Sir John Monash, Personal Files Book 13, 1 July - 16 August 1916, Part 3

Capt Locke to note
and return to me
3-7-16
4.15 pm J Mah
WJmh.
For Raid File
JMah.

/cont
Q
Sgt Harris,
On arrival at the
Courai - could see a German Patrol of
about 10 men near their wire on the right,
these were all killed by mortar fire, he
saw the dead. Counted 30 mortar
shells, the majority seeming to be
right on parapet over the wire, in
places that trenches were razed
flat. Particularly on the right
the wire was hardly cut _^∧ hardly at all
but xx xxx xxx Sgt Harris laid the
luminous tape back to wire, and
with Sgt Pearce carried someone whom
they believe to have been Lieut Julian back
to the wire, finding he was dead,
they left him to carry others.

Left Right Bombing Party
Sgt Pearce
On the word the Assault the
men moved forward as in drill
Mr Harvey called out "Come on
Australia" & hacked through wire
Tripwires gave a lot of trouble
Sgt Pearce got his party
into the enemy trenches; worked
along about 25 yards, finding
Ammunition trench as on
plan and he met opposition
all the way along, enemy sending
bombs over traverses, one hitting
him on back but not exploding.
He himself lifted
cover of a dugout under parapet full of Germans
about 6 or 8 7 gave them a bomb.
Several of his men
were wounded, some before getting
to enemy trench as were Lieut Wanliss
& Sgt Rich of Parapet Party who gave Pearce
distance he had gone along trench all
apparently wounded by shrapnel &
machine gun fire on enemies own wire
M G fire coming from either flank.

3.40 pm 3/7/16
Bgde Major
No. of "Unaccounted for" is
reduced from 1 Officer 9 others
                   to     1 Officer 7    "
Pte Cornin was taken away from
trenches wounded.
he was one of the last to
get in this morning.
Pte Dietrich GH is here. he
did not report to Roll Call
Station but reported to Capt Cox
& his name was included
in error. 
FB [[Branton?]]
Capt

Bgde Major
4^th Bde

Mr Ash stats:- 2/3/7/16
A direct metallic live
to dugout of O.C. Raid which
was duplicated & crossed in
the form of a ladder on each
leg. Any one leg could be
cut in many places before
communication ceased. In
the event of communication ceasing
instructions were given that both
legs of such metallic circuit
should be connected together
and telephone used with an
earth return. Thus both
legs must be cut in many
places before communication
entirely ceased. Communication
was also possible from O.C.

raid dugout to advance
support centre by or Clery

to D 57 thence by telephone
direct to Advance Report Centre Brigade H Qrs.
or by a lateral line through
D 50 x. also _^∧ by direct emergency line. At 11.59 p.m. communication
by metallic circuit
ceased. both legs connected
and each return circuit used.
No result proving both all lines
wire completely cut.
At 12.5 communication
with D 57 cut also lateral
and emergency lines thus
all communication ceased
at 12.5 a.m.

Diagram - see original document

4TH AUSTRALIAN INFANTRY BRIGADE
RAID 2/3 JULY, 1916.
1441. Sgt. J. Pearce "A" Coy 14th states: I was in the left bombing
party. The first lot of wire we reached was
trip wire in the grass. Then there was
four lots of barbed wire with an interval between
each row of about three to ten yards. The first
three lots of wire were about 16 yards across and
the last row about 20 yards across and iron stanchions
used to peg the wire in. The wire has a very
long barb and is a dirty brownish colour. There
appeared to be craters caused by the trench mortars
in the intervals named and also some seemed to have
hit the enemy's parapet. From the last lot of
wire to enemy's parapet is about 16 yards. The
trenches did not seem to have been badly damaged.
by our artillery fire. I saw one dead German
but dont know how he was killed. I saw one dug et
out underneath the parapet and opened the door and
threw a bomb in there. We met opposition from
half right in the fire trench going left, the enemy
bombing us badly. We got 27 yards along
from point of entry. Whilst leaving trenches
and in the wire we were fired on by Machine Guns
and Shrapnel was bursting amongst us. Whilst
going to and from trenches I saw ten dead Germans who
had been out putting wire in trees near the COURAU.
When we first moved out we could hear talking
and evidently they were killed by the mortars.
I do not know if these Germans were searched.
545. Sergt F. Anderson, 14th. Right bombing and engaged in
Intelligence work. After the barrage lifted
we rushed forward and found the wire intact. The
scouts tried to cut the wire but the task was too 
big. We ran thro. it a number of men fell in
the wire and stayed there until the rest of the men
had walked over them. They had a machine
gun playing on us from both flanks whilst going
through the wire. I saw an ammunition box driven in
into the front of the parapet and it contained a lot
of bandoliers full of ammunition samples of which
I brought back. I saw also another box alongside
this one containing bombs but owing to the fact that
I had a wounded man to bring back I was compelled to
drop the bundle of bombs I took from this box.
The enemy's trenches were badly knocked about on
the right. The Germans were bombing us from
the rear of local support trench. Their bombs
seemed to be defective as quite a number failed to
explode and others exploded and had quite a local
effect. Our mortars seemed to have thrown
bombs between the intervals in the wire and hit the
intervals between the rows of wire and they
also hit the parapet thus going either too far or
too short. The Germans shelled ditch 30 after
we had left the trenches whilst we were waiting for
an opportunity to regain our own lines.
63. Sergt. Harris N.C. 14th Battalion states "I was the Scout
Sergeant. We left our trenches at 10.40 p.m.
and moved out towards the "COURAU" reaching that
position at 10.55 p.m. From here we heard
German wiring parties at work and they had a covering
party with them. Our men were very silent
and they did not appear to have heard us moving
out. They were killed by our trench mortars
as I saw about 10 dead bodies lying out near wire.
On reaching the main barbed wire we tried to cut
it

-2-
Raid. 2/3 July, 1916.
it bit eventually were pushed over by the party
following and they walked over some of the Scouts
to get to the trenches. I went up to the
German parapets and waited till the remainder of
of the party had passed and I had a roll of luminous
tape attached to point of entry and ran it out
through the best passage through barbed wire in the
direction where we crossed the COURAU.
About an hour after enemy's bombardment had 
ceased and Sgt. Anderson and I were going out for
wounded we heard a German patrol of about 30 men
evidently trying to collect information and searching
for any of our wounded who may have been left
behind. Our men behaved just as if they were at
drill and it was on account of the organization that
they were so well able to carry out the difficult
task that fell to their lot.
646 Cpl. Ryan F.P. 14th Battalion stated "When we left our
trenches we made a fair pace out to the assembly
point and everything seemed to be going all right
the telephone being laid down. Our mortars
seemed to be playing on trench instead of the
enemy's wire. The wire was not cut at all.
The first part got entangled in the barbed wire and
this is where our first Casualty occurred. The
Scouts and Stretcher Bearers tried to cut their
way through the barbed wire but it was slow work
and time counted so we rushed through the barbed wire
led by Lieut Harvey who sang out "Come on Australia."
The parapet party then got on to the parapet and
there was quite a few seconds before the next man could
get up. Machine guns were turned on from both
flanks also shrapnel from both flanks. The Germans
bombed us from Communication trenches and dugouts.
The trenches were smashed about considerably. The
Germans use hurdles in the construction of their
trenches. The right communication trench was
bombed so heavily that we could not get along it.
We bombed from the fire pit back to to communication
trenches and managed to keep them quiet for a short time.
We heard the signal "OUT" and immediately
left the trenches.
The raid was wonderfully organized and the
men behaved just as if they were at drill.
Pieces of German clothing were all over
the place and appearances suggested a few of them
had been blown to pieces.
5477 Pte. W.H. Watts, 14th Battalion of Right Parapet party 
confirmed Cpl. Ryan's statements.
[[A?? Fraser]] 
Capt.
A.B.M.
4th Aus. Inf. Bde.
3/7/16.