Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/252/1 - 1918 - 1935 - Part 11

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AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL

POST OFFICE BOX 214D. 
EXHIBITION BUILDINGS, MELBOURNE.
5th July, 1935.
Dear Mr. Bazley,
I have now received from Major Joynt the further
statement relating to 8th Battalion operations in which he
The original copy
took part on 13th to 19th April, 1918.
is enclosed herewith. Attached to Major Joynt’s statement
will be found a copy of some notes compiled by a Lieut.
Fenton, who was associated with Major Joynt in the operations
in question.
Major Joynt informs me that he has a further short
statement relating to these operations, but as it may be a
day or so before he completes it, I have thought it advisable
The further statement
not to hold back the enclosed papers.
will be forwarded to you as soon as I receive it from Joynt.
Yours sincerely,
T H Hayes
Mr. A. W. Bazley,
c/o Official Historian,
Victoria Barracks
N.S.W.
PADDINGTON.
 

AU.
 

44719 Law Courts Place,
MELBOURNE C.I.
3rd July, 1935
Dear Mr.Hayes,
Defence of HazebrOuCK, AprIL, 1918
Further to my communication to you on the matter, and
in reply to your letter of the 7th June, I am forwarding you the
enclosed further details.
The object of these notes is to bring to the notice
of the War Historian, Dr. Bean, the very heroic conduct of certain
officers, N.C.Os, and men of my Company, which was not fully recox-
nised at the time.
Owing to the exigencies of the moment, and so much
happening at the one time it was not possible for me to realise
all that was going on. It was not until a few days afterwards that
the full story of their several achievements became properly
Known, when it was too late as the recommendations had already been
made.
If every an officer deserved a decoration Lieut.H.
Fenton did, but he never got one. His gallantry was wonderful.
Yours faithfully,
AD. Loynt
Mr.T.H.E. Hayes
Australian War Memorial,
MELBOURNE
C.L.

13th April to 19th April, 1918
Further notes on defence of Sector opposite VIEUX BEQUIN by Lieut.
8th Battalion.
W.D. Joynt, commanding D.Coy.
The Company Front extended from La Notte, Vicux Bequin Rd. exclus-
ive to the road junction E.11.c.32. The ground on the right of my Sector
was thick with hedges, trees and farm buildings, which promised splendid
cover and concealment to and admancing enemy so my two right Platoon
Commanders, in order to get a clear field of fire had gone forward about
250 yards in front of the general line held by the Battalion. This made
300
a dangerous angle in the defensive scheme as my right flank was quite
in the air. My own Coy.H.Q. were actually on a level with the front
line posts of our centre Company (C.Coy.)
I recognized the danger to my position should the enemy occupy
a three storied mill about 300 yards immediately to my right front.
asked for and was promised probtection by fire from the left post of our
centre Company (C.Coy)— (Lieut.Murdock) to prevent the enemy from
occupying the mill.
In addition I arranged for the oddments of my H. Qs!. personel,
batman, signallers etc. under the Corporal Signaller, L Cpl Stewart to
occupy, should it become necessary, a reserve post 1100 yards in front
of my H.Q. and just to the left of the road leading from VIEUX BEQUIN
and in such a position to be able to cover the retirement of Fenton,
should he have to get back, or to fill the gap and hold up any advance
should Fenton's post be destroyed. Actually the latter did take place.
On these two right posts fell the early rush and enslaught of the
enemy attack, particularly the right post. The anticipated protective-
fire from the left of our centre Company failed to materialise and the
the mill. They were then able to enfilade
enemy were soon in possessign of
my fowart he male of our position, tht enemy attack on the Battalion Front had
partion been checked and they had received such a gruelling that no further mafer
which hodattack after their initial success was attempted, Instead he moved diag-
to go.
onally across our left front in the direction of MONT MERRIS, but by this
time the lst Brigade had arrived and were well dug in on our left,
As the enemy moved across our Front my two left posts were able to
engage them an effective range and did considerable damage.
Very great credit is therefore due to these two forward posts and
their Platoon Commanders, Licut H. Fenton and Lieut. McGinn for their mag-
nificent defence of the advanced posts of the Company.
In the case of Fenton he became the sole surviver of the Plateon
and did not evacuate his final position until every one of his men had b
become a casuality. He then crept to a shell hole where he was later
uthful Temmies of a Yorkshire Regiment of the Retirins
ined by two
38
th Division. Penton sent one of these away to report to me his parlous
position, the other stayed with him. Fanton had earlier in the defence
possessed himself of a rifle and now used it with great effect on every
enemy target that presented itself. By rapid fire the two held up quite
a large sortie of the Huns from the ruins of Ankle Farm.
Eventually xeeing themselves almost completely cut off they worked
their way to the rear as far as they could under cover of the ditches and
Redges. They then jumped up and made a dash of the last 100 yards through
an orchard to Coy.H.Q. 1 never saw such a thrillins sight, as the two men
ran through the orchard with their rifles in their hands. Huns seemed to
be all round them, jumping out from behind trees and shooting at the two
fusitives, who bore extraordinarily charmed lives. Eventually completely
exhausted they reached the safety of the stone wall that surrounded the
farm which I occupied as Coy.H.Q., where they collapsed in a heap.
To Sergeant A.C. Robertson, Fenton's Platoon Szt., who. came from Bena
Jn Gippsland, Victoria, belongs the greatest credit for fffrTuccessfulag
retirement of Fenton from his wary advanced post to his alternative
of the
position 180 yards in the rear.
th
 

DDDDDDDDD E DDDDDDDDO
in the earlier fighting of the day Robertson had acquired a
captured German machine gun, which he now used with great effect.
When Fenton decided he would have to retire as he was quite out-
flanked when the Huns got into the mill on his right Sat. Robertson,
alone stayed behind and covered the retirement of the Plateon. At the
time the enemy was advancing in large numbers and Robertson devotedly
stuck to his post until he fell. The walking wounded who passed through or
their way the to the dressing station were loud in their praises of
Robertson’s bravery, saying that he should receive the Victoria Cross.
I endeavoured to ohtain this award for him, but the general standard of
bravery shown that day by so many of the Company made it difficult to
discriminate and most witnesses of his gallantry had become casualities.
Cpl. Rainbow,3960 Cpl. F.R. Whelan, wounded and missing, 2822 Cpl.
G.P.White, wounded and 4225 Cpl.H.Hill, wounded, all showed outstanding
gallantry and initiative in early reconnaissance work and as junior
leaders helping in the defence of the post. Also later in the withdrawal a
of the Platoon to its alternative position where the defence was brilliant
ly carried out until eventually every man on the post became a casuality.
In the meantime Lieut, McGinn (in charge of No.2.adv anced post)
and his men were reaping a harvest. They had gone well forward to the
edge of a copse and dug themselves in behind a hedge in & well concealed
trench, and had camouflaged the newly turned earth with green grass and
boughs. Their field of fire was perfect, acress 800 yards of flat clear
country, looking straight into the square of the village opposite, and
covering the whole of the main read leading from the village diagepayy act
across the Company's front, en which later a whole enemy Battalion, was
allowed to debouch from the villages and when well out along the road
in full view of No.2. post was suddenly fired upon with two Lewis gunners
and twentyfive riflemen at about 800 yards range. The suddenness of the f4s
fire caught the Germans completely by surprise, there was comparatively
no cover, and the Battalion was decimated.
This very enterprising youngfffiedr and his Plateon continued
picking their targets and completely held up the enemy advance along
the VIEUX BEGUIN; STRALELLE ROADS
Later Huns debusing in the village square were causng by a
surprise burst of fire from the post. Throughout the remainder of the
day McGinn held his ground until he had to withdraw when Fenton's post
went.
Into this post (McGinn’s) stimbled the Battalion Commander
Adjutant and Intelligence Officer of the lst Battalion Lancashire Fusilier
This Battalion of the famous 29th Division had been fighting a rearguard
action for over three days and had practically ceased to exist. On first
reaching the post the Colonel had greeted McGinn with these words Boy
is this your postyt. Yes, Sirt, replied McGinn. You are going to make
Well sive me your rifle, I am one of your
a fight of 1t7t
yes, Sir
menc, and sthzing a rifle offered to him he jumped into the post.
Later when night arrived he collected a number of men of the 29th
Division that had straggled into our lines, and led them in a counter
attack on the village opposite-saying to McGinn as he left You can re-
port that the lst Lancashire Fusiliers held the village to the last. We
heard his musketry continue through the night, he withdrew at daybreak
and behind our lines he refored the remnants of his Battalion. I had
nearly 300 stragglers of the 29th, 3lst and 40th Divisions and starting
with the 40th Division 1 gradually retired them where they reformed at
their respective assembly points.
The following afternoon, after descultry fighting throughout the
morning with the enemies’s advanced troops, the main enemy attack having
developed, a Patrol sent by McGinn, consisting of 2783 Sxt.G.R. Short, and
364 Pte J. Dehn to watch his right and see how Fenton was doing found the
eneny in possession of his post and pressing on. Although Short was fired
at and wounded he returned with this information to his Plateon Commander,
who very wisely immediately ordered a retirement to a new position on the
general line of defence 300 yards in the reare
 

300
o 7 -oo
Set. Short was then sent by McGinn to rally the men on the new pos-
ition, although severdly wounded and under heavy firn ne continued carrying
out this work until every man was back. When McGinn, the last to leave
arrived he handed over the new post to his Platoon Commander and retired,
very badly wounded.
Observing from my H.Q. the dangerous situation that had developed with
the destruction of my right post and seeing the rearward movement of xg)
McGinn’s men commencing to take place I called for a runner to take a
message to Licut, Bourke of my No.3. post, warming him of the situation
and instructing him to deploy some of his men to the right to cover
McGinn’s retirement.
The open warfare nature of the last two days’ engagement had proved
very exactins on my runners and I had used up several and now found none
available, In reply to my calls for a runner a stretcher bearer came
forward and volunteered to take my message, 554 Pte I. Parfray.
It was almost impossible to move about the open owing to the tremend
dous hostile machine gun and rifle fire being so heavy, and I watched &
Parfray’s progress with the greatest anxiety. He had about 500 yards to
go, and keeing to the hedges and taking advantage of all the cover offer-
ing the S.B. Reached his destination and guided some men to the position
about 250 yards to their right, where they were able, very successfully,
to give covering tire to McGinn's retiring Platoon.
Bourke’s new post now came into the picture as the enemy quickly
overran McGinn's old post and commenced working their way down along the
hedges towards our new line but were well under observation from Bourke,
whose men shot well and true and soon sent every Huh in that vicinity
to earth.
me
I now found my Signalling N.C.O.Cpl. Steward had carried out his early
instructions in the event of a break through and had rushed his Coy
reserves into position just in the nick of time, with 5443 17Cpl S.
Redmayne with the Coy's reserve Lewis gun and othernattahhed to G.H.Q.
consisting of less than 10 men in all. A small trench, sufficient to hald
this number of men had been dug the day previously at a position 100
yards in front of my H.Q. previously mentioned in my defence scheme.
This now became my new Nc.l.post.
These men were soon heavily engaged in holding the breach in the
line, Redmayne using his Lewis gun most effectively, until wounded in the
head, he became totally blinded.
The promptness, of Cpl. Steward in occupying the post saved the sit-
uation and preventedH.Q. from being overrun.
I had now a fairly straight line of defence, but was concerned about
my centre so decided to go there and see for myself. As I ran acrose the
Spen I was shot at by Huns from less than 100 yards distance. I saw
Parfray, the S.B.on his way back, he signalled to me as if he had a message
for me so we ran towards each other. When he was two yards from me he
opened his mouth to speak, and then fell at my feet, shot through the
throat. He died immediately, what his message was I never knew.
The following night Brigade asked for enemy identification. Pte
Morgan, another stretcher bearer, volunteered to go out and get this.
Morgan, a well known 9th Battalion identity, was typical of many Dissers
quite impossible behind the lines, always dirtily turned out, when an in-
spection by a senior officer was to take plave the Coy Commander would
make sure that Morgan was not on parade, but when in the Line this man
was truly wonderful. In addition to his job of picking up the wounded,
which work in itself was dangerous enough to satisfy any ordinary man,
particularly during this engagement when the stretcher bearers were con-
tinually under fire, Morgan was always ready to drop a stretcher and take
on some fresh adventure.
On this occasion he went out about 2 o'clock in the morning with
instructions to catch a live Hun if he could, but if not to bring back
identification marks from a recently killed German. He returned in
about an hour, reporting plenty of enemy dead lying about out in front,
 

-00000000 4 -ODDDDDD
he had systematically searched the field for dead German officess, from
which he collected masses of valuable papers and maps, which he now
produced, and in addition a biz automatic revelver.
The papers were sent away to Battalion H.Q. at ence and shortly
afterwards came a telephone message to say O.K.
 

Notes written by Lieut H. Fenton at my
request - (W0DJoignt) May 1935
In the early marning of April 13th 1918, the
8h batln established a line of autposts
on the west of, and about 1000 yds from,
We weere given no definite
Pienx Berguin
information regarding the position of the
enemy, but it was believed that he was
some 3o00 yds distant to the santh east and
that there were some Imperial kraops between
him and durselves.
No. 16 plation, of which I had command,
hashily du two pasts close Logetker between
Ankle Farm and a hall will siteated an
the nanth side of the La Matle-Piew of Berquin
read
These pasts formed the apix
of a shanp satient, Lieut. McGinn having a
post to my left rean, and krent Murdock (()
of () cay one to the right rear, the pasition
commanding a good, view of V. Borguin.
Duning the foxenson, fighting between
Imperial traaps and the enemy was absowed
in and araand P.B. and many straggers
retired between our posts and those an
vay planks, arnt about naan te
German infantry and hranspors could be
seen enperig the village from the sauth eash
Whenever the Huns appeares within range
we apened fire upon them.
I established myself with Sergeant Trasor
and hen men in the lift post, and placed
the right on the charge of Sergt Roberkson
with an equal number.
During the farenoon, fighting between
Imperial treaps and the enemy was absewed
1666
 

in and arcund V.B., and many straggless
retired through our line, while about
noon terman infantry and transport
could be seen entering the vielage in
numbers from the sautheast
whenever the enemy appeared within
range we opened fire upon them.
During the afternoon our posts were
heavily shelled, several casualties being
sustained, while an incendeary shell
left only the walls of the farm-hause
shanding
Nead morning, the 14th we were again
shelled, and later on I found may left
past completely enflladed from the left
prout by trench mortars and a machent fro
under cover of whase fire, the keens advanced
along the shallow sunken road from V.B.
towards the will, and thence along a
becque towards our position
Meanwhill we had sustained several
casuallies and I realizzed my position
was untenatele
I sent Carp Kill hogd in touch with
McGinn and inform him of our situation,
and ordered Robertson to provide covering
fire with his captured German machine gune
to enable the remnant of my men to reture
to a more effective position a little to the
rear, whence we might in tern cover
his retirement
Robertson had already been waunded in
the head, but he never theless stuck to his
 

IAA
 

job mast gallantly until he was struck
down, his condude throughout the grerations
being distinguished by courage, coalness
and effienency.
Having reached te well, the Termans
mounted a machine-gun at a hop-stary
window which enabled them to sweep
bath my trenches.
Deering the retirement several mae were
wounded but managed eoentaally to
reach the dressing shation, but mort of
the plateon including te dewes gunness an
my post were hilled
I was the last to leave my post, but
succeesed in crossing safely to the ruined
farm-house, where, hawever I found myself
dlone, several dead lying around
ahem behind the walls I was able to ase
the rifle at thes range
While weorkny my way back, haking advantage
of whatever covers there was, I noticed two
dommis creeping along a beeque near me
and attracted their attention, whereupon tey
I discasered them to be
soied aic
nembers of the Britesh anee, bath lads of
about 18 years.
One had received a head
and
waund, but the other was unharmed
carried his rifle-
Apparently unseen by the Germans we
serambled wt a large shell crater aboal
40 gds he the wese of the farm kause, where
the braken graand provided cover, and good
observation of the front was obtained
WOD
 

4
from  this position we suiped te enemy
whenever be appeared. At one time a
only
harty issed from the ruins, to be driven
back by our fire, and later two Huns
who were using a hay stack as an O.P.
were brought dawn.
Gradually things quietened and the Germans
hepl out of sight.
After an hour or so of quietness, I sent the
anwaunded Lommy back along a beeque
to our lines with a message to the O.C
waite the other lad, who displayed fine
courage and chierfulners, remained with
me an watch in the shell-hall.
Having seen that a past had been established
about 400 igds to our rear, jst before dusk
I decided to reture to it. This we were
able hodo without mishap despite the
machine gens that were tarned on as.
this new past was held by H. Powen-
note by ws.
motentor is not correct here, this post ande
It Power has not established by wahl later
xth
-beher I rceived an platoon from Bor. Resenue
was rested nect day &
and after Fenton
Poncer for a while to
got him Drelieve
platoon had followed us
that- Poneer (whose
from Amiens by a later train,) could have
Fenton had forgotton that.
a sleep.
I packed him off to hed & he seept without
abeeak for 24 hrs
Wa

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