Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/105/1 - April 1918 - Part 5

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I then met an Artillery /brigade commander and, after seeing him, went forward and met the 17th Lancers and 1st D Gs at the Crossroads in O30D.  The colonel of the 1st D.G.s went to Capt Duncan who was in command of the 3 companys of 33rd Battalion  who were left and said he was going to make a charge - would Duncan join in?  Duncan jumped at the chance.  These 3 Companys had refused their right flank.  ?They went forward in great style an drove the German in, nd he ran.  Duncan and the W.Gs charged about 400 yards and reestablished our line.

 

They were between two aerodromes now.  The Colonel of the D.Gs wanted to go onto the old position but Moorshead

 

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was not to keen because the Germans held the railway bridge in V/B from where they could enfilade him completely.

Maj Fry was in command of the 34th.  Moorshead took him along and got him to join with his own right - adjoining the right of the railway.

This was at dusk.  There was a very heavy machine gun fire from the North.  This came from the armoured cars on the righ Armiens Road on the left flank.  These cars did first rate work.  The Germans fired at them but they simply turned their three guns on these Germans and the German stopped firing.

Our line now ran P25D23 to X Roads in P31c (33 Battalion).  It was

 

53   35 Battalion Account (cont.)

 

When it was possible to find out how everybody lay.  They determined to try and restore the line to the dotted line (which at this time we clearly were not holding).  At 1am the 34th, previously in support on the North of town went through on the S.E. of town - through the London position, and retook the railway bridge and the important knoll beyond it (where is the commanding feature here)where enfiladed the line further North.  /the 34 Battalion advanced 600 yards and the whole line advanced with them.  The line now ran from P26C.5.3. along the dotted line about 150 yards beyond the railway bridge and then round south west towards the Crucifix.  We

 

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prolonged to the railway by the rest of Brigade, and thence to the road running SE, the line taking a SW bend.

The 36 Battalion saved the situation to the South and took up the front of the Buffs.

Moorshead got back about 9.30pm and met Gen Rosenthal and told him that he could attack the aerodrome 400 yards in front if the bridge were occupied captured and our old line reestablished 150 yards East of the bridge.  The Brigadiers ordered the 34th Battalion to do this; and at 1 am our line advanced with artillery support.  The 33rd got forward without any casualties, to the grid line between 31 and 32 (this is where Moorshead places the support line - Goddard puts it 150 yards east of the grid).  The 34th had very slight casualties and captured

 

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Captured 30 prisoners and 5 machine guns - but we had lost guns ourselves during the day.

 

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30 prisoners about 8 f whom were wounded.  They questioned them and found that 3 of them (?) belonged to the 3rd Bavarian Division.  They were very tired and were frightened that we would going to attack them.  One of them was asleep - and that was why he was captured.

The 36 Batallion now works round rights to the south or south east of the town.  The position from their right southwards is not known but as far as I know (Moorshead said) we still hold Lancer and Hangard Woods where the 33rd ?? on March 30.  Col Milne however is anxious about that flank and reports that the Germans can be seen massing behind (to south east of the parallel to) Lancer Wood.

We had left the car with all our belongings just outside of V.B - so Cutlack and I hurried back there; but

 

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on the way I caught sight of an old woman walking up a side street with a pail of water and I had to go and photograph her.  We found the poor old creature sitting alone, in an empty cottage.  In the house opposite we had seen some soldiers disappearing - one fool of a chap in a top hat wandering round looking for fowls.  I could not find these men.  In the year opposite the hens were pecking at such remains of corn as there were about,  I asked the old woman why she stayed - she said because she was old,  I asked where her husband was - she said he was dead and her children were in England.  She was almost impossible to understand.  I asked her whether she had food and she said something, I thought, about the soldiers opposite and asked me to look for them.  I did so but couldn't find them - she said all that she wanted was 

 

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a light - I gave the poor old thing a box of matches.  It must have been desperately dangerous and miserable for her there alone with night coming on - but I could not understand what she said - Fred said she told him she stayed because the neighbours did, but I think the neighbours had cleared out and left her.  However, I could not make out whether some others might not be there or coming back for her - she said something which sounded like it.  I told the Major of the 35th Battalion; who was going in next evening about her, and explained to the interpreter and gave him a map.  But I wish we had brought her out.  The idea of a stray fragment catching the poor old thing - of her spending her night amidst the shell flashes - is terrible.  However,  the men moving about the town certainly had seen her, and our men going in will surely see her - I doubt if she could have walked to the car and I doubt if I should have been justified in trying to get the car into the village - but these things make one loathe and detest the contingencies of war and the whole horrible system.

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Just as we came out of the town we met the 17th and 18th Battalions coming into the hollow south west of the town in support - to be ready to counter attack if necessary.  The 20th, we heard later, was way in the line near the French; and the 19th was squatting along the roadside at the turn for Trouville.  The sky looked rainy and miserable.

This poor old 5th Brigade, they told us (and Butler confirms it) left Godesvaerswelde at 12 noon on ?April 3 April 4th by train for Amiens.  They detrained at Amiens and marched to Raineville on the 5th April ?April 4; from there they embussed for Bussy, and had scarcely reached there and had 6 hours to rest than they were bussed back to Amiens.  ?April 5 At 3am 6th April the were moved to Blangy Trouville by bus, and thence moved by marching to V Bretonneaux to go into close support to counter attacked.  Moorshead

 

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told us that the Germans were going to attack VB that night.  It made one much more confident to see the 5th Brigade in support - but they had now been 3 nights without sleep and were going into a wet battlefield without any cover from the weather.

At a miserable little house in Blangy Trouville I found Hobbs - he told me that the 5th Division had ben messed about in the same way.  First, on April 4th he was ordered to take over the line where it had been pushed back that day and reestablish it.  That came from 19th Corps.  /then he was told by 10th Division to embuss the 14th Brigade at 5.30pm and bring them down; then he received a previous order from Army (which Corps had received but he had not) to march the 14th Brigade down that night.  He asked Corps which he had

 

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better obey and they said 10th Division because it gave him the buses - so he did.  /then, on the morning of April 5th Army suddenly informed him (without altering any of his orders as to reestablishing the line) that the 8th Brigade would have to be taken away and sent to support the 18th Division near the French.  Then he was told that the 5th Division Artillery would have to be taken away and given to the 3rd Cavalry Division.  The Army Commander, Rawlinson, sent along a staff officer to apologise to Hobbs for this - it was inevitable, he said.  In point of fact they had been doing what they have done since this attack - and before - plastering up their tottering fabric with colonial troops.  Hobbs asked why they should not simply put the 5th Division in and take the Cavalry Division out.  The Army Commander considered this and in the afternoon Hobbs got his next and latest order - giving him back his

 

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Artillery and leaving him the 14th and 15th ?Brigades with which he takes over the line of the 1st Cavalry Division from the Somme to the 9th Brigade.

So the line of this great battle from Hebuterne down is

                      ( 4th Australian Infantry Brigade

?4th Corps ( NZ Division

 

                       ( 47th Division

5th Corps     ( 12th Division

 

                        ( 4th Australian Division (2 Brigade)

7th Corps      ( 3rd Australian Division (2 Brigade)

 

                        ( 5th Australian Division (2 Brigade)

                        ( 9th Australian Infantry Brigade  ) ?

?19th Corps  ( 5th Australian Infantry Brigade  ) under                           ( 58th Division                                    )  18th

                        ( 8th Australian Infantry Brigade  ) Divn

 

French

Australian Corps takes over tomorrow from 7 Corps but stays at Villers Bocage.  The 5th Pioneers were squatting? opposite Hobbs headquarters on a steep bank looking very miserable in the muddy hole of a village  On reaching 4th Division we heard of the tremendous fights which has raged all day.