Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/228/1 - Folder - Part 14

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56th for main attack (with 7th Brigade on left).
55th (less 2 Coys.) to follow it, swing S. and
seize high ground.
54th to complete mopping up of Peronne and assist
as far as possible with Flarnicourt (which the Germans would
have evacuated).
53rd and 2 Companies 55th much tried out, as reserve.
(These items were sent by Telephone to Legge B.M.
and by him to Battalions (except Marshall) which were on the
telephone.
After this conference had broken up at 12.40.
Elliott arrived later after Stewart and Tivey had
gone (at 2.30 a.m.) and made it clear to his Brigade couldn't
cross Somme where intended. Plan was then changed so that
58th should move into Peronne at Zero X 30 and attack ramparts
at far end assisting 54th Bn.
59th and 60th to follow 56th (and 2 Companies 55th)
and then move S. and attack the same ridge as 2 Company of
55th Battalion.
57th Battalion was (if possible and opportunity
offering) to cross the Somme by footbridges.
These instructions never reached Brigadier 14th
Brigade. First he knew of it was when he got message from
Colonel Marshall saying the 58th Battalion had some contrary
instructions and was apparently supporting him. (Battalion
had been told to support Marshall and Marshall knew nothing
about this; neither did Brigadier).
Zero was fixed this day at 6 a.m. for both 7th
Brigade and 14th Brigade. This was agreed to at Conference and
telephoned by Brigadier to 14th Brigade from the conference.
(? The British apparently had a zero at 5 or 5.30 am.
and the 2nd Division may have had to alter theirs later to
5.30 a.m. But this was never reported to 14th Brigade nor
15th Brigade who had to move through Peronne under very
heavy reply brought down by the 5.30 zero further N.)
 

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56th Battalion got into same German barrage. All
officers were hit in the three leading Companies; and Sergt.
O'Connor took them in.
(St.Dennis Wood doesn't exist - it is a plantation
of stunted stuff with a lot of undergrowth).
Under the original plan the E. end of Peronne
("Ramparts") was to be ignored for ¾ hr. after attack had
been launched by 56th Battalion so as to keep the fire from
it down; and then, at 6.45., 54th Battalion was to mop it up.
The fire kept on the ramparts did not keep the M.G.
fire down.
56th Battalion. PERONNE. Sept.1 & 2.
(Captain Mann & several others).
____       _____       _____     - Buscourt Bridge.
56             54          53
55th went across at Ornmmiecourt.

On August 31st. 56th Bn. was in H22 S. of Buscourt.
Their reconnoitreing party went down and found Buscourt
crossing suitable and Battalion crossed there after 54th
Battalion. They lay up near the Clery Station - fairly
heavily shelled but not many casualties. They had the
protection of a big chalk bank. They were there from 5 p.m. to
8 p.m.
After dark Company Officers went up to Clery
Peronne Road to reconnoitre position in I7A & C, as as to
move there for the night pending further orders. On return
of these officers Battalion moved up. They lay W. of the Road
till about 5.15 a.m. They then moved forward to take up an
assembly position S.E. of Halle Wood, supporting 53rd and
54th.
There was no time to
reconnoître until officers
returned to Coys.
[*xxx*]
 

513
after going forward they didn't know of the attack or
objectives required. At 5.15 at a Battalion conference at
about 4.30 a.m. they got this information.
At 5.15 C.Bompany moved along the road towards its
jumping off position and the other Companies by different
routes. They came into heavy Machine Gun and shell fire in
Halle Wood (and had about 20 casualties out of 98 in B.Coy)
Lieut. Oldham was killed there by a M.G. bullet while dressing
a wounded man.
They got to about 14D central about 5.45 (zero at 6)
and came under M.G. and shell-fire - very much tangled,
naturally. There were marshes in the wood and so they had to
come round the S.E. corner of it under M.G. fire - which
seemed to be coming from the outskirts of Mt.St.Quentin.
56th couldn't see the jumping off troops; so at Zero
X l0 B.Coy. (Captain Mann) started to move in Artillery formation
in the direction fo Peronne. They had men hit by M.G.
fire from Mont St. Quentin direction (S.W. of village) after
they had gone about 600 yds. Saw no signs of rest of 56th
or 53rd.
Mann then pushed forward to B.Company into Quinconce
Wood and in passing through, mopped up about 9 prisoners. They
found there some men of 54th Battalion. These said that
54th were away on the right. 54th they said had entered Peronne.
B.Coy.56th pushed ahead across the Peronne Mt.St.Quentin Road,
having a few casualties from shell fire - it was drizzling rain.
They pushed forward to the 22 C 3.7 right to the ramparts.At
this point they came under M.G. fire from the direction of
St.Denis and the E. end of Peronne and scattered shell fire.
B.Coy stayed there and a patrol of the 54th Bn. followed them
up and told them where 54th had got to - the barricaded and
partially wrecked bridge at 21 D.5.0.
They couldn't find 53rd at all. So Mann sent an
Officer and a man to the left near the cemetery (in I21)
and found that 53rd had been held up near the N. end of the,
cemetery. 

514
Position of B.Company (in a trench along N. side of
moat with a few men on top trying to make posts on the
flanks) was very isolated. B.Coy. then withdrew into line
with rest of Brigade (53rd and 54th) and took up position
about 21 central. They had had a few men hit near the
ramparts by M.G. fire. (They had seen men at S.corner of
St.Quentin and at St.Denis and couldn't make out if they
were Germans or not). Lt.Musgrove offered to go over and
see who were at St.Denis, but wasn't allowed. It was he
who got touch with 53rd.
Mann had word that A.Coy.56th Battn, was on left
of 53rd. The O.C. of this Coy. offered to send a fighting
patrol to Mt.St.Quentin to find out the situation there.
(This may not have been done).
B.Coy. stayed there till 2.45 p.m. when orders
arrived that 56th were to advance (in conjunction with 53rd
Battalion and 15th Brigade on right) through 54th Battalion
and attack high ground in 135 and 05 (S. of Peronne).
Companies were to rendezvous at the main bridge
crossing on I27. No time was given. The Companies did 
rendezvous there at about 4.45 p.m. About then 53rd Bn. attacked
towards St.Denis and came under terrific M.G. fire with
heavy losses. 56th had no concrete orders; 53rd couldn't
very well make another attack in concert with 56th.
Companiestherefore remained at point of Rendezvous
and awaited further orders, till 8 p.m. They were then ordered
by the senior officer present to return to their original
position and remained for the night.
Sept. 2. At about 5 a.m. following morning orders
were received for Battalion to assemble at I21 central to
attack in the direction of St.Denis at 6 a.m.
O.C. Coys. were to report to Bn.H.Q. at once for
further instructions. The Coys, were moved up into position.
Lieut.Musgrove was killed in doing this by a shell.
There was a heavy mist. Going from Bn.H.Q. to Coy.
 

575
Captain Mann was wounded by Machine Gun bullet.
Capt.Dalkeith was wounded 1st day August 3rd,
on returning from the rendezvous about dusk in trenches N.W.
of Quinconce.
Lieutanant Williams, Lieutenant Hicks and Lieut.
Bullock were wounded at jumping off position the second
morning.
(The 2nd. Division had started their attack at
5.30 and 56th Battalion came in for retaliation and had to
move to assembly position through this which was very heavy.
This left only 2 Company Officers, both in C.Coy. -
Lieuts.Bull and Nancarrow. The other 3 Coys. were in command
of the C.S.Ms Sergt.O'Connor was A/C.S.M. of D.Company.
[*xxx] 
B/A/C/P→
The Companies by the time they reached the J.O.
position averaged about 45 men. They passed through 53rd
Battalion which was holding line. They were on the N. side
of railway line dug in to the railway bank.
Forward companies crossed the bank they met very
heavy M.G. fire from the ramparts. They could see the head
and shoulders of the Germans there. The mist was rising -
the light was growing. These Germans were S. of the moat
a/C.S.M. O'Connor was with the leading Company. All the
machine gunners were hit by machine gun and shellfire. The
C.S.M. and 8 men went on (signallers and runners). Their
left flank was on the Sugar Factory about 800 yds. from jumping
off. There were only shell holes to get into.(Later, going
out scouting, O'Connor found 55th Bn. in the sugar factory,
attacking machine gun posts which were still there.
After O'Connor got to near the sugar factory he could
see on the right in Peronne the 15th Brigade coming up in
small parties through the streets. They were being held up.
The Germans were on the extreme E. end of the ramparts and
15th Brigade was coming up through the streets. O'Connor's
 

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party got a sight on these Germans (about 15 of them) and
opened up rifle fire - gunners had all been hit. O'Connor drew
the fire off the 15th Brigade on to his own party and the
15th Brigade were able to get along. The Germans then retirned
out of the Ramparts and ran up into St.Denis Wood. You could
see our bombing parties and small parties dodging round the
houses and getting to the E. of the town.
This eased the position a lot. It was about 11 a.m.
The only machine guns firing now were a couple from St.Denis
Wood.
When O'Connor saw that everything was all right he
went back, leaving his party in charge of Sergt.Davidson
and went back to see if he could get a few guns and some men.
He got 6 guns, ammunition and 30 men of all Companies from
between Jumping off Trench and his position. He immediately
placed them in outposts - 6 men to each gun. He put them in
a line from the Sugar Factory to the nearest corner and the
moat - one post right on the moat. One man hit in this period.
They were there till 11 p.m.
When he was settled down he left party under two
Sergeants and then took a runner along to search for an
Officer. He went right round his line to the railway bank
and along it and there found Works Officer Lt.Harvey.
O'Connor reported to him his position. He asked if it could be
held against an attack and O'Connor said "Yes".
Later, on the railway bank, he found Lts.Bull,
Nancarrow and got them to give him some men to fill in the gap
between the Sugar Factory and the railway line (On O'Connor's
left). This joined 56th and 55th. Up to then only 2 men of
O'Connor's party had been guarding the railway line - in case
anyone came along it. About 3 in the afternoon after German
planes had gone over, dropping small bombs on the now
completed line, Germans put down a heavy barrage of all calibres
and gas. Shortly after there was a lot of movement in St.Denis
Wood and Germans began to trickle into the gully in front of 56
 

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They were given a few bursts of machine gun fire
and nothing came of it. The Germans came down out of the
road.
The railway bank hid O'Connor from 2nd Div. on
Mr.St.Quentin.
Captain Wyllie, 55th Battalion told O'Connor that he
was in touch with 2nd Division. He was at the Sugar Factory
That night after dark O'Connor took out a patrol with 6
men - before then he had only been in touch with 15th
Brigade by semaphore - and went down to the moat and round
the ramparts and reported to an Officer there (who asked 'Are
you the party which has been out there all day?'). This
Officer showed O'Connor round the position. O'Connor then
returned and handed the patrol report to Lt.Thompson who
was then with O'Connor's party and handed over to him.
That night about 11 p.m. the 56th Bn. was relieved
by a Battalion of 15th Brigade. The casualties were about
230 out of 360.

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56th Battalion,BELLICOURT.ESTREES Oct.1/2.
Lieut. WATT and another Officer.
2 Companies strong: A. & B.
They were in the Hindenburg Line in left rear of
Bellicourt. Warned during early hours that they were to attack
and gain line from the Roman Road to the Hospital. The form
up was hurried - as Battalion reached the Jumping off point
(which was ahead of the line held by our troops) the barrage
descended. It was a fairly erratic barrage with a salient
of shorts in it near the junction of 56 and 54.
The Battalion reached the Sugar Factory with the
barrage - Bn. had 5 Tanks (2, 2, & 1 in reserve) - the tanks
were barging ahead into our own barrage. (One was hit later
but not seriously by a shell of ours). The 56th had to
move right to join 31 and thus came astride the Roman Road.
 

518
In the Factory about 12 Germans were captured and no
machine guns. It was only an outpost defence.
Behind the banks in 7 central there were further
Germans, numbers could be seen on Mill Ridge running away
over the hill before the barrage reached them.
The railway cutting was the objective - no Germans
were found there. It had been the main line (crest line).
They got a whizzbang gun here. 31 side slipped at once and
let 56 get on to its proper objective further N.
Captain Benson (54th) who was there said that he
conferred with Watt. Some of the people there wanted to
inform our Artillery before they pushed into the village,
but Watt pushed all that aside at once and said it was to
be done at once - no good wasting time, and took the risk
of our artillery!
Lieut.Watt went forward - a tank had gone down there
and come back saying that the village was lightly held.
Watt went on with Private Colburn, a sniper, and found
they could get into the village. Then he came back and
brought the Company on. They cleared the Estrees Cemetery-
got a few Germans there and about 30 altogether in the
village - they fired a few machine gun bursts but were
obviously trying to break back into the Beaurevoir Line.
The flanks were not up at all - so Watt came back to
objective on railway line till a definite divisional
order came through about the flank. Then he had to move
through the village again and establish a line. Shelling
started again by then, but the Company got through 
without casualty.
The 56th Bn. could probably have got into the
Beaurevoir line if the whole line had gone ahead at once.
But the delay caused the Germans to organise in the
Beaurevoir line.
56 got at this 2nd advance into Trench immediately
N. of village as 26D 3.2. Thence patrols across to
 

519
to H2B.7.7 - joining 31st Bn. in the Sunken Road in
H2D50.95 Supports in trenches in immediate rear of
village on both flanks.
The 54th Bn. couldn't come ahead. They were pulled
out of the position on flank for another job -so flank
was refused to point of trench near cemetery.
There was only one man killed by fire of enemy -
about 25 casualties from our own artillery.
In Hindenburg Line before starting Lieut.Heath and
Lieut. James were wounded and several men were killed by
one shell in the trench.
Passing through Bellicourt before this attack was
very heavy work under mustard and chlorine gas and heavy
shelling.

-------
InEstrees village as they were going up the street
Corporal Burrage was firing his machine Lewis gun on the
shoulder of Sergt.Davidson as the Company was going up the
street -spraying from side to side - men were pretty
lively with machine guns.
54th Battalion, PERONNE.Aug.31st.
Capt. DOWNING.
Battalion came from Barleux across country, across
the Orniecourt Chord Canal and over the Donniecourt Bridge.
There were Engineers by the bridge - every now and then
they had to get out on to the Bridge and mend it. It
happened that 54th Bn. struck a ½ hrs. lull and all got
across without a casualty. They had to go in single file,
by sections. It was then about 3 p.m. They camped under the
big white chalk cutting bank, 6th and 7th Brigades were
there too.
54th Bn. Coys, were placed there. O.Cs had read
general instructions as to the idea of an attack. The
attack was to be on Peronne (this had been told them before
 

520
before crossing the river). They reconnoitred trenches short
of Halle Wood with a view to an assembly position, and
returned to Coys. In the meantime this attack had been
cancelled. Battalion was instructed to hold itself in
readiness to move at any minute.
Aug. 31st to Sept.1. They camped by the bank where they were for one
night. They had a lot of shellfire till 9 p.m. and one Officer
(Lt.Palmer) was wounded and about 10 men (2 killed). About
3 a.m. instructions were received to report to Colonel
Marshall; Headquarters were in a dugout close by.
Colonel then read Brigade operation order for an
attack on Peronne. Zero was to be at 6 a.m.
54 was to take Peronne. Their assembly position was
the then front line from the road through 20 A & C. to the
River Bank. The boundary widened like a funnel till it reached
from party way through Quinconce Wood to the River at
Radegonde.
Sept.1. Battalion moved about 4 a.m. Along the railway line
then off to the right across the gullyby a track leading to
Halle. They were to meet guides in the cutting, but Bn.
providing them had only just taken over the line and their
guides had at once to come all the way back. They didn't arrive
in time - they got there about 5.20 a.m.
It was fast getting light and movement in the forward
area in daylight was very risky. 53 preceeded 54 in single
file (only could cross tree across stream in single file)
and 55 followed last.
53 came up the road through N. of Halle and got into
trench on left of road. 54 got into trench on right of road.
Last company of 54 (D.Coy. under Capt. Mitchell) reported in
position at 5.55 a.m.
During the progress of 54 into position they had been
under observation for last 100 yds. This brought down shellfire
which was rather erratic. Casualties on way in were
about 10 men wounded. The O.Cs.of two front Coys. had just
sufficient time to explain boundaries, dispositions, objectives
 

521
etc. to platoon commanders when Zero arrived - (watches
were synchronized) and they hopped over.
The men hadn't had a fight in the whole 7 weeks and
the men were eager as could be to get at the Germans. They
had in front of them - unexpected - 2 lines, a double
apron of barbed wire in good repair. It was very thick
knife rest wire, and on good pickets. The men didn't
hesitate a moment. Lewis gunners rushed the wire and resting
their guns on it fired point blank at Germans in the trench
30 yds. away. Others crept through the wire - the Germans
seeing this determination went for their lives - others
made passages by pulling up the pickets. From here on it
developed into a running fight with occasional isolated
points of resistance. (? Florina trench was the trench from
which 54 started).
Captain A.C.Hall singlehanded rushed a machine gun
post in the German second line which was about 200 yds. 
behind the first. This gun was holding up the advance there and
had hit a number of men. Capt.Hall stalked it from a flank,
short 4 men with his rifle (he is a son of a station owner
near Nyngan and a good shot at a kangaroo) - and captured
2 machine gunds and 15 men - and this let the advance get
ahead. That didn't hold them long - the value was largely in
destroying German morale and keeping Germans on the run. He
was on the left, on the right flank about the same time
Cpl.Buckley did the same sort of thing; with another man he
rushed the machine gun post capturing 2 guns and 22 men.
Both these men got V.C's, Corporal Buckley was killed two hrs
after. (Hall had to work through the wire - there were
occasional small gaps - before he got at his gun).
Once the Germans were on the run it was a race between them
and us to see whether we would get them before getting into
Peronne. There were 2 Bridges, one on the Clery Road, and
one to S.W. - a plank bridge near some huts and broken ground
in the moat at N.W. corner of the town. This advance was