Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/252/1 - 1918 - 1935 - Part 10

2.

entrained thirty in a trench from which horses

had just been removed. Train left at 9 o'clock

passing through Caestre, St Omer, Calais,

Boulogne, Etaples, Abbeville, & reaching

Amiens at 9 pm. Pitch dark & rain had been

falling heavily all day. When we jumped

out of our truck we landed in water over

boot tops. Marched on in darkness through

the deserted streets of Amiesn. Shells falling

in town at the time. Rain pouring down.

After about a 7 mile march we arrived in

Cardonette. Our billed had hardly any

roof on it, but we dropped down & fell

asleep dead beat.

April 7  Had a quiet day, parade for

a while in afternoon.

April 8 Route march of about 8 miles

arriving back in our village about noon.

Raining all the time.

April 9 Marched on to new billets

in the village of Raineville, not far away.

The houses are deserted & some scouting

brought us to a supply of eggs . . . . . 

April 10 . . . . . . to Frechencourt.

News at night that a German offensive has

3.

been launched near Armentieres & our

division will probably be sent back north.

Orders not to take our clothes off or

unpack our packs through the night.

 

April 11 Stacked our packs at the corner

of the cross roads near the village for the

motor transport to pick up & carry for us.

Marched out of the village between 3 and 4

p.m. in battle order, taking the main road to

Amiens. The march of about 10 miles was

done in good time, the boys being in great

spirits & singing merrily on the road.

Reached our destination, a large asylum

on the outskirts of the city about 7 p.m. The

motor transport had carried our packs on to St.Roche station and

after a drink of tea we set out to march in after them. Shells

were falling in the city as we marched along and the railway station

was being heavily shelled when we reached it. Dashed in a few at a

time and collected our packs. A number of men wounded, and we

marched back to the asylum, arriving about 10.30 p.m. German

planes had been over and dropped bombs, causing further casualties.

After a drink of tea we lay down in the corridors and went to xx

sleep tired out.

 

April 12. Marched back into Amiens about midday past the

cathedral, which even then had a shellhole through the roof. Halted

in one of the beautiful boulevards where our cookers came up and hot

tea was served out. Later we marched down to St Roche station and

got into a train of trucks. Our train soon moved off and we

settled down to get all the sleep we could knowing that a big job

lay in front of us.

 

April 13. Detrained at a siding beyond Hazebrouck early this

morning and had breakfast, and then moved off again. I was one of

the party left behind as the battalion was going into the line at

once. French civilians evacuating the area and hurried along the

roads with their scanty belongings tied in bundles handkerchiefs.

It was a pitiful sight, old people in some cases being wheeled along

in wheelbarrows. They seemed very pleased to see us and exchanged

greetings . . . . The battalion continued on towards the line while

we who were left behind went into a large farmhouse near Borre.

The occupants had left in a hurry and we had full charge of the

place. After dark there was a good deal of shelling, while red

reflections on the skyline marked burning houses along the front.

 

April 14. Parade for about an hour near our billet and we had a

quiet day but cannot get away far from the billet. Game and

poultry getting a bad time and the troops are living high. Wine is

4.

also plentiful.

 

April 15. Germans shelling around Borre and Hazebrouck today.

We went up through Borre, Pardelles, and near Sec Bois to dig a

reserve outpost . . . . . . . Came home through the fields and fell

into ditches and ran into barbed wire entanglements in the

darkness . . . . . . . . . . 

 

April 22. Warned for guard in the afternoon and were waiting

with packs on our backs in the billet for instructions from

C.S.M. McColl. A German shell burst through the roof wounding

8 of us, all stretcher cases. Carried away to field ambulance

nearby and although I did not know it at the time I was leaving

the bn for the last time.

COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA  

TELEPHONE Nos.

F2597.

F2598.

TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS

"AUSWARMUSE"

COMMUNICATIONS TO BE ADDRESSED TO

"THE DIRECTOR."

IN REPLY PLEASE QUOTE

NO. 12/3/49

 

[They gave their lives. For that public gift

they received a praise which never ages and a

tomb most glorious - not so much the tomb in

which they lie, but that in which their fame

survives to be remembered for ever when

occasion comes for word or deed . . . . "]

 

AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL

POST OFFICE BOX 214 D.

EXHIBITION BUILDINGS, MELBOURNE.

 

6th June, 1935.

 

Dear Mr.Bazley,

I am returning herewith the map on which you

requested Major Joynt should record opposite Vieux Berquin

the positions, etc., of D Company 8th Battalion on the 13/14

April, 1918. Some brief notes compiled by Major Joynt are

also enclosed. He intends to amplify these with a further

statement and to assist him in this connection a tracing of a

section of the map has been made available. Joynt assures me

that this further statement will be ready to send to you before

the end of the present week. I have considered it advisable

to return the map to you without waiting for this further

statement which, of course, will be sent as soon as I receive

it from Major Joynt.

 

You will note that No. 1 post has been marked in

three places on the map and that No. 2 appears in two different

positions. The explanation, of course, is that Major Joynt

has adopted this method to indicate the positions to which

these two posts fell back when attacked. I understand that this

will be fully explained in the promised further statement.

Yours sincerely,

 

Mr. A.W. Bazley,

C/o Official Historian,

Victoria Barracks,

PADDINGTON.  N.S.W.

(Acknowledged with thanks 13/6/23)

Positions taken up by

D Coy 8th Battalion on 13/14th April

Opposite Vieux Bequin.

 

Coy H.Q. at farm with orchard at E 22.B.8.6.

No 1 Post. Lieut.H.Fenton covering the road leading from Vieux Bequin-Middway between Rd & Andle Farm

No 2 Post. Lieut. McGinn import of copse North of ANKLE FARM.

Where the ground in front was flat & open with 800 X field of fire to the Road leading across the front to Mont de Merris.

No 3 Post Lieut Bourke - covering McGinn's post on the left.

No 4 Post Lieut Pitt  covering left flank and Road approaches.

--------------------------------------------------------------

The left post of the Coy on D Coys right. 

at which the Huns ran into on the night

of the 13/14th was at  the ^junction of the roads marked X

N of the F second F in FANTACY FARM and 

commanded by Lieut J. Murdoch.

The Germans came along the road from Vieux Berquin. - (This note

inserted at Major Joynt's request.).

9167.

 

3 April 1935.

 

Dear Tas,

I send herewith the map which Major Joynt has

promised to mark for us. Dr.Bean would be glad if Joynt

would put in all is company posts and company headquarters

in the positions in which they were first located, and the

positions to which they retired. So that his markings will

stand out from those made by Dr. Bean, it would be helpful

if Joynt were to use some different coloured ink or pencil,

and also different signs to distinguish the first posts and

headquarters from those held later.

 

Secondly, would you please ask him who was the

officer (of the 8th Battalion) into whose post the Germans

ran during the night of April 13/14; and does Joynt know

precisely where this took place and the direction xx from

which the Germans were coming.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Mr.T.H.E.Heyes,

Australian War Memorial,

Box 214D, G.P.O.,

Melbourne.

 

handed to Mr Heyes

who was then in Sydney

912.

Field Ambulance) shot him and pitched a bomb through the

entrance, and 30 Germans surrendered. Sergeant H.Barr

(Fremantle, W.Aust.) took the other pillbox without resistance.

While the troops were clearing these dugouts, a machine-gun

opened near by. It could not at first be located, but

O'Carroll presently detected it in a hollow scooped under the

rails of the line. He shot the gunners. Another machine-gun

had been firing from a loop-holed pillbox. Lieut. W.R.

Maddeford (Victoria Park, W.Aust.) made for the rear of it,

but, finding that the place had steel doors, apparently shut,

he was non-plussed. Another Australian, however, rolled a

bomb through the loop-hole and smashed the gun.

(Refer to Maddeford_

-------------------------------------------------------------

quickly held up by fire from the bed of the valley behind Alma.

Perceiving that a dangerous gap had opened, the commander of

the reserve company, Lieutenant Dunbar 41, swung two platoons

across the front past Alma, filled the vacant space, and seized

three pillboxes which, if unattacked, might have held up the

whole centre of the division. In front of the left (10th)

brigade, the artillery barrage seemed to continue for twenty-

six minutes on the line of the intended 12-minute halt, holding

up the troops behind it. These saw on their left the New

Zealand Division go forward, shaking out its lines, waves, and

sections to proper distance and interval. It seized its first

objective below the crest, and then pressed on into its own

protective barrage on the Heights to suppress active pillboxes

there. At this stage the German artillery, which also had

caused many casualties early in the advance ^42, began accurately

to shell the 10th Brigade in the valley. At the same time

from some position in the bog, difficult to see, near a broken

red wall known as "Springfield", a German machine-gun was

firing. Captain xxxxx Moule ^43 (37th) and his batman making

---------------------------------------------------------------------

^41 Capt. xx G.A.Dunbar, M.C.; 42nd Bn. Student; of Wofram

and Brisbane, Q'land; b. Oley, Q'land, 26 Feb. 1895.

 

42 Lieut. L.S.Dimsey (37th), Capt. E.F.Moore (38th), and Lieut.

K.D.Speering (39th) were among those killed or mortally

wounded by it. (Dimsey belonged to Geelong, Vic.; Moore to

Bendigo, Vic.; Speering to Grantham, Q'land.)

 

43 Capt. F.G.Moule, 37th Bn. Wool clerk; of Melbourne: b.

Brighton, Vic.; Speering to Grantham, Q'land..)

-------------------------------------------------------------------

towards it, were badly wounded. Someone worked to its rear,

and it ceased. When at last the covering barrage permitted

COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

TELEPHONE Nos.

F 2597

F 2598

COMMUNICATIONS TO BE ADDRESSED TO

"THE DIRECTOR"

IN REPLY PLEASE QUOTE

NO. L 12/11/4810

TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS

"AUSWARMUSE."

 

AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL.,

POST OFFICE BOX 214 D.

EXHIBITION BUILDINGS, MELBOURNE.

23rd March, 1935.

 

[They gave their lives. For that public gift

they received a praise which never ages and a

tomb most glorious - not so much the tomb in

which they lie, but that in which their fame

survives, to be remembered for ever when

occasion comes for word or deed . . . . "]

 

Dear Mr. Bazley,

With reference to your letter 9121 of

the 9th March relative to the Hazebrouck fighting, Major

Joynt has informed Major Treloar that, if you will have

the map referred to in your letter forwarded to us, he

will be pleased, and is confident he can do so, to mark

the position of his posts and of battalion Headquarters

before and after April 14th. If you will kindly have

the map forwarded to the War Memorial, we will be pleased

to make the necessary arrangements with Major Joynt, and

have it returned to you without delay.

Yours sincerely,

 

Mr.A.W. Bazley,

C/o Official Historian,

Victoria Barracks,

PADDINGTON.  N.S.W.

9121.

 

9 March 1935.

 

W.D.Joynt, Esq., V.C.,

Colart Studios,

447, Law Courts Place,

Melbourne. C.1. Vic.

 

Dear Joynt

I have been dealing with the Hazebrouck fighting,

and am not quite clear where on the maps I should put your

four posts. I have only one map and don't like sending it

away, even on so short a journey, but, if you think you could

mark in the position of your posts and the battalion headquarters,

etc., before and after April 14, I would send it

down to you through Major Treloar of the War Memorial. The

story is an extraordinary interesting one.

With kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

 

C.E.W.Bean.

845.

transverse roads from Zillebeke to Hellfire Corner and Birr

Cross-Road respectively, were chosen, and nearly the whole

construction force under the corps staff was put upon these,

under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel E.J.H. Nicholson. 7 At

least half of the track, a mile long, from Zillebeke to Birr

Cross-Road, had been so destroyed that it had to be remade as a

plank road, and on this, the most urgent task in that area, the

5th Division's pioneers - and, for two days, some of the 1st

Division's - were employed. The work was finished by September

19th, an outstanding achievement even for those troops.

 

The forward circuit had to be provided in the crater-field

from Birr Cross-Road eastward, in which the lines of old roads

were barely traceable. A new road of planks, 3,200 yards long,

was therefore planned, leading from the Menin road, short of

Hooge, through Chateau Wood, northward around the Bellewaarde

Lake, ^8 and back through Cambridge Road to the Menin road at

Birr Cross. The 1st Pioneers undertook the southern part, and

the 2nd Pioneers the northern ^9. While the work was under way,

----------------------------------------------------------------------

7 The 47th Division also worked upon them.

8. "Idiot Corner", north-west of the lake, was so called from

"Idiot Trench", near by.

 

9 About 500 yards of the circuit lay along the old track through

Chateau Wood. It was though that the existence of the road

formation would assist the 1st Division's pioneers, and they

were accordingly allotted more than half of the total task.

The state of the track, however, and the vicious shelling of

that area, neutralised any advantage.

-----------------------------------------------------------

General White, in order to avoid probable overcrowding at

Birr Cross-Road, arranged that the northern track should be

prolonged to join the Menin road 200 yards further back. This

by-pass, though only 300 yards long, lay on swampy ground, and

its construction involved great difficulty.

 

But the main difficulty was the carriage of planks. Later,

when the routine was perfected, there arrived Ouderdom xxxxxxx

siding (4½ miles from Ypres) at 2p.m. daily a special train

containing 240 tons of planks. Eight motor lorries drew up