was commissioned as a 2 nd lieutenant and prepared for more front-line duties. In First Bullecourt, Upton was put in charge of two mobile Vickers guns which were to assist in the consolidation of the line once taken and were held initially at the railway embankment. These were later taken forward and placed to the left of the 46 th Battalion in OG1, where they were used to fire on the Germans coming out of Riencourt to great effect. Upton kept his guns in action throughout the day, inflicting considerable losses, but began to run short of both water and SAA owing to the difficulties of getting supplies forward. With a lack of supplies and German counter-attacks on their flanks, the Australians were forced to withdraw. In the withdrawal from the Hindenburg Line, Upton provided covering fire for many of the 12 th Brigade, who were able to retire without being captured, unlike large numbers of the 4 th Brigade. In May, Upton reported sick and was diagnosed with gonorrhoea. He did not return to the unit until late August In late September 1917, Upton can be seen [below] leaning casually against a machine-gun post in an utterly desolate environment. The night before this photo was taken he and Captain Martin had gone to visit a dying comrade, 2 nd Lieutenant Lawrence Maschmedt [16 th Bn/12 th MGC, DOW 2/10/17], who had been critically wounded at Polygon Wood. The man on Upton s left, Lieutenant Joseph East, would be killed in the attempt with Corporal McTye [4063, 15 th Bn/12 th MGC, DCM] and Private WD Smith [431, MM] to cover the withdrawal of the 48 th Battalion two weeks later. (McTye would have his leg shattered in the same explosion that killed East.) Above: The position occupied by the 12 th Machine Gun Company near Anzac Ridge in the Ypres Sector, where very heavy casualties were sustained. Identified, left to right: 566 Private William James Rablin (killed in action, 13 October 1917); Lieutenant Errol Phineas Congrieve Upton; Second Lieutenant Joseph Thomas East (killed in action, 12 October 1917); 2674 Sergeant David Lewis (standing); 1794 Pte Carl Harry Rasmussen (seated behind the gun). AWM E This photo courtesy of Jock O Keefe. The handwritten notations (NB: Where Bill & I got clouted ) are by John F Coyle, CdeG (later MM & Bar). Coyle was wounded two days before this photo was taken. It is not yet known who Bill was. DIGGER 33 Issue 58

34 The photo also shows how Vickers guns were frequently deployed in pairs, sufficiently spaced to not be both taken out by one shell blast, but close enough to give supporting fire in the event of infantry attacks on their position. Note also the low angle in which some indirect fire was made, illustrating why the troops in front were naturally apprehensive. There was a need for a mechanism to prevent the level of the barrel dropping below the minimum angle, and the feet of the tripods were set to ensure no legs sunk into the mud. Barrels were not used for this type of fire if they had fired more than rounds. For the October 12 attack at Zonnebeke [First Battle of Passchendaele], Upton and East were ordered (or perhaps volunteered despite Upton s experience at Bullecourt), to take four guns over the top with the 48 th Battalion. One pair was to be deployed at Decoy Wood and the other at the railway cutting. By the time the crews arrived at the starting line, they had been severely knocked about by shell fire in the approach. Upton made the decision to take only two guns forward in the attack and that they would be placed at the cutting. This proved to be a particularly astute judgement, as during the early part of the morning a company of Germans rushed from Tiber Copse and took shelter behind a railway embankment, opening fire on the right of the 48 th Battalion. Unfortunately for the Germans, they were directly enfiladed by Upton s guns which, in opening fire, swept them away (Bean p924). Around 3 pm in the afternoon, the Germans attacked in impressively well-ordered waves but were quickly broken up by rifle and machine-gun fire, again from Upton and his crews and the Lewis gunners in the vicinity. At 4 pm the Germans made a stronger but less orderly attack on the same front, which was again repulsed; the men of the 45 th Battalion having brought forward resupplies of SAA through the mud. Unfortunately for the 12 th Brigade, the 3 rd Division on their left was forced to withdraw and the Germans occupied the space on the flank of the 48 th, necessitating them to withdraw, in spite of attempts by the commanders of the 47 th and 48 th Battalions to reverse the situation. It was at this point that Upton, East, McTye and a handful of others stayed to cover the withdrawal. Upton received a shell wound in the back but made it safely back to the starting line. He would not rejoin the unit until the need to reinforce the company after Dernancourt some five months later. Fighting withdrawals were probably not admired the same as successful attacks by the higherups, and consequently Upton and McTye s recommended awards were downgraded to MID and DCM respectively. McTye would take no further part in the war; his shattered leg crippling him for life. The SOS batteries were also busy putting down an enormous amount of indirect fire on the advancing Germans during the withdrawal of the brigade. Errol s brother Tom, seeing the urgent situation and probably the need to help his brother, made numerous trips across the open during the barrage to ensure a steady hail of bullets fell behind the retreating men. For this, Tom was awarded the Military Medal. Tom was subsequently severely gassed and would not rejoin the unit for another eight months. In the reorganisation of the four machine gun companies into one battalion, Lieutenant Errol Upton was appointed quartermaster to the 4 th Machine Gun Battalion, a position he held until August 1918 when he left for the UK on leave. Around this time, Upton appears to have caused some problem, the nature of which is unknown. He, or someone on his behalf, applied for 1914 leave, which was approved by Major General Ewen Sinclair Maclagan with the qualification: I have no objection to Lieutenant Upton being sent on 1914 furlough on the understanding that he is not to be reposted to this division. Errol Upton returned to New South Wales in early 1919 ahead of his two brothers. Tom Upton received a bar to his Military Medal in the company s last action of the war. In the late 1920s Errol was appointed Labour Bureau Agent at a time when he was actively seeking work for 20 to 30 men. By 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, this number had risen to many thousands in the Lithgow area. Errol married Theresa Mary Josephine Fitzgerald in 1930 in Waverley, NSW. The couple had no children. He enlisted in the AMF during World War II and was stationed at the Cowra prisoner of war camp. Errol Upton died on 15 April, 1974, at the age of 83, and was buried in Lithgow. Left: Men of the 12 th MGC, 12 November AWM H DIGGER 34 Issue 58

35 Centenary of the Battles of Fromelles and Pozieres, July 2016 John Boyd, Kanahooka. I n July 2016 I travelled to France with the Families and Friends of the First AIF to attend the Centenary of the Battles of Fromelles and Pozieres, with our tour leaders Chris Bartolo and Matt Smith providing a unique insight into these centenary commemorations. There were 27 in our tour group, including my room-mate Greg Rawson whose great uncle Private 767 John Turner, 30 th Battalion (aged 20 years) was identified through DNA and buried in the Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Cemetery in Battle of Fromelles Centenary Service At Fromelles on Tuesday, 19 July, 2016, it was a hot and sunny (temperatures reached 35ºC during the day). Together with families of the soldiers descendants, along with French and Australian dignitaries, I was among the more than people who gathered in the Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery in a moving tribute to the 250 soldiers buried there and the horrific battle on 19/20 July, Tight security was in place, with more than 100 gendarmes on guard and airport-style security in place in the wake of the Paris and Nice terror attacks. Upon arrival, each attendee had a coloured wrist band attached and was then presented with a black draw string bag emblazoned with the Western Front Centenary logo that contained a WFC bucket hat, a 45 page Order of Service booklet, an Anzac Portal USB drive, a WF commemorative pin and a packet of WFC jelly beans. The commemoration service commenced around 1.30 pm and was completed by 3.00 pm. It is estimated there were some Australian casualties on 19 and 20 July the greatest loss in twenty-four hours in Australia s history and by 9.00 am the next morning, the Battle of Fromelles was over, with Australian forces forced to withdraw. Practically all my best officers are dead, said Brigadier General Pompey Elliott, who described Fromelles as a tactical abortion. War correspondent Charles Bean reported that No-man s land was simply full of our dead. Fromelles became the place where we first realised the full horror of industrialised warfare. The famous phrase, Don t forget me, cobber originated in Fromelles, when it was shouted by a wounded soldier at Sergeant Simon Fraser who reported on the aftermath in a letter home during a rescue mission. The headstones of six recently identified diggers, who were killed at Fromelles, were unveiled for the first time. They included a linesman and father of two from Bundaberg, a quarryman from Sydney, a bread carter from Geelong, a Queensland miner, a Sydney barman and a South Australian labourer. The six Diggers were: Second Lieutenant James Benson, aged 37 years, 32 nd Battalion, A Company Private Justin Hercules Breguet, 18 years, 29 th Battalion, 3 rd Reinforcements Private Clifton Sydney Brindal, 24 years, 20 th Battalion, 8 th Reinforcements Private Sidney Broom, 26 years, 31 st Battalion, 1 st Reinforcements Private William Burke, 21 years, 30 th Battalion, C Company Private Robert Thomas Maudsley, 27 years, 32 nd Battalion, A Company. This brings to 150 Diggers identified of the 250 men recovered from the burial pits just outside the village of Fromelles at Pheasant Wood. The ceremony lasted around two and a half hours, after which we adjourned to the local pub for refreshments and witnessed a two-up game on the street by an Aussie AIF re-enactment group in full WWI uniforms. Left: Commemoration at Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery, July DIGGER 35 Issue 58

36 Funeral service for three Australian soldiers of WWI The following Saturday, 23 rd July, the tour group travelled to Pozieres for the Centenary Commemorations at the 1 st Australian Division Memorial at Pozieres. As we were entering the village of Pozieres, we were passing the Pozieres British Cemetery when we noticed a large group of Australian military personnel gathered in and around the cemetery. A quick check by tour leader Matt Smith established that they were to conduct military funerals for three unknown Australian soldiers whose remains had lain where they fell for nearly a century, and would now rest with more than 700 of their mates in the French countryside. Full military honours were given to the men, with their coffins being drummed into the cemetery, a three-volley salute given by a firing party and the Last Post played at the end of the ceremony. The men, identified as Australian by their insignia and bits of uniform, were found over the past five years, two in a farm irrigation ditch near Mouquet Farm, where fierce fighting took place, and the other in a field near Pozieres village. Their remains were held at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission centre at Beaurains in Northern France while investigations into their identities were carried out. DNA samples were taken, but to date their identities remain unknown. However, Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Angus Campbell, spoke at the service of the army s commitment to one day identifying them to give back their names and in doing so help give them back to their families. However today, 100 years after they fell, we will lay them to rest among their mates. General Campbell said Australia s 1 st Division successfully took Pozieres on the first day of the attack on July 23, 1916, but then endured constant German shelling and counter-attacks, suffering casualties before being relieved by the 2 nd Division AIF. That division held Pozieres but in the process suffered casualties. The efforts of the 1st Anzac Corps at Pozieres were remarkable but the costs were incredibly high, General Campbell said. Left: Chief of the Australian Army, Lieutenant General Angus Campbell, DSC, AM, delivers the address during the reburial service of three unknown Australian soldiers at Pozieres British Cemetery, July General Campbell quoted a letter from a lieutenant in the 2 nd Division, describing the battlefield where there remained nothing but a churned mass of debris with bricks, stones and girders and bodies pounded to nothing. In forests there are not even tree trunks, not a leaf or a twig, all is buried and churned up. Alan Cooper, an investigations manager with the Australian Army s Unrecovered War Casualties unit, told us before the service that there were thousands of soldiers still missing around the Pozieres area alone. DNA samples were taken from found remains and personal items examined but it was often difficult to find living relatives. It s very humbling to recover the remains of Australian soldiers from the battlefields of World War I and give them the funerals they deserve after they had lain for so long in the fields of northern France, Mr Cooper said. This is their first funeral, it s not a reburial, these guys were found with their rifles and their pistols. This is the first opportunity we get to honour their sacrifice. Battle of Pozieres Centenary Service Following that very moving funeral, we then entered the commemoration area for the Centenary of the Battle of Pozieres. Again, it was very sunny and hot in the grandstands at Pozieres, where a smaller crowd of around gathered. Security was again tight but necessary, and we were again presented with a black draw-string bag emblazoned with the Western Front Centenary logo that contained a WFC bucket hat, a 45 page Order of Service booklet, an Anzac Portal USB drive, a WF commemorative pin & a packet of WFC jelly beans. DIGGER 36 Issue 58

37 Left: Battle of Pozieres Centenary Commemoration at the 1 st Australian Division Memorial, July The Commemoration Service commenced around 4.30 pm and was completed by 6.00 pm. After the 5 th Division s battle at Fromelles, the 1 st Division was tasked with the capture of Pozieres as part of the 1916 Somme offensive, on July 23. Although the six week battle for Pozieres was somewhat a success, with Allied forces capturing the town and ridge, there were some Anzac casualties, a figure comparable to the suffered during the eight months spent fighting in Gallipoli Australian war correspondent Charles Bean famously reported the Pozieres ridge was more densely sown with Australian sacrifice than any other place on Earth The men were simply turned in there as into some ghastly giant mincing machine. Lieutenant John Raws later wrote: My tunic is rotten with other men s blood, and partly splattered with a comrade s brains. It is horrible, but why should you people at home not know? Several of my friends are raving mad. I met three officers out in No-man s land the other night, all rambling and mad. The two battles served as a cruel introduction to the harshness of the war on the Western Front. Five Australians received the Victoria Cross for their actions at Pozieres. The battle might now be a century in the past, but this tiny, pretty town of Pozieres still holds a very special place in the hearts of many down under. Several days earlier, on 21 July, I visited the Australian Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux with the tour group, where I was able to commemorate a boy soldier from our local Dapto area, Private 4342 Edward Sydney Cawe [right] was killed in action at 3.30 pm on 26 July, 1916, at Pozieres. Edward was just three months short of his 16 th birthday. I also remembered two great, great, great grandsons of First Fleet Convict, Edward Whitton Scarborough: Corporal 2942 Henry Alexander Hugh Cameron, 4 th Battalion, killed in action at Pozieres on 23 July, 1916; and Corporal 3209 James Edward O Halloran, 22 nd Battalion, noted as Missing on 5 August, Later recorded as killed in action at Pozieres. Long-time British FFFAIF member David Bartlett wishes to advise that his battlefields tour company, Bartletts Battlefields Journeys, has an updated, new-look website: David s company specialises in bespoke tours for small groups, catering for the interests of each pilgrim. Download his 2017 e-brochure from the website. David has also posted links to the Australian Commemorations in April and September 2017 and the 100 th Anniversary Passchendaele Commemoration in July DIGGER 37 Issue 58

38 The AIF in France and Belgium Photos on this page from Wendy Mahoney, Heather Ford, John Ramsland, Greg O Reilly. See page 2 for captions. DIGGER 38 Issue 58

39 Photos of Bullecourt memorials and the Bullecourt battlefield today by Greg Knight DIGGER 39 Issue 58

40 A Gallipoli light horseman: Trooper 166 Frank Gannon, 7 th LHR Gwenda Stanbridge, Blayney. Gwenda s article first appeared in the Gallipoli 100 display of the Blayney Shire Local & Family History Group Inc. for Anzac Day It was revised in November 2016 for DIGGER. Frank Gannon was mentioned in the article, Unselfish courage, published in DIGGER 56, page T he story of Francis ( Frank ) Gannon began at his birth in Bathurst during He was the eighth child born to Michael John and Augusta Pauline Gannon. The Gannon family had moved to the Central West c.1886 from the Northern Tablelands of NSW. They lived in Lithgow and Rockley before moving to the village of Mandurama, between Blayney and Cowra, around Frank s schooling was completed at Mandurama. As his father was a saddler in the village, it is not surprising that young Frank became a competent horseman. After leaving school, Frank moved to Port Macquarie and found work in a variety of situations, including that as a coach-driver on the Wauchope-Port Macquarie mail run. He also played football with the Port Macquarie Football Club. Frank had a reputation in the area as a splendid horseman who could outride most in the saddle. He was also liked for his quiet and genial disposition and was popular with all who knew him. When war was declared, Frank was among a group of six young men from the Port Macquarie area who volunteered for service, and who were farewelled at a function at the Port Macquarie School of Arts. It is not surprising that due to his level of horsemanship Frank [right] was posted to the 7 th Light Horse Regiment on his enlistment in October 1914 at Rosehill in Sydney. The regiment trained at the Holdsworthy camp and the men were deemed ready for sailing within two months. Frank s A Squadron embarked in Sydney on HMAT Ayrshire with the rest of the 7 th Light Horse Regiment on 20 December, After arriving in Egypt on 1 February, 1915, and some further training, the regiment was sent to Gallipoli, minus their horses, to strengthen the infantry battalions already dug in on the Peninsula. They boarded the ship Lutzow at Egypt on 15 May, 1915, destined to reinforce the infantry on the Peninsula, who had suffered heavy losses during the first three weeks of the campaign. Five days later they were disembarking at Anzac, and facing the hard reality of life on the Peninsula. The 7 th LHR was at first attached to the 1 st Infantry Division, and within two days the men were digging in on the steep slopes near Shrapnel Gully. According to Charles Bean, this work included digging and tunnelling of the heaviest kind. Frank would spend the rest of his short life on the end of a shovel. By the next month the light horsemen of the 7 th had moved south to reinforce the southern flank on Bolton s Ridge. During mid June, it was decided to seize a further 300 yards of the spur running down to the sea, which was done by a party of the 5 th Light Horse Regiment, and a new post was thus established Chatham s Post. Frank s regiment was subsequently given the job of digging five saps to join Tasmania Post with the new one, Chatham. The link became known as Ryrie s Post. It was during this period of back-breaking work that Frank s life was taken by a random Turkish shell bursting over the top of their position, which overlooked the ocean. He was severely wounded, and died a short time later on 8 July, One of his Port Macquarie mates was also wounded and wrote a letter back to a friend from hospital in Malta, explaining the circumstances of Frank s death. The letter was published in the local paper ( Port Macquarie News ), on 28 August, Private WS Samson [Tpr 173 William Stephen Samson, 7 th LHR] wrote: Poor little Gannon and myself had a shell burst right over us both, and Frank had his right leg blown off, and died next morning. The doctor said that the shock killed him. Poor lad, he would have been terribly maimed if he had lived. His body was taken out on one of the boats, and buried at sea. I don t think anyone misses poor old Frank as I do he was the best mate I ever had. Private Billie Samson s letter inferred that Frank had died ashore, before reaching the hospital ship. However, the clerk completing Frank s Casualty Form Active Service, entered that he was buried at sea three miles off Gaba Tepe, from the Hospital Ship Gascon, with Reverend C Mayne reading the funeral rites. (Reverend Mayne was British Church of England chaplain, William Cyril Mayne. He had been commissioned as a temporary chaplain to the forces in October 1914, and attached to the British 29 th DIGGER 40 Issue 58

41 Division. One of his roles at Gallipoli was aboard the hospital Ship Gascon, where he had the grim task of reading funeral rites for soldiers of all denominations and nationalities.) A letter from the Officer in charge of Base Records, advising the details of Frank s death, confirmed that Frank had indeed died aboard the hospital ship and was subsequently buried at sea. It was dated 20 April, 1917, and was sent to Mr M Gannon at the Post Office in Mandurama. However, Michael Gannon had moved his saddlery business during 1915 to Morongla Creek near Cowra, where he died shortly after the move, in January It was left to Frank s mother, Augusta, later resident in Cowra, to deal with the Base Records Office on matters relating to Frank s effects and monies owing. Mrs Gannon also completed the Roll of Honour circular for the Australian War Memorial. It was also Augusta who was the first to read, with great sadness, yet tinged with pride, a letter penned by Major Edward M Windeyer of the 7 th Light Horse. The letter was eventually sent on to the Port Macquarie News by her daughter Agnes (Mrs Crozier of Hamilton). The newspaper headlined its publication with the words Tributes to a Dead Soldier and stated that the letter would be read with pride by all readers who had known the deceased soldier. Light Horse Encampment. Ma adi, Egypt Dear Mrs. Gannon, I hardly know how to write to you of the sad loss you have had losing your bright, jolly son, Frank. I personally felt his loss so much that I hardly know how to write and express my deep sympathy for you all. Frank, as you know from his letters I suppose, was my groom, and I loved the boy almost as a younger brother, and I got to know him so well that his loss is a sad blow to me. He was with me since leaving Sydney, and he was always so bright and jolly and willing that one could not help admiring his good qualities, and be assured of this that the boy lived a clean straight life while he was with me, and no better man or soldier left Australian shores. He was a good friend to all of us, and one who is sadly missed by all his mates. He died on the hospital ship, and was buried at sea, after being fully prepared by Father Berjen [sic], who prayed for him and blessed him and it will comfort you to know that the lad went to confession only quite recently and was always regular at service. Again expressing my deepest sympathy in your loss. Yours sincerely, EM Windeyer, Major, 7 th Light Horse. A similar letter had been written by Father Bergin [Chaplain Michael H Bergin, KIA 12/10/17], a Roman Catholic chaplain who outlined the circumstances of Frank Gannon s death. After the end of the war, the people of Mandurama, Cowra and Port Macquarie made sure that Frank s name was inscribed on their community memorials. His sister, Agnes, placed an In Memoriam notice in the Port Macquarie paper to commemorate the first anniversary of Frank s death. It included these heartfelt words: Oh, Frank, we are proud of you today, More proud than words can tell; You knew your country s need and want, And bravely fighting fell. Answers to DIGGER Quiz No. 58: Prisoners of War 1. Austria-Hungary had over 2.1 million captured by the Russians. In December 1918, Russia had around 1.2 million prisoners still in Germany. Around Italian prisoners were taken at Caporetto alone in Of those countries fighting on the Western Front, Britain had the most captured: Officers 6 482; Other Ranks Officers 173; Other Ranks = (Source: Fighting Nineteenth by Wayne Matthews & David Wilson). Dr Rosalind Hearder gives a total of In order of numbers of men captured: (b) Australia (c) Canada (a) South Africa (d) NZ. 4. Captain William Cull, 22 nd Battalion. The title of the book is Both Sides of the Wire (Source: Both Sides of the Wire.) 6. Elizabeth Chomley and her staff of Australian Red Cross Society volunteers in London or 9% (Source: Australian War Memorial; about 1 in 12 died). 8. Holzminden POW Camp, July 1918 escapees included Australian, Charles Eaton, who was serving with the Royal Flying Corps and was shot down by the Red Baron. Charles Eaton was recaptured after the break out. He survived the war and joined the RAAF. DIGGER 41 Issue 58

42 Hon. Colonel (Temp. Brigadier General) George Merrick Long CBE, DD The right man for the job Maurice Campbell, Dubbo. T he organisation that was set in place for the repatriation of the troops of the AIF in 1919 was a massive undertaking. Sea transport to Australia had to be organised at a time when shipping was in great demand but short in supply. The Australians who fought on the Western Front were now in English depots and billeted in villages in France and Belgium. Sports, concerts and sightseeing would help take their minds off the bloodshed they had experienced, but it was clear that something more substantial and of lasting benefit was needed to occupy the men and prepare them for return to civilian life and employment. Fortuitously, Monash had already commenced in 1918 an education scheme for the Diggers. General Monash had approached Major General Sir Brudenell White (who had planned the evacuation of Gallipoli in 1915): could White find the right man to investigate and institute educational programs in fields of employment, such as manufacturing trades, farming, clerical, telegraphy, building and engineering? Such a scheme would benefit those men who were wounded and awaiting return to Australia, and, with an eye to the future, the troops awaiting repatriation after the end of the war. White recommended George Merrick Long, the Anglican Bishop of Bathurst since 1911, and now a captain in the AIF s Chaplain Services. Long was appointed Director of Education at the Australian Corps Headquarters in June 1918 and given the honorary rank of lieutenant colonel and the task of organising professional, technical and general training (particularly in agriculture). The idea was to provide the men with knowledge and skills that would enhance their career prospects when they returned home. For many of the younger Diggers, soldiering was the only occupation they had known. By 1919, England and France, with their dismal winter weather, held little attraction for the men, who just wanted to get home to sunny Australia and their families. The authorities knew that volunteer soldiers would soon become restless with drill, physical jerks and military training once the fighting had ceased. With Long s planning and oversight, the post-armistice non-military employment scheme proved to be a major success. Some soldiers and nurses completed courses of training or work experience and many thousands more participated. He was promoted temporary brigadier general on 1 January, 1919, awarded an honorary LL.D by the universities of Cambridge (1918) and Manchester (1919) and appointed CBE in 1919 [adb.anu.edu.au]. In March 1919, Long s health broke under the strain and he sailed for home in May. After Bishop Long returned to Australia, he resumed his normal duties in the Diocese of Bathurst. Long felt that a tower and peal of bells was necessary for Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Dubbo. In August 1922 he threw out a challenge to Mrs Leavers, wife of the Rector of that time, to raise pounds by the end of the year to construct a church memorial to the men from this Parish who served in the Great War. The challenge was duly accepted. With the assistance of the parishioners, Mrs Leavers was able to raise the necessary funds. The foundation stone [right] was laid by the Bishop on 17 December, The tower was 60 feet high and contained eight tubular bells. The masonry was completed on October 6, 1923, and the last stone laid by Canon CW Leavers on Sunday, 11 November, On that day, Bishop Long was able to consecrate the completed tower and tubular bells, free of debt, in the presence of a large assembly of people. At the conclusion of the service the Soldiers Memorial bells rang out for the first time. Long retained his connection with the AIF and in 1929 was appointed Chaplain General. In 1930, while in England to attend the Lambeth conference, Long suffered a cerebral haemorrhage and passed away. George Long was honoured in life and in death for both his contributions to the Church of England and to the Australian war effort. He was described as one of the great Australians of his generation, who played a crucial role in the turning of the AIF s effort from destruction to construction. Endnote: Bishop George Long s eldest son, Gavin Long, became the official Australian WWII historian. DIGGER 42 Issue 58

43 For Valour: ANZAC Victoria Cross recipients The Western Front 1917 (Part 1) Geoff Lewis, Raglan. A s the Great War progressed into 1917, significant changes were developing in the way modern war was fought. Artillery became science, not an art, making the guns more accurate and shells more reliable. Aircraft appeared more frequently over the battlefields, providing not only cover for the men below, but sending intelligence that was vital to attacking armies. Following the general failure of the 1916 Somme Offensive and the fearful winter of , a good part of the German forces retreated to the formidable Hindenburg Line. The problem for the Allied Powers was how to breach this massive and wellconstructed defence system. There were twenty-two Victoria Crosses awarded to Anzacs in 1917, including 18 to the AIF, one to the AFC and three to New Zealanders. The first part gives us a snapshot of the infantry fighting on the Somme in the winter of , and tells the story of Australia s only AFC VC recipient. Captain 461 Henry William Murray VC, CMG, DSO and Bar, DCM, MiD, CdeG, 13 th Battalion Come on, men the 16 th are getting Hell. [Bullecourt, April 1917] Mad Harry Murray, as he was affectionately known to all his men, became the most decorated Allied soldier of the war. You will notice from above that he was awarded a Victoria Cross, Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, Distinguished Service Order and Bar, Distinguished Conduct Medal, Mentioned in Despatches and Croix de Guerre. Harry was born to Edward Kennedy Murray and Clarissa Murray (nee Littler), farmers of Evandale, Tasmania, on 1 December, Harry s father died when his son was 14 years old, and so Harry had to leave school and return to the farm. Family stories indicate that there was some kind of falling-out and Harry left Tasmania, initially to work as an armed courier on the WA goldfields, and later as a timber cutter in the forests of the Southwest. At some point, he managed to serve six years in the Australian Field Artillery (Militia) in Launceston. He enlisted on 13 October, 1914, as Private 461 and was posted to the 16 th Battalion. Harry landed at Gallipoli on 25 April, 1915, as a member of one the 16 th Battalion s two machine-gun crews. Here he served with his great mate, Lance Corporal 170 Percy Black. The two were to remain the closest of mates until Percy was KIA at Bullecourt on 11 April, 1917: missing, with no known grave. Both men were awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for exceptional courage, energy and skill for their actions during the Turks offensive of May 1915, especially between May 9 th and 30 th. Right: Studio portrait of Harry Murray, taken 28 November, AWM P On 8 August, Harry was wounded for a second time while covering the withdrawal from Hill 971. He was promoted to sergeant and then to 2 nd lieutenant. Following the Evacuation, the Australians found themselves back in Egypt, where the AIF was reorganised. Murray was transferred to the 13 th Battalion and commissioned as a 1 st lieutenant on 20 January, and then a captain on 1 March, It was on the Western Front that Harry Murray made a name for himself as a careful, deliberate, confident and caring officer (despite his nickname). In early 1917, I ANZAC, part of General Rawlinson s 4 th Army, was given the task of moving the line beyond Warlencourt and Gueudecourt, with the 4 th Division responsible for the centre right. Harry Murray and the 13 th Battalion were on the extreme right near the divisional boundary with the 5 th. The attack was scheduled for 1 March, but was moved forward to 4-5 February by Haig. This meant that there was very little time for preparation, especially in the terrible winter conditions experienced on the Western Front. DIGGER 43 Issue 58

44 Murray was unable to prepare his A Company with his usual thoroughness, but he and his officers and NCOs were able to at least reconnoitre the field several times. This was important to Harry as he had a bushman s eye for terrain. On the full moon evening of 4 February, 1917, in below-freezing conditions, the 13 th moved into position, with A Company in Snipe Trench, about 100 yards behind the other three companies. Murray insisted that they trickle to the line in groups of twos and threes to avoid being detected. As they lay down in the frozen snow, the men were grateful for an issue of rum, as well as wearing their greatcoats. The latter enabled each man to carry an extra six bombs. The company went in with bombs and rifle grenades. An accurate barrage from the 4 th and 5 th Divisional Artillery began at 9.58 pm, which fell on the enemy trenches. Following the shelling, at pm, Harry and his men advanced across No-man s land, with only a slight hold-up when they encountered hidden uncut wire in front of Stormy Trench. They quickly took the trench from the defenders who were mostly crouching in the bottom of the trench to escape the barrage. Straightaway, Harry had his men construct a barricade on the left to hinder counter-attack. Hardly had they completed the task, when the Germans counter-attacked and bombs shattered the barricade. Bean has encapsulated Harry Murray s actions that night: Murray flung himself into the most famous fight of his life. He was a leader whose presence always raised the other men to heights of valour and energy. [ Official History, Vol IV, page 32.] These men would include Corporal 2435 Malcolm Robertson and Private 3136 Roy Withers, who were both awarded the DCM for their work that night. A Company was soon outnumbered. Harry was able to call on twenty bombers from other companies, which he led in a charge that forced the Germans back. A second attack came within ten minutes, employing the usual pattern: accurate artillery, mortar fire and waves of bombers. One of his especially trained sergeants fired the red and green SOS flare, which brought artillery down on the enemy. (Murray had trained a lieutenant and three sergeants to use their initiative and signal for artillery when they thought it necessary.) Despite the attack being repulsed, fierce artillery fire made it difficult for supplies of bombs and ammunition to reach Stormy Trench. At about pm, Harry noticed that a machine-gun and bomb attack was opening up on the right from Sunray Trench. Again, the divisional gunners did their work. From midnight to 3.00 am on the 5 th, swarms of bombers continued counter-attacking. In one attack, Harry killed three Germans, captured three more and also carried at least three of his wounded back to safety. Throughout the night, Harry continued leading and inspiring his company, despite being sick and shaking with the onset of pneumonia. The battalion war diary noted that: The enemy s attacks were made with great determination A Company fought in a manner beyond all praise. At 5.30 am Harry reported that his company had taken heavy losses: indeed, the company went in with 140 men and lost 92. The 13 th Battalion were to take 233 casualties, of whom 43 were killed in action. Still, they held 600 yards of the trench. They were finally relieved later in the evening. The morale of the men was wonderfully good, but A Company had suffered cruelly, their trench was a shambles and it was arranged for them to be relieved. [13 th Battalion war diary.] Captain Harry Murray s VC citation reads: For most conspicuous bravery when in command of the right flank company in attack. He led his company to the assault with great skill and courage and the position was quickly captured. Fighting of a very severe nature followed and three heavy counter-attacks were beaten back, these successes being due to Captain Murray s wonderful work. Throughout the night his company suffered heavy casualties through the concentrated enemy shell fire, and on one occasion gave ground for a short while. This gallant officer rallied his command and saved the situation by sheer valour. He made his presence felt throughout the line, encouraging his men, leading bombing parties, leading bayonet charges and carrying wounded to places of safety. His magnificent example inspired his men throughout. Lieutenant Colonel JMA Durrant, CO 13 th Battalion AIF [ London Gazette, 10 March, 1917.] Sunray and Stormy Trenches now became part of the new front line on the Somme. Harry Murray and the 13 th Battalion next saw action at Bullecourt as the Germans retired to the Hindenburg Line in significant numbers. The two Battles of Bullecourt were part of a much wider Allied offensive in Artois, east of the city of Arras. The attack, known as the Nivelle Offensive, was originally scheduled for February, but was delayed until 9 April by the weather and political and strategic disputes between the French and British. As usual, the Germans were expecting the attack. Any hope of surprise was DIGGER 44 Issue 58

45 long gone. Some progress was made, but slowed down against the complete German defences along the Hindenburg Line. On 11 April, the Australians of the 4 th and 12 th Brigades were thrown into the re-entrant between Bullecourt and Riencourt; with the 4 th on the right and the 12 th on the left. As at Stormy Trench, the 13 th followed 16 th. Despite a torrent of machine-gun fire from three sides, the 16 th, 14 th and 46 th Battalions made it through the first defensive line. Harry s mate, Major Percy Black DSO, DCM, CdeG of the 16 th, was killed while trying to find a gap in the second line of wire, which was supposed to have been cut by the tanks. His body was never found. Murray and the 13 th advanced a little further and sent a message that their position could be held with artillery support like that which he received at Stormy Trench but the artillery was not permitted to fire under the German barrage because of the closeness of the Australians and Germans. Becoming desperately short of ammunition, he had no choice than to withdraw his men. For his part in the battle, Harry received a bar to his DSO, but he probably regarded it as a poor substitute for the death of Percy Black. Later that day, he was promoted to temporary major; confirmed the next day. By the end of the year he temporarily commanded his battalion. After First Bullecourt, the 13 th retired to Ribemont for rest. Harry took leave in London where the King presented him with his VC and DSO on 4 June, He returned to his unit in late July. The battalion was engaged in the Ypres Sector: at Ploogsteert Wood and Messines (in supports), and Polygon Wood (brigade reserve). Harry was mentioned in Haig s despatches on 7 November for leadership at Passchendaele. The 4 th Brigade spent the next three months in reserve and Harry became second-incommand of the 13 th Battalion. On 15 March 1918, he was transferred to command the 4 th Machine Gun Battalion, where he remained for the rest of the war. During the planning for the Battle of Le Hamel, he was asked by Monash to prepare the tactics to be used by the machine gunners. As a result, he received an extra five sections to his battalion. During this battle, his men fired rounds, but suffered 33 casualties. August 3 rd saw the 4 th MGB involved in the Battle of Amiens, where a new tactic of moving the machine gunners and their Vickers around the field on Mark V tanks was used. His last posting of the war was secondment to the headquarters of the US II Corps. Here, Major General John F O Ryan recommended Murray for the US Distinguished Service Medal for all the work and assistance he gave to the Americans, but the DSM was not awarded. After the war, Murray toured the UK and Scandinavia studying agriculture, especially sheep husbandry. His appointment to the AIF ended on 9 March, 1920, and he took up a property at Mukkadilla in Queensland. He was twice married and had two children. After spending some time in New Zealand, Harry returned to Queensland in April 1928 where he bought the ha Glenlyon Station at Richmond. At the outbreak of WWII, Harry enlisted in the 2 nd AIF, where he commanded the 26 th Militia Battalion until August 1942, after which he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the Volunteer Defence Corps. He retired from military service on 8 February, Mad Harry was killed in a car accident and died in Miles Hospital on 7 January, 1966, aged 85 years. His Victoria Cross is privately held, although sometimes it is lent to museums and memorials. He is remembered at the Harry Murray Room in the Evandale Community Hall, outside of which stands a statue of this great but humble man. Lieutenant Frank McNamara VC, No. 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps A brilliant escape in the very nick of time and under hot fire. [HS Gullett: Official History of Australia in the War of ] When we think of the war in the desert, our minds automatically consider the deeds of the Australian Light Horse at such actions as Romani, Gaza and Beersheba. However, there is another lesser known side to this war: the work of the Australian Flying Corps. Francis Hubert McNamara was a member of No. 1 Squadron AFC, and was the first and only Australian airman to be awarded a Victoria Cross in the Great War. Frank s career in the AFC was a little unusual: unlike his comrades, he enlisted directly into the AFC rather than the usual transferring from the AIF. Indeed, he was so devoted to his calling that he spent his whole career and life to service in the RAAF until retiring. Frank was born in Shepparton on 4 April, 1894, the first of eight children to William Francis and Roseanne McNamara and was educated locally and at Shepparton Agricultural High School and at Melbourne Teachers College. He taught in a number of schools in Victoria. His military career began in 1911, when he joined the school senior cadets, later transferring to the 49 th Battalion (Brighton) Rifles in the following year. He was promoted to 2 nd lieutenant and accepted to OTS at Broadmeadows, with the prospect DIGGER 45 Issue 58

46 of a permanent career in the army. He instructed there until August 1915 when he was selected for training at Point Cook Flying School, from where he graduated as a pilot three months later. In this short training period, pilots learned to fly the Bristol and the relatively primitive Martinsyde, both little more than box kites with a single engine. Frank was then posted to No. 1 Squadron of the newly-created Australian Flying Corps and became its adjutant in January 1916 in Egypt. In May, he was attached to No. 42 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps and was taught to fly more advanced aircraft at the Central Training School at Upavon in Wiltshire. In Egypt, he was attached to No. 22 Squadron as an instructor. Returning to the AFC in Egypt, Frank now flew missions in both the BE2c single-engine, two-seater biplane, which had come into RFC service in 1912, as well as the Martinsyde. Right: Studio portrait of Captain Frank McNamara VC. The action for which he was awarded his VC was, at the time, quite spectacular. On 20 March, 1917, the squadron was raiding a Turkish railway junction at Tel el-hesi near Gaza. Due to a shortage of ammunition, the Martinsyde aircraft involved each only had six specially modified 4.5 inch howitzer shells. Frank had dropped three when a fourth exploded prematurely, severely lacerating his leg with shrapnel. As he banked to return, he noticed that Captain David Rutherford (AFC) had crash landed his craft and that a company of Turkish cavalry was fast approaching. Despite the rough, rocky terrain and the gash in his leg, he landed near his fellow officer in an attempt to rescue him. However, the Martinsyde did not have enough room for both men, so Rutherford jumped on its wing, taking hold of the wire struts. The engine did not have enough power to take off, and combined with McNamara s wounds making it difficult to control the plane, the Martinsyde flipped over. The two men set the machine on fire and ran as best they could to the Rutherford s BE2. Rutherford desperately repaired the engine, while Frank kept the enemy at bay with his service revolver. They were saved when Lieutenants Roy Peter Drummond and Alfred Ellis, also of No. 1 Squadron, strafed the cavalry from above. The engine coughed into life and Frank managed to get the machine into the air. Despite blacking out several times from the pain and loss of blood from the wound in his leg, he was able to fly the 70 miles back to base at El Arish. McNamara s VC citation reads: For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty during an aerial bomb attack upon a hostile enemy construction train, when one of our pilots was forced to land behind enemy lines. Lieutenant McNamara, observing this pilot s predicament to the fact that hostile cavalry were approaching, descended to his rescue. He did this under heavy enemy rifle fire and in spite of the fact that he himself had been severely wounded in the thigh. He landed about 200 yards from the damaged machine. The pilot climbed into Lieutenant McNamara s and an attempt was made to rise. Owing, however, to his disabled leg, Lieutenant McNamara was unable to keep his machine straight and it turned over. The two officers, having extricated themselves, immediately set fire to the machine and made their way across to the damaged machine, which they succeeded in starting. Finally, Lieutenant McNamara, although weak through loss of blood, flew his machine back to the aerodrome, a distance of seventy miles, thus completed his comrade s rescue. [ London Gazette, 8 June, 1917.] The award was recommended by Brigadier General Geoffrey Salmond, GOC Middle East Brigade of the RFC. This fact has given rise to the confusion as to whether Frank was a member of the RFC or the AFC at the time. He eventually received his VC from the Prince of Wales at a ceremony at Government House in Melbourne on 26 May, Captain Rutherford praised Frank s action and added that the fact that he was wounded made his action one of outstanding gallantry. Frank was evacuated to hospital, but on the way he suffered a severe reaction to an anti-tetanus injection which almost cost him his life. Nevertheless, he recovered quickly and a few days later was reported eating chicken and drinking champagne. Frank was promoted to captain on 10 April and transferred to No.4 Squadron AFC in France as its flight commander. Sadly, the seriousness of his leg wound meant that he was unable to resume flying. In August 1917, he was invalided back home and received a hero s welcome in Melbourne. Frank was discharged from the AFC on 31 January, 1918, but in September he joined the staff at Point Cook as a flying instructor. DIGGER 46 Issue 58

47 The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) was founded in March 1921 from the AFC, which began in Frank McNamara enlisted almost immediately as flying officer in charge of Staff Operations and Intelligence. Very soon his talents were used when he was promoted to CO of No. 1 Flying School and in March 1924 he was promoted to the rank of squadron leader. McNamara found time to marry Helene Bluntschi, a Belgian national, in 1925 while he was on a two-year exchange with the Royal Air Force. Upon his return home, he was regularly promoted through the ranks of the RAAF: Air Commodore in 1939; Air Vice Marshal in as Officer Commanding British Forces in Aden; and in 1946 he became Director of Education at the HQ of the British Occupation Administration in Berlin. He retired from the RAAF and moved to Britain. Frank McNamara VC passed away on 7 November, This quiet, unassuming, courteous and scholarly Australian was greatly admired by all who knew or came into contact with him. There is a memorial to McNamara in the form of a plaque to his memory in High Street, Rushworth, Victoria, his home town. Frank s Victoria Cross is on display in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Captain Percy Herbert Cherry VC, MC, 26 th Battalion And so it ends. [Dying German officer to Cherry at Pozieres.] Captain Percy Cherry was another Anzac who was awarded the Victoria Cross and who gave his life in doing so. He had already been awarded a Military Cross for his action at Malt Trench near Warlencourt on the night of 1-2 March, He and his men rushed two German machine-gun posts, capturing one singlehandedly before turning the MG-08 on the rapidly retiring enemy. Percy was never to know that he was the recipient of these two medals. Percy was the son of John Gawley and Elizabeth Cherry, born in Drysdale, Victoria, on 4 June, However, he identified as a Tasmanian, after his family moved to Cradoc in the Huon Valley when he was seven, to successfully take up apple growing. State-school educated until he turned thirteen, after which he was privately tutored, Percy finished his education to help his father on the family orchard. His spare time was occupied by involving himself in playing the cornet in the Franklin Brass Band and singing in the local Anglican church choir. He became an enthusiastic member of the local 93 rd Infantry Battalion [Militia] and was commissioned in Percy Cherry enlisted on 5 March, 1915, and was posted to D Company of the 25 th Battalion. He was disappointed that his age (19 years and nine months) precluded him from gaining a commission in the AIF. Nevertheless, he sailed off to Gallipoli in June as a CQMS. He saw action at Taylor s Hollow and Russell s Top. Cherry suffered bomb wounds to the head on 1 December and was evacuated to Egypt four days later. By the time he sailed for Europe, he had been promoted to 2 nd lieutenant. Left: Studio portrait of Captain Percy Herbert Cherry VC, MC, c Note that the VC and MC have been added to photo. AWM P In March 1916, Percy was seconded to the 7 th Machine Gun Company and later transferred to that unit and then back to the 26 th. Again, he was wounded and further promoted the 1 st lieutenant, gaining a reputation as a rather stern disciplinarian, making him somewhat unpopular amongst those he commanded. By now Percy was on the Somme, where the incident that inspired the above quote took place. While at Pozieres, on 5 August, he and a German officer were exchanging shots at each other from their respective shell holes. Eventually, luck was on Percy s side and he inflicted a mortal wound to the German. He went over to see what had happened to the German. He was surprised to see the man still alive, fumbling inside his tunic. The man produced several letters and asked Cherry to post them to his family in Germany. Compassion for a brave opponent took over and Percy readily agreed to do so. The quote is the German s last words. Following the capture of Mouquet Farm by the Canadians, and Thiepval by the British, assisted by the Canadians, the BEF advanced north and northeast, through one of the coldest winters in European history, to try and push the line as far east as possible. Thus, the 26 th Battalion found itself in the vicinity of DIGGER 47 Issue 58

48 the Butte de Warlencourt in late February A brief account of the action that resulted in Percy Cherry being awarded the Military Cross is indicated above. The citation reads: For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He led his Company in the attack with great gallantry and captured the enemy s position together with two machine guns. Later wounded he continued to command his men. [ London Gazette, 26 April, 1917.] Three weeks later Percy Cherry was dead. Peter Pedersen has noted Cherry s unpopularity among his men, but has balanced his worth as a leader: [He] would have remained unpopular were it not for his aggression, almost fanatical bravery and insistence in leading from the front. There is a strong indication of these traits in the MC incident. The action which led to his Victoria Cross proves this beyond doubt. Usually, a VC is awarded for a single act, but in Percy Cherry s case it was recognition of his work over a number of days during the attack and capture of Lagnicourt, a village of strategic importance in the planned offensive to take the Hindenburg Line at Bullecourt. On 26 March, the 7 th Brigade had arrived at the village with orders to take it from the Germans. At the time, Cherry was CO of D Company, which was to storm the centre of the village while other companies surrounded it. After the usual barrage, which lasted twenty minutes after 5.15 am, Cherry decided to split his company into two: one half, led by Cherry, took the south and west edges, basically up the main road the Beugny Road while the second, commanded by Lieutenant William Frederick Joseph Hamilton, led the other on the left along a cutting and in front of hedges. They were to rendezvous at a small grassed area in the centre of the village. The other companies surrounded the village, encountering little enemy opposition. The same cannot be said for D Company. Hamilton s group was the first to face opposition when front-on machine-gun fire from an orchard hit them. Only five men managed to find cover behind a hedge, from where they bombed the machine-gun post out of action. Hamilton was hit and Lieutenant HH Bieske took charge and moved on towards the meeting place. Meanwhile, moving up the road, Cherry s group encountered heavier opposition. Firstly, they met machine-gun and rifle fire from the first house they came to: a large farmhouse surrounding a courtyard. A Lewis gunner rushed the house, firing his Lewis gun from the hip, and hosed the room which the Germans were occupying. The rest of the farm was cleared so they moved along the road, which Bean later described as a straggling road of greasy, putty-coloured mud, bordered by farmers houses and barns. Almost immediately, they came under fire from behind hedges, hidden dugouts and stables. Cherry was ordered to retreat but decided to hold his ground, and instead asked for Stokes mortars and ammunition to be sent up. Becoming impatient at the delay, despite the mud clogging up the Lewis guns and rifles, as well as making ammunition clips very slippery, he sent his gunners to attack the stables, while the riflemen looked after the enemy in the hedges and dug outs. All this delayed the attackers, but eventually they arrived at the meeting place, only to find that instead of a small patch of grass at the crossroads there was a large chalk crater, from which the Germans were pouring lead down onto the advancing Australians. Again, Cherry decided to press on. Under the cover of Lewis gun fire and rifle grenades, the company rushed the crater. The defenders retreated and the crater was captured. Imagine Percy s surprise when he found Bieske lying at the bottom of the crater with a fractured leg. Despite some scattered resistance, D Company captured Lagnicourt and waited for the inevitable counter-attack. Although wounded, Cherry remained to organise his men. The counter-attack came at 9.00 next morning (27 March) and fighting lasted all day. At last, the Germans abandoned the attack and retreated towards the Hindenburg Line. The attack cost the 7 th Brigade 377 casualties, of which the 26 th Battalion took 82. Percy Cherry s citation reads: For most conspicuous bravery, determination and leadership when in command of a company detailed to storm and clear a village. After all the officers of his company became casualties, he carried on with care and determination, in the face of fierce opposition and cleared the village of the enemy. He sent frequent reports of progress made and when held up for some time by an enemy strong point he organised machine-gun and bomb parties and captured the position. His leadership, coolness and bravery set an example to his men. Having cleared the village, he took charge of the situation and beat off the most resolute and heavy counter-attacks made by the enemy. Wounded about 6.30 am, he refused to leave his post and there remained, encouraging all to hang on at all costs, until about 4.30 pm. This very gallant officer was killed by an enemy shell. [ London Gazette, 11 May, 1917.] DIGGER 48 Issue 58

49 As mentioned, Percy Cherry did not live to know about or receive his Military Cross or his Victoria Cross. In the late afternoon of the 27 th, a shell burst in a sunken road just east of Lagnicourt killed him and several others. Initially, Percy was buried in an isolated grave not far from where he was killed. In 1925, his remains were recovered and he was re-interred in Queant Road Military Cemetery, Buissy (Plot VIII, Row C, Grave 10) with the family s chosen epitaph: In memory of the deeply loved son of J and E Cherry of Cradoc, Huon, Tasmania. We may speculate that his men now appreciated Percy s emphasising the importance of discipline in war as central to modern warfare. The assault and capture of the village cost the 7 th Brigade 377 Australian casualties; the 26 th lost six officers and 76 other ranks. The success meant that the 5 th Army now had clear sight of the Hindenburg Line and the taking of the outpost villages could continue in earnest. Lagnicourt became the HQ for I Anzac Corps for its two offensives against the Germans at Bullecourt. Percy Cherry s Victoria Cross was presented to his father in October 1917 by the Governor of Tasmania Sir Francis Newdegate in Hobart. His medal is held and displayed at the Australian War Memorial s Hall of Valour. Private 2389 Joergen Christian Jensen VC, 10 th and 50 th Battalions He received a hero s welcome when he returned to Adelaide. [Newspaper report of Jorgen Jensen s return home.] There are a large number of soldiers who fought in the AIF who were born outside Australia not native born according to their enlistment papers. This is to be expected, considering the close immigration contact between Australia and the UK at the time. However, there is a small group who were Scandinavian and who willingly signed up to serve their adopted country. Private Joergen ( Jorgen ) Jensen was one. He was born in Logstor in northern Denmark on 5 January, Nothing is known of his father, but he lists his mother Christiaan Sorensen, as his next of kin. In 1907, Jorgen left his home country to seek his fortune, firstly in Britain and then in Australia, where he arrived two years later. He obviously liked what he saw and was naturalised in January Jensen enlisted on 23 March, 1915, at Keswick, an inner south-west suburb of Adelaide. Jorgen was allocated to the 10 th Battalion. On 19 September, 1915, Jensen was taken on the strength of the 10 th Battalion at Gallipoli, following a series of illnesses which delayed his arrival on the Peninsula. After the Evacuation he returned to Egypt, where he was transferred to the 50 th Battalion as part of the reorganisation of the AIF. After training in England, the stocky labourer proceeded to France from Folkestone aboard the Princess Clementine on 28 January, Right: Jorgen Jensen VC when holding the rank of temporary sergeant in en.wikipedia.org/wiki/jørgen_jensen_(vc) Interestingly, Jorgen had a chequered career in the AIF both before and after receiving his VC. He was crimed numerous times, usually for absences without leave, absences from parades and tattoos. For a while the military authorities gave him a little slack the usual procedure at the time but frequent occurrences showed that they lost patience with him and the regular monetary and restriction of movement penalties were handed out. Following the severe winter, the BEF began pursuing the Germans towards the Hindenburg Line. This meant attacking and holding the strongly defended and fortified outpost villages of French Flanders that were a few miles in front of the enemy s main defence system. The Australians generally encountered two methods of defence: surrounding of the villages with wire and trenches; and strong points often dug into the banks of sunken roads or hidden behind hedges. It was a variation on the latter that Jorgen s company encountered on 2 April at Noreuil. Orders were given to the 13 th Brigade on 31 March to attack and hold the village of Noreuil about one and a half miles NW of the larger Lagnicourt, which had been taken earlier. Already there had been three unsuccessful attempts to take the village, across open fields. On 31 August, orders were given to the 50 th and 51 st Battalions to surround, then attack and keep the village, which lay in a valley. The attack on Noreuil was set down for 2 April on a very cold but clear morning with neither snow nor rain falling. The plan was similar to that which resulted in the successful taking and holding of Lagnicourt. The 50 th was divided into its four companies which, on 1 April, two of DIGGER 49 Issue 58

50 which were holding a post line some 850 yards south of the village and A and C Companies were held in reserve. Zero hour was 5.15 am. The companies moved into position at 2.15 am and followed a thin barrage on the village. Importantly, many of the strong points were not hit by shells. On the south side, Jorgen s company ran into trouble. Just on the outskirts of the village, the Germans had erected a substantial barricade, supported by a machine gun, across the Noreuil-Lagnicourt Road (at the bottom of the hill just where it turned right into the village proper). Other companies and the 51 st encountered hidden dugouts and suffered significant losses. The barricade had meant that forward progress came to a halt. Trench mortars were brought up but made little impact. Suddenly, Private Jensen leapt from cover and rushed the barrier, throwing a grenade towards the machine gun. He held another grenade in his hand and as he came to the structure, he pulled another from his pocket and pulled the pin out with his teeth. One account asserts that he somersaulted over the barrier and confronted the defenders. Fortunately, Jorgen was fluent in German and indicated the consequences if they did not surrender. His message was clear and 45 Germans put up their hands. This was not enough, and he had one of their number walk down the road to the next defensive position to urge the defenders to surrender. No objections were offered. The incident took another bizarre turn. Jensen rounded up the prisoners and sent them back towards the Australia lines. Tragically, they were fired upon by Jensen s comrades, who were unaware of what had taken place ahead. Jensen jumped up onto the obstruction, waving his tin hat to successfully stop the shooting. Jorgen Jensen s citation states: For most conspicuous bravery and initiative when, with 5 [sic] comrades, he attacked a barricade behind which were 45 of the enemy and a machine gun, one shot the gunner and he singlehandedly rushed the post and threw in a bomb. He still had a bomb in one hand, but taking another from his pocket with the other hand, he drew the pin with his teeth, and by threatening the enemy with two bombs and telling them that they were surrounded he induced them to surrender. He then sent one of the prisoners to order a neighbouring party to surrender, which they did. This latter party was then fired upon in ignorance of their surrender by another party of our troops; whereupon he utterly regardless of personal danger, stood on the barricade waved his helmet, causing firing to cease and sent his prisoners to our lines. Jensen s conduct throughout was marked by extraordinary bravery and determination. [ London Gazette, 8 June, 1917.] The award of the Victoria Cross was recommended by General Thomas Glasgow, GOC 13 th Infantry Brigade and General William Holmes, GOC 4 th Australian Division. Jorgen Jensen was presented with his medal by George V on 8 June. Jensen s actions meant that Noreuil was now open and was very quickly captured and all objectives achieved, with little opposition, as most of the defenders either fled or were taken prisoner. A few desultory counter-attacks were easily dealt with. Following his action, Private Jensen was promoted to corporal and later to acting sergeant. This was as far as he was promoted, as his misbehaviour frustrated the authorities, who probably believed he was not good officer material. His misdemeanours did not prevent Jensen becoming a popular member of his battalion. On 5 May, 1918, he was grievously wounded, suffering a gunshot wound to his head, which caused a fractured skull. Jensen was repatriated to London where he underwent surgery to remove metal fragments from his skull, followed by several months recuperation. He returned to Australia on 5 August to a hero s welcome in Adelaide. However, all was not well. Already Jensen was complaining of periodic, severe headaches. His record noted that he became excited very easily. The doctors were uncertain to the extent of his disabilities. Jorgen settled into a new job as a marine store dealer and on 13 July, 1921, he married Katy Arthur in Adelaide. Tragically, he passed away on 31 May, 1922, the result of war caused injuries. Jensen was buried in the AIF Garden in the Memorial Cemetery in West Terrace, Adelaide. The local newspaper described it as one of the most impressive funerals which have passed through the gates of the West Terrace cemetery. Corporal Jorgen Christian Jensen s Victoria Cross is held by and displayed at the Australian War Memorial. DIGGER 50 Issue 58

51 Private Thomas James Bede Kenny VC, 2 nd Battalion A vital man of immense character. [Matthew Higgins, speaking at Bede s funeral.] As 1917 progressed, there were changes to the way in which the war was being fought. Static trench warfare, where neither side could make a significant breakthrough, was giving away to more open, flexible strategies and tactics. The change was not dramatic; there was no attempt at the big breakout. Trenches were still being dug. Artillery remained the main weapon of the Western Front; causing the most casualties. We have already seen in previous accounts of the Victoria Crosses awarded in 1917 that the Germans were retreating towards the Hindenburg Line. It was the Allies who were more on the move. Trenches tended to become less permanent, replaced by outposts. The next group of VC recipients often fought along the roads and in the villages towards Bullecourt. The events which led to Bede (as he was known) Kenny bear a striking similarity to those in this group, as the tactics employed to attack, take and hold one of the string of outpost villages Noreuil, Lagnicourt, Louverval, Doignies, Boursies, Demicourt and Hermies were essentially the same. In a concentrated action, a battalion was split into separate companies or platoons which would try to encircle the village attacking from different directions while a third would attack the centre and eventually link up with the others at a nominated point. It was hoped that the fight would be over quickly, but in these VC actions it would usually be some kind of German resistance that would induce an individual soldier to take the initiative against the enemy. This has already been seen in the work of Captain Cherry and Private Jensen. Private 4195 Thomas James Bede Kenny was born in Sydney either at Randwick or the Women s Hospital in Paddington on 29 September, 1896, to James Austin and Mary Kenny. He was educated at Waverley College to matriculation standard and was employed as a chemist s assistant in Bondi when war was declared. This lanky young man, who stood over six feet tall, enlisted at Warwick Farm on 23 August, He was initially allocated to the 54 th Battalion but was transferred to the 2 nd upon arrival in Egypt on 4 March, Bede had a good throwing arm as he saw action at Pozieres as a member of a bombing platoon. Right: Portrait of Private Thomas James Bede Kenny VC, c AWMP Following the bitterly cold and wet winter of 1916/17, tentative pushes were launched at the retreating Germans, despite the miserable conditions facing the men on the Somme. Snow and ice still lay about when the 2 nd Battalion, with two companies from the 3 rd in reserve, were given the task of taking the village of Hermies. The attack was to go in at 4.15 am on 9 April, 1917, using the tactics outlined above. The attack did not get off to a good start. A German flare set a haystack on fire. The flames illuminated the field in which the Australians were assembling and drew heavy machine-gun fire that caused several casualties. Machine-gun fire from an abandoned brickworks later stalled the attack. It looked like the attack would have to be abandoned for another day, just as had occurred in earlier attacks on the villages. Unexpectedly, the Germans stopped firing and one company outflanked the enemy, killed several and took 70 prisoners. The Germans seemed to be surprised and the village was quickly taken at 6.45 am. Meanwhile, Kenny s group were on the Rue Neuve to the north east, trying to establish posts to prevent Germans escaping to the Hindenburg Line. Kenny s platoon came under enemy fire from a sand pit just off the road. Initially, Kenny, the bomb thrower, was ordered to throw a grenade in the Germans direction but it fell short. With two mates covering him, Private Kenny rushed the post sprinting about a hundred yards, throwing two grenades from twenty to thirty yards out into the sand pit. He was challenged by a German officer, but Kenny shot him dead and took control of the post. Sergeant A Matthews was present and described Bede s action in his diary: The lance corporal on the left [was] charging a gun served and defended by eight men. From thirty yards he dropped a bomb amongst them and at twenty yards just as the bomb burst he was wounded in the left arm. Undaunted he continued his rush and leapt into the trench and bayoneted in quick succession the remaining three Germans. He is L. Cpl Kenny. DIGGER 51 Issue 58

52 Bede Kenny s citation reads: For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty, when his platoon was held up by an enemy strong point, and severe casualties prevented progress, Private Kenny under very heavy fire at close range, dashed alone towards the enemy s position, killed one man in advance of the strong point who endeavoured to bar his way. He then bombed the position, captured the gun crew all of whom he had wounded, killed an officer who showed fight and seized the gun. Private Kenny s gallant action enabled his platoon to occupy the position, which was of great local importance. [ London Gazette, 8 June, 1917.] Kenny received his Victoria Cross from George V at Buckingham Palace on 21 July Indeed, Bede Kenny s swift action had overcome a dangerous position for his platoon. It enabled the string of outposts to be completed to the north of Hermies. He was promoted to corporal, but was almost immediately evacuated to England suffering from trench feet, a condition that plagued him for most of the war. Kenny rejoined his battalion as it was engaged in the fighting in and around Hazebrouck, on 26 June, He was severely wounded at Meteren and evacuated again. Ironically, he was offered a post in the Military Police, but he refused. Bede had several previous brushes with the Provos, usually for absence without leave. So, Kenny was repatriated back to Australia in July 1918 with, in his words, wounds you would not write home about. He was met with a hero s welcome in Sydney and discharged on 12 December, After the war, Kenny married Kathleen Dorothy Buckley at St Mary s Cathedral on 29 September, The couple had three children and had a happy home according to friends. He was variously employed in sales positions or, for a time, as a journalist. Tragically, he continued to suffer the after-effects of trench feet and the war left him partially deaf. His elder son and younger daughter died of rheumatic fever in the 1940s and it is said that he never really recovered from their loss. Bede Kenny passed away on 15 April, 1953, at Concord Repatriation Hospital in Sydney. Bede Kenny is buried at Botany Cemetery. Ironically, the pall-bearers were all military policemen. His VC is held and exhibited by the Australian War Memorial, and he is personally remembered by way of the Bede Kenny Memorial Ward in Wentworth Private Hospital, Randwick, which provides beds for exservicemen ineligible for repatriation hospital treatment. Sergeant 2902 John Woods Whittle VC, DCM, 12 th Battalion, and Captain James Ernest Newland VC, MiD, 12 th Battalion On the day the United States declared war on Germany, Hookey Walker s 1 st Division returned to the line to take the three villages that stood between the Australians and the Hindenburg Line. The villages fell one by one and over several days, but at a cost of 649 Australian casualties. Three 1 st Division men won the Victoria Cross. [Les Carlyon: The Great War.] Sergeant John Whittle and Captain James Newland had roughly parallel military careers immediately before and during the war. Both were permanent army officers who had served in the Boer War before enlisting in the AIF. They were awarded Victoria Crosses for their part in the same actions at Boursies and Lagnicourt in the battle for the outpost villages. They knew each other, as Newland commanded A Company of the 12 th Battalion and Whittle was his senior NCO. However, they were very dissimilar in personality and how they went about their work on the Western Front. John Whittle was born on 3 August, 1882 on Huon Island, just off the east coast of Tasmania, the son of Henry Whittle, a labourer and Catherine. However, he was brought up in Hobart. Here, he enlisted in the 4 th Tasmanian (2 nd Imperial Bushman) Contingent, in His unit embarked for the Cape on 27 March, 1901, and returned home on 25 June, 1902, after seeing action against the Boer guerrillas in the Cape Colony. Soon after, he enlisted as a stoker in the Royal Navy, on the Australian Station. Upon his discharge he enlisted in the Australian Army and was posted to the Army Service Corps for three and a half years. Whittle married Emily Margaret Rowland on 23 July, The couple had five children. He was transferred to the 3 rd Battery of the Australian Field Artillery for a short time. At the outbreak of war, Whittle was in the Tasmanian Rifle Regiment. James Ernest Newland was a year older than Whittle; born on 22 August, 1881, in Highton, a suburb of Geelong, to William (a labourer) and Louise Jane Wells. In 1899, James enlisted in the Australian Commonwealth Military Forces and was allotted to the 24 th Battalion Horse. Like Whittle, he saw service in DIGGER 52 Issue 58

53 South Africa. Returning home in 1902, he joined the Royal Australian Artillery in July 1903 and served for four years. In 1909, he left the army and became a police officer in Tasmania. Obviously, his new occupation was not to his liking and he returned to the army and was posted to the Australian Instructional Corps. On 27 December 1913, he married Florence May Marshall at Sheffield, Tasmania; the union producing three children. The stocky and strongly built Whittle transferred to the AIF on 6 August, 1915, and was initially allotted to the 26 th Battalion. He left Australia on 1 March the following year and was promoted to corporal in the 12 th Battalion, after two weeks at sea. Arriving in France on 7 April, 1916, he was again promoted, to lance sergeant eight days after landing. Like most other units, the 12 th found themselves in the nursery at Fleurbaix, where on 18 June Whittle received a gun shot wound to his right arm. Consequently, he was shipped to the UK to the 1 st Auxiliary Hospital at Harefield, to return to his battalion on 16 September. John saw his first serious action at Pozieres in July and September. On 14 October, at Ypres, he was promoted to sergeant, but fell ill and did not rejoin his mates down on the Somme until 18 December. Over the same period, Newland s life was different. He enlisted on 17 August, 1914, as RQMS of the 12 th. He departed from Australia on 21 October and landed at Gallipoli at 4.30 am on the 25 th. James was (probably) wounded that day and was evacuated to Egypt, to rejoin the battalion on 22 May, the day he received his first commission. On 9 June, Newland was transferred to Alexandria as the 12 th s transport officer; his promotion to lieutenant occurring on 15 October. The following year saw the AIF in Europe, and on 1 March, 1916, James Newland was promoted to captain and put in command of A Company. Here he probably met Whittle for the first time. In July-August, the men of the 12 th were engaged in battle at Pozieres/Mouquet Farm. Newland led his company in a successful attack on a trench northeast of the Farm on 21 August. He was recommended for an MC, but his work was acknowledged with a MiD. The battalion retired from action until, at the end of the terrible 1916/17 winter, they found themselves involved in the beginnings of the battle for the outpost villages. Again, James was wounded by gun shot to the face on 1 March Left: Outdoor portrait of Captain James Ernest Newland VC. AWM P On 27 February the following year, the 12 th Battalion was attacking the adjoining villages of La Barque and Ligny-Thilloy (due east of Warlencourt). At 4.30 am A Company were to take Bark Trench on the northern side (left flank) of La Barque but, as usual, they encountered rifle and machine-gun fire from a German strongpoint. Newland was wounded and Whittle rallied the men, who rushed the outpost, hurling grenades as they went forward. They then chased the panicking enemy along the trench and held it. For his actions, Sergeant John Whittle was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal. His citation reads: For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He showed great initiative in reorganising his men and capturing an enemy strong point, which was holding up the advance. [London Gazette 24 April 1917.] By early April 1917, three villages lay between the Australians and the Hindenburg Line at Bullecourt: Boursies, Dernancourt and Hermies. The 1 st Division were given the task of capturing all three. It was planned for the 12 th Battalion to take the first, but as a feint to divert the Germans away from the last on 9 April. Jim Newland had returned to command A Company, and Jack Whittle took over the left platoon. The assault went in at 3.00 am but very quickly met with heavy machine-gun fire from an abandoned mill 400 yards short of the village. They began to take heavy casualties and some panic apparently set in. Newland gathered a party to bomb the strongpoint. The Germans were dislodged and the point taken, and the company continued on to its objective. Whittle took command of an outpost beyond the mill. Here they faced many counter-attacks throughout the day, including a heavy barrage. The Germans were able to enter the trench, but Sergeant Whittle gathered his men and rushed the enemy. Newland, with another party, arrived just in time and the two men managed to stabilise the situation. They held on until they were relieved the next day. Boursies was captured at a cost of 240 men, of whom 70 were killed. As we have seen, the 26 th Battalion captured the important village of Lagnicourt on 26 March, but the Germans were able to take much of it back after many counter-attacks and some poor planning by the Australian staff. The 26 th re-established posts along the road Captain Cherry had followed and counter- DIGGER 53 Issue 58

54 attacks were soon launched on them by the Germans. The 12 th relieved the 9 th Battalion at dawn on 14 April. In their attack the next day on the 1 st Division s line, the enemy could not take the cutting. However, the Germans were able to push D Company (on the left of Newland s A Company) back. Newland retreated as far as the cutting and set up defensive positions on both sides of the road. This effectively locked the Germans in along the eastern side of Lagnicourt. Things were becoming desperate, despite Newland s inspirational rallying of his troops, especially when a machine gun was being set up to sweep along the road. Despite being under heavy rifle and machine-gun fire, the experienced Whittle rushed the gun and bombed the position, killing the entire team, capturing the gun and bringing it back to his own lines. For their actions on 15 April, Newlands and Whittle were both awarded the Victoria Cross. Captain James Newland s citation reads: For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty in the face of heavy odds, on three separate occasions. On the first occasion he organised the attack by his company on a most important objective, and led personally under heavy fire, a bombing attack. He then rallied his company, which had suffered heavy casualties, and was one of the first to reach the objective. On the following night, his company, holding the captured position, was heavily counter-attacked. By personal exertion, utter disregard of fire, and judicious use of reserves, he succeeded in dispersing the enemy and regaining the position. On a subsequent occasion, when the company on his left was overpowered and his own company attacked from the rear, he drove off a combined attack which had developed from these directions. These attacks were repeated three or four times, and it was Capt Newland s tenacity and disregard for his own safety that encouraged the men to hold out. The stand made by this officer was of the greatest importance and produced far-reaching results. [ London Gazette, 8 June, 1917.] James Newland was presented with his Victoria Cross medal at Buckingham Palace on 21 July, 1917, after he had recovered from wounds sustained in the action. Sergeant Whittle s citation reads: For conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty on two occasions. When in command of a platoon, the enemy, under cover of an intense artillery barrage, attacked the small trench he was holding. Owing to the weight of numbers, the enemy succeeded in entering the trench, and it was owing to Sergeant Whittle personally collecting all available men and charging the enemy that the position was regained. On the second occasion, when the enemy broke through on the left of our line, Sergeant Whittle s own splendid example was the means of keeping the men well in hand. His platoon were suffering heavy casualties and the enemy endeavoured to bring up a machine gun to enfilade the position. Grasping the situation he rushed alone across the fire swept position and attacked the hostile gun crew with bombs before the gun could get into action. He succeeded in killing the whole crew and bringing the machine gun to our position. [ London Gazette, 8 June, 1917.] John Whittle was presented with his medal on the same occasion as Newland. He too had been wounded in this action (in the hand and elbow). Right: Studio portrait of Sgt John Woods Whittle VC, DCM. AWM P The years following Lagnicourt were much kinder to the captain than to the sergeant. John Whittle was court martialled twice. The first took place on 6 October, 1917, while the battalion was on parade at Havre. Obviously drunk, he shouted at the battalion CO while he was addressing the soldiers: But we had our good soldiers though, or words to that effect. He was found guilty and reduced in rank to corporal and confined to barracks for four days, but he returned to rank on 19 March, The second offence, a week later, was for Conduct to the prejudice of good order and Military Discipline: Mutilating a Paybook. He was reprimanded by his battalion commanding officer. Both offences, relatively minor, were perhaps evidence that John was stressed and probably suffering from shell shock. He had been wounded or was ill several times since Lagnicourt. The upshot was that he was repatriated back home to help DIGGER 54 Issue 58

55 with the recruiting campaign, on 24 August, He suffered ill-health for the rest of his life. During the Great Depression he was unemployed and he and his family were saved from penury by offers of employment from an insurance company and later a brewery. On 7 February, 1934, John Whittle saved a young boy from drowning in a lake near Sydney University, following which he simply walked away without leaving his name. However, he was too wellknown locally and the Royal Life Saving Society awarded him a Certificate of Merit for his actions. He passed away following a cerebral haemorrhage on 7 September, 1943, aged 63, at home in Glebe, and was survived by his wife and four children. His eldest son was killed at Port Moresby in an air crash. Sergeant John Woods Whittle s Victoria Cross is held and displayed at the Australian War Memorial. James Newland s first wife, Florence, died of TB in 1924 and two years later he married Heather Vivienne Broughton. Newland remained as a professional soldier in the Australian Army after the war. On 1 May, 1930, he was promoted to major and continued to serve in many roles. In 1935, he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal. He held the rank of lieutenant colonel when he retired in On 19 March, 1949, he passed away quietly at home in Caulfield, Melbourne. James Ernest Newland s Victoria Cross is held and displayed at the Australian War Memorial. Lieutenant Charles Pope VC, 11 th Battalion Hold on! [Lieutenant Pope s last words to his eight remaining men before he was fatally shot.] Lieutenant Charles Pope was awarded the last (AIF) Victoria Cross in the battle of the outpost villages. He was another British-born soldier in the AIF: born at Mile End in inner London on 5 March, 1883, to police officer William Pope and Jane Pope. In late 1910 he migrated to Western Australia, settling in North Perth after working as a salesman in Canada and, returning home as a London bobby, from 1906 to He continued employment as a salesman and in 1916, married Edith May Smith. The couple produced two children. The tall, wiry Charles enlisted on 31 August, 1915, at Perth and was one of the 18 th Reinforcements to the 11 th Battalion. Probably, his experience in the Met meant that he carried the rank of sergeant but he was quickly promoted to 2 nd lieutenant. He and his comrades set sail from Fremantle on 15 July, 1916, aboard HMAT A31 Ajana, bound for the Western Front. Charles saw action following the capture of Pozieres and then at Flers, La Beque and Ligny-Thilloy, as a 1 st lieutenant. At the same time as Newland and Whittle s 12 th Battalion were in action at Boursies and Lagnicourt, the 11 th were 3.3 km to the north east, in the vicinity of Moeuvres and Inchy-en-Artois. The 1 st Division was holding a 7.5 mile line. As the line was not continuous because there were insufficient men, nor the time to dig a trench line, it was decided that a series of posts should be manned. Unfortunately, there were large gaps between the posts. Lieutenant Pope s A Company held the foremost picquet. At about 4.00 am on 15 April, 1917, the enemy launched a strong counter-attack employing an artillery barrage, supporting four divisions, on the Australian line. The barrage then moved on towards Louverval. At the same time, they exploited the gaps in the defences to get behind the posts and attack from several directions. After about an hour of holding on, Pope realised that he and his men were surrounded. Right: Studio portrait of Lieut Charles Pope VC. AWM A Private 3797 Ambrose Guido Clarence Gledhill volunteered to run a message back to battalion headquarters: I am bowling over the enemy like nine pins. Send me reinfts and ammunition. Gledhill was able to make it to C Company headquarters without a scratch and delivered the message. However, neither he nor anyone else could break back through the enemy s lines, thus battalion HQ was unable to meet Pope s request. His captain, R Hemingway, later reported that: It was impossible to do this as his post was surrounded. He held his post for one hour, after this time apparently his ammunition expended; then with his platoon only 20 strong he charged about 50 of the enemy and was k[killed]. [For his work, Private Gledhill was awarded his first of two Military Medals and was to survive the War.] Pope had ordered his men to fix bayonets and charge the Germans closest to the picquet. Given the numbers of enemy troops, the result was inevitable. The remnants of his platoon, believed to be about twenty DIGGER 55 Issue 58

56 men, were later found scattered between the picquet and German lines by an Australian patrol. Pope himself was found among his men in or near a shell hole. A rumour spread that they had killed 80 of the enemy, but it was, in fact, eight. Lieutenant Charles Pope s posthumous citation reads: For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty when in command of a very important picquet post in the sector held by his battalion, his orders being to hold the post at all costs. After the picquet post had been heavily attacked, the enemy, in greatly superior numbers, surrounded the post. Lieutenant Pope, finding he was running short of ammunition, sent back for further supplies. But the situation culminated before it could arrive, and in the hope of saving the position, this very gallant officer was seen to charge with his picquet into a superior force, by which it was overpowered. By his sacrifice Lieutenant Pope not only inflicted heavy loss on the enemy, but obeyed his order to hold the position to the last. His body, together with most of those of his men, was found in close proximity to eight enemy dead a sure proof of the gallant resistance which had been made. [ London Gazette, 8 June, 1917.] There are three reports of the death of Pope and his men in the Red Cross Files of Missing and Wounded: written by Signaller 1867 George Buchan Robertson, Private 6027 Stanley Dewar, and Private 258 James Joseph Ryan, all of the 11 th Battalion. Of the three, that of Ryan is the more reliable source as it is more detailed and written closer to the time of the incident at Moeurves. He notes that there were only eight men left in the unit when Pope issued his order to charge the German line as they had run out of ammunition. Thus, he observed that: Every one of the party was killed and we were told that the bodies were found with 80 dead German(s) lying in front of them. I believe that it was for this action that Lt Pope was awarded the VC after death. Note that he only hints that the number of German dead as hearsay evidence. Despite the overwhelming numbers of enemy and the loss of 245 men, the 11 th Battalion was able to hold its sector in the AIF line. Charles medal was presented to his wife, Edith, by the Governor-General at Karrakatta Camp, WA, on 23 November, Lieutenant Charles Pope is one of eight Australians interred in Moeuvres Communal Cemetery Extension, on the northern side of the village. Pope VC is in Grave V.D.22. His Victoria Cross medal is in the possession of and displayed at the Australian War Memorial. Story of the war: Brisbane gunner s experiences Found on Trove. Following are extracts from a letter received by Mr GH Price, Auchenflower, from his brother-inlaw, Percy Stenner, on active service at Gallipoli, as No. 2 gunner, 7 th Battery, Field Artillery, AIF:- I have been away from good old Queensland one year, and am pleased to say have never had a day s sickness other than a slight cold, not even sea sickness. Also, I have escaped all the Turkish delight (shells and bullets). On August 27 they nearly got me with a 6 inch shell, which exploded and buried me in sand bags. When I was dug out I found neither myself nor the gun had been injured, although a piece of shell 6 in x 4 in was found under the seat of No. 1 gunner. Don t worry about me. I am quite used to shells and bullets now. I have been doing gun laying duty lately and giving the Turks a bit of Australian delight. We have just had a tea of Jappatties [sic] and jam. They are like pancakes, flour, and water fried in fat, and are quite a luxury after the continuous menu of biscuit and jam. Don t worry about my parcels. I have received all. Am sorry I cannot use the soap. We only get one bottle of fresh water per man per day, so can t use that for washing. All that work is done in salt water. I have received all letters pretty regular, and every Daily Standard since April. When I finish them they go to my mates, and are passed round till they fall to pieces. I am doing my little bit to force The Narrows, and hope we will succeed soon. Source: Daily Standard, Brisbane, 17 November, Driver 1609 Wilfred Percy Stenner, 3 rd Field Artillery Brigade, enlisted on 18 August, 1914, and returned to Australia on 4 May, He was a railway porter in Brisbane with AFA experience before enlisting at age 21. He was badly wounded in France on 22 August, 1916, receiving gun shot wounds to the legs and right buttock. He was invalided home with bullet wound below right knee joint. Percy was living in Graceville, Brisbane, when he applied for his Gallipoli Medallion in DIGGER 56 Issue 58

57 Private 6983 John Clement Rohan, 3 rd Battalion Denis Pain, Guildford West. I n March 2003, a farmer ploughing his field near Merris, in Northern France, uncovered the remains of four AIF soldiers in a shared grave. A local historian, Emmanuel Briel, suggested the four were Lieutenant Christopher Henry Duncan Champion, Corporal Christopher Ernest Corby, Private Frederick Dobbin and Private John Clement Rohan. This news was published in The Australian newspaper in April, 2003, and my aunt (John Rohan s niece) was quoted in one of the articles. The remains of only Champion and Corby were subsequently identified and all four sets of remains were reburied at Outtersteene in April 2005 [See DIGGER 12, September, 2005]. The news in 2003 prompted me to contact the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), who referred me to the Office of Australian War Graves (OAWG), Department of Veterans Affairs. It also prompted me and other members of the family to research John Clement Rohan s history. Although we had never forgotten him, the facts were somewhat hazy. They are clearer now. J ohn Clement Rohan was born at Redfern, NSW, on 8 June, 1898, to Patrick and Jane Rohan. He had six living brothers and one sister, Eilleen. Another sister, Eva, was born in John (also known as Jack) attended St Joseph s Christian Brothers School, Newtown, and joined the cadets while still school. When John turned sixteen, he became a senior cadet with the 34 th Battalion Militia. After leaving school, John worked as a labourer. John s older brother, Thomas, had enlisted in the army in November 1915, and John was keen to follow his example. However, his Irish-born father was reluctant to give consent for his youngest son to enlist, saying he would just be cannon fodder. Patrick eventually consented and John, not yet 18, put his age up by one year to ensure he would be accepted. He went to Liverpool camp and enlisted on 14 April, The fourteenth of April would prove to be a fateful date for John. After a few months training at Liverpool, John [right] embarked on HMAT Wiltshire for England, arriving on 13 October, After two months further training, John proceeded overseas to France on the SS Arundel. A few days before Christmas, he was taken on strength of B Company, 3 rd Battalion. In early 1917, the 3 rd Battalion was engaged in heavy fighting to the north and east of the Somme. On 5 May, 1917, the battalion was in action between Bullecourt and Riencourt, when Private Rohan was wounded by a bomb and gun shot to his left arm and leg. He was evacuated to hospital, recovered and rejoined the battalion on 29 May, In late September-early October, 1917, the 3 rd Battalion was engaged in the fighting near Ypres in Belgian Flanders. John was wounded for the second occasion this time by a gun shot wound to the chest. He was evacuated to England and recovered in hospital there before being granted two weeks furlough. In November, John was classified as fit for duty and again proceeded overseas for France. He rejoined his unit on 5 December, 1917, just as the troops were voting in the second conscription plebiscite. However, John was still too young to vote. In late March-early April, 1918, the 3 rd Battalion was stationed near Ypres when the Germans began their Spring Offensive. British and Portuguese forces were being overwhelmed by the huge rolling assault in the Lys River valley. As part of the 1 st Division AIF, the 3 rd Battalion was rushed south to defend the important rail hub of Hazebrouck and the village of Strazeele, which lay between Hazebrouck and the German lines. These two towns were targeted by the Germans. By the morning of 13 April, 1918, the battalion had moved into positions in and around Strazeele. B Company was positioned in trenches east of the town, on Mont de Merris, just north west of Gutzer DIGGER 57 Issue 58

58 Farm. A Defence Organisation Order was issued that day, which stated, The present battalion front line is the line of resistance and will be held at all costs. By dawn on 14 April, the 3 rd Battalion held the front line in the system of outposts defending Strazeele. Their supporting artillery fired on to selected targets and, with a few exceptions, good results were obtained. A number of casualties were inflicted on the enemy, who at this stage were massing, preparatory to an attack. At 6.40 am the enemy attacked, under the cover of a heavy bombardment placed on the 3 rd Battalion s line. The Germans moved forward in a succession of waves. The advancing Hun were engaged by fire from the battalion s A, B and D companies. At some point during the morning, when under severe rifle and machine-gun fire from the enemy, Private John Rohan had his head above the parapet and was struck by a single German bullet, killing him instantly. He was only 19. Most of his No. 7 Platoon were also killed. Later that day, the remaining members of the platoon were ordered to evacuate the outpost and fall back to the main line. As the enemy was almost upon them, the Australians were forced to leave their dead where they had fallen. Private John Clement Rohan has no known grave. His name is listed on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux and at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. The Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Inquiry Bureau conducted inquiries in the months following his death, and despite quite precise details of the time and place of his death being given by surviving witnesses, his body could not be found. F ollowing the discovery of the remains in 2003, the OAWG engaged an Australian consulting historian, Brendan O Keefe, to research the documentary sources. In his report dated June 2003, obtained under Freedom of Information, one of his conclusions was that none of the likely soldiers were supposed to have been buried at the location where the remains were found. Thus the documentary evidence did not allow a specific identification of the remains to be made. However, he was able to narrow down the possibilities. Private Rohan remained a distinct possibility. In view of the lack of a definite conclusion from the written sources, O Keefe recommended that the remains and artefacts found with them be subjected to further detailed physical examination. He also recommended that the examination of the remains should also include DNA tests of the bones and their comparison with the results of DNA tests carried out on living relatives of the four nominated soldiers. He said that would probably be the only way that certain identification of the remains could be made. In July 2003, the Defence Attaché at the Australian Embassy in Paris arranged with the Paris police pathologist to conduct an examination of the remains and attempt to identify them against the information provided by Brendan O Keefe. That examination and report was delayed for some nine months, for reasons explained in John Payne s article. The conclusions of the forensic pathologists, Professor D Lecomte and Dr W Vorhauer, were that the four sets of skeletal remains corresponded to the four soldiers who had originally been identified by Emmanuel Briel. However, the CWGC and the OAWG did not accept these conclusions. In June 2004, OAWG asked Dr Denise Donlon, an academic at the Department of Anatomy and Histology, University of Sydney, to comment on the French pathologists report. She reviewed the report and made a number of criticisms. She did not physically examine the remains herself, relying solely on the report and attached photos. Dr Donlon offered to travel to Paris to re-examine the bones but she did not get the opportunity. She made a number of recommendations, most of which, were not implemented. Her recommendations are listed below. That: 1) the burial site be re-examined to clarify if all bones had been recovered; 2) dental records be obtained; 3) jaws be x-rayed; 4) enlistment medical records be obtained; 5) following the above, DNA analysis be performed. Although any medical and dental records were obtained from the soldiers service records, it appears no further examination or analysis was performed. Instead, OAWG asked Brendan O Keefe to comment. He also criticised the French pathologists report, despite not being qualified to do so. He was uneasy with identification of the remains as Champion, Corby, Rohan and Dobbin. Despite this uncertainty, OAWG proceeded towards a conclusion. On 6 August, 2004, the Director OAWG wrote to CWGC, detailing what had happened. He recommended that two sets of remains be accepted as believed to be Lieutenant Champion and Corporal Corby. He said the other two sets of remains DIGGER 58 Issue 58

59 could not be identified without some doubt but were likely to be two of Rohan, Dobbin or Guest. He recommended they be buried as unknown Australian soldiers. CWGC accepted these recommendations and arrangements for the reburials proceeded. It is obvious that the uncertainty about the identification of the remains could have been avoided, had the OAWG or the Army been willing to undertake DNA testing. Some relatives of the likely soldiers had already been in contact with OAWG and it may have been possible to contact others. As it is, the relatives remain in limbo. Deaths of Infantry Commanding Officers Ross St Claire, Merewether, has provided the definitive list of gazetted and temporary AIF Infantry COs who were KIA, sustained mortal wounds or died of illness while commanding battalions in the Great War. Gallipoli LF CLARKE, 12 th Bn, KIA 25/4/15, Age in years/months 57 3/12, Buried Beach Cemetery, Grave 1.B.13 AJ ONSLOW THOMPSON, 4 th Bn, KIA 26/4/15, 50 3/12, 4 th Battalion Parade Ground Cemetery A.11 GF BRAUND, 2 nd Bn, KIA 4/5/15, 48 8/12, Beach Cemetery 1.A.40 R GARTSIDE, 7 th Bn, KIA 8/5/15, 53, Redoubt Cemetery 1.B.21 R SCOBIE, 2 nd Bn, KIA 7/8/15, 44 5/12, Commemorated Lone Pine Cemetery Sp. Mem. C.132 ES BROWN, 3 rd Bn, DOW 8/8/15, 39 10/12, Beach Cemetery 2.E.6. Egypt CS COLTMAN, 1 st Bn [Temp], DOI, 6/1/16, 38 8/12, New Protestant Cemetery, Cairo. Western Front IB NORRIS, 53 rd Bn, KIA 19/7/16, 35 11/12, Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery 3.A.3 GG McCRAE, 60 th Bn, KIA 19/7/16, 26 6/12, Rue-de-Bois Cemetery OG HOWELL-PRICE, 3 rd Bn, DOW 4/11/16, 26 9/12, Heilly Station Cemetery 5.A.14 GM NICHOLAS, 24 th Bn [Temp], KIA 14/11/16, 29 8/12, AIF Burial Ground 4.H.27 AW LEANE, 28 th Bn, DOW 4/1/17, 44 8/12, Dernancourt Communal Cemetery A.5 JWA SIMPSON, 36 th Bn, KIA 21/1/17, 29 1/12, Cite Bonjean Military Cemetery 5.D.47 HW LEE, 25 th Bn [Temp], KIA 21/3/17, 24 10/12, Achiet-la-Grand Comm. Cemetery Extension 4.W.9 PSS WOODFORDE, 1 st Bn [Temp], DOW 6/5/17, 23 3/12, Grevillers British Cemetery 3.D.6 WT MUNDELL, 15 th Bn [Temp], DOW 19/8/17, 26 9/12, Messines Ridge British Cemetery 1.A.17 OM CROSHAW, 53 rd Bn, DOW 26/9/17, 37 6/12, Bedford House Cemetery 1.A.21 AH SCOTT, 56 th Bn, KIA 1/10/17, 26 6/12, Buttes New British Cemetery 2.A.12 CRA PYE, 19 th Bn, KIA 4/10/17, 27 2/12, Belgian Battery Corner Cemetery 2.A.13 A STEELE, 11 th Bn [Temp], KIA 7/10/17, 29 1/12, Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial DMcF McCONAGHY, 54 th Bn, DOW 9/4/18, 31, Namps-au-Val British Cemetery 1.J.31 JA MILNE, 36 th Bn, KIA 12/4/18, 45 7/12, Heath Cemetery 8.J.19 CWD DALY, 6 th Bn, KIA 13/4/18, 27 11/12, Hazebrouck Communal Cemetery 3.E.24 TP McSHARRY, 15 th Bn, DOW 6/8/18, 34, Corbie Communal Cemetery Extension 2.F.17 E KNOX-KNIGHT, 37 th Bn, KIA 10/8/18, 36 6/12, Heath Cemetery 5.B.15 AJA MAUDSLEY, 38 th Bn [Temp], KIA 31/8/18, 36 10/12, Hem Farm Military Cemetery 2.C.6 AH DARNELL, 11 th Bn [Temp], DOW 24/9/18, 32 4/12, Tincourt New British Cemetery 5.G.1 RO HENDERSON, 39 th Bn, KIA 29/9/18, 43 2/12, Templeux-le-Guerard British Cemetery 2.F.44. Post-war FDW OATLEY, 56 th Bn, DOW [Gas] 28/3/19, 34 4/12, Sydney (Waverley) General Cemetery. Summaries Total COs: Gallipoli 6; Egypt 1; Western Front 21 Post War 1 = 29 in all. Died in their 20s: 11 (All WF); Died in their 30s: 10; Died in their 40s: 5; Died in their 50s: 3 (All Gallipoli). Average age, Gallipoli and Egypt: 47 5/12 Average age, Western Front and Post-war: 32 2/ average age: 35 11/12 Unlucky battalions: The 1 st, 2 nd, 3 rd, 11 th, 15 th, 36 th, 53 rd and 56 th Battalions all lost two COs each. Brigade losses: 1 st 7; 2 nd 3; 3 rd 3; 4 th 1; 5 th 1; 6 th 1; 7 th 2; 9 th 2; 10 th 3; 14 th 5; 15 th 1. The 1 st Brigade and its pup brigade, the 14 th Brigade, lost 12 COs between them 41% of all CO deaths. DIGGER 59 Issue 58

60 An artilleryman s war: WOI 7111 Alexander Rose Falconer, 5 th FAB Part 2: 1 May to 31 August, 1916 The diary of Warrant Officer First Class Alexander Falconer was transcribed by Megan Falconer and contributed by Neil Falconer, Turramurra, grandson of Alexander. Edited by Graeme Hosken, Dubbo. Added remarks or details [in square brackets] inserted by the Editor. Part 2 covers Alex s experiences at Armentieres and Pozieres/Mouquet Farm as the 5 th FAB supports the infantry on the ridge. May st Fairly quiet day. 2 nd Wrote to May, Arch, Les, Jack. 3 rd Great aerial doings today. Huns brought down one of our machines. The sky covered with shrapnel bursts. 4 th Quiet. 5 th Huns bombarded the village [probably Fleurbaix], destroying three houses and killing one man, three women, four children. 20 th Battalion badly cut up, 70 casualties. [The ROH shows 24 men of the 20 th Bn were killed this day.] A great bombardment of the Hun trenches by our guns lasting from 8 to 10 pm. [The 5 th FAB fired 595 shells that day.] 6 th Informed by Mr Meares that a memo from Egypt states that a cable has been received by pay cashier, Cairo, from Sydney regarding my pay allotment. 7 th Not very much doing today, only about thirty came our way without doing any damage. Went for a walk through Armentieres. A lot of damage done; all principal places sandbagged. Out of a population of twenty thousand, only about two thousand remain. 8 th Signed new allotment form in favour of May. Evidently the one I sent from Egypt has gone astray. 11 th Wrote to Jack & Les. [Unit diary: The 5 th FAB was reorganised and now comprised the 13 th, 14 th and 15 th (18-pounder) Batteries and the 105 th Howitzer (4.5 ) Battery.] 12 th Interesting to notice how much use the people make of their dogs. Numbers of small carts drawn by two dogs properly harnessed. 13 th Not feeling too well today diarrhoea. Had word from Les that he is OK. Very nice walking through the fields today. Yellow with buttercups. 14 th Had word from Jack saying he was with the 18 th again. Letters from Min, May. Wrote to May. 16 th Great bombardment of the 4.7 gun behind us. Fully shells sent over and the farm house it was in knocked to pieces and fired by incendiary shells. This is the third try they have had since our arrival in this billet and they got right on. The Tommies all cleared out. After tea went down to see the damage and found the farm house all in flames and ammunition exploding. Went in and examined gun and found that one shell had landed right between the wheels and failed to explode and the only damage done was to the wheels. Colonel Lloyd came along and some infantry and we got the tackle fixed, and with a lot of trouble got the gun out to the war when the Tommies came along and took it away. They had been there for eleven months. 17 th Awakened by pickets during the night warning us to keep our gas bags ready for instant use, as a gas attack had been reported. It however did not reach us. Letters from Min, May, Ethel, Armstrong, Holloway, M Watt. 18 th Jack called today but just missed seeing me by a few minutes so I went across to his billet and saw him for a little while before going to the trenches. He had just received a letter from RG. 20 th Another great bombardment of a position just behind us by the Huns. Two more houses gone up in smoke. Two coal boxes landed close to our billet. Had a visit from Jack, Sgt Shapira & Les. [Later Lieutenant Frank Shapira, 18 th Bn/AFC. DOA ; profiled in DIGGER 50.] Glad to see them all well. 21 st Great bombardment of a position near the 5 th Infantry Brigade headquarters just at sundown. A lot of aerial work today. Wrote to G, M, E, G. 22 nd Had another visit from Les & Jack. Wrote to LC, M Watt. 25 th Another visit from Jack who is about to go into the trenches for ten days. 28 th A quiet Sunday for a change. Only a little aerial bombardment. 29 th Another farm house billet blown to bits today. Ten casualties. A great sight to see the shells dropping right on the building. Sent cable to Bexley, Kenwood, Jack Neild, Jack, Les and self. Letters from HT & May Reidie. 30 th Parcel from HT. 31 st A fair amount of shelling. DIGGER 60 Issue 58

61 June st A great bombardment of 15 th & 20 th Batteries today. One man killed and three wounded in the 15 th. Two men performed an act of bravery which will get them the DCM. When it was plain the Huns had the range and meant to knock the battery out, all hands were ordered to clear for their lives. On the roll being called it was found there was one man missing and two men, Hargreaves and Smith, went back to the gun pit he was in, and which was on fire, and found him with his foot jammed between some ammunition boxes. They managed to get him out and had just got clear when a shell hit the pit and wrecked it; the men just out in time. [Gunner 7592 Norman Cullen Hargreaves, 5 th FAB, and possibly Driver James William Smith, 5 th FAB. Smith did get a MM but that was for bravery in October, 1917.] This occurred in the morning while I was at another battery, but on coming to the position in the afternoon found it was undergoing a second bombardment and the 14 th Battery were all in the shelter trenches. Waited for half an hour after they were finished and with Sergeant Donsworth [Staff Sgt Henry Donsworth, 5 th FAB] went to examine the guns. Found two of them clean knocked-out and a third badly hit. The fourth had escaped on account of the Huns having mistaken the telephone dugout for the fourth gun. Having finished my examination we had just moved a few yards from the guns when a shrapnel [shell] burst right over us, followed by an HE. We threw ourselves flat on the ground, and as soon as the stuff was all down we jumped up to make a run when two more came and down again we went. In all, they sent over 40 at us and we were fortunate to escape unhurt. We did a hundred yards in record time. The Huns have a habit of doing the same thing just to catch anyone who might have gone back, and they had a balloon up. [On this day, some details of the 5 th FAB were inspected by Prime Minister WM Hughes and the Australian High Commissioner, Andrew Fisher, at Croix du Bac.] 3 rd Letter from Teenie. Had a visit from Les and Sergeant Kent of Arncliffe [later Lieutenant Ernest Clarence Kent, 18 th Bn]. Heard Jack s friend Sgt Shapira is wounded. News received of a big naval battle. Heavy losses on both sides. Wrote to SM Walker. 4 th 15 th Battery again bombarded in new position. 6 th Had a visit from Jack who has just come out of the trenches OK. Letter from May. Answered it. 9 th Wrote to May, Reidie, Teenie. Posted parcel to May. Rings and brooches. 10 th Letters from Min, Eileen Campbell, Hilda T. Replied to them. Had a visit from Les. 11 th Posted parcel to H Telfer. 13 th Had a visit from Jack and Harold Williamson. Hear that Harold is likely to get mentioned for a bit of plucky work. [Pte 336 Harold Barbour Williamson MM, 18 th Bn. Citation not available.] Letters from Captain Hardie [possibly Captain John Hardie MC, 3 rd AGH] and Archie. 18 th Saw Jack and George Ritchie. [Cpl 309 George Ritchie, 18 th Bn.] Letters from LC, M Walker. 19 th A noisy day. Plenty of aeroplane scrapping. Heavy Hun bombardment of position close to Armentieres. 20 th Witnessed the shelling and destruction of a fine church in Armentieres. A fine sight when the steeple caught fire. 21 st 13 th Battery heavily shelled but no harm done. 22 nd Very busy day. Hun shelling all over the place. On to the 13 th again. One gun knocked out. 23 rd Huns very active today. Bombarded 14 th Battery but never got a hit. Had a narrow escape from being hit by a piece of shell, missed by 12 inches. Had a visit from McCulloch [possibly Bdr Archibald Ross McCulloch, later Sgt, DCM, 7 th FAB] and had just sat down in billet when Fritz commencing shelling the road. Three dropped 50 yards from us and killed a French woman who was standing at her door, and wounding eight pioneers. One shell hit a tree, 18 diameter, eight foot from the ground, breaking it off clean without splintering. Another went through a house, completely wrecking it. The pioneers had only arrived and it was their first experience of shells. One of them rushed into our billet almost demented and we could not quiet him, so took him out to the back and pointed him to a village three miles and off he went and he never stopped running while we could see him. A bad case of shell shock. 24 th Bombarded our place again this morning. A French civilian killed. His wife was in Armentieres and when the shelling commenced he started off to keep her away till it was over and had only gone a few yards away when one dropped within a few yards of him. It took them some time to collect the pieces. 25 th A very busy day. Fritz sending shells all over the place. He seems to have an unlimited supply of ammunition, he gives us about ten for our one. Nine aeroplanes up and being shelled from all quarters. A fine sight. A heavy reply bombardment from our guns. 26 th Big bombardment by the Huns of our trenches. Hell cut loose again. Saw two Hun observation balloons bombed by our planes and disappear in smoke. French civilians greatly pleased and excited. DIGGER 61 Issue 58

62 29 th Jack called in early this morning on his way out from the trenches. Has been in the bombardments all week. Sent cable home. Am very comfortable in billet. Our little Mam selle, as we call our landlady, studies us in every way. We draw our rations and she cooks them for fourpence per day each, and the difference between her cooking and that of the HQ cook is immense. We have plenty to eat and to spare, for the simple reason that nothing is wasted like it is with the other cooks. [During June the 5 th FAB was frequently involved in supporting trench raids by the Australians and in firing diversions.] July st Huns bombarding Armentieres today. Saw a fine church being shelled; they got six hits on the steeple and a number through the roof. 2 nd Our last Sunday in our billet, expect to be moving in a few days. Posted parcel to May (brooches). 3 rd Intense bombardment along the whole of our front. All our guns going and the heavies behind us at work. Two large fires in Armentieres. House rocking with concussion. Continued at midnight and watched it from headquarters observation post. A dark night but the whole line lit up with flashes from guns, and bursting shells. Also from flares which went up in thousands. A sight never to be forgotten and one which cannot be properly described. One could just imagine the Devil looking on and laughing. 4 th The raid not a success. Only 12 out of 80 of the raiding party reported back. German wires not cut, party trapped, Huns shelled us out of our billet. Had to take cover in the ditches in the fields. Three shells went into headquarters. Luckily there was no-one about at the time but two civilians injured with pieces of shell. 5 th Left L Armee by road for Steenwerck. Said goodbye to our good little French woman, who shed tears and kissed us all round her brother also. Arrived at our next billet at 1.20 [pm]. Slept in a stable loft. Hear that the 18 th are not far away from us but cannot go to look for them as we may have to move at any moment. 6 th Left Steenwerck this morning and arrived at next billet in Neuve Eglise in Belgium at 6 pm after a very interesting day s journey through beautiful country. The fields everywhere covered with flowers: poppies, daisies, buttercups growing in profusion. Passed through miles of avenues of trees which are a feature of both France and Belgium. Am billeted in a villager s small cottage on the dining room floor. One of the kiddies had the toothache and kept us awake half the night. The guns are miles away from headquarters and miles apart from each other. Am in for a lot of walking. 7 th Had a long walk with Sgt Donsworth to find the gun positions. Could only reach two of them after a very long walk. One gun way out by itself in a wood, a long way from main position. Passed a lot of graves; there has evidently been a lot of fighting about here and a hot place still. 64 guns in concealed positions. Walked fully ten miles by the time we got back to our billet. 8 th Went out to 15 th position and while there the Germans opened fire on a position one hundred yards to our left. Caught a party of infantry, seriously injuring four. Got a ride back on an ammunition wagon and found everyone on the move for a new position. Unknown. 9 th Waited all day for transport which has just arrived pm. Leaving Belgium for a camp 25 miles away in France. 10 th Arrived at village of Hondegehem at 2.30 pm, travelling all through the night. Billeted in an estaminet and have a real bed to sleep in. Sheets on it. A charming district, hope we stay here for a few days. Letters from May, Arch, Min, E. Campbell. 11 th Left Hondegehem at 5.30 and travelled 20 miles by road to St Omer, a fairly large town. Very picturesque scenery all the way. Put up for the night at a farm, slept close to some pigs. Maher and interpreter with me. [WO/Brigade Sergeant Major Philip Joseph Maher, 5 th FAB.] 12 th Left billet for St Omer station at 7 am. Passed a fine old abbey which had been destroyed at the time of the French Revolution. Had lunch in buffet and train left at [am]. Reached Calais at 12.20, passed Boulogne 2.15 [pm]. The fields all the way were gay with flowers: poppies, corncockles, buttercups, marguerites and some strange ones to me. Very pleasant to look on. This country at this time of the year is one vast garden. Passed an immense hospital camp and saw wounded being removed from the Red Cross trains. Reached the fine town of Amiens pm detrained and left at 9.30 pm by road. Our way was right through the town and we passed the fine cathedral and a number of large buildings, all of which have been turned into hospitals. Also passed a park in which is a fine statue of Jules Verne, the French novelist. The man forecasted the submarine in his book, Leagues Under the Sea. Pulled up in a small village at 2.30 [am] and slept in a deserted house, very tired. DIGGER 62 Issue 58

63 13 th Resting all day; we might stay here for a few days. Name of village, Belloy-sur-Somme. Scarcely a man in the place of military age. Women seem to do all the field work. It s a strange life walking into people s houses and taking possession. Letters from May, George, H. Telfer, Min. 16 th Spending Sunday very quietly; quiet away from the sound of the guns. Have heard of heavy British losses. Ten thousand in four days [Battle of the Somme]. A Scotchman crucified to a tree; his comrades exacted a terrible revenge. Received letters from Arch & Marie Douge. 19 th Our last day in the village so we are having a special dinner: Roast rabbit with pom-de-terres, strawberries and red currants. Something to dream about in the days to come. 20 th Left Belloy-sur-Somme, travelled all day by road through interesting country to a small, one-house village called Val-de-Maison. No billet available, sleeping in the open. No hardship as it is not cold. 21 st Had a trip around the country on the telephone wagon. Scenery very good. Letter from Issy. Replied to it. 23 rd Had a visit from Les who is just on the move to the Front. No word of Jack. Sent cable home. 24 th Resting all day. 25 th Heavy bombardment going on all day and night. Sounds like heavy waves breaking on the seashore. Anxious about Jack who is in Reserves, waiting to be called up. Brigade of Canadians marched past our camp: a serviceable looking lot. Rumours of heavy casualties. 26 th Our last day at Val-de-Maison, leaving at 7 pm for the line [behind Pozieres]. 27 th Travelled till about 4 o clock this morning when we bivouacked in a wheat field. Awoke to the sound of gunfire all round us. 28 th Moved right up to our position in the firing line, passing through the town of Albert (pronounced Albere). Passed the splendid church which has been so heavily shelled and still has the large figure of the Madonna and Child hanging from the top of the steeple. Our headquarters are in an old German dugout recently captured from them and half way up Sausage Gully, the military name of the valley in which we have taken up our position. The dugout is about 20 feet deep and has room for 10 men in the one I am in. It is well-boarded and ought to be safe. Had a message from Jack who is OK so far. Our position is covering Pozieres. There have been very heavy casualties among Australians here. 29 th This is going to be a hot position. Heavy gunfire all around us and shells bursting in all directions. We are right in the Great Push now. Walked over and viewed the Crater, an immense hole 300 feet across by 50 deep [Lochnagar]. The British tunnelled from a quarter of a mile back and stacked 60 tons of explosives under the spot and then fired it. Am told by an officer who witnessed the burst that it was the sight of the war. There are plenty of sights to be seen yet in the crater and trenches, in the shape of dead bodies and portions of them sticking out everywhere, fearful. Fourteen observation balloons and twenty planes visible. 30 th Claimed Jack for the same unit as myself. [This refers to Alex requesting that his son Jack be transferred to his father s unit from the 18 th Bn to the 5 th FAB.] Heavy casualties coming to our MO [medical officer]. Many men with nerves completely gone crying like children, with no control of themselves. A man killed a few yards from us. Anybody s turn now. 31 st Heavy gun and shell fire continually going on, no slackening night nor day. Doctors are kept busy and a cemetery has been opened between two lines of guns and the pegs are rapidly increasing. Private Priddle, AMC of headquarters, killed today at 15 th Battery position. Everyone sorry, as he was a most obliging lad and one to do his best. [Gnr 7831 Frederic Murchison Priddle, 5 th FAB medical orderly, attached to 15 th Battery, right, AWM P ] August st Have just received word from Jack that he is going into the trenches tonight. There will be one of the heaviest attacks yet made. Stone Ridge [presumably Pozieres Heights] has to be taken at all costs. Have just spoken to a private of the 23 rd Battalion who tells me he is one of 200 who have got back out of eleven hundred who went in three days ago. Very hot and dusty. DIGGER 63 Issue 58

64 2 nd Great bombardment of Huns trenches today. Vile smells coming over the crest of the hill from the unburied bodies lying out there. Had a letter from Les telling me they have had to leave their position in Albert on account of shell fire. OK himself. 3 rd Terrific gun fire last night, had to go up to the advance Battery (15 th ) and left to come back at 11 pm. Risky walk, a lot of bad ammunition and prematures from it. Shrapnel bursting everywhere. Jack sent his diary to me, in case. Saw horses blown in halves, wagon sent to pieces. Glad to reach my dugout. 5 th Attack successful but casualties heavy. A continual stream of wounded being taken to the rear all day. Fresh troops marching in to fill the gaps. Jack safe at 5 o clock. War in all its awfulness to be seen here. Wounded, dying and dead lying out on the track waiting their turn for attention. Saw a heavy shell drop amongst a lot of infantry who were waiting their turn to be called up, and saw them flying through the air. As soon as everything was down the stretcher-bearers appeared, gathering up the fragments. Not long afterwards the little procession to the Gordon Dump Cemetery. 6 th Very anxious night, no sign of Jack at 11 o clock when I turned in. Couldn t sleep, dugout crowded with infantry taking shelter from the shrapnel. At 5 o clock I had the pleasure of hearing him call down my stairway. He was alright but a miserable looking object, like the others who came back from the attack. Dirty, unshaved, eyes bloodshot for want of sleep, smothered in mud. I don t know what they would have said at home if he walked in on them as he was. They have had a bad time and deserve a long spell after what they have gone through. Heavy shelling by the Huns last night. An 8 HE shell dropped in the ammunition dump and Howitzer gun a few yards away from us, blowing a hole 30 foot across and badly shaking our dugout. Six men killed, two wounded. One man s body picked up fully a hundred yards away. An officer blown 30 yards on to a barbed wire fence. No sleep with the noise of gun and shell fire. Hear we have to do another week, hard luck. 3.30: a heavy delayed-action shell has just landed on top of our dugout, blowing part of it in. Narrow escape of four men. Sixteen men in all killed in our position today. 8 th An attack to be made on Mud Farm tonight [Mouquet Farm]. Rate of fire from all guns for first 12 minutes, five rounds per gun per minute. Dressing station now close to our dugout. One long procession of wounded to the rear. In company with Sergeant Donsworth went to look at the site of the village of La Boiselle about 800 yards away. Nothing left standing but a few tree stumps, a maze of trenches and dugouts through the ruins. Went through some of the best [German] dugouts, long underground corridors with rooms on both sides. Some of them with papered walls and ceilings, electric light and heaters, spring beds and easy chairs. Glass doors. The deepest is 50 foot underground and the Huns could never have expected to have to leave them. But the Tommies did it. The whole place smells of dead bodies. On coming out to daylight again some shrapnel burst quite near us and we had several narrow escapes. 9 th Counted 30 Sausage balloons up today and twenty planes, nearly all ours. Left the Gully after 14 days and nights of severe nerve strain; lucky to get out alive. It has been fourteen days in Hell. While we were moving out we passed a Scotch Regiment marching in, whose motto is Take No Prisoners. Camped for the night at rear of Albert, at wagon lines. A good many shells fell during the night, some fairly close. 10 th Left for our last billet at Val-de-Maison which we reached at On the road we passed the 1 st Division going into action. Saw Geo. Rose [possibly Sgt 385 George Rose, 1 st FAB]. Received parcel from LC. 11 th Left Val-de-Maison, 7.30, for the town of St Leger where we were to have a week s rest. Arrived at our camping place at 4.30 pm, which is in a paddock close to a village. Very few billets available but managed to get one. Passed some of the 5 th [Brigade] Infantry on the road, so may see something of Jack. 12 th Went to Canaples, a village four miles away to see Les. Had a chat with him and was sorry to hear the news of Jack McPherson s death [unidentified]. 13 th Had a visit from Les and Jack. 14 th Parcel from Min. 15 th Busy all day at the guns. 16 th Had one hour s notice to leave St Leger for the front again. A great bustle. Left at 7.30 pm. [Moved to Vadencourt Wood.] 17 th Travelled all night and reached Malloy [probably Mailly-Maillet] at 3.30pm. Stretched out for a few hours and reached a camp near Albert at [The Brickfields]. Had a good view of Hun gun fire playing on the ridge. Twenty-five balloons up. 18 th Moved up to our position in the line, which is in Mash Valley running parallel with Sausage Gully, separated by a flat ridge on which stood the village of La Boiselle. Our headquarters in dugouts here but not the good ones. As in Sausage Gully, two of our batteries are the advance ones, with a Tommy battery on the left flank and a French.75 on the right. A ridge in front of our position being heavily shelled by the Huns. DIGGER 64 Issue 58

65 Same procession of ambulance cars taking wounded to the rear. Weather very warm. A terrific bombardment of Hun trenches. The whole country covered with a thick pall of smoke from the bursting shells like the smoke from a large bush fire. Everything obscured. 19 th Visited all batteries, walking nearly all the way through trenches. Gruesome sights to be seen everywhere. Awful stench. Myriads of large green flies; there will be sickness here if the weather keeps warm. Letters from Min, May, M Reidie, Mrs G. 20 th Not well at all today, diarrhoea. I blame the flies which crawl the over the food, no keeping them away. Dead bodies all around us which they feed on. It is worse than Sausage Gully. 21 st Applied for a commission in the Ordinance Corps. Recommended and supported by Colonel Lloyd so something may come of it though it has to come from Arsenal. Jack reported at tea time and is now in 13 th Battery. 22 nd Huns have found out our new positions and are shelling heavily with heavy stuff. 13 th Battery moved out to an advanced position; don t like it. 23 rd Headquarters receiving a lot of attention today. Saw a large ammunition dump about four miles away blown up. The Huns got it in four shots and an immense column of smoke went up high in the air, forming fantastic shapes. A 13 th Battery gun got a direct hit, killing two men, Macken and Curtis, wounding four others. Four casualties in our Howitzer battery. Headquarters are in great risk tonight. Fritz has our exact range and is sending heavy stuff. No sleep. [Dvr 7282 Errol Sheridan ( Bob ) Macken, 5 th FAB [right, AWM P ], and Gnr 7158 Hubert John Curtis, 5 th FAB. An account of their deaths appeared in DIGGER 13, in a letter written home by Bob Macken s brother, Dvr 7283 Neville ( Herb ) Macken, 5 th FAB.] Left: The grave of Bombardier HJ Curtis and Gunner ES Macken of the 13 th Battery, 5 th Field Artillery Brigade, AIF, who were killed in action on 23 August, AWM H th Saw a shell get an infantry bomb-wagon, taking a sergeant s arm off and wounding four others, also five horses. 25 th Letters from Min, May, Arch, Andrews. 26 th Fairly quiet today. [An interesting comment, as on this day the 5 th FAB supported the 6 th Brigade s attack on Mouquet Farm, firing from 4.45 am till after 9 pm.] 27 th Fritz busy this evening. 28 th In company with Donsworth walked over to opposite side of the Gully and from a distance of eight hundred yards watched a bombardment of Hun trenches by our guns. A splendid view of the bursts and also of the country. Headquarters being shelled. The whole country here is just a collection of shell holes and in every other one is a dead body. Sometimes a shell will drop alongside a hole and blow the body up again. I saw it happen. 30 th A great number of guns coming into position. There will be great doings here soon. We cover Mouquet Farm and Thiepval. Counted 33 Sausage balloons and 30 planes up, five balloons and four planes, being Huns. 31 st Had a visit from Jack Hardie while at the 13 th Battery. He had been looking for me all day and only reached me at 3.30 and could only stay half an hour. Awfully pleased to see him looking well. Announced we are soon to leave this position and go to Ypres. Continued in the next issue of DIGGER. Adelong: A small town in the Great War The Editor is currently researching all WWI Diggers from Adelong, Sharps Creek, Wondalga, Grahamstown, Shepardstown, Mt Adrah, Ellerslie, Mt Horeb and Tumblong (all South West Slopes of NSW). If you have any ancestral connections or material relating to this district s enlistments, please contact Graeme at ghoskenaif@bigpond.com. DIGGER 65 Issue 58

66 Formation of the Australian Flying Corps (AFC) Contributed by Gareth Morgan, The Australian Society of World War I Aero Historians. A t the outbreak of war in August 1914, the bulk of Australia s military strength was the members of the Australian Military Forces (also called the Militia and the Citizen Forces). However, the AMF was restricted to Home Defence. Also, most members of the AMF were aged between 19 and 21, and it was the Government s view that an Expeditionary Force to the battlefields should include a percentage of more mature men. Hence, it was decided to raise the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) specifically for overseas service. Many of the men serving in the AMF joined the AIF. Men joining the AIF generally did so in the nearest large city, and were then usually sent overseas within about six weeks of enlistment. The normal pattern for men joining after the end of 1914 was for them to be allocated to the next reinforcements to the unit they had joined e.g. the 5 th Reinforcements to the 1 st Infantry Battalion. Those with prior service in the AMF were sometimes promoted soon after joining. Transfers to the AFC were reasonably common by men in the infantry, artillery and other units on the Western Front, and by Light Horsemen in Egypt and Palestine. In addition, many elected to serve in the AFC when they enlisted in Australia and went overseas as part of a Reinforcements draft to the AFC. The AFC raised four squadrons in Australia, but when these units came under the administrative umbrella of the Royal Flying Corps, they were re-numbered in RFC sequence, hence No. 1 Squadron AFC, flying Bristol Fighters and other types in Palestine, became No. 67 (Australian) Squadron RFC; No, 2 Sqn, flying the DH 5 and later the SE5a on the Western Front, became No. 68 (Australian) Sqn; No. 3 Sqn, flying the RE8 on the Western Front, became No. 69 (Australian) Sqn and No. 4 Sqn, flying Sopwith Camels (exchanged for Sopwith Snipes before the Armistice) became No. 71 (Australian) Sqn though the Australian units often retained their own numbering on internal documents. In early 1918, following pressure from the Australian Government, the squadrons left the RFC and reverted to their old Australian numbers as units of the AFC: No. 67 (Australian) Sqn became No. 1 Sqn on 6 February; Nos. 68, 69 and 71 (Australian) Sqns became Nos. 2, 3 and 4 Sqns on 19 January. At the same time, Nos. 29, 30, 32 and 33 (Australian) Training Sqns RFC, formed in the UK in September and October 1917, became Nos. 5, 6, 7 and 8 Training Sqns AFC. Some AFC personnel served in RFC units, rather than in the AFC itself. Of course, many Australians either joined the RFC [or the RNAS] direct or left the AIF in order to join the RFC. The two latter categories of men were not part of the AFC. Editors s note: Gareth has generously provided the FFFAIF with his profiles of AFC personnel who died as a result of their war service between 1915 and Selected servicemen will appear in issues of DIGGER. Captain Thomas CR Baker DFC, MM & Bar, No. 4 Sqn AFC Contributed by Gareth Morgan, ASWWIAH. Thomas Charles Richmond Baker came from Smithfield, South Australia, where he was born on 25 April, He worked as a bank clerk before joining the 16 th Field Artillery Battery as a gunner at Keswick, SA, on 29 July, Baker left Melbourne on HMAT A34 Persic on 22 November, landing in Egypt before going on to France. On 11 December, 1916, Thomas was awarded the Military Medal for repairing broken telephone lines in 30 places while under heavy fire at Gueudecourt. He was awarded a Bar to the MM for his action at Messines on 21 June 1917 when he played a part in extinguishing a fire in the camouflage netting over the battery s guns while under heavy shell fire. Thomas Baker transferred to the AFC in September 1917 and was commissioned in March 1918 after pilot training. In June 1918 he joined No. 4 Squadron on the Western Front, where he was credited with six victories while flying Sopwith Camel E1482: a Fokker D.VII south west of Estaires at 1135 on 31 July an Albatros D.V south of Laventie at 1405 on 7 August a Balloon north east of Estaires at 1530 on 24 August a DFW C-type east of Laventie at 0615 on 30 August an Albatros C-type over Habourdin at 0810 on 1 October a Fokker D.VII east of Fromelles at 0750 on 2 October. DIGGER 66 Issue 58

67 The squadron then re-equipped with the Sopwith 7F.1 Snipe, and he went on to be credited with another six victories while flying the new machine as a flight commander: in Snipe E8069 a Fokker D.VII east of Tournai at 1545 on 26 October in Snipe E8092 a Fokker D.VII south east of Tournai at 1200 on 28 October in Snipe E8092 a Fokker D.VII over Ath at 1455 on 28 October in Snipe E8092 a Fokker D.VII over Ath at 1500 on 28 October in Snipe E8092 a Fokker D.VII over Marcoast-Tournai at 1610 on 29 October in Snipe E8065 a Fokker D.VII over Leuze at 1455 on 30 October. Baker was killed in action on 4 November, 1918, when flying Sopwith Snipe E8065. A patrol from No. 4 Sqn was involved in a fight with a large number of Fokker D.VIIs from Jagdgeschwader III and three Snipes were shot down, two of them claimed by Rittm Karl Bolle, the commander of Jasta Boelcke. They were Rittm Bolle s 35 th and 36 th (and last) victories during the war. In February 1919, Captain Baker was awarded a posthumous DFC, the citation [written October 1918] reads: This officer has carried out some forty low flying raids on hostile troops, aerodromes, etc., and has taken part in numerous offensive patrols; he has, in addition, destroyed eight hostile machines. In all these operations he has shown exceptional initiative and dash, never hesitating to lead his formation against overwhelming odds, nor shrinking from incurring personal danger. Captain Thomas Baker is buried near the eastern boundary, north of the entrance, in Escanaffles Cemetery, Belgium. Above right: Self-portrait of Captain TCR Baker DFC, MM & Bar. AWM P Air Mechanic 44 Francis Luke Adams, No. 30 Sqn RFC Contributed by Gareth Morgan, ASWWIAH. Francis Adams came from Christchurch, New Zealand, and served for two years in the NZ Garrison Artillery before the war. He was working as a carpenter, and was aged 22 when he enlisted in the AFC at the Central Flying School, Werribee, Victoria, on 21 July, Adams left from Melbourne on HMAT A34 Persic on 10 August, 1915, as part of the 1 st Reinforcements to the 1 st Half Flight AFC in Mesopotamia. On arrival at the front he was taken on the strength of Indian Expeditionary Force D on 18 September, by which time the Australian 1 st Half-Flight had been incorporated into No. 30 Sqn RFC. After the British withdrawal to Kut-al-Amara, nine Australian mechanics from No. 30 Sqn, including AM Adams, were trapped in Kut with the garrison and were taken prisoners of war following the fall of the city on 29 April, After capture, Air Mechanic Adams died from malaria, sometime between August and November Francis Adams is buried in Grave XXI.W.8 at Baghdad (North Gate) Cemetery, Iraq. The Aussie Hat The Billjim hat originated in Queensland. Colonel Ricardo found that a turn-up on the left side gave good shade to the rifleman s right eye, with consequent improvement in sighting, and the necessary regulation was issued. Soon NSW recognised the improved smartness and devil-may-care effect, but did not grasp the reason. Therefore, to be free from any risk of being mistaken for the wild men of the North, the warrior of the Mother State was ordered to fasten up his war-going lid on the right side. [Or so the story goes Ed.] Anzac Bulletin, London, 4 October, DIGGER 67 Issue 58

68 The Great War diaries of 2063 Lance Corporal William Dalton Lycett, 4 th Field Ambulance, 15 th Aust. Light Railway Operating Coy, AIF. Part 9: 1 to 31 October, 1915 Transcribed by grandson, Tim Lycett, Paradise Point, and edited by Graeme Hosken, Dubbo. Part 9 sees William still on Lemnos as the 4 th Field Ambulance has a break from service on Gallipoli. Friday 1 st October, 1915 Reveille at 6.30 am and on parade at 7 am, physical drill till 7.30 am. At 10 am paraded and each section was paid. We received one pound each; first general pay since we landed at Gallipoli. Dismissed after pay till 11 am when paraded again and went for short route march under Captain Jeffries, arrived back at camp for dinner. During route march had splendid view of Lemnos Harbour absolutely full of vessels of all kinds, a wonderful sight. During afternoon did some more writing and a little reading till tea time. After tea played football till 6.30 pm when paraded for roll call, dismissed and sat talking in tent till bed time. Saturday 2 nd October, 1915 Reveille at 6.30 am and on parade 7 am, physical drill till 7.30 am. Am on ration fatigue today. At 10 am paraded, after roll call all fatigue parties were dismissed to their various duties. At am went to Army Service Corps and drew rations which we carried back to camp on stretchers. Just getting same rations as when on Peninsula, except little more fresh meat. After dinner had to go to Army Service Corps again and bring up firewood on stretchers. After this put rest of afternoon in writing letters. Had tea then an hour kicking the football about. Parade and roll call at 6.30 pm and into bed about 8.30 pm. Sunday 3 rd October, 1915 Reveille at 6.30 am and parade at 7 am. Physical drill till 7.30 am then breakfast. After breakfast at liberty for day unless anything occurs. Twenty-third Sunday since landing at Gallipoli and 41 weeks since leaving Melbourne. Spent the morning writing letters, also was writing all afternoon. Things are very deadly here, the weather is beautiful but nowhere to go and nothing to do, no news, very little to read. Will be glad to get to the front again. Have not got any reinforcements yet so our corps is still very small. Only 14 privates in our section and when fatigue parties are taken out I have seen only five privates on parade. Parade 6.30, turned in early. Monday 4 th October, 1915 Reveille at 6.30 am and on parade 7 am. Instead of physical drill before breakfast, tidied up and made camp clean and respectable as expecting inspection by a French Surgeon General. Had breakfast and paraded ready for inspection at 10 am, were dismissed shortly afterwards as general did not put in an appearance. About 11 am had to do a bit of carpentering for the bettering of camp, kept me going till dinner time. Mail came in about dinner time and I received nine letters. Hooray! After tea we had a practice at rugby football, three of our captains and a major joined in. Enjoyed it, pretty rough and weather rather warm. Paraded at 6.30 pm Turned in about 8.30 pm. Tuesday 5 th October, 1915 Reveille at 6.30 am, on parade 7 am. Physical drill till 7.30 am then breakfast. Am on water fatigue, three trips to do today. Have received cricket set and some quoits, so after breakfast cleared a patch and made a fairly good cricket pitch, also a quoit pitch. Kept us going till dinner time. After dinner went for water then went to football ground where we had a practice game of rugby, played a scratch team of New Zealanders and Maoris. Had energetic game and managed a draw. Major Clayton, Captains Jeffries, Welch and Furber of our corps played for us. Hear British are doing well in France. SS Olympic in harbour here, troops aboard, also other large transports. Parade and roll call 6.30 pm. Turned in 7.30 pm. Wednesday 6 th October, 1915 Reveille 6.30 am, parade 7 am, physical drill till 7.30 am. About 7.45 am saw one of our airships, a Parseval airship [right] after style of Zeppelin, pass over the island. At 10 am we paraded and marched off, joined our brigade and the New Zealand regiments of our division and the whole division was inspected by Major General Godley who is in charge of it. After dinner, our ( A ) section played B section of our corps at cricket and defeated them. I was not playing but was a barracker. Also did some writing during afternoon. After tea formed a male voice choir and had a practice. Paraded at 6.30 pm for roll call then dismissed. Weather lovely. Turned in 9 pm. DIGGER 68 Issue 58

69 Thursday 7 th October, 1915 Reveille 6.30 am, parade 7 am, physical drill till 7.30 am. At 10 am paraded, had half an hour s drill as for a ceremonial parade, then went for short route march under Captain Welch, arrived back at dinner time. Notices have been read out about some of troops committing sacrilege in churches and offenders if caught will suffer severely. This afternoon our section played C section at cricket and defeated them, was not playing, did some more writing. After tea kicked the football about for an hour, paraded for roll call 6.30 pm. At 7 pm had a choral practice till 8 pm. Been beautiful day, had yarn and went sleep 9 pm. Friday 8th October, 1915 Reveille 6.30 am, parade at 7 am, physical drill till 7.30 am. Parade at 10 am and general fatigue work till dinner time. Striking some tents and putting others up in their places, bell tents and hospital tents; were kept going hard till midday. After dinner were paraded again at 2 pm and more fatigue work, some very solid work making roads and drainage trenches, getting plenty of pick and shovel work. Worked hard until 5 pm then knocked off for tea. Paraded for roll call at 6.30 pm. About 7 pm a storm broke over the island, thunder, lightning, wind and torrents of rain. Was still going when I went to sleep 9 pm. Three of our bell tents were blown down, occupants got ducking. Above right: Tent lines of the 4 th Australian Field Ambulance on the Greek island of Lemnos, near the Turkish coast. AWM C Saturday 9 th October, 1915 Reveille 6.30 am, parade at 7 am with physical drill till 7.30 am. On ration fatigues today. Paraded for roll call at 10 am and then was dismissed. At 11 am went with ration fatigue party to Army Service Corps and drew rations for our corps, carrying them back on stretchers. Our bread and eggs issue have been stopped this last four or five days. Just having ordinary rations as on Peninsula. This afternoon our corps played New Zealand Medical Corps at cricket, our side made 108 first innings. NMZC made 21 and 37 respectively in two innings, so we had a comfortable win. Did some writing this afternoon. Major Clayton and Captain Jeffries went to Alexandria today on leave. Parade and roll call at 6.30 pm. Had yarn with S Cohen this evening, turned in 9.30 pm. Sunday 10 th October, th week since Gallipoli landing. Reveille at 6.30 am. Had to go on duty at hospital at 7 am. 15 th Battalion sick parade at 7.15 am: foments and dressings to be done. Hurried breakfast and then patients breakfast, after which Captain Finn went round patients, about 20 of them sent (worst cases) to No. 3 General Hospital. At 9 am, 13 th, 14 th and 16 th Battalions sick parades, admitted some to hospital, more dressings and foments. Kept going till 11 am then cleared hospital out, disinfected it and generally cleaned it up; took us till dinner time. At 2 pm finished at hospital for day so settled down and finished my writing for tomorrow s mail. Parade and roll call at 6.30 pm. Turned in about 9 pm. Monday 11 th October, 1915 Reveille at 6.30 am, shaved and on duty at hospital at 7 am. Went through with 15 th Battalion sick parade before breakfast, fixed up all their foments and dressings. After breakfast had other sick parades at 9 am. Very busy with foments and dressings until 11 am, when tidied up hospital tents before dinner. After dinner cleared up and finished my shift at 2 pm. Went to village close by this afternoon to try and buy bread, have not had any issued for few days and biscuits are pretty hard. Could not get any bread, had to have biscuits for tea. Parade and roll call at 6.30.pm. Choir practice at 7 pm and into bed about 8.30 pm. Tuesday 12 th October, weeks since leaving Melbourne. Reveille at 6.30 am and on duty at hospital at 7am. Sick parade and dressings before breakfast. At 9 am further sick parades and dressings, foments, etc., kept very busy until after 11 am. Fairly large number of sick today, most of them have large sores like barcoo rot on limbs and body; some of them are in a very bad state, not having been attended to early enough. Clear up in hospital DIGGER 69 Issue 58