Beaten Down By Blood
Page 1
www.bigskypublishing.com.au
Michele Bomford
Copyright © Michele Bomford 2012
First published 2012
Copyright remains the property of the author and apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission.
All inquiries should be made to the publishers.
Big Sky Publishing Pty Ltd
PO Box 303, Newport, NSW 2106, Australia
Phone:
1300 364 611
Fax:
(61 2) 9918 2396
Email:
info@bigskypublishing.com.au
Web:
www.bigskypublishing.com.au
Cover design and typesetting: Think Productions
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Author: Bomford, Michele.
Title: Beaten down by blood : the battle of Mont St Quentin-Péronne 1918 /
Michele Bomford.
ISBN: 9781921941948 (pbk.)
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Subjects: Somme, 2nd Battle of the, France, 1918.
Australians--Warfare--France--Somme.
World War, 1914-1918--Participation, Australian.
Somme (France)--History, Military.
Dewey Number: 940.435
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Author: Bomford, Michele.
Title: Beaten down by blood [electronic resource] : the battle of Mont St Quentin-Péronne 1918 / Michele Bomford.
ISBN: 9781921941955 (ebook : epub)
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Subjects: Somme, 2nd Battle of the, France, 1918.
Australians--Warfare--France--Somme.
World War, 1914-1918--Participation, Australian.
Somme (France)--History, Military.
Dewey Number: 940.435
Winning with Intelligence
Judy Thomas
Duntroon
Darren Moore
The Warrior Poets
Robert Morrison
The History of the Royal Australian Corps of Transport 1973–2000
Albert Palazzo
Defenders of Australia
Albert Palazzo
The Fight Leaders
D. Butler, A. Argent and J. Shelton
Operation Orders
Pat Beale
Little by Little
Michael Tyquin
Red Coats to Cams
Ian Kuring
Bowler of Gallipoli
Frank Glen
Vets at War
Ian M. Parsonson
Only One River to Cross
A.M. Harris
The Fragile Forts
Peter Oppenheim
Hassett: Australian Leader
John Essex-Clark
Persian Expedition
Alan Stewart
The Chiefs of the Australian Army
James Wood
Never Late
Gordon Dickens
To Villers-Bretonneux
Peter Edgar
Madness and the Military
Michael Tyquin
The Battle of Anzac Ridge 25 April 1915
Peter D. Williams
Doves Over the Pacific
Reuben R.E. Bowd
The Lionheart
David Coombes
Battlefield Korea
Maurie Pears
Chemical Warfare in Australia
Geoff Plunkett
A Most Unusual Regiment
M.J. Ryan
Between Victor and Vanquished
Arthur Page
Country Victoria’s Own
Neil Leckie
Surgeon and General
Ian Howie-Willis
Willingly into the Fray
Catherine McCullagh
Beyond Adversity
William Park
Crumps and Camouflets
Damien Finlayson
More than Bombs and Bandages
Kirsty Harris
The Last Knight
Robert Lowry
Forgotten Men
Michael Tyquin
Battle Scarred
Craig Deayton
Crossing the Wire
David Coombes
Do Unto Others
Alan H Smith
Fallen Sentinel
Peter Beale
Sir William Glasgow
Peter Edger
Training The Bodes
Terry Smith
Bully Beef and Balderdash
Graham Wilson
Fire Support Bases Vietnam
Bruce Picken
Toowoomba to Torokina
Bob Doneley
A Medical Emergency
Ian Howie-Willis
Dust, Donkeys and Delusions
Graham Wilson
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
PROLOGUE: We will hang on as long as we are able
INTRODUCTION: Collective memory
PART I: The great bend of the river
Chapter 1: The offensive spirit
Chapter 2: Invincible city
Chapter 3: A company commander’s day out
PART II: The greatest story never told
Chapter 4: Not a ghost of a chance: 28–31 August 1918
Chapter 5: To die going forward: 1 September 1918
Chapter 6: Attempting the impossible: 2–5 September 1918
PART III: Defences beaten down by blood
Chapter 7: A duty nobly done
Chapter 8: A rough show we got into
Chapter 9: Hard and dangerous work
Chapter 10: The force of circumstances
Chapter 11: My stomach thinks my throat’s cut
PART IV: There’ll be no more AIF before long
Chapter 12: A strangely isolated event
Chapter 13: To our last man and our last shilling
EPILOGUE: The shattered fields of France
Bibliography
Endnotes
Index
In Memory of my father, Raymond Leslie Sowden (1922-1991), who inspired my love of History, and dedicated to the men of Mont St Quentin-Péronne.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My principal debt is to three men without whose help, encouragement and support this book would not have come together as it has. Dr Peter Stanley (Director of the Centre for Historical Research, National Museum of Australia) has been my mentor and guide throughout the project, offering advice on sources, style and structure and giving generously of his time and expertise in discussions with me and in reading a draft of the manuscript.
Through Peter, I had the privilege to make contact with Brigadier Chris Roberts AM CSC (Retd), who believed in the manuscript enough to read it and make extensive and detailed comments particularly on the military aspects of the battle. Chris took the time and effort to talk me through the battle and both he and his wife Judy offered me great hospitality when I stayed with them in Canberra to undertake this task. He also contacted Jack Sheldon, an authority on the German Army, who provided some important insights into the German formations fighting at Mont St Quentin and Péronne.
Chris introduced me to Major General Paul Stevens (Retd), an ex-artilleryman, who also gave very graciously of his time in helping me to better understand how the artillery worked at Mont St Quentin-Péronne. In what was a very difficult and somewhat controversial aspect of the battle, Paul’s expertise was invaluable. In dealing with the stories of the men of Mont St Quentin-Péronne, I was overwhelmed by the interest s
hown by their descendents, whose insights into their lives and in some cases the photographs they have so generously permitted me to use have enriched this book. I owe a debt of gratitude to Jan and Des Lawson, Margaret Handley, Reg and Wanda Nash (Oscar Lawson), Sue Ash (Daniel Anthon), Margaret Clarke and Bettye Smythe (Percy Smythe), Douglas Fussell (Leslie Fussell), Frank Brewer (Frank Brewer), Pamela Goesch (Bert Bishop), Jeff Lowndes and Brenda Piggford (Mark Lowndes), Marianne Pollock (Albert Blackmore) and Neville Sowden (Claude Sowden).
I appreciate the assistance of the staffs at the Research Centre, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, the Mitchell Library in Sydney, the State Library of Victoria and the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge, England. David Roberts, the Archivist at Newington College in Stanmore, Sydney, trawled the archives to find photographs of and information about John McDonald and Michele Brown from Burwood Municipal Library in Sydney willingly tracked down the Durrant article. Anna Kowalik and Amelia Blefari translated some German sources, while Amy and Michel Meallonnier did a great job in translating some difficult French sources relating to the history of Péronne.
The team at Big Sky Publishing, particularly Denny Neave, have made this book a reality. The maps reflect Eric Olason’s cartographic skills; he has done wonders with my sketchy drawings. Roger Lee and the Army History Unit have given unstinting support; Dr Andrew Richardson has coordinated all the photographs for this book. I must acknowledge a Grant I received from the AHU in 2009 which enabled me to undertake my fieldwork in France in 2010. My thanks to Veronica Coyne and Ken Pearson-Smith for supporting my application for this Grant. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my very thorough, approachable and patient Editor, Cathy McCullagh.
The following people have also contributed to this book in some small but significant way: Professor Robin Prior, Major General Gordon Maitland, Brigadier Phil Carey, Dr Niall Barr, Tony Carpenter, Graeme Hosken (FFFAIF), my English friend and fellow battlefield walker Christopher Preston, Chris Makin, Nigel Fortescue, Cheryl O’Loan and the History staff from Meriden School, Strathfield, Sydney, Jeff McGill and, from Gulargambone/Armatree, Barry Malone, Ash Walker, Doreen Best and Stuart Herring.
In France, the Mayor of Péronne, Mme Valérie Kumm, gave permission to use photographs from the Musee Alfred-Danicourt’s collection and the museum’s Director, David de Sousa, went out of his way to make these available. At the Office de Tourisme Haute-Somme in Péronne, Alexia Compere and M. Therby provided guidance and resources. To my wonderful hosts Christine and Jean-Pierre Matte at Bernafay Wood B&B -always my home on the Somme -and the Tabac owners at Feuilleres, Proyart, Clery, Curlu and Mont St Quentin who provided the coffee (and sometimes the food) after hours of walking in the cold, I offer my thanks.
Last but not least, I must mention and thank my family for their forbearance and encouragement over the last four years – my daughters Samantha Goyen and Catherine Dwyer and my husband and ‘batman’ on the Mont St Quentin-Péronne battlefield, Stephen Bomford.
PROLOGUE
We will hang on as long as we are able
In the darkness just before dawn on 31 August 1918, some 260 men of the 20th Battalion, 5th Australian Infantry Brigade, 2nd Australian Division, were sitting or lying on their jumping-off tape on a slight ridge just to the east of the village of Cléry. The previous morning they had crossed the River Somme at Feuillères, 2000 yards to the west and had fought all day and into the evening to clear the Eleu trench system around the ruined village.
Major John McDonald, popularly known as ‘Bluey Mac’, commanded B Company and was also second in command of the 20th Battalion. At 8.20 pm on 30 August, he had begun to move the battalion to the jumping-off tape, having mopped up a few posts in order to clear the line. He remained concerned about the right flank and the strength of the artillery support that might be available. He simply did not have enough men to hold out against any determined opposition.
The 20th Battalion now waited for the signal to attack one of the most formidable strongpoints on the Western Front — Mont St Quentin — which dominated a vast swathe of country and was the key to the ancient fortress city of Péronne. The men were restless — tense at the prospect of the battle to come. Very few of them thought they had much chance of claiming their prize.
Stretching in front of them were 2500 yards of open ground surrounded by high ridges. One 20th Battalion man, Frank Brewer, would later describe the area as resembling a vast amphitheatre, laced with barbed wire entanglements and pockmarked with old shell holes and trenches from earlier battles fought across this devastated landscape. Crossing part of the battlefield was the Albert–Ham railway which mingled with the trench systems and old wire. In some places the wire was wound into circular forms resembling ‘huge burrs’ or other fantastic shapes including ‘gigantic spiders’ that had ‘crawled up from the slime of the Somme’ to spin a web of wire to capture men. In this surreal panorama even the patches of grass that remained were coloured ‘a sickly mixture of green and yellow’.
Slowly the darkness thinned into light, revealing the ethereal outline of the Mont with its ‘torn and stricken’ trees. Its sentinel form would guide the men as they moved forward into the bleak, grey dawn. The call ‘five minutes to go’ was passed along the line. McDonald waited anxiously alongside his men and watched the minutes to zero hour tick away.
At 5.00 am a desultory barrage began from the few batteries which had found time to site their guns, having galloped them along roads torn by enemy shellfire. The boys of the 20th Battalion stood straight up and charged, shrieking, yelling and cheering, chasing the astonished Germans before them. As the flames of the enemy’s ‘spitting machine guns could be seen flashing from the outposts’, the Australians tore through the wire and crashed into the German trenches with their rifles, bombs and bayonets. They overpowered a ‘whizz-bang’ battery which was firing into the flank of the battalion and raced on to Gottlieb Trench. Here, their aggression spent for the moment, they stopped to share a smoke and chat with men from the 17th and 19th battalions of their brigade as they waited for the barrage to lift.
By 5.30 am McDonald could report to his battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Forbes, that everything was going exceptionally well and casualties had been almost nil. An hour later, with the advance now resumed, the message was the same, except that McDonald now declared that his battalion was on the objective and the Germans were still running. Mopping up was necessary as the front was so large that pockets of defenders had been missed in the speed and frenzy of the assault. McDonald himself advanced alone against one machine-gun nest, silencing two guns and capturing the crews.1
It is doubtful whether McDonald had had much rest — or indeed any sleep — over the past few days and, in his message to Forbes at 11.30 am, he asked his commander to forgive the scrawl, as he was ‘rather tired’. Nevertheless, under heavy fire, he reorganised the companies of the 20th and established a defensive line along the Bapaume–Péronne road between Mont St Quentin and Feuillaucourt, where the men dug in and tried to make themselves comfortable. McDonald reconnoitred the whole battalion front, visiting all his posts to make sure they were properly sited. He regretted that the attack had not been pushed further since the Germans had been on the run and, had fresh troops been available, the Australians could have advanced for miles.
McDonald reported that there was no sign of the 3rd Australian Division, which was meant to be supporting on the left, and the 19th Battalion’s flank on the right was also ‘in the air’ — unsupported. The artillery appeared to be shelling its own posts and the 20th was desperately short of rifle grenades. He planned to place posts north of the village of Feuillaucourt at dusk if the 3rd Division had not arrived, an initiative supported by Forbes who told him to establish a post north of the bed of the Canal du Nord and use Vickers machine-guns to secure it. Artillery support had been requested and a message sent to the 3rd Division to bring up the line. Still, Forbes was very pleased with the report and advised McDonald t
hat the 6th Brigade would pass through at 2.00 pm to continue the attack.2
However, the fortunes of the 5th Brigade now began to turn. Messages began to arrive from the 17th, which had attacked Mont St Quentin front on, that the situation in the village was unsatisfactory and the battalion had taken heavy casualties. It had lost contact with brigade headquarters and the artillery batteries. Two companies of the 18th Battalion, also from the 5th Brigade, were ordered to reinforce the 17th. Rifle grenades, bombs and ammunition were urgently required.
By 4.00 pm the 20th Battalion’s situation had also seriously deteriorated. McDonald’s messages, increasingly illegible on their scraps of paper, assumed a different tone as he stressed to Forbes that ‘we require immediate help on flanks. The Huns are working around and firing into our back. Our casualties are becoming serious and we must have stretchers, we have seven cases waiting. I am afraid that if something is not done we will not be able to hold the present position during the night as we are becoming weaker every hour. He is enfilading us with a 4.2 howitzer which is causing a great deal of casualties.’
At 5.00 pm McDonald reported to Forbes that the 20th had been forced to withdraw to the trenches behind Feuillères — he meant Feuillaucourt. He had now become so tired that he had confused his villages. The Germans had worked around on his left flank and were posing a serious threat, although McDonald promised his commander that ‘we will hang on as long as we are able’. He organised a defensive line, using captured enemy machine-guns so as to save ammunition, and moved among his men to encourage them and boost their spirits.
By 5.20 pm he had lost his map and only 50 or 60 men remained with him. Another company commander lay badly wounded on the Mont and they could not get him out because of enemy machine-gun fire. The men were exhausted, with almost no rations or water. McDonald wrote stoically: ‘I will hold on here awaiting instructions’.3
On 15 September 1918, two weeks after the battle, Private Frank Brewer walked the battlefield where ‘Bluey Mac’ and many of his own mates had fought on 31 August. He found the ground littered with ammunition, shells, lumps of iron, shattered water bottles, helmets and clothing torn to ribbons by the Mills bombs used with deadly effect by the Australian infantry. Hands and feet protruded from chalky mounds where the German dead had been hastily buried. There were clouds of flies and the earth ‘emitted the stifling fumes of the corruption beneath it’. Trees had been smashed to matchwood or were twisted and bare and not a building stood intact. A shrine had been ‘pounded into a thousand pieces’ and a ‘jumbled mass of brick and masonry’ had probably once been a church. German pillboxes, constructed of huge blocks of concrete, had been torn apart.