Beaten Down By Blood Read online

  The most memorable machine-gun work of the battle occurred on the 24th Battalion’s front, the four guns moving up behind what barrage there was to the foot of Mont St Quentin, where they were fired on from the Mont. Five men were hit, including their officer, Lieutenant Edgar Towner, who suffered a gaping scalp wound when a bullet penetrated his helmet. Towner refused to retire, working ahead of the infantry on the left, between the Mont and Feuillaucourt. He divided his section in two, each with two guns, to better support the attacking companies. On locating a German machine-gun that was causing damage, he rushed ahead and singlehandedly killed the crew with his revolver, captured the gun and turned it on the enemy. He then used his guns to cut off 30 Germans who surrendered. As the infantry moved up the hill, Towner worked the left flank, mounting his guns whenever good targets presented themselves, and he was there to protect the men when they were forced to retire to the sunken road.

  In the second phase of the attack at 1.30 pm, Towner fired his guns from the flank and engaged German machine-guns when they appeared, putting several out of action, including one which was playing havoc with the infantry. As the 24th Battalion advanced up the saps, ‘all at once the resistance appeared to break and a general retirement followed’, providing good targets for enfilade fire and allowing the Australians to gain a foothold on Mont St Quentin.31 The infantry followed its success closely and Towner could no longer support them as they pushed well forward, so he called in the other two guns and proceeded to move to the rear of the infantry to take up positions in the captured area. He used the guns in pairs to fill gaps in the infantry line, which was now very weak with most of the officers lost. Towner mounted captured German machine-guns and placed them in defensive positions, using several to ward off low-flying enemy planes.

  On 2 September, Towner used his guns to disperse a party of around 500 Germans who were preparing to defend positions near Allaines. He was able to engage them at a range of 2600 yards because of the commanding position of his guns and the use of field glasses. What Towner did not say in his account of his activities on 1/2 September was that he often put his life at risk by personally reconnoitring the best tactical position for his guns, alone and under fire. To Percy Smythe, he was ‘extraordinarily cool and game’, and a tireless worker who encouraged and cheered the men.32 Towner was finally ‘led away, utterly exhausted, thirty hours after being wounded’.33 This remarkable 28-year-old grazier from Blackall in Queensland had already been mentioned twice in despatches, had won the MC near Morlancourt in July 1918 and was now awarded the VC for his work on Mont St Quentin.

  The eight Mont St Quentin-Péronne VCs.

  The Tommies did well

  On the Bouchavesnes ridge on 1 September, troops from the 11th Brigade preparing for zero hour at 5.30 am, which the Australians considered some 30 minutes too late, faced the same determined defenders who had made the advance of the 9th and 10th Brigades so difficult the day before. The barrage put down for the 11th Brigade proved unsatisfactory, as most fire was concentrated on the front of the British 58th Division on the left, which was able to make good progress under a fairly intense barrage and capture the ground that had been the village of Bouchavesnes. Further to the north, the British 47th Division, also operating with III Corps, captured Rancourt. It was important that both these strongpoints should fall if the Australian and British forces were to take the remainder of the ridge, and the 42nd Battalion considered that ‘the Tommies did well’ in reaching their objective and connecting with its men.34 This was rare praise indeed from the Australians who generally, and sometimes unjustifiably, felt that many British divisions in 1918 were second rate and doubted their ability to successfully complete their tasks. On the Bouchavesnes ridge, the units of III Corps were as exhausted and under-strength as their Australian counterparts.

  On the left of the Australian attack, the 42nd Battalion reached its objective along the trench system to the south-east of Bouchavesnes, exploiting a little further forward. It was in its area that the 33rd Battalion had done so much damage the day before, and the Germans now ‘surrendered rather than face more Australians’. The 42nd used prisoners, ‘the finest type of German Guardsmen’, in the fight more than ever before — ‘they were big guardsmen and carried hot tea, rations, ammunition, buried our dead and their dead’.35 At Quarry Farm, the Western Australian 44th Battalion, moving through in support, used its Lewis guns and rifle grenades in an enveloping movement to capture what remained of the farm - a strong post of ‘old trenches in bushes’, dugouts and a medical post. The 44th took eight machine-guns and 81 prisoners, at least 20 of whom were wearing Red Cross armbands.36

  In the centre, the 41st Battalion attacked on a 1000-yard front in a northeasterly direction towards Moislains. The barrage did not silence the German machine-guns, the fire described as the most intense the battalion had experienced, and casualties were heavy.37 Following bitter hand-to-hand fighting in the trench systems, the 41st reached its objective in the Scutari/Broussa trench line, around 1500 yards east of the Feuillaucourt–Bouchavesnes road, but could not hold it. The stretcher-bearers had great difficulty bringing the wounded out, as the Germans fired on them and a whole team was either killed or wounded.

  The 43rd Battalion on the right came under heavy fire from south of the Canal du Nord until Mont St Quentin was captured on the afternoon of 1 September. It did not reach its objective, also 1500 yards beyond the Feuillaucourt–Bouchavesnes road and to the north of Allaines, encountering fierce opposition in the trench system north-west of the village. The battalion remained in the line on 2 September to secure Scutari Trench and clear the ground between it and Allaines and Haut-Allaines, a task only achieved after bitter hand-to-hand fighting.8

  Private James Marshall, 53rd Battalion, PXA 381 (v. 6) No 17, Mitchell Library.

  The only spare troops around

  The battle for Péronne also began at 6.00 am on 1 September. On 31 August Monash ordered the 14th Brigade to cross the Somme and assemble east of Cléry in preparation for a major attack on Péronne from the north. Private James Marshall, a tall, red-headed 20 year old from the 53rd Battalion’s intelligence section, considered that the 14th was assured a fight, as ‘we were the only spare troops around’.38 Monash added that this battle-fresh formation, eager to share in the Australian successes, ‘had their mettle up to a degree which was astonishing’.39 However, as Marshall commented, the men were under no illusion as to the difficulty of the task before them, particularly as Péronne, contrary to all previous expectations, was full of Germans.

  The brigade suffered few casualties as it marched ‘umpteen miles under a searching shell fire’ to the area near Cléry where the shelling and the casualties increased. There was time for a meal ‘between shellings’, although one company of the 53rd received a salvo in the centre of the milling troops as dinner was served. The battalion did not have an easy task reaching its jumping-off line in Florina Trench where it relieved the 23rd Battalion, making the last part of its approach under heavy shellfire from 8-inch and 5.9-inch shells and crossing a swamp where the flying mud, water, and shell fragments made the men’s appearance ‘far from prepossessing’. A company of the 53rd Battalion found part of the trench still occupied by the Germans and used grenades and Lewis guns to supplement the fierce hand-to-hand fighting that ensued. Few prisoners were taken. This company was 25 minutes late for the main attack because of the need to clear the trench. James Marshall recorded that he had a near miss just before 6.00 am when a couple of shell fragments ripped his haversack open and smashed his two mills bombs. Fortuitously, he had ducked his head just moments before.40

  At zero hour, almost all companies of the four now exhausted battalions of the 14th Brigade were in position, the 53rd on the left to push towards and take St Denis, and the 54th on the right to clear the area around St Radegonde before taking Péronne and moving beyond. The 54th Battalion war diary described the ‘peculiar lay’ of the town with its marshes, bridges and narrow streets,
all allowing for strong defence. Every approach was manned and covered and the wire and machine-guns on the approaches made the position impregnable. The defenders had laid road mines ‘with a cunning natural only to the Germans’, making forward progress doubtful for the Australians.41 The Germans knew they were coming and expected a day of intense and difficult fighting. A 19-year-old prisoner captured near Anvil Wood by men of the 53rd, who stole his watch and money, thought the Australians were ‘superhuman’ for even attempting the assault.42

  The men of the 53rd and 54th battalions advanced with the Somme on their right. The 56th, which had not been told of the attack until 5.15 am and whose companies were considerably mixed up, was in support, ready to pass through and exploit by swinging to the south and taking the high ground between Péronne and Doingt. In reserve, the 55th Battalion would provide flank support if needed.

  From the moment the attack opened, the 53rd Battalion found itself in trouble, facing thick belts of uncut barbed wire. More than any other factor, this held up the advance and caused severe casualties, as the men tried to force a way through with wire cutters. One platoon commander had a bullet penetrate his helmet, but carried on even though he was bleeding all over his face. A and B companies were forced to amalgamate because their numbers were so few following their attempt to cross the wire.

  Wire faced by 53rd Battalion, 1 September 1918. (AWM EO3149)

  Lieutenant William Smith, a 29-year-old building contractor from Chatswood in Sydney, provided a vivid account of how 8 Platoon, B Company, 53 Battalion, attacked on the morning of 1 September. After rushing through a gap in the thick barbed wire, his ‘band of heroes’ realised that a German strong post 40 or 50 yards to their left was holding up half the battalion. Smith decided to attack it from the rear with his remaining ten men and a Lewis gun. When his batman was shot through the heart in the rush, the blood of the men was up and ‘we would have attacked the whole German army. We used the good Lewis gun and Mills bombs and some frightful language with good effect.’

  The post gave in, but the group was immediately fired on from another German machine-gun post and ‘the first bullet of the burst caught me between the ribs and crossed my spine. Luckily, it traversed to the right instead of to the left – otherwise it would have cut me in half.’ Two of Smith’s men applied a field dressing and propped him up in a trench so he could point them in the direction of the attack. Finally, he was carried out by stretcher-bearers, his legs paralysed and feeling very cold, but his war over. Smith survived, but his actions on 1 September went unrecognised.43

  On finally reaching Anvil Wood, the 53rd Battalion discovered that it was still held by the enemy. Private William Currey, a 23-year-old wireworker from Leichhardt in Sydney, realising that a German 77-mm gun was holding up the advance, rushed in, killed the crew and captured the weapon, which he then turned on the defenders. The left companies of the 54th swept into the wood capturing 200 Germans and their battalion commander. A great deal of ‘souveniring’ occurred, with one platoon, probably from the 53rd, emerging ‘festooned with revolvers and field glasses, and with bunches of watch chains hung from their pockets’.44 Nonetheless, it took the Australians a long time to mop up this troublesome strongpoint, as the troops were hampered by machine-gun fire from Mont St Quentin, St Denis and the sugar factory. By 7.30 am they had cleared the wood and captured the cemetery to its north-east.

  Now faced with converging fire from the ramparts of Péronne, St Denis and Mont St Quentin, and having lost touch with the 6th Brigade on its left and its own weak artillery support which had moved too fast for the infantry, the 53rd was forced to halt. The men sheltered in open graves or were pinned to the edge of the cemetery and along the railway embankment, with several hundred yards of open grassland in front of them and very little cover.

  At some point a small group of men captured another 77-mm field gun with 70 rounds of ammunition and used it against flanking fire from Mont St Quentin, to break up a German counter-attack later in the day, and then to fire on the enemy retreating from the Mont as the 6th Brigade advanced. It was remarkable that the men who fired the gun and inadvertently ‘joined the bally artillery’ had no previous expert knowledge of artillery work, but found a way to set the fuses to obtain such remarkable results. In the end they had to abandon the gun as they had no means of cleaning it and there was considerable danger of the barrel bursting, causing the gun to explode.45 One of the men involved in this exploit was Manchester-born 24-year-old Lance Corporal Ronald Crank, who had enlisted from his home in Sydney. For this work and that of laying and maintaining a telephone line to forward battalion headquarters while under heavy fire, he was recommended for the VC, but ultimately received the DCM.

  The 53rd Battalion was still under pressure to move forward and attack due south from the railway embankment. An attempted advance with companies of the 55th and 56th battalions met strong resistance, particularly as the men tried to mop up. A mine exploded behind the 53rd as it advanced. In a ‘terrific’ explosion the mine blew up the railway line 400 yards in front of the 55th Battalion, whose men ‘watched with awe’ as ‘vast columns of cloudlike smoke rolled up and up’, to be carried over the German lines by the wind. Parties of the 55th came across ‘a gruesome, yet splendid and inspiring sight‘: everywhere were German corpses. They captured a number of machine-guns which were used against the enemy.46

  Nonetheless, having reaching the Péronne–Mont St Quentin road and perhaps as far as the ramparts, the troops were forced back to the cemetery with Mont St Quentin which ‘dominated our position’ unsecured at this stage.47 Further orders to advance on the final objective after the capture of the Mont saw the 14th Brigade try again at 5.00 pm, and this time the left companies of the 53rd reached a position close to the sugar factory, one patrol gaining a foothold in the building. The sugar factory was a strongpoint which, in conjunction with the nearby brickworks, protected St Denis and was hotly contested on 1/2 September. Other patrols, under ‘terrific’ machine-gun fire from the northern ramparts of Péronne, reached the outskirts of St Denis and some may even have reached the ramparts. However, the Australians could not dislodge the Germans from these positions and found themselves in a precarious situation with too few troops to mop up. After dark, ammunition was moved forward, but James Marshall described the whole area as ‘drenched with gas’ and the shells ‘falling pretty thickly’.48

  By 8.15 pm Brigadier General James Stewart, commanding the 14th, withdrew the advanced parties near St Denis, further progress proving impossible without artillery support. William Currey again displayed tremendous courage. A party of one officer and 20 men was completely isolated in the big cement troughs in the sugar factory and had not heard the call to withdraw and rejoin the battalion. Unable to reach them after several attempts, Currey stood up and shouted at them. They heard him, but so did the Germans who turned everything on him — flares, machine-guns and gas. His respirator was shot through and he suffered the effects of the gas, but managed to return to his battalion. Currey was awarded the VC for his actions on 1 September and later named his home in Bexley in Sydney ‘Péronne’. In 1941 he became the Labor member for Kogarah in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and held this seat until he collapsed suddenly in Parliament in April 1948 and died shortly after.

  While the companies on the left had made some temporary gains, the right companies of the 53rd had been unable to make ground at all, finding it ‘impossible to keep the advance going as the enemy could see every movement we made.’49 On the night of 1 September, three battalions of the 14th Brigade found themselves back where they had been at 7.30 that morning, forming a defensive line from just east of Gott Mit Uns Trench, past the Anvil Wood cemetery and then linking with the 54th Battalion in the western and southern sections of Péronne, their objectives yet to be achieved.

  German prisoners indicated that the sector facing the 14th Brigade had been reinforced at the expense of the south, where the Somme was expected to provide a
natural barrier. This and the fact that eight different German divisions had been identified in action on 1 September demonstrated the importance of the position and the desperation of the defenders to hold it at all costs. It had been an agonising day’s fighting for the Australians. The 53rd Battalion had gone into the ‘stunt’ with 25 officers and 414 other ranks. Its casualties totalled 11 officers and 241 other ranks, of whom four officers and 47 other ranks had been killed and 11 other ranks had died of wounds. Some 200 German prisoners had been taken.

  Brigadier General James Stewart, 14th Brigade, photograph taken in 1915. (AWM PO1193.001)

  Decidedly unhealthy

  The 54th on the right also faced heavy resistance and dense wire. Bean wrote that Lewis guns blazed, pickets were torn up and the men crawled under the wire, chasing the fleeing Germans. Corporals Arthur Hall and Alexander Buckley rushed in when the advance was threatened by machine-gun fire; Hall, struggling through the wire before he could man his Lewis gun, rushed one position alone, shooting five of the occupants and capturing nine others and two machine-guns. Buckley, with one other man, rushed another, shooting four of the occupants and taking 22 prisoners. The 54th advanced ‘at a half-run, as fast as it could go’, chasing the Germans ‘towards Péronne shooting from the shoulder and giving them no time to stop.’50

  By 6.45 am the 54th had cleared St Radegonde village and wood and had reached the main bridge on the Cléry–Péronne road which crossed the moat surrounding Péronne. A large French dog ran with the men, up and down among the bullets. The Germans, regiments from the 185th Division and the 14th Bavarian Division, once regarded as a first class outfit, blew up the bridge as they retreated into the town. Not to be deterred, the Australians crossed the moat, about six feet deep, using planks and other forms of debris. Arthur Hall, in correspondence with Charles Bean in 1941, could not believe that the Germans had allowed them to do this, ‘as two or three well-placed machine guns could have written finish to [wiped out] any party that tried to cross as we had no artillery support.’51 However, in forcing a crossing at the wooden footbridge to the right, others came under intense fire from the house tops. Here Buckley again excelled in trying to rush a machine-gun post preventing the crossing, but was killed when a sniper shot him through the forehead.