Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/273/1 - 1918 - 1937 - Part 17

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the V.C. The Bn moved
forward the battle was won
but sorry to say on looking
back found Capt Cooke
and many other brave
NCOs & men lay dead on this awful 
wire. By the time Sadlin 
done his heroic work
and allowed the Bn to move
forward. Lt Earl from
‘B’ Coy was thrown in the gaps
between my (?left) right flank and
when Sadlin went out of
action through being wounded 
this young officer played 
a very gallant part. Pushed
on through the woods up
to the village. My Coy
arrived at about 2 am
on the edge of Monument
Woods. Seeing that I was 
out of touch on my right
and left flank I fell back
about 250 yards from Monument 
Wood to an old line of trench

6
I Reorganized my Battalion
by now I am the only
officer commanding a
company alive with only
Lt Earl left. I placed
him on our extreme left
flank with about 20 men
and 2 Lewis Guns. This
officer made a decided
strong post of it and
played hell with the
Germans coming out of
the V- Brett ( He was awarded
Bar to Military Cross for xxxx
brave to duty). I then gained touch
with the 22^nd Bn.
I reported to Lt Col Christie

my actions and that my
approx strength of the Btn
now in front line
2 officers (this is including my
self) 120 O.R’s. and wanted 
support from him at once.
We had a few brushes with
the Hun during the balance of the

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night but in small parties
and they kept Lt Earl and
his men going till day light.
At day break we were in
command of the position
looking V.- Brett on my
left flank and Monument
Wood straight in front of 
me. My left flank is
still in the air. We did
not get in touch with the
12^th Brigade nor do I know 
what became of them.
During the afternoon of
25^th April a German S. Major
came through my lines
under flag of truce stating 
that it was a pity to throw
away good Australian lives
and that we were surrounded

and the German Commandant
gave us till 6 o’clock to surrender
I gave order that the Bn to
dig in for all they were

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worth and we would

fight till the last man.
At about 6 pm that
afternoon the German
dropped a box barrage
on us for about 45 minutes
closing the four walls of
the box in. My Bn stood
up to this awful bombardment,
though we were on guard
for a counter attack, the
Germans did not follow
the advantage as we had
no xxx guns to back us up. The 
men were just about done
through full of fight. We
were that night relieved by
a French Bn and retired
in support near the woods.
In this action every NCO and
man earned a V.C. and 
stood their ground against
heavy odds. Though the tanks
were to help us they were a
failure as far as my sector

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was concerned. Though we

had no Artillery support
the men never lost heart.
You may wonder why we
took very few prisoners
well I will inform you
as I have said before we
had about 50% new men in
the line also a night attack
did not know the ground
or where and what was in
our rear, the first lot of
Huns I ran against I will
admit with their hands up

my men asked what to do 
with them, I shouted no 
prisoners (I xxxx did not know
what to do with them) give 
them a burst from a 
Lewis Gun, and the men
obeyed me all night

nearly every Hun went
down before us during the
awful 4 hours of that great
attack.

10

Now M^r Bean I am sure
you will be able to pick
out and knock into 
shape that Glorious 

night attacks of the 51^st Bn
on V-Brett.
I personally would deem
it a great honour xxx if
you could send Lt
Sadlin a Copy of your
book when finished as
he was the only 51^st Bn
V.C [[?]]
Thanking you
Yours faithfully

W.R. Harburn
Late Captain 51^st 
M.C.& Bar
Reference re my Military Cross
military order 79. 8/12/19 Page
252

V/B. Steadman
51^st Bn
H.N.
Perth……18/6/35   19
3444 Cpt E Steadman
Late 51^st Batt
67 Chatsworth Rd
Perth
Western Australia
Dear Sir
I would like to tell you what
happened to the 51^st Batt on Anzac Eve
24^th of April. We had just come out
of the front lines after having 5 weeks 
without a spell, we had only been out
one day when Fritz came over fon with his
bombing planes, he dropped several bombs
& killed quite a few of our mob, shortly
after 5 o’clock we were about to have
our tea, when we get orders to pack as
we were going to do a hop over, we were
told that we would have tea on the march,
I really forgot the place were we moved of from
but I do know we had about eleven kilometres
to travel & that we had to be there

by ten o’clock to line the tape ready to hop
over. We did not get there until ten past ten
& Fritz was waiting of us coming, so we had only
 

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just got as far as our eighteen Pounder guns
when we met the Tommies coming back in droves
all they could say was give them hell Aussy
they have knocked us rotten, we had not gone
more than 200 yds past our own guns, when
we were met with a terrible bombardment, we
were to advance on the right hand side of
Monument Wood, we had no time to line
the tape, the barrage & machine gun fire they
were putting over was terrible, they were in
Monument Wood & we were cutting it off advancing 
on each side of it, when we had got over
about 100 yds of ground we came to a barbed

wire entanglement the slaughter at that 
spot was awful. I was in charge of the 
bombing section. I told them to lay as flat
as possible until I could find an opening
what with shells bursting & Veary lights going
up from Fritz it was just like daylight,
the machine gun fire was the worst that ever
happened on any front, by sheer luck I found
 

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a gap in the wire, I led my section

through which I am thankful to say we all
got through safe, after getting through the
wire we were on the edge of a very deep
gully. It did not take us long to get
down to the bottom, and was right at
the end of Monument Wood, we met plenty
of Germans there, in shell holes & in the
gully, we cut the wood completely off &
surrounded it, it was estimated that
we got 1500 prisoners & 150 machine guns
we kept on advancing & we went about
¾ of a mile past the objective, we were
then ordered back to to our objective. we
entrenched in one of the German trenches
& he did not forget to let us know that
he knew were we were. Later in the 
morning there were only a few of us left, I
was put in charge of the ration fatigue
I had to lead the men over the battle area
of the previous night, well you can guess
what a slaughter house is like, but I
 

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never saw anything like it in my life, & I

would never like to see it again, cut of
about 1,000 men in my Battalion alone there
was only about 200 of us left the remainder
were all laying round about the wire
entanglements of the previous nights battle,
they were laid on top of the wire & all around
It, we picked up our rations & got back   
safely, previous to going into the line our
rations were very small, for instance three men
& sometime four to a loaf of bread, so you
can guess what it was like to share 1,000 men’s
tucker between 200, there was a terrible
lot of waste, quite a lot of us could not
eat after seeing the such an awful sight
on a battle field, we got back to our
trench alright, & just at dawn, the French

hopped over the top of us & they lost x 
hundreds of men in taking their objective
which we had to come back from the
same place the previous night after the
French hopped over, Fritz started with his