Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/252/1 - 1918 - 1935 - Part 9
man came running in to say that the Huns were attack attacking
Joynt's right advanced post (Lieut Fenton), and that the
post was nearly blown out by shell fire & TM's. J. immediately
sent him to warn coy on right (Capt. Fox). Almost immed. aftwds
Cpl. Rainbow came running in from the post to say that it was
wiped out, all the garrison k. or w., & that the Huns had attckd. from
the right, where they had crawled along the bed of a creek & gained
possession of a large factory - a big two-storey brick bldg.
From this pt. of vantage they had enfiladed the post with m.g.s, killing or
wounding all who kept their heads up. No support had been recd. from
the post of the coy. on J's right, so J. sent the Cpl. to investigate, and he
discovered the garrison returning to their post, from which they had been
shelled. Lieut. Murdoch had sent the men back. Joynt thereupon sent off
a note to the Colonel telling him how things stood, & then went out to see what was
going on. J. found that it was impossible to move abt outside owing to the hostile
m.g. fire. Some men were moving abt. behind a copse between Coy HQ & Lieut
Bourke's post - J. took them for Bourke's men. No runners were in sight.
J. then found ^that his signalling N.C.O.- L/Cpl. Steward - had obeyed J's earlier
instructions, and had collected all the runners, J's batman, & signallers,
rushing them to a post 100 yds in advance of Coy H.Q. to stop the enemy breaking
through. Seeing a s/bearer J. ordered him to run out to Bourke & get. B. to
send some men to extend to the right in order to cover the break in the line caused
by the blotting out of Fenton's post. This message the s/b. successfully carried
and guided these the men to the place where J. wanted them to go. Without
waiting further J. determined to rush out to the new firing line & see for
himself how the battle was progressing. He had to run across the open, being
shot at by the Germans from abt 100 yds. distance. On the way he met
the s/b (Parfrey) returning, & stopped to speak with him. Parfrey stopped running
& opened his mouth to speak, but immediately collapsed with the words on his lips
unspoken. J. dropped alongside him only to find the blood gushing from a
bullet hole in his neck ^(on the other side the hole was the size of a small apple, in his throat)
and, as it was impossible to stop the flow, J. left him,
and crawled out the remainder of the way (50 yds) to the new post that had just
been established by the aid of this gallant s/b.
This post was well manned, the men forming it having belonged to
McGinn's post, which withdrew when it was discovered that J's right flank had
been turned. The remainder of McGinn's men were at that moment
digging in on our new line.
McGinn's was a masterly retirement, brought about with only one
casualty - that of Sgt. Short, the best Sgt in the bn. It appears that
McGinn, seeing the Huns attacking Fenton's post - which was on the
other side of a small wood and farmhouse - sent Short over to see what
was happening. Though hit by a sniper Short, after satisfying himself that the
post on his right had been abandoned, returned and apprised McGinn of the
situation. McG. realizing that he would be cut off, then sent Short with a
few men to make their way 200 yds to the rear and there dig another post behind
the copse that they were defending. Short coolly marked out a trench under heavy
m.g. fire and continued working on it until being hit a second time - by a
bullet which shattered his elbow - he was f reluctantly forced to go to
the rear (Short would have made a splendid officer; & Joynt xx put in
a strong recommendation to the Colonel regarding his gallantry & thought he
would get the D.C.M.). McGinn then withdrew his post, man by man, to
the new position. They were hardly there when the Germans overran their old
post & commenced working down the copse twds. our new line. Bourke's post
then had some excellent sniping, & the Huns got it in the neck. J. had sent his
corporal clerk down to the Colonel to explain to him the tactical situation; he
returned at the same time as J. recd. from the C.O. a note saying that Lieut Johnson
had been sent with one platoon to reinforce J's left post (Lieut Pitt) & that
Lieut . Darcy Power with one platoon was to reinforce McGinn's Post, &
that Joynt was to hang on at all costs.
While Joynt was reading the message, in dashed Power. He had
left his platoon back in the hedges & had come on to coy H.Q. to report & get
his instructions. He had been told that the Hun had broken the line & that
nearly all were wiped out. It appears that at the same time Johnston
arrived ^gasping at Pitt's post and offered him help. Pitt did not even know there
had been a scrap - as a big hedge & copse obstructed his view. J & the
others were amused at the state of excitement existing at Bn H.Q., and a runner
coming in from there soon afterwards explained the reason for it. It seems
that a batman, who was on the post that was attacked, "panicked" and
rushed down to Bn H.Q. He was covered with mud & water and, as he said
^that he had swum down the canal under water & thus escaped; that he was
the only man left; that two of our posts had been wiped out; and that
Joynt had sent him, the Colonel naturally believed him. This information
had of course to be reported to Bde H.Q. xx at once, with the result that 2
coys of the 6th Bn, who were in reserve to Joynt's bn, moved up to
c/attack, and "dug in" in front of Bn H.Q. Lieut. Temple, the I.O.,
came along soon aftwds & wanted to know if the line "still held" - and
all the time J. & his men were "in our glory", except that J. was worrying
over Fenton whom he had given up for lost. Suddenly a Tommy came
running in, with a bandage round his head from a bullet wound, & said that
he had left Fenton & another Tommy ^quite safe out in a shellhole. While J. was
wondering how to get him in, Fenton appeared running across the 100 yds
of open ground - shot at by all the Huns who could bring their rifles to
bear on him. Running & ducking he managed to reach the shelter of J's
farmhouse, accompanied by his faithful Tommy. J. ran towds him and
"gripped his hand in wild delight."
J. told Power that he could not do better than to keep his men where
they were until dark, when J. would bring them up & post them near McGinn.
J. then crawled out to McGinn to see if he was all right, found him in great
spirits - His platoon had only suffered 7 casualties, all wounded, He said J. was
lucky to have got out to his post as German snipers were only 50 yds away in
front, in a small copse.
When night came J. got Power & his platoon & took then out to place them
in position. On the way he found 2 men from his left post who had heard nothing
of McGinn having withdrawn (they were too far away to see). They had called
in, on their way down to Coy HQ, to see their mates in McGinn's post and to
their utter surprise found it deserted. Making no endeavour to keep quiet,
they looked around and, finding no one, had made over to the next post
(Bourke's) to tell him of their discovery. On hearing this story Joynt
determined to send Power with his platoon to seize the bridgehead over
the canal leading to this post, and then to let the Colonel know at once
in case he contemplated c/attacking to regain the two lost posts. So J. took
the platoon out himself & posted the men over the bridgehead. As there was
no sign of any Germans Joynt immediately returned & sent off a runner to
the C.O. telling him what had been down & asking for instructions. Word
came back that there was to be no c/attack, so J. went out to withdraw
Power's men. On reaching the bridgehead he found them all asleep -
they were so overtired with all their travelling & marching that they could not
lie down without falling off to sleep. Each man J. went to was lying in the
same position : face downward with rifle out in front; and ^in order to wake them he had to
go along & slap every manx. to xxxx They then withdrew to our line &
were placed in positions where they could give a good a/c of themselves
should the enemy attack.
By the time J. had done this dawn just breaking and he
only had time to get back to the farm without being observed by the enemy.
He found Fenton was lying on a bed fast asleep - dead to the world
after his exciting and nerve breaking experiences of the previous day.
The C.O. had asked the artillery to blow the factory right off the map -
which the liaison officer had promised to do - so they waited
expectantly for our guns to open up. It was 11 oclock, however, before
they commenced shooting. J. was so tired that after breakfast, he took
off his boots & turned in - nice feather bed with snow white sheetsx
Everything was quiet, not a shot being fired by either side.
"I could not determine in my tired mind", writes Joynt in his diary,
"whether it was the previous night or two night ago that the Tommies had been
overrunning my comfortable H.Q. I remember one scene abt midnight, when
I had several commanding officers with their followers, officers & men in my dining
room all seated round the fire on chairs. lamenting the loss of their
battalions & the beastly show they had put up. - and I, a subaltern, was
triumphant, receiving & issuing orders like a Cooks Tourist Agent. My
batman reminded me that I had had nothing to eat since lunch, & laid the
table. . . . . . . . I invited the English officers to join me. . . . . . only one, a Major,
availed himself. . . . Somehow one by one they disappeared off into space until
by morning only one of them was left & he was fast asleep. . . . . I then recognised
(him) as the I.O. of the Lancashire Fusiliers, 29th Div. He was a real
soldier, one of the good ones of the old school. . . . . ."
J. was wakened abt 2 in the aftnoon by the heavy arty whose shells
were bursting close handy. They were trying to blow down the factory but were
making very bad shooting of it. The heavies had commenced shooting at 11 a.m.
and had dropped some very short - close to J's foremost posts. The liaison
officers & Lieut Stevenson had spent the whole of the time at the phone ringing
up the arty. to increase their range. At four o'clock J. went out to see what
damage had been done to the factory & found that the arty had just secured their first
hit and were busy pounding it to pieces. Germans were running in all directions
from the place which soon caught fire. The church at Vieux Berquin was also
being shelled as the Huns were using the steeple as an O.P. & m.g. post; 18pdr. shells
had secured direct hits time after time on the face of the clock & soon a heavy gun
completed the demolition of the tower by placing a shell right at the base of the steeple.
It was terrible to watch the destruction of this pretty little village church by our own
guns, but it was a military necessity for the Germans were looking down on us
from a splendid vantage point, and in addition they were using the square (in
which the church was situated) as an assembly point. When the steeple at last
collapsed our men were so glad that they could hardly restrain a cheer.
At this moment a man reported that McGinn had been wounded by one of our
shells. J sent him back to ascertain if it was absolutely necessary to have McG. removed
at once by s/bs. - if so, he was to wave. The messenger ran out again to the post
across the hundred yds of open field, sniped but not hit; he shook his head to
signify that there was no need for s/bs. It turned out that a big piece of the earth had hit
McGinn on the side of the head, turning up his hard steel helmet on one side, like
an Australian felt hat - but doing no more harm than badly bruising his
face & neck.
Soon afterwds the Adjutant (Capt Lodge) came called xx and was very
satisfied with all that he saw & seemed quite pleased with the position. J. took the
oppty. of letting him know how absolutely done the men were & how badly they
needed a rest. J. also related an experience of the night before, or rather about
4 xx in the morning. His right post heard a man riding a bicycle comexxxx
rattling down the road from the rear of our lines. They called out to him to halt
but the man increased his pace & made a bolt for it. He ran into the barricade
of old farm waggons across the road, dismounted, and, throwing the bike over,
scrambled after it. The Lewis Gun opened fire on him but without effect and
this spy, for such J. thinks he ^assuredly was, got away scot free. He must have been one
of the many Germans, J. thinks who ^dressed as refugees came through our lines during the retreat.
J. saw several of these fellows himself actually entering our lines under shellfire
from the Germans, and at the time pitied them. J. himself took the responsibility
for letting this man escape & would not charge his sentries with carelessness, as he
knew how absolutely dog tired & worn out they all were.
Just as he was about to set out on his rounds after dark, the C.O.
rang up and asked J. how his defences were and if he needed further help to
repel a threatened enemy attack. J. mentioned his right flank whereupon the
C.O. offered him another platoon, which he accepted. This platoon reported under
Lieut Dowling about 11 p.m. & by daylight had dug itself in on the inside of a
hedge - with a Lewis gun covering J’s right flank. The C.O. also sent
another platoon, with 2. LG’s, under Lieut Johnson, to dig in on a line between
Joynt’s two left posts - covering a possible crossing in the canal which ran
across his company sector front. After this J. felt quite sure of his ability to
withstand any Hun attack. The night passed quietly.
16 April 1918. Morgan, the S/bearer, went out early in the morning
to look for dead Germans lying out in front in order to search them for papers, as H.Q.
wanted identifications. Morgan returned in abt an hour's time with a mass of
maps and papers that he had secured. These were forthwith sent down to Bn H.Q.
The day passed in absolute quiet quietness.
In the afternoon Woodhouse came up to have a look round, as the C.O.
had decided to split J's sector into two. He & J. reshuffled the platoons as soon
as darkness came down - all of A Coy came to the right, & "D." to the left. Joynt
then handed over his comfortable farmhouse to Woodhouse & withdrew. While J.
was attending to the relief he had sent Stevenson & the Sgt Major, to make their way
over to the left of the Bn area & choose another Coy H.Q. When he left at 1 oclock
he was so tired that he could hardly drag his legs along.
17 April 1918. It was nearly dawn by the time J's coy HQ was established
in the new farm to which the C.O. had ordered it to go. As it was in a lot of
trees and hedges, 600 yds behind the front line, J. was quite out of touch with
any of his posts and, as he could see none of them, had to do without a coy. O.P.
About 9 oclock the Germans put over an intense 5.9 barrage on our support lines,
concentrating on "B" Coys H.Q. and support posts, but missing J's H.Q. The shells
burst in dozens on either side leaving a gap of 100 yds. The men had ^on arriving chosen the
best places they could find & gone off to sleep, so J. got them up & made them
scatter about & lie down. Cpl Hill was wounded in the back by a shell splinter
- he was standing up at the time and the fragment came from a shell which
exploded nearly 100 yds away. The telephone wire was cut so a signaller was
sent along to find the break & mend it. After half an hour had passed and
he had not returned, two others were sent out. A few minutes later they
returned with a man of B Coy. badly wounded in the head. The signallers
reported the line badly broken in dozen of places where it crossed the road
so attempts to mend it were given up. J. went out shortly aftwds, to have a look
round, and found Capt Lovett of D Coy with a bandage on his jaw - a piece of
shell had knocked out his front teeth. He told J. that he had retained J's
signaller in his trenches. Gas shells were falling in the vicinity & J got a mouthful
before he cd get his helmet on.
About midday the bombdt eased off & gradually died out. J's coy. had only
suffered the one casualty (Hill) & the shelling had not touched his front posts.
B Coy however had caught it pretty hot. Sgt Gunn D.C.M. of B Coy, who had been with J.
in the fighting at Polygon Wood & Broodseinde to previous year, was killed.
"B" was to have relieved Joynt that night, but owing to the loss of its C.O. & to the
heavy casualties it sustained, J. had to hang on for another night.
When night came J. hastened up to the front line to inquire how his posts
had survived the ordeal, & was gratified to discover that they had only suffered
two men killed, both on Pitt's post. He got Fenton to relieve McGinn so that
the latter could have a few hour's sleep at Coy HQx Before leaving he got McG. to send
out a patrol in front to try and find out the position of the enemy posts in his immediate
front. The patrol retd at 12.30 a.m. reporting that it had found no Huns this side of the
small canal. J. then went along to A Coys H.Q. - his old home - & got a lot of blankets
overcoats, corn sacks etc for Bourke's post. The cold was intense & the men were
suffering terribly.
When he returned to his H.Q. J.. found an officer & 5 NCO's of the 6th Bn, who had
come up with word that their bn. was going to relieve him the follg night, & in consequence
the NCO's were to spend a day on the posts beforehand. There was just sufficient time to
send them out with the breakfast rations before morning broke.
Owing to the many changes & the different platoons J. had had under his
command the rations had not been ^at all satisfactory, for there was generally a shortage
each morning. But for the food they were able to salvage, they would have been in
a bad way.
[*?18th.*] (28) April 1918. About midday J. received the operation order for the relief between
8 pm & midnight. At 4 the adjutant 'phoned that the O.O. had been cancelled, & soon
aftwds a runner arrvd, with the news that as an enemy attack was expected during the
next 24 hrs the 8th had to stay in, and the officers & NCO's of the 6th were to report
back to their bn. Later on word was recd. that a prisoner news of the impending
attack had been given to the 7th Bn by a prisoner. J. sent an additional two
boxes of S.A.A. & two of rifle grenades to all his posts, and at midnight
visited the line to see if all orders were understood by his platoon commrs.
Lieut Evans, a boy who had come to the 8th from the 1st Pioneers only a few months
ago, was cheery & anxious for a fight. J. was accompanied by his bugler
and a s/bearer (Morgan), the former carrying a basin of hot stew for Evans' men,
who owing to a blunder had not received their hot rations. Morgan carried a
couple of boxes of rifle grenades, while J. himself brought an armful of flares
for obtg contact with aeroplanes and some Very lights. Aftwds J. went along to the
left and had a yarn with the Coy, commander of the 2nd Bn. While he was here a
message arrived to the effect that the intended enemy attack would take place at
5 in the morning. "Cheerio to 5 o'c" became J's farewell to his platoon commrs
as he went the rounds. The men were eager for a fight ^& all the posts were crammed
with boxes of S.A.A. Five o'clock found J. ^(hatless and without a respirator) out on the road leading from Coy H.Q.
to the outpost line, which he overlooked from a high piece of ground. At 4.50
our arty. opened on the German trenches, along the whole line. The hour came and
passed. Snow had fallen during the early hours of the morning, the white ground
showing up the slightest movement - an ideal morning to resist an attack. "I was
never so confident", says J. in his diary, "that we would give a good account of
ourselves. I felt the drawback of being a company commander, here was I sitting
back with nothing to do but to wait and watch. At that moment I would much
sooner have taken my place as a platoon commander in one of the outposts, and
taken my chance."
As he looked across the open flat country he could see nearly all the front
line, but, so well camouflaged were they by the snow, he could not pick out any of
the posts. Away to the right was C. Coy's area. Not a movement could be seen
anywhere over the wide expanse of country. Away on the right a man suddenly
appeared, walking from a farmhouse behind C. Coy's HQ., & deliberately went out
100 yds to the HQ post, where he jumped in & disappd. from sight. A dozen German
observers must have seen this foolish movement & thus been able to tell of the otherwise
hidden post. As no attack eventuated our arty gradually slackened its fire
until it ceased altogether; and J. retd to his farmhouse quite disapptd.
He turned in and slept until the C.S.M. awakened him to say that an officer of the
31st Div. was there to see him. This div. had been reorganized & brought up to
strength by new drafts of youngsters from England, & new officers, & were taking over
the line from us last night. J. gave him all the information he wanted -
about holding the line, arrgts. for rations, dispositions & orders in case of attack
- and wrote out his (J's) defence scheme for him, and then turned in again,
to be wakened at 3 oclock by another officer, a captain. He told J. that his
coy. was going to relieve J's that night, his division having altered the previous
arrgts. Two bns. were going to relieve our one. So J. had to set to again & go
over through the whole business of handing over a sectn. of the defence line to a new unit.
J. easily satisfied this captain who, from his questions & manner, appeared never
to have been in the line before. He did not even know how to fire the S.O.S. rocket.
J. promised to show him, but forgot & was glad aftwds for forgetting. It was a
shame to put officers of this sort in charge of 200 lives.
At 8.30 the first of the relieving platoons turned up & were led by the
waiting guides out to the positions. The new Coy. HQ staff took over satisfactorily
& J thereupon left to report at Bn H.Q., carrying out himself the old gramophone
and its five records which he had salvaged. On the road was Paddy Bourke
with his platoon, all eating hot potatoes, which J. had ordered to be cooked and
placed in dixies along the road so that every man coming out could get some
as well as a tin of bully beef.
At Bn HQ J. met the Major with whom he had had the argument
over the map when he was reorganising rallying the demoralized Tommies on the afternoon
of the 13th. They had a good laugh over the incident of the shot that was fired
at them, & which killed the calf in rear. Everyone was in a jolly mood
& they shook hands & left the best of friends.
From the line they marched to Boire huts abt 7 Kilos. away.
After resting there for two days the Bn. got orders to go into support to the 5th & 6th
Bns who were holding the line.
Extracts from diary of
Pte H G Hartnett 2 Bn
1918.
March 25. Heard today of the German offensive on the
Somme, but do not know what has actually happened.
"Blighty" leave cancelled. . . . . . .
March 27. . . . . . learnt that the Germans are back in
Pozieres and Albert again . . . . . . .
March 29.
Muster parade & general inspection of clothes and
equipment. Hot bath and clean underclothing afterwards.
Rumours that we are soon going back to the Somme front
. . . . . .
March 31 . . . . . Moving orders late at night.
April 1st. Easter Monday. Marched out of Seddon
Camp at 11.30 & entrained on light railway at
Ridgewood Siding, going down to a siding near
Reninghelst & then marched on to Devonshire Camp
near Brisseboom. Camp in filthy state. Went to
see a football match afterwards & on seeing a Tommy
tied up doing field punishment they set him loose
. . . . . .
April 5th Left camp about 1.30 pm. in full
marching order. Marched about nine miles to a billet
not far from Abeele.
April 6 Reveille at 5.30 a.m. and marched
out at 7 a.m. to a station about a mile away where we.
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