Chapter 14: Second Stunt
The scene is described in Harvey, From Anzac to the Hindenburg Line, p. 137 and de Vine, 1DRL/0240, AWM.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 771.
ibid., p. 772.
Bean described the approaches that the troops followed to the firing line in Bean, 38-3DRL/606/55/1, AWM.
Thomas, 3DRL/2206, AWM.
Abson, 2DRL/0007, AWM and Foxcroft, MS 9613, SLV.
Moorhead, 3DRL/7253, AWM.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/55/1, AWM, p. 32.
Chapman, Iven G. Mackay, p. 78.
Harvey, From Anzac to the Hindenburg Line, p. 138.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 777 and 38-3DRL/606/55/1, AWM, p. 43.
General Staff, 1st Australian Division, 4/1/42, Part 2, AWM.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 778.
ibid. Also see Bean, 38-3DRL/606/55/1, AWM, p. 43.
Foxcroft, MS 9613, SLV.
Edey, MS 10511, SLV.
Londey, ‘If I Die at any Rate I Will Have Tried’, p. 32. Subsequent quotation ibid.
Edey, MS 10511, SLV. Subsequent quotation ibid.
Moorhead, 3DRL/7253, AWM. Subsequent quotations ibid.
Chapman, Iven G. Mackay, p. 78. Subsequent quotation and discussion of deserting soldier ibid., p. 79.
Treloar, An ANZAC Diary, p. 275.
The Official History stated that the Australian Defence Act allowed no death penalty except for men found guilty of mutiny, or desertion to, or treacherous dealings with, the enemy. See Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 870–71.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/55/1, AWM, pp. 58–59.
For more detail on the attacks, see Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 780–91.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/55/1, AWM, p. 87.
Prior and Wilson, The Somme, p. 167.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 791.
Duffy, Through German Eyes, pp. 190–91.
General Staff, 1st Australian Division, 1/42/19, Part 4, AWM.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 793.
General Staff, 1st Australian Division, 1/42/19, Part 2, AWM.
Foxcroft’s experiences described in Foxcroft, MS 9613, SLV.
Quoted in Young and Gammage, Hail and Farewell, p. 156. Subsequent quotations ibid., pp. 155, 156.
For Howard and Nicholson’s story, see Carne, In Good Company, pp. 101–06.
Series B2455, Ernest Victor Lee, NAA.
ibid. Lee’s statement of service suggests that he was located at Étaples when the 5th Battalion completed its two stunts at Pozières.
Eric Andrews noted that, of the 182 absent-without-leave cases reported on the Western Front in December 1916, 130 were Australian. See Andrews, The Anzac Illusion, p. 105.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 787.
Austin, As Rough as Bags, p. 174.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/55/1, AWM, p. 87.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 795, 797.
Series B2455, Herbert Walter Crowle, NAA.
The key contributor to shell shock, exposure to prolonged artillery shelling, was much less prevalent on Gallipoli, compared to the Somme.
Series B2455, Alfred John Hearps, NAA.
Newton, The Story of the Twelfth, p. 103.
The Official History recorded that the 10th Battalion troops were naturally shaken after passing through the German bombardment to reach the front line. See Bean, The AIF in France 1916, p. 797.
3rd Infantry Brigade, 23/3/10, AWM.
Kearney, Silent Voices, p. 194.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 799.
Hearps, 1DRL/0428, AWM.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 801.
Belford, Legs-eleven, p. 318.
Badger, 1DRL/0428, AWM.
Crowle, 1DRL/0227, AWM. Subsequent quotations ibid.
Casualty figure taken from Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 802.
Belford, Legs-eleven, pp. 319–24.
For more on the aftermath of Crowle’s, Badger’s, and Hearps’s deaths, see Series B2455, Personnel Dossiers, NAA and 1DRL/0428, AWM.
Badger, 1DRL/0428, AWM.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 April 1925, p. 16.
Quoted in Fewster, Gallipoli Correspondent, p. 14.
Bean, Letters From France, p. 123.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/55/1, AWM, pp. 39–42.
ibid, p. 138.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/56/1, AWM, p. 28.
ibid., p. 30.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/55/1, AWM, pp. 145A–145H.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/56/1, AWM, p. 52. Subsequent quotation ibid., p. 32.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 802.
Chapman, Iven G. Mackay, p. 78.
Harvey, From Anzac to the Hindenburg Line, p. 143.
Speed, Esprit de Corps, p. 76.
Joynt, Breaking the Road for the Rest, p. 93.
Chapman, Iven G. Mackay, p. 79.
Chapter 15: Battering Ram
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/55/1, AWM, pp. 84–86, 87. Bean suspected that the censors deliberately withheld stories that credited the Australians’ efforts in the battle.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 802.
Quoted in Sheldon, The German Army on the Somme 1914–1916, p. 243.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 873.
Gilbert, The Somme, p. 160.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 805.
Sadler, The Paladin, p. 99 (quotation from Gellibrand ibid.) and Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 807.
Quoted in Breed, ‘From France with Love 1916–1918’, p. 105.
Birdwood’s view of Gellibrand is contained in letters to Senator George Pearce. See Bean, 38-3DRL/606/237/1, AWM, pp. 42, 53.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, AWM, pp. 88–90.
Derham, The Silent Ruse, pp. 52–53; Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, pp. 88–90 and 38-3DRL/606/55/1, p. 113, both AWM; Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 798; and Sadler, The Paladin, p. 90, ch. 13.
According to his biographer, Gough removed 11 British officers of the rank of major or above prior to the Somme offensive, as he considered them unfit for command. Gough, with Haig’s blessing, also sacked X British Corps commander Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Morland, who disagreed with his approach of attacking the Germans repeatedly to prevent them from rebuilding their defences. See Farrar-Hockley, Goughie, pp. 183, 190.
Sadler, The Paladin, pp. 88, 99, 100.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 809.
Sheldon, The German Army on the Somme 1914–1916, p. 244.
Breed, ‘From France with Love 1916–1918’, p. 105 and Gorman, With the Twenty-second, p. 40.
Sadler, The Paladin, p. 89.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 810, 821 and 38-3DRL/606/56/1, AWM, p. 3.
Beatty, 1DRL/0428, AWM.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 821 and Cumming, 1DRL/0428, AWM.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/56/1, AWM, p. 60.
Figures from Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 821.
Short in a letter to Bean dated 7 May 1928, in Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, AWM.
Quoted in Young and Gammage, Hail and Farewell, p. 159.
Rule, Jacka’s Mob, p. 88.
White, The Fighting Thirteenth, p. 72.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 828.
General Staff, 4th Division, 1/48/5, Part 3, AWM and White, The Fighting Thirteenth, p. 73.
Stedman, Thiepval, pp. 35–36.
See notes on interrogations on 5, 7, and 8 August. Intelligence, I Anzac Corps, 1/30/7, Part 1, AWM.
Treloar, An A
NZAC Diary, p. 287.
Intelligence, I Anzac Corps, 1/30/7, Part 1, AWM, p. 90.
The Times, 31 August 1916, p. 7.
Quoted in Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 887.
Gilbert, The Somme, pp. 162–63.
Quoted in Breed, ‘From France with Love 1916–1918’, p. 91.
White, The Fighting Thirteenth, p. 72.
Quoted in Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 829.
Bean, The AIF in France 1916, p. 831; Bean, 38-3DRL/606/57/1, AWM, pp. 1–2; and White, The Fighting Thirteenth, p. 74.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/57/1, AWM, p. 5 and The AIF in France, 1916, p. 832.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/57/1, AWM, pp. 6–7.
Longmore, The Old Sixteenth, p. 118 and White, The Fighting Thirteenth, p. 72.
Rule, Jacka’s Mob, p. 109.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/57/1, AWM, p. 9. Subsequent quotations ibid., pp. 8, 9–15.
Story of the Raws family in Young and Gammage, Hail and Farewell, introduction, pp. 165, 172.
Foxcroft, MS 9613, SLV.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/55/1, AWM, pp. 110–11.
General Staff, 4th Australian Division, 1/48/5, Part 3.
Quoted in Urban, ‘Somme Anzac Digger’, p. 53.
There are numerous references to the dead lying about the battlefield. For examples see Moorhead, 3DRL/7253 and Condon, 1DRL/0209, both AWM; and Morris, MS 1565 and Foxcroft, MS 9613, both SLV.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/54/1, AWM, p. 48.
Carlyon, ‘Who are the Anzacs “known unto God” in a Flanders field?’, p. 5.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 661.
Quoted in Polanski, We Were the 46th, p. 17.
Hinckfuss, Memories of a Signaller, p. 73.
Rule, Jacka’s Mob, p. 82. Subsequent quotation ibid., p. 81.
Series B2455, Alexander Taylor Pearce (alias John Pearce), NAA.
Quoted in Austin, Our Dear Old Battalion, p. 147.
Quoted in ‘Families Discover Link 17 Years Later’, Australians at War, 2001, australiansatwar.gov.au.
Chapter 16: Graveyard or Glory
Treloar, An ANZAC Diary, pp. 287–88.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 837–38.
General Staff, 4th Division, 1/48/16, Part 1, AWM.
Dawkins, 1DRL/0237, AWM.
Wadsley, ‘Dear Everybody at Home’, pp. 11–14. Subsequent quotations ibid.
Series B2455, Howard de Nyst Williams, NAA.
Quoted in Duffy, Through German Eyes, p. 202.
Statement by repatriated prisoner contained in Series B2455, John Cotter, NAA. Subsequent quotation ibid.
Wadsley, ‘Dear Everybody at Home’, pp. 11–14. Troops in Fabeck Graben described in Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 846–54; Bean, 38-3DRL/606/58/1, AWM, p. 17; and Wadsley, 1DRL/0428, AWM.
Ekin-Smyth, 1DRL/0428, AWM.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 845–46 and Letters from France, p. 161.
Message in Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 845 and quotation from Morris, MS 1565, SLV.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/58/1, AWM, pp. 11–12.
McCallum, 1DRL/0428, AWM.
Events described in, and quotations from, Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 852. Subsequent quotation ibid., p. 851.
Bailey, 1DRL/0428 and Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, p. 69, both AWM.
Williams, 1DRL/0428, AWM.
Quoted in Browning, Fix Bayonets, p. 52.
Smythe, 1DRL/0428, AWM.
Series B2455, John Cotter, NAA.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/58/1, AWM, p. 13.
General Staff, 4th Division, 1/48/6, Part 1, AWM.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 856.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 854; Gough, The Fifth Army, entry dated 3 September; and Gilbert, The Somme, p. 174.
Ross, The Myth of the Digger, p. 16.
Birdwood, 3DRL/3376, AWM.
General Staff, 4th Division, 1/48/6, Part 1, AWM.
Treloar, An ANZAC Diary, p. 290. Subsequent quotation ibid.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/58/1, AWM, p. 40.
Bean, Letters from France, p. 175.
Quoted in Winter, Making the Legend, p. 11.
Quoted in Bean, Letters from France, p. 173.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 874.
ibid., p. 860 and Sheffield and Bourne, Douglas Haig, p. 227.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 860.
Gough, The Fifth Army, p. 148.
Charteris, At GHQ, p. 162.
Quoted in Hetherington, Blamey, p. 39.
Chapter 17: Aftermath
The actual casualties incurred during the conflict on the Somme remain controversial, partly because each army used its own method for calculating them. The figures quoted by Gerald Gliddon are: British, 419,000; French, 204,000; German, 420,000. See Gliddon, Somme 1916, pp. 454–55.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 858.
ibid., p. 852.
ibid., p. 852 and Woodhead, ‘Families Discover Link 17 Years Later’.
Sergeant Ramshaw’s notes in Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, AWM, p. 70.
Series B2455, Albert Clifford, NAA.
The West Australian, 3 September 1917, p. 1.
Wadsley, ‘Dear Everybody at Home’, pp. 11–14.
Population and casualty comparisons based on 1911 Australian census conducted by Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics.
White, The Fighting Thirteenth, p. 79.
Quoted in Breed, ‘From France with Love 1916–1918’, p. 79.
Terraine, The Western Front 1914–1918, p. 15.
Charteris, At GHQ, p. 179.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/60/1, AWM, pp. 2–6.
Quoted in Taplin, ‘Dad’s War Diaries 1915–1919’, p. 20.
Quoted in Gammage, The Broken Years, pp. 169–70.
Rule, Jacka’s Mob, p. 110.
Claridge, 2DRL/0240, AWM.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/60/1, AWM, p. 7.
Leane, 1DRL/0411, AWM.
Willmington, ‘Diaries of an Unsung Hero’, p. 137.
Condon, 1DRL/0209, AWM.
Series B2455, John Condon, NAA.
Cocking, MS 10167, SLV.
Bourke, 1DRL/0139, AWM.
Bean thought it was a lie, but believed it reflected the prevailing feeling toward Birdwood. See Bean, 38-3DRL/606/60/1, AWM, p. 2.
Quoted in Taplin, ‘Dad’s War Diaries 1915–1919’, p. 21.
Quoted in Bean, 38-3DRL/606/60/1, AWM, p. 5.
ibid., pp. 5–6.
Rule, Jacka’s Mob, pp. 109–10.
White, The Fighting Thirteenth, p. 75.
Treloar, An ANZAC Diary, pp. 285–86.
Series B2455, Ralph Ratnevelu Raymond Ekin-Smyth, NAA.
Interview with Margaret Lee, 30 November 2010.
See Ekin-Smyth, Michael, ‘Anzac Day 2004’, wordsmythltd.blogspot.com.
Series B2455, Ernest George Smythe, NAA.
Series B2455, Howard de Nyst Williams, NAA.
Series B2455, Leslie Parsons, NAA.
Mandle, Going it Alone, ch. 1; Ross, The Myth of the Digger, introduction and ch. 1; and Beaumont, Australia’s War 1914–18, pp. 152–77.
Interview with Margaret Lee, 30 November 2010.
Prior and Wilson, The Somme, p. 184.
White, The Fighting Thirteenth, p. 75.
Quoted in Sheffield, The Somme, p. 155.
ibid., 88.
For an extract of Douglas Haig’s final despatch on 21 March 1919, see Sheffield and Bourne, Douglas Haig, appendix 4.
Ch
arteris, Field Marshal Earl Haig, p. 226.
Quoted in Gilbert, The Somme, p. 243.
Chapter 18: War-weariness
Information from Clark, The Old Dead Tree and the Young Tree Green; Smith, PR88/058, AWM; and Series B2455, Stephen Allen, NAA.
Quoted in Scott, Australia During the War, p. 348.
Quoted in Matthews, Australian Soldiers in the Great War 1914–18, p. 59.
Scanlon, PR90/105, AWM.
Cocking, MS 10167, SLV.
Quoted in Scott, Australia During the War, p. 359.
Quoted in Bean, Anzac to Amiens, p. 293.
Scott, Australia During the War, p. 370.
Cocking, MS 10167, SLV.
For monthly enlistments see Scott, Australia During the War, p. 871.
Bean, Two Men I Knew, p. 145.
Terraine, The Western Front 1914–1918, p. 81.
Millman, Pessimism and British War Policy 1916–18, pp. 32, 33.
Pope and Wheal, The Macmillan Dictionary of the First World War, pp. 230–31.
Barnett, The Great War, p. 209.
Gorman, With the Twenty-second, p. 103.
Birdie’s letter to Senator Pearce, which explains Forsyth’s condition, dated 12 November 1916. Bean, 38-3DRL/606/237/1, AWM, p. 36.
See Maclean, ‘Australia’s Military Hero’, www.activeboard.com.
Callaway, 1DRL/0428, AWM.
Thomas, 1DRL/0428, AWM.
Drake-Brockman, The Turning Wheel, p. 107.
Series B2455, Leslie Francis Strong Mather, NAA.
Battalion newsletter, 1918, Mitchell Library.
Rule, Jacka’s Mob, p. 340.
Adam-Smith, The Anzacs, p. 2.
Scott, Australia During the War, p. 835.
Blainey, Our Side of the Country, p. 178.
Joynt, Breaking the Road for the Rest, p. 169. Subsequent quotation ibid.
Series B2455, Arthur Foxcroft, NAA and Foxcroft, MS 9613, SLV.
Scott, Australia During the War, p. 888.
Freeman, Hurcombe’s Hungry Half Hundred, p. 264.
Lloyd and Rees, The Last Shilling, p. 227.
Blair, Dinkum Diggers, p. 168.
Quoted in White and Russell, Memories and Dreams, pp. 62–67.
Leese, Shell Shock, p. 171.
See The Torch-Bearer, 29 August 1929, pp. 72–73.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, AWM, p. 103.
Series C138, John Harris, NAA.
Pozieres Page 41
