Beaten Down By Blood Page 13

  Alexander Buckley came from ‘Homebush’, a property which grew a few crops and raised fat lambs at Armatree, a tiny village near the town of Gulargambone in north-western New South Wales. He was the youngest child of James and Julia Buckley and had enlisted in February 1916 at the age of 24. In a silk postcard sent home to brother Alfred and sister Florence in May 1918, he commented on the lovely weather and expressed his belief that the war would not last much longer because ‘the fighting is so fierce and on such a large scale. Better days are in store for all of us, I feel sure that I will get through it all safely.’52

  Alex had a great deal to look forward to: when his ‘girl’ accompanied him to Bathurst camp following his last leave in 1916, he presented her with an engagement ring. On his death a wallet, cards, photos and a pair of leather gloves were returned to his distraught family and after the war his captured machine-gun sat on the Gulargambone war memorial for some years.

  Recently, the present owners of ‘Homebush’ found a Rising Sun badge and a medallion honouring Buckley from the town’s Returned Services League buried in the garden, perhaps marking an attempt by the family to find closure after losing a son who was originally buried in an isolated grave at St Radegonde and then transferred to the Péronne Communal Cemetery Extension, a long way from home. The full citation of Buckley’s deeds describes his selflessness in trying to save the lives of his comrades and to allow their advance to continue, but also asserts that his effort to destroy the post at the crossing meant certain death.53 He was awarded a posthumous VC, the only one of his medals presently in the Australian War Memorial.

  By 8.20 am the 54th Battalion had reached the centre of Péronne after working through the outskirts of the town. Bean writes that the Australians found most of the enemy hiding in cellars and recorded the anecdote of Sergeant William Bartier from Newcastle, New South Wales, and his men who joined an officer and 20 Germans for coffee.54 Apparently the 54th had not had breakfast.

  In contrast, however, the war diary emphasises that ‘in many places violent and isolated hand to hand fighting took place, exemplifying the stubborn nature of the resistance.’ Clearing the streets proved hazardous as ‘the tottering blown in walls of the houses’ provided excellent cover for machine-guns and snipers.55 Few prisoners were taken, James Marshall declaring that it was ‘54th v Fritz. Mob rules.’56 By 9.35 am, the 54th had made contact with the 15th Brigade — which now had patrols across the river — at the causeway on the south of the town and had taken Péronne, with the important exception of the Bretagne suburb to the east of the main centre.

  Hall again distinguished himself as he and his men moved in an easterly direction through Péronne and possibly into Bretagne itself. From a ruined house he noticed German troops lining an embankment with their machine-guns trained on Mont St Quentin. Stationing his men at the windows and doors of the house he gave the word to fire, forcing the defenders, emerging from dugouts or from under the embankment, to surrender.

  Arthur Hall and two others remained behind to put the machine-guns and trench mortars out of action, but this proved difficult as they were coming under increasingly heavy fire, possibly from the sugar factory near St Denis. He decided to withdraw back up the street ‘which was becoming decidedly unhealthy by this time’, but not before attempting to help one of his comrades who was hit in the head. Hall reached the main square of Péronne where he learnt that he and his men had collected 72 prisoners at the back of the ramparts, but also that Bretagne was to be abandoned because the 54th had only 120 men to hold over a mile of front and most of the town itself.57 At this point Bean considered that Hobbs and Stewart made a crucial mistake in not taking the risk to secure the area which Hall and his men had cleared.58 However, by this time, battalion numbers may have fallen as low as five officers and 80 other ranks, making any form of consolidation in Bretagne untenable.59 The Germans rallied north of Doingt and began to slowly move back into Péronne through the suburb of Bretagne. Arthur Hall, the 22-year-old ‘good shot at kangaroo’ from Nyngan, New South Wales, was awarded the VC.10

  Brigadier General Harold ‘Pompey’ Elliott, 15th Brigade. (AWM HO4120)

  One of the pluckiest Generals at the front

  By 30 August the 15th Brigade, 5th Division, had relieved the 7th Brigade, 2nd Division, on the west bank of the Somme near Barleux. Its colourful commander, Brigadier General Harold ‘Pompey’ Elliott, now tried for two days to get his troops across the Somme swamps. Bridges that were still partially intact were raked by German machine-gun fire. At 5.00 am on 1 September, Tom Slaughter, then a platoon commander in A Company, 58 Battalion, led a patrol across the railway bridge towards Flamicourt. The men proceeded up the line for 350 yards, but the machine-gun fire was so heavy that they were forced to withdraw.

  At 8.00 am Elliott, frustrated by the lack of progress, informed that the 54th Battalion had a footing in Péronne and annoyed at finding his battalion commanders with their boots off, personally reconnoitred the front and discovered that a largely destroyed road bridge over the canal could nonetheless be crossed on a steel girder by infantry in single file. Pompey had made the crossing himself, reaching the opposite bank and the crest of an old earthworks despite coming under fire from machine-guns and taking an unexpected dip in the Somme Canal, between five and eight feet deep. He had great difficulty getting out again as the sides were steep and his box respirator filled with water. Communications for the entire 5th Division were interrupted while signallers delightedly reported along the line that Pompey had fallen in the Somme.60

  On returning to his headquarters, Pompey stripped and wrapped himself in blankets while his batman tried to dry his clothes. However, he was called out again and could not find a dry pair of pants to fit his rather large backside, his luggage not having caught up with his precipitate forward moves which were often in advance of his own front line. He was forced to borrow a pair of tartan ‘trews’ from a visiting Scotsman —with equally capacious hindquarters — from the British 32nd Division. Pompey set off for the front line in a mismatched uniform, including the ‘trews’, causing great hilarity among his troops and cheering them immensely.61

  With the 54th Battalion now in Péronne, there was an opportunity for the 15th Brigade to take Flamicourt and advance to the high ground south-east of the village. Two companies of the 58th Battalion crossed Pompey’s ‘bridge’ — the main road bridge into the town from the south — to connect with the 54th and operate through Péronne in an attempt to take the 58th’s objectives. At the same time, companies of the 59th Battalion crossed the nearby railway bridge and advanced towards Flamicourt along the double-tracked railway. Together with the 57th Battalion, D Company of the 58th attempted to cross an unfinished track being prepared by Lieutenant Tom Midelton of the 15th Field Company Engineers just to the south of Péronne.

  The Somme marshes near Flamicourt, with the ruins of Péronne in the background, 26 December 1918. (AWM EO4026))

  These attacks on the morning of 1 September were fraught with difficulty. The 54th had not captured the whole of the town and had no intention of attacking further. Mont St Quentin had not been taken and the 53rd and 56th Battalions had not moved up on the left flank, making the 58th’s position untenable and nullifying any attempt to work around the north-east of Péronne. The 58th was unable to deal with the machine-guns in the marsh between it and Flamicourt and, while the 15th Light Trench Mortar Battery kept several machine-guns quiet, it was by no means certain that these guns had been knocked out. To the south of Péronne, D Company and the 57th had little success in crossing the marsh, with some patrols almost wiped out.

  The 59th Battalion faced deep and treacherous water, wire and machine-gun fire down the railway track from Flamicourt. The German machine-guns were ‘as usual cleverly disguised and difficult to locate’.62 The only way to move was along the railway embankment, with swamps on either side. One patrol crawled a certain distance, was observed and fired on and had to take to the water to get back. The r
ailway station was a key German strong post, its ground floor turned into a giant pillbox with steel rails and concrete. Bombardment by 6-inch and 4.5-inch howitzers had destroyed the upper level, but the machine-gunners below were quite safe and able to direct fire at any attempted crossings as well as having a clear field of fire right into Péronne itself. Elliott called for an artillery shoot on Flamicourt around 4.15 pm, but either it could not be carried out because the 54th Battalion was supposedly too close or the fire was ineffectual.

  At 11.00 am Pompey moved his headquarters to a ‘panoramic’ but dangerous point near the main bridges into Péronne from which he ‘had a dress circle view of the fighting’ and could survey the whole brigade front. His perch had a sort of ‘verandah’ where artillery officers and others sat on chairs with telephones beside them and watched the action to their front. Pompey ‘used to stand out in front in his socks and move about with a map in his hand’, attracting machine-gun fire.63 It was little wonder that Norman Nicolson, commanding the 114th Howitzer Battery of the 14th Field Artillery Brigade, described him as ‘one of the pluckiest Generals at the front’.64 From this vantage point, Elliott assessed the positions of his troops on the afternoon of 1 September, considered them too dangerous and, by 8.00 pm, had pulled all but two companies of his men — left to guard the bridgehead — back to the western bank, their ambitious objectives not achieved.

  At 9.00 pm Major General Hobbs, the 5th Division commander, summoned Elliott to a conference at 8th Brigade headquarters at Herbecourt, sending a car to fetch him. The driver could not find his headquarters in the dark, so Pompey decided to walk and also became lost in the maze of old trenches and shell holes. According to the 15th Brigade Report on Operations, when he arrived at 2.30 am on 2 September, the other commanders had left to organise their attacks. Hobbs proceeded to outline the plan of attack for that morning. The brigade would be ready to go into action at 6.00 am following a 30-minute bombardment of the northern ramparts of Péronne, to coincide with the 7th Brigade’s attack at 5.30 am. The barrage would systematically lift to Bretagne then to Flamicourt as the attack proceeded.

  The 58th Battalion would assist the 54th in mopping up the town, while the 59th and 60th would follow the 14th Brigade which was to clear St Denis Wood and beyond, move to Bretagne and then gain a foothold on the high ground beyond Flamicourt. Then the 59th and 60th would pass through the 14th and drive the enemy from the remainder of the high ground and on to Le Mesnil, clearing Flamicourt on the way. This would be done in conjunction with the 7th Brigade which was to clear the Mont St Quentin ridge. Pompey, not surprisingly, was horrified and told Hobbs that higher command had no idea of the difficulties that would be encountered — the task was impossible. However, there was now insufficient time to stop the attack, even had Elliott wanted to make his views known to Monash. He ‘felt obliged to attempt the impossible at all costs’.65

  Elliott rode back to his headquarters on horseback. It was 4.15 am before his battalion commanders received their orders — for an attack at 6.00 am. Pompey withheld his misgivings, telling the battalions of the 15th Brigade to do everything they could to achieve their objectives, characteristically leaving much direction to the senior officers in the field. Their task would be made far more difficult because the German volunteers were determined to stop the Australians.

  CHAPTER 6:

  ATTEMPTING THE IMPOSSIBLE – 2-5 SEPTEMBER 1918

  No such operation has ever before been attempted in war

  And so the fight for Mont St Quentin and Péronne continued on 2 September. Pompey Elliott outlined the difficulties his troops faced just to reach their assembly positions. The causeway leading into Péronne was littered with the ‘debris of the houses, intersected by streams which could only be passed by the shattered planks of broken bridges, exposed to the fury of the enemy artillery barrage’ and only a few hundred yards from the German machine-guns. He considered it hazardous to file the whole brigade across, and declared ‘that no such operation has ever before been attempted in war’. As it was, the 15th Brigade crossed the causeway in single file, in small parties with about 30 yards between each, the platoons staggering their start times. Miraculously, the brigade suffered no casualties despite heavy German shelling. Pompey could only observe that the scheme was so audacious that the Germans ‘could not have foreseen the attempt’.1

  The bombardment opened at 5.30 am when the 7th Brigade attacked the Mont St Quentin ridge. However, in his early morning rush, Elliott had neglected to inform his commanders, who were expecting the barrage to commence at the 5th Division’s zero hour, 6.00 am. The first shell blew out a 54th Battalion post and killed five men.2 The 15th Brigade men were also caught in their own barrage, which was not accurately ranged on the ramparts, but was hitting the main street of Péronne, and by the swift German retaliation. They had an ‘exciting run’ through the south-west of the town which reeked of gas, including mustard gas, forcing them to wear gas masks. The Germans were also using shrapnel and high explosive shells, their effectiveness increased by striking the cobblestone streets and the stone and brick buildings. All battalions suffered casualties, but the 58th lost three officers and 40 other ranks to shellfire, including its commander, Major Harold Ferres, who was wounded in the right thigh but remained on duty until 1.00 pm that afternoon. The wounded ‘were conveyed across the canal by means of a small boat under heavy fire’ and Elliott recommended several stretcher-bearers for awards for their work during the day.3

  The attack, 2 September 1918.

  The 59th and 60th Battalions reached their assembly positions near Anvil Wood cemetery in good time to support the 14th Brigade attack, having been briefed as they marched. It was not an easy passage. Lost ‘in a black cloud of dust’ in Péronne, the 60th then faced shellfire and gas as they skirted the town. Walter Serle from the 60th Battalion, and uncle of Monash’s biographer Geoffrey Serle, described how ‘the six men just ahead of me were laid out on the side of the road heaving up and groaning’ from the effects of the gas. For him, it was ‘the worst day I spent’.4 Similarly, William Hawkins of the 59th regarded getting through the town as ‘a perfect hell’. Then, as the men worked around the flank, they were met with severe shelling and machine-gun fire. They ‘had many exciting experiences’, including having ‘to crawl on belly over graves to dodge snipers’ in the cemetery.5

  For the 58th, there was further confusion. Its orders were to assist in the mopping up of Péronne, establish posts on the outskirts and then wait for the flanks to swing around before resuming the advance. The 58th was to liaise with the 54th, whose commander was under the impression that the 56th Battalion was to relieve it in Péronne and was unaware that the 58th was even meant to be there and had no idea of its role. However, the exact whereabouts of the 56th on the left flank — the battalion meant to be ‘running the show’ — were unclear.6

  Fortunately, Harold Ferres used his initiative to avert potential disaster. At around 7.30 am, realising that every moment lost would allow the Germans more time to recover from the bombardment, he directed his men, particularly the Lewis gunners, to push into the north-eastern part of the town, including Bretagne. They faced very accurate machine-gun fire ‘playing down the streets in the east end of Péronne’, with ‘almost every street being enfiladed and every corner most unhealthy’. The broken buildings and ramparts provided the Australians some cover, allowing them to move close to the defenders without being observed and bring their Lewis guns into play.7

  As they attempted to cross the bridge into Bretagne, the men of the 58th were fired on by machine-guns and trench mortars from the eastern ramparts, the windows of the houses and the piles of rubble. However, in Bean’s words, ‘the advanced Lewis gunners worked from house to house and heap to heap till they could command some German post, when their patrol would rush it.’ A Lewis gunner hit a machine-gunner in an upper window, the man toppling with his gun into the street. Two machine-gun posts were captured after a running fight through a hous
e and gardens. The post north of the road into Bretagne was captured along with a mortally wounded German battalion commander. Five machine-guns on the ramparts were silenced.8 One German machine-gunner had his leg blown off by a shell, but rested the bleeding stump on the concrete defences of his position and kept on firing until the Australians were forced to kill him when he refused to surrender.9 An Australian machine-gunner was forced to shoot a wounded German officer who kicked and spat at him and would not even surrender when hit on the head with the butt of a revolver. Groups of ten or 20 defenders would stand and fire back at machine-guns firing at point blank range from as close as 20 yards, and would continue to fire until they were all wiped out.10

  Elliott also recorded the ‘extraordinary experience’ of ‘the very foundations of the old city’ rocking and swaying ‘as if in the throes of an earthquake’ as the artillery struck the streets which were built on a ‘peaty substance’. Added to this was ‘the crash and dust of falling masonry as the tall old houses tottered and crashed across the footpaths under the hail of shells.’ Amidst the continual destruction, the fight went on.11