Thomas James Richards, Diaries, Transcript Vol. 3, 26 January to 8 November 1916 - Part 22

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General Birdwood displayed excellent tact in his

little heart to heart talk. It could not be called a

speech, just a little quiet and confidential chat.

He has done the best thing possible in telling the

men the truth (with a whole lot of half truths to fill up

with and strengthen the men's faith. I know that we have

to stop here and keep fighting to death is hard on the older

men, but its much better to know the worst than be listening

to rumours that we are "going to England for a spell", and

"going into a quiet part of the line", and a dozen and 

one other rumours.

It may not be correct to tell other soldiers just

what hardships are ahead of them. But our men have a way

of thinking for themselves that is not usual with other 

soldiers so that the best thing possible is to tell them

the truth even if it is gilded over a little.

General Birdwood brought a round of cheers when he

mentioned the good work of the stretcher bearers. Also a

round of good laughter when, in ^referring to the poor

fighting qualities of the German infantry he said that

our boys had them so quiet now that it was only necessary

to look up over the trench and whistle, at the same time

beckon with the finger calling them in and they come right

up at the double and sit down at your feet.

August 14th. Monday

We left Herissart after the usual false start at

5.20 p.m. and marched down into Contay along some magnificent

valley country. There was a glorious blending of

browns at the different crops and stages of their ripening

that gladdened my eye and I am more convinced than ever

of the charm that the autumn browns contain. Brown in

its thousands of shades is my favourite colour.

We got into Albert after a very heavy march for

the men with packs up at 10.20 p.m. and camped on the

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slope of a hill. There are several big guns about here

and they have been doing a whole lot of firing tonight.

The Germans have been replying and dropping their shells

about, 14 of them, within 150 yards of our camp. Many of

these shells failed to explode. Although there are a

whole lot of men and horses about also, a huge ammunition

dump and goods stacks, no damage to speak of was done.

But the horses and the men stood the bombardment very well

indeed. They mostly went about making themselves as

comfortable as possible and joking about the imminent

danger.

The bearers have breakfast at 6.30 and move right

off into the firing line. This is pretty rough on them

after the long hard march of today. From my seat on a 

waggon there was a remarkable picture going on ahead. On 

turning my head away from the firing line scene and then

looking quickly back again the first glimpse brought the

African veldt and the first glance one gets of the Rand

mines with all their head lamps burning on a dark night.

There were the coloured lights of the railway lines, and

here were irregular showers of red and green lights floating

quietly through the air. Which with the bursting of

phosphorus shells and plain shrapnel with rockets dropping

showers of red and green light made a striking effect.

August 15th.  Tuesday.

By 12 o'clock we were in charge of Becourt dressing

station the commencement of the motorcar journey and the

end of the horse waggons run from 2 miles further in towards

the firing line. I went out with my waggon at 2 p.m.

and stayed on until 2 o'clock in the morning.

The rough tracks owing to the late rains made the

going awfully slippery and four horses had to be used

where two would do on a fine day.

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August 15th.  Tuesday.

We had an early breakfast and came through

Albert on to Becourt where we took over the dressing

station, the stretcher bearers going on to the Aid Posts.

All the afternoon and until 2 a.m. I was working with the

waggons on the heavy roads.

There is very little difference in the positions

 of our artillery now and 14 days ago when I was last up

here. The thing that worried me somewhat was the sand-bagging 

around some of the gun emplacements seems to be

more solid, and it worried me to see any arrangement being

made to stay here and settle down. I fear there is something

very wrong with the whole thing here, we have during 

the 47 days since the attack commenced July 1st, lost some

30 or more thousand of men and we only have a narrow front

a few miles ahead only. We are not getting our money's

worth I fear. With our men controlling the air and

getting good targets to fire upon, we should be doing 60%

better. Thank goodness that our men are not being

butchered up quite so quickly just now as at the start.

But still the cases now are awfully large considering 

that there is no infantry fighting going on at all.

A very large number of the men got blown up

while getting into the front line trenches, companies of

men relieving one another seem to fare very badly indeed.

There was a good deal of shells at German

aeroplanes this afternoon. Our airmen did not seem over 

anxious to close in with the enemy for some reason or other.

August 16th. Wednesday.

We are giving our horse waggons a spell today

as the 2nd and 3rd Field Ambulance are here also. Its

an awfully mess up to be working with strange men, every

body is dissatisfied and dodging work, growling the whole

time about being imposed upon and all this grumpy nonsense

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about the other fellows not doing any work, "we're doing

it all".

There was a whole lot of shelling going on from

the heavy guns near Becourt. The Germans only lightly

replying. There were German aeroplanes about again tonight

and our anti-aircraft guns gave them a warm time, but what

our own airmen were doing to allow these German planes about

I could not quite follow as we had dozens in the air at the

same time. I expect there was a reason for it all as our

men are not lacking in courage.

August 17th. Thursday.   Kaiser's birthday.

We are waiting to know what the Kaiser is going to

do today regarding his declaration regarding the "surprise

to the world" we have heard so much about lately.

At 9.30 this morning the aircraft guns were dealing

with some German planes while a number of our planes

hovered about, suddenly one of our machines made straight

for the German in the front, another of our machines went

around the Eastern side, then we heard a few rounds from a

machine gun and the German plane fell out of the sky like a 

rocket and right down to our ground. The fellows agree

that it burst into flames in the air but I do not think so

myself, although there was smoke issuing from the rear end, 

but the machine did not topple or turn, making me think

that the operator was guiding the machine down and, if so,

the machine could not have been burning as the operator 

could not live.

The other German plane also came down in our

territory a few moments later, making two planes to us in

3 minutes. These are my first planes to see actually fall

out of the sky, and I can only regard it as a very thrilling

sight. One feels so proud of our airmen's achievements

in their great work.

I have cleaned out the waggons and greased the

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wheels ready for action. I went out with the waggon at

12.30. The trip out takes 45 minutes and is very rough

indeed. There is as yet only a cross country track in

and out of the shell craters and across narrow bridges over 

the old trenches. A road is now being built along Sausage

V gulley. My first trip out gave me time to go out past

Contalmaison, the captured 77 German guns and a cemetery

which seems to have been built by the 48th Battalion.

Over one grave is a cross over "14 men of the 48th A.I.F.".

A fine big wooden cross painted white and in black lettering

is written these words "Our comrades of 48th Batt. A.I.F."

Fell during the 5th and 15th August." A dressing station 

was just near here where the stretcher bearers on duty rest in

deep dugouts made by the Germans. In dry weather the natural

tracks, or roads, are fairly good, but the moment that it

rains and it has been raining this afternoon, just a sharp

shower and the road is so slippery one can hardly walk along

and keep his feet, then along comes a waggon and horses to

cut the road to pieces and so in 40 minutes the road is in 

an awful state. I was on until 12 o'clock last night and

did three trips during the twelve hours carrying 11, 10 and

9 men each trip. Yesterday I sent some cake and chocolate 

out to some of the men, 40 francs, and they were very grateful.

The wounded coming in are getting an awfully rough

time of it, the waggons bounce and bump over the cut up

roads in a terrible way and it touches my heart to see them

twisting and groaning while I try to hold and pack them up

comfortably.

August 18th. Friday.

I have just heard that Andy Elliott, one of my

original stretcher bearers on Gallipoli, has been blown to

pieces. It seems that he was in a dug out with some seven

other fellows and four of them were killed outright. This

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brings our unit casualty list up to a fairly long one.

One case, Fitzgerald, was most pathetic, he was suffering

from shell shock and was quite insane, and with his two hands

held up and eyes wide open and staring he cried all the time 

howling loudly with each gun report or flash of a gun.

These shell shock cases are awful and very plentiful. The

fellows are quite mad, or sometimes their reasons is alright

but their hands shake, its impossible to hold anything or to

find their own mouths. The legs also tremble and shake so

that they at time cannot walk without assistance.

A couple of the men did trips for me on the waggon

this afternoon while I went for a walk up around the original 

front lines of defence of July 1st, 1916. My previous doubt

as to the safety and comfort of our own lines (British, once

held by the French) was confirmed, they were just ordinary

fire trenches down deep enough to walk about safely from

rifle fire, but from shell fire and rainy weather there was

no protection at all. No deep dugouts to shelter from shells

or the elements, while 150 yards to the northward the Germans

could shell thousands of men in damp proof dugouts 20 feet

below the surface.  This means that our shell fire could do 

very little damage while the Germans were certain to skittle

our men when ever they fired. There was nothing else for it,

this of course means our casualties were probably 4 or 5

to one of theirs. Moreso do I think this when it must be

borne in mind that the Germans had the choice of positions

to dig in at the outset and naturally held the commanding

positions.

In the village of La Boisselle I examined an old

building underneath which there were 15 yards of passages

with small rooms here and there, the doors were swung on

hinges and had reinforced glass panels the floor and sides

were laid with 3 in. planks (pine) and as level as ever a

floor or walls could be, the workmanship was splendid. The

roof was thick planking covered over with a thick water

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proof composition and although we were 30 or 35 feet down

into the ground there was absolutely no sign of mistiness.

Surprising as it might seem there was no smell of dampness,

and ventilators ran up to the surface here and there. This

elaborate set of rooms must have been for the officer, but

the dugouts in the trenches were very comfortable and damp-proof

also and there were for the men without a doubt.

Electric wires and stoves were in all of them. Therefore, I

feel sure that our casualties would be much greater than theirs.

In one house, or what was a house at one time I presume, there

was a machine gun position made up of solid concrete 20 ins.

thick and lined on the outside by 1½ in. plates of steel; from

this position the valley for miles around could be easily

observed. It was an almost unbelievable position. In the

British lines I did see two concrete positions probably for

machine guns and they gladdened my heart to see them and to

know that a little horse sense had been used from time to

time.

Talk about Achi Baba being impregnable. Its nonsense

compared with this position around La Boisselle and the Tommies

got through alright. To me it is a miracle, marvellous and

the Tommy would hold a very strong position as a fighter in my

mind if he had only followed up his success (I could have

overlooked the miseries of Cape Helles and Suvla Bay) and

taken the surroundings, villages and woods without so many

reverses and failures, Pozieres, Contalmaison, Ovillers,

were three awfully reverses, the English were driven out of

each of them from two to four times and then it remained for

the Australians to capture and hold onto the two former

villages. Oh, no, the Tommy is a poor fighting organisation

but how he came to break the German first line has got me

beaten when he failed so badly in the villages I can't

understand.

A terrific bombardment commenced early last night and

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and it was arranged that if all went well the Australians were

to attack Mouquet Farm. But I fear that the attack did not

come off as the Germans through a line of fire across our well

battered communication trenches and our support could not get

through to the front line.

A packet of chewing gum came through the post with a

Bull Dog Stout Every Time table on it, which was (a) hard (on) in

this dry area.

August 19th. Saturday.

With all of last night's heavy bombardment, nothing

really happened. The whole thing seems to have been mulled

somewhere. The idea seems to have been that after a certain

length of bombardment, the artillery would leave their fire

and the "bombers" come forward and bomb the Germans out, the

infantry would follow on at a given signal from the bombers

and take possession of the trench while the bombers paid

attention to the traverses. But by some means or other

nothing at all happened. The artillery appears to have been

short of their target, but anyhow, when the artillery ceased

fire nothing further was done. There was a large number of

wounded coming through up to 8 a.m. all of whom complained of

their own artillery blowing them up.

Things were fairly quiet all day today. Towards evening

there were a whole lot of cases of exhaustion coming down

mostly from the 2nd Brigade. This matter in itself shows 

that the men all around want a spell badly.

The Germans still keep huge, high explosive shells running

along our trenches - "coal boxes" the fellows call them. These

things play up with the men very severely, and causes a whole

lot of shell shock, a "terrible" thing, it also breaks up our

communication wires to the front.

August 20th. Sunday. I hear it said very freely that the

8th Battalion failed to make good the night before last and

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that the Germans met them in No Man's Land and drove them

back with bombs. It may have been their very bad luck to

strike the strongest spot in the German lines. Luck counts

for a whole lot in this present fighting in the dark and

amongst torn up territory which offers no guiding post, its

all alike for miles around, the sameness everywhere, so much so

that none can tell where the strongest or weakest parts of

the trenches actually are. Its all just a matter of luck.

This afternoon I went for a good walk with three

others, we first visited La Boisselle on to Ovillers, Pozieres

and back through Contalmaison. In many respects it was a

dangerous undertaking particularly in walking from Ovillers 

up to Pozieres. There was a trench connection but the

unburied dead lay about in such a way as to make the whole

communication trench impossible, the smell as well as the

millions of big green and blue flies, whom we had almost

to brush off  the sides in passing. No mistake it was an awful

experience.

The Tommys were driven out of Ovillers several

times before it was taken. There is absolutely no

resemblance to a village remaining now. 15in. howitzer

shells were used in blowing the Germans out of their deep

dugouts. One explored 15in. shell on the surface, a

terrible looking monster. At Pozieres the first thing we

came to was a look-out or observation post make of huge steel

rails and imbedded in concrete. At the corner of which we

had a machine gun position firing at long range on to a

German roadway. The operator used to fire off a few rounds

every 10 minutes or so, just a speculator, as he could see

nothing at all to fire at, all indirect work. This village

the Tommies lost several times and it was not until the 1st

Division cleared it up and held on to it against counter

attacks that we could progress at all. Contalmaison was

just the same the Scots got it on July 12th, I think, but

right up to July 28th it was continually taken and retaken -

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the Australians cleaned up this job once and for all.

August 21st. Monday.

There was a terrible bombardment going on all night

long. I was called out at 2.30 a.m. but as there were no

wounded coming through I did not go out. At 9 a.m. there

were as many as 8 German machines came overhead, neither

our anti-aircraft guns or our five planes made them take

any heed. They came right over Albert and dropped bombs

en route. One bomb fell on the 7 and 8 Batteries parade

ground while the men were lined up - 10 were killed and 30

or thereabouts taken away wounded.

Why the commander did not dismiss his parade while

these Germans were overhead licks all. But then to his

eyes it would look like shirking it to send his men away.

When, Oh, when will these Britishers ever learn the real

significance of the old saying "Discretion is the better

part of valour".

Bombs dropped amongst the Scotsman also with some

considerable damage also. The Germans have been very

prominent in the air of late with both observation balloons

and aeroplanes. It makes us ask, have we really got the

mastery over the air?

The casualties amongst the artillerymen today were

much worse than we expected. The dead will probably number

20 now.

Big things are expected from the Australian front

tonight - all of the 9 horse waggons are out, this indicates

an expected heavy casualty list. By the way, I often

wonder what the homefolk will think when they know the

hundreds that are being daily killed and wounded, blown to

blazes in fact.