THE GREAT OFFENSIVE.
1. The 8th of August, 1918.
A narrative of the experiences of a small unit in the Great War most properly should include only those facts and aspects of the struggle, which the unit learnt in the field from its own observation and adventures. A keen student of the newspapers in London, or even in Melbourne, will have a more complete knowledge of the progress of events, and a more comprehensive view of the general situation than the soldier in the field, whose view is curtailed by the “Fog of War,” and who, besides, is too absorbed in the problems of his own immediate sector to have the leisure of the arm-chair strategist.
For the members of the formation to be engaged, the eve of the battle of Amiens was, however, one of the exceptional cases where even a hint of coming events illuminates the whole military position.
It was obvious that the enemy had lost the initiative in the failure of his attempt to force the Marne, and that the violent battles on the French and American sectors in July marked its definite passage to the Allies.
August the 8th was to be the first real occasion of its use by us and the first ambitious attack by the British Army for 1918. There were few in the 3rd Division who did not realise this, scanty as was the information possessed by any but very senior officers as to the concentration of troops, tanks, and guns, and more particularly as to the elaborate precautions taken to disguise such preparations as the move of the Canadian troops to the Somme area.
The task of the 3rd Division was to initiate the attack on a front of some two miles immediately South of the Somme, and to penetrate about 2½ miles. Through it would then pass the 4th Australian Division covered by mobile artillery. A similar programme was to be carried out by the 2nd and 5th Australian Divisions on the Villers-Brettonneux sector to the South; south of them were the Canadians, and then the French. The 1st Australian Division arrived from the north on the eve of the battle, and was Corps Reserve in the early stages. The British Division holding
the line north of the Somme was to swing forward its flank along the river. No preliminary bombardment of the enemy positions was to take place, and the commencement of operations was to be in effect a surprise attack delivered under a heavy barrage.
This was the first occasion in which the five Australian Divisions were engaged together in an offensive action.
The preparations as far as Engineers were concerned were not elaborate. Various dugouts required for headquarters and medical posts had to be hurried to completion, but no trench work was required, as the approach routes to the assembly position for the attacking troops were overland. Four tracks were cleared and carefully marked by the 11th Field Company, two starting near Fouilloy, and two near Hamelet, and, as already mentioned, the bridge demolition arrangements were partly dismantled. Owing to the depth of the proposed attack it was not considered advisable to form Engineer dumps in the existing trench system; instead, a system of dumps on wheels was devised. The Pontoon wagons of the three Field Companies were collected and loaded with a variety of stores, including a number of simple shelters for erection under suitable chalk banks, and delivery points were selected in the territory to be captured. The 11th Field Coy. made 50 bank shelters and 500 signboards.
Much depended on the early repair of all roads leading forward into the enemy territory. This work was undertaken by Corps, who withdrew two Field Companies and the Pioneer Battalion from the 3rd Division for this purpose, leaving the 11th the only Company under Divisional command. Two companies of the 2nd Australian Pioneers were lent to the Division for the operation, and under these circumstances the Field Company was necessarily widely distributed. No. 1 section was allotted to the 9th Brigade, which was to attack on the right, and No. 2 to the 11th Brigade on the left; No. 3 was in reserve (as was the 10th Brigade, which held the whole divisional front before the battle), and No. 4 had the special task of looking for sources of water supply.
Very heavy rain fell two or three days before the attack, and threatened to interfere with the work of the tanks, but the 7th was fine and warm, and the chalky soil dried very quickly. The rain was really very helpful, as it served to hide the gathering forces from enemy aviators. By the 7th all was ready; long rows of tanks sheltered under hedges, guns of all calibres lurked in every suitable position, and men and horses rested quietly within the shade of groves of trees.
The evening before Z day saw Company Headquarters and 1, 2, and 4 sections established at a dugout and bivouac near Hamelet, but during the night the various parties moved forward to a trench near Hamel. Just at “Zero hour” (4.20 a.m.) a thick mist arose, and it was through this natural screen that the attack
pushed forward, and that the various parties of Sappers groped their way to their various tasks soon after.
The results of the day’s fighting are too well known to need mention, but the cheapness of the victory may be gauged by the losses of the Company—which were—none at all. The dumps on wheels moved forward under Lieut. Matters to their appointed destinations early in the morning; Nos. 1 and 2 sections built shelters for various headquarters in the new captured divisional area, and No. 4 located several old wells and started putting them in order, and also constructed, out of salvaged materials, a most useful horse-watering point at Gailly Lock on the Somme. A number of Germans surrendered to the sappers, but as they were considered to be “second hand,” they were carefully searched for pistols and such-like souvenirs and turned adrift to find their own way to the rear. One subaltern of the Company was approached in mist by a Boche who was tugging violently at something in his pocket. Thinking it was a pistol, the officer drew his revolver, but the German’s hand came forth with nothing more menacing than a tin of bully beef, which he handed out as a peace offering. It was a great day for souvenirs, and the sappers collected quite an arsenal of German automatic pistols, daggers, and such-like coveted articles.
2. Up the Valley of the Somme.
The breaking of the German line on the 8th August marked the end of the old “sit down” trench warfare, and to no one did this represent a bigger change than to the sappers. Instead of settling down for a month or more at a time in a camp or bivouac, with a regular programme of work, a system for the supply of engineer stores, and no sign or hope of an end to the proceedings, the Company now commenced to experience conditions approximating to those of open warfare, with troubles and discomforts all compensated for by victory, and at least a hope of peace to come. That Company Headquarters was established in twenty different places in the ensuing two months gives only a partial indication of the migrations of the sappers, as sections developed a habit of moving independently, each complete with its own transport, and the Company was rarely united.
Work naturally changed; bridges, water supply, roads and signboards became most important; trenches and wire were rarely thought of; dugouts were searched for booby traps, cleaned and repaired, instead of new ones being started. During the period of most rapid advance the Division gained little advantage from some of the Sappers’ labour, but such people as the heavy artillery and transport units following behind were not inappreciative, particularly of signboards and water supply arrangements. On the 9th of August Company Headquarters and 3 and 4 Sections moved to a bivouac near Bois de Hamel, and on the 10th to a large dug-out
and bivouac near Bouzencourt—a camp generally known as “Pip 4 Ack” from its map location, where the horse lines were also established. In the meanwhile Nos. 1 and 2 sections had been living and working in the newly captured area, complete with section transport, and late in the evening of the 10th they were ordered to accompany the 10th Brigade in a night operation along the main road which runs east through Lamotte-en-Santerre. The operation did not develop, and the sappers were not required, so the two sections went into bivouac in a deep valley just south of the main road and north of Harbonnieres. They suffered no casualties at this stage, but are not likely to forget the bombing along the road on the night of the 10th/11th.
On the 11th the remainder of the Company moved to a valley South of Morcourt on the Somme and relieved the 12th Field Coy., but were in turn relieved by the 93rd Company, R.E. the following night, and returned to P.4.a. Short as the time was in this area No. 3 section built a new Battn. Headquarters and an R.A.P.; No. 4 section investigated and improved a considerable number of wells.
Both the vicinity of the Coy. camp near Morcourt, and the valley near Harbonnieres occupied by 1 and 2 sections, had been largely used by the Germans for battery positions and living accommodation, and it was very interesting to study their methods so soon after their very hurried departure. They had done very little work near their front line, but the numerous dugouts started in their gun zone, and excavated stables in course of construction, seemed to indicate an intention to organise an elaborate system of defences. The impression thus formed was confirmed afterwards by the enormous amounts of engineer materials in their main dumps.
Sappers were pleased to find that the German dugouts, and much of his other work, were inferior to our own, both in design and execution. All sorts of interesting souvenirs were discovered while exploring the dugouts and camps, a number being dispatched to the Australian War Museum. Similarly, a large number of maps were collected and forwarded to the General Staff. Horses enjoyed extra rations of Boche fodder, and some of the men drew clean underclothing and new boots from a Boche Quartermaster’s store—in the absence of the Quartermaster. A number of wagons were collected and loaded with Engineer materials, thus forming a “Dump on German wheels,” in readiness for another advance, but were handed over to the 93rd Field Company.
On the night of the 12th/13th, some wandering tanks took shelter in the gully occupied by 1 and 2 sections, and were apparently marked down by a Boche plane, which showered bombs on the camp. Driver W. Thomas, who was noted for his pride in his two horses, and who used to remark frequently that wherever his team went, he went also, was saying good-night to his charges
when a bomb fell alongside and killed the man and both his horses.
The whole Company concentrated at P.4.a on the 13th, and refitted, bathed, and dug bomb pits for the horses until the 19th, when work was started fixng up accommodation for Divisional Headquarters in the well-remembered Shrapnel Gully near Sailly-le-Sec. On the 20th the Division went into the line North of the Somme, and Coy. Headquarters and Nos. 2 and 3 sections moved to Mallard Wood, N.W. of Chipilly. The Division attacked at dawn on the 22nd, forming a flank for operations to the North; on the 23rd it captured La Neuville near Bray, and on the 24th Bray itself fell to the 10th Brigade.
On the 25th the 9th and 11th Brigades captured the high ridge of Ceylon Wood east of Bray, and thenceforward the advance progressed so rapidly, in spite of enemy resistance, that by the end of the month the Division had captured Suzanne, Curlu, and Cléry, and had reached the Bouchavesnes—Mt. St. Quentin road, some ten miles East of Bray, and 15 miles east of the line of August 8th.
During the early stages of this advance the roads had sustained a good deal of damage from shell fire, and a portion of the Company was employed filling in shell holes and removing fallen trees and dead horses. In order to relieve the main roads, cross-country tracks were much used. They were in good condition, thanks to the dryness of the summer, but required marking with numerous signboards. Throughout the whole period water supply was of the highest importance. Wells had to be located, tested, often cleared of rubbish and fitted with new windlasses. Fortunately the Boche had not troubled to destroy wells, but had devoted all his energies to blowing up railway lines. As evidence of his enthusiasm for this work it may be mentioned that the Company removed misfired or unexploded charges to the number of some hundred from a comparatively short length of line near Hem. Horse watering was of course done from the Somme, but horse troughing had to be erected, as a number of horses were drowned while attempting to water from the treacherous swamps and lagoons along the river. Dugouts, whether of German origin, as those around Bray, or built originally by the French, as were a number near Suzanne and Hem, had all to be carefully searched for mines and booby traps before being used by various Headquarters, and generally required repairs. An interesting task was making an inventory of the various German dumps captured. There were several very large ones round Bray, containing enormous quantities of mining and other timber, steel girders, barbed wire and pickets, corrugated iron and malthoid, and all sorts of interesting odds and ends. One dump, for instance, in addition to much timber, had hundreds of sets of door hinges and fastenings and window fittings, which would seem to indicate that the
German contemplated a big hutting programme in this area. There was a large dump near the railway at Hem Wood, and this the Company was camped alongside at the end of the month.
Two dumps contained small workshops for the manufacture of anti-tank mines, and a long train laden with timber, malthoid, iron and paper sandbags lay in the Bray station yard—with every axle-box destroyed with explosives.
Intermediate Coy. Hdqrs. camps since leaving Mallard Wood had been along a bank near Bray; in some German huts in Ceylon Wood; and along a bank facing the Somme at Hem.
At the Bray camp site, just before the unit moved in, the C.S.M., G. Brodie (D.C.M.), was wounded by a shell and died soon after.
In the advance the division crossed, between Suzanne and Curlu, the original front line of 1916, and passed on to the area devastated by the fighting of that year. The desolation of this region of shell-holes, dead woods, and villages represented by a few broken bricks has often been described; suffice it is to say that all ranks were pleased that progress across it was rapid.
On Sept. 3rd the Divisional front was cut out by the 2nd Australian Division and the 74th Division joining across it, and the Company started improving accommodation for the 11th Brigade in the area around Curlu. As there seemed some possibility of a short stay in this dismal locality, the 11th Brigade Concert Party—the “Blue Gums”—was brought up, and the Company improvised a concert hall, with stage and seats for 450, out of the ruins of some huts at Curlu. Work was also continued on water supply arrangements. The area had been too far behind the Boche line for him to make much use of it during the summer, and he had done nothing to improve and little to maintain the old wells sunk in 1916, which proved scarcely able to cope with the demands of the concentration of men and animals now living in the vicinity. Fortunately the 74th Division, which here overlapped the 3rd, had only recently come from Palestine, and being thus familiar with the problem, helped a great deal to improve the conditions.
But the Eastern sky indicated with increasing clearness that the warlike stream would soon move forward. The strong position about Peronne had been breached by the 2nd Australian Division’s capture of Mt. St. Quentin, and the glow of many fires by night, and huge columns of smoke by day, showed that the enemy was burning everything possible in the country behind him, preparatory to a retreat to the Hindenburg line. So no one was very surprised when on Sept. 5th orders were received to move once more.
3. Up the Valley of the Cologne.
The Cologne is a small stream which, rising in the high ground which separates the headwaters of the Escaut or Scheldt from the Somme, runs in a westerly direction and joins the latter river at
Peronne. It flows through a broad open valley, and is quite a small stream, but with a wide, marshy bed in many places. In the summer of 1918 it had no surface water above Tincourt.
For the pursuit of the enemy beyond Peronne the 11th Brigade Group, with the addition of the 3rd Pioneers as an extra Infantry Battalion, and some British Horse Artillery, was organised as an advance guard, and moved forward after very short notice on the afternoon of the 5th. The 11th Field Company attached No. 2 section (Lt. Rhodes) to the 42nd Battalion in the vanguard, No. 1 section, with its own transport and No. 2 transport to the 41st Battalion (main body). No. 3 section, with Coy. Headquarters, moved with the 11th Brigade H. Qrs., and No. 4 was allotted to the special task of repairing a bridge at Peronne. The move was slow and difficult owing to the congestion on the roads, and if ever the enemy bombing ’planes missed an opportunity they did so that night. Company Headquarters established itself in a trench on the Northern slopes of Mt. St. Quentin, and it says a great deal for the “Bump of locality” of the unit generally that touch was maintained throughout, and not one of the numerous detachments into which the Company was split got lost or mislaid in the darkness, in strange country rendered most difficult to traverse by old trenches and barbed wire.
It would be tedious to trace the movements of the various sections and detachments during the next few days, when the 11th Brigade pushed rapidly forward on the heels of the enemy, and captured Buire, Tincourt, and Roisel. No. 2, split into detachments, searched fruitlessly for booby traps and patched up accommodation for Battalion Headquarters. No. 3 did the same for Brigade, and also repaired an important bridge near Mt. St. Quentin and opened up a well or two. No. 1, after some smaller jobs, started work on repairing the river crossing at Courcelles Mill leading to Cartigny, and was joined by No. 4, whose bridge at Peronne had been found not necessary, and who did quite a lot of walking in the meantime. By noon on the 7th two bridges across the branches of the Cologne stream, each strong enough to take 17-ton axle loads, had been completed. The transport which had started from near Curlu succeeded in keeping in the race, and in delivering supplies to the sections. Company Headquarters moved to Three Tubs Wood, N.E. of Doingt, on the 6th, and on the 8th to the outskirts of Boucly, across the river from Tincourt. The Boche had been driven too rapidly from the neighbourhood of Peronne and Doingt to have time to carry out demolitions; not only were the bridges at Doingt untouched, but there were many useful hutments in the vicinity. Further up the Cologne valley, however, all the extensive hutments built by us about 1917 had been burnt, and every bridge was destroyed between Doingt and Tincourt. A small bath house near Brusle had been deemed worth a charge of explosives.
In Buire an enamelled bath in an officers’ bathroom had been thoroughly perforated with an axe, as had the large copper used in conjunction with it. A number of small pumps were eagerly rushed by the water supply sappers, but each had had an essential lug or something of the sort broken off with a hammer. The camp which the Company occupied near Boucly had not been destroyed, possibly because the shelters were steel, the German equivalent of our “Large English” or Elephant shelters. The park in which this camp was situated was full of an extraordinary assortment of German vehicles, many in good order. There were wagons light, heavy, and extremely heavy; field cookers and field bakery ovens, ambulances, patent telescopic observation towers on wheels, and other curiosities.
The Company annexed from this collection a useful light wagon and a brand-new cooker.
The villages in this area had all been systematically destroyed by the Boche in his retreat of 1917, and had never been rebuilt. It was quite easy to see that many of the houses had been burnt out, and not destroyed by shell-fire. In some places all the trees along the road side had been cut half through with axes, evidently at the same period, and had subsequently had the gashes filled with cement and strapped with iron. Most of them seemed to be flourishing.
On the South side of the valley there were mine craters at most road junctions. On the evening of the 7th, when No. 3 section moved to Boucly, its attention was drawn by a certain battalion to a suspected mine on the road near Brusle. It was useless explaining that the section with its transport had just marched right over the place; the Battalion H. Qrs. was insistent, so the section officer and a couple of his men went back to investigate. The Boche had evidently intended planting some anti-tank mines, and had dug holes across the road for them, but had been disturbed or had changed his mind. There was nothing in the holes but loose stones. Very early the next morning the O.C. of the Company, on his way to visit No. 3, saw the holes, and, not knowing of the previous night’s incident, got off his horse and investigated. He had just finished raking the stones back when a Pioneer Company Commander, whose men were filling in some craters a little further back, panted up on a bicycle, saying he had heard there was a mine about somewhere, and he was responsible for roads, so he also investigated. Later in the morning the O.C. met two subalterns of another Field Company, who asked if he had heard anything of a road mine near Brusle, because they had special orders from the C.R.E. to examine it thoroughly and report. They were directed to the spot, and when last seen were carefully removing the stones from the holes.
While the caution shewn in this was perhaps excessive, that care was necessary was evidenced by the delay action mine which
blew up where the main road crossed the railway at Roisel, long after the division had left the area.
The Causeway which crossed the valley from Buire to Brusle had 5 gaps blown in it, and of these three were bridged by the Company with strong footbridges. While the narrow gauge lines were intact, the broad gauge railways had been thoroughly destroyed. In one place there was a long length of track newly laid with heavy rails branded Krupp 1917, and every rail had been broken in two or three places with explosives. There was some satisfaction in seeing the enemy’s own material treated in this way. A number of deep wells on the South side of the valley had been blown in, and a start had been made trying to repair one or two when the Company was relieved by the 1st Field Coy. A.E.
This was on the 10th. Divisional Headquarters remained at Doingt and work was started immediately repairing hutments in the vicinity to accommodate the division. The Company made itself a small camp to Courcelles Mill, and Headquarters moved there on the 13th, and remained in this same place for a fortnight. The enemy bombing from aeroplanes was very vicious in the beginning of the period, but a number of his planes, caught in our searchlights, were shot down in flames by our night flying machines, with coloured lights shooting in all directions from the burning Verey ammunition, greatly to the delight of the watching crowds.
Quite an elaborate theatre for the “Blue Gums” was arranged by No. 4 section in Doingt, in an old hut, and the Company took part in sports held by the 11th Brigade Group; with such amusement added to an occasional aeroplane shooting display, time passed quickly until orders to dump packs and surplus stores heralded another move.
4. The Hindenburg Line.
On the 27th of September the 3rd Division left the Doingt area and moved once more towards the line, to take its part in another great attack. The 11th Field Company, with the 11th Brigade Group, marched some 8 miles on the night of the 27th/28th to a bivouac about a mile West of Templeux-le-Guerard at the head of the Cologne valley, while the transport settled at Longavesnes.
This region at the time was held in force by the 27th U.S. Division, with the 30th U.S. Division on its right. The general position may be roughly described as follows:—
The enemy, endeavouring to stand on the line of early 1918—really an outpost line to the main Hindenburg Line—had been violently hurled back from it by an attack by the 1st and 4th Australian Divisions, but was holding strongly to the Hindenburg Line proper. Indeed, he had succeeded in recovering portion of the outpost ridge, in the face of the American troops holding the
sector, and it was evident that he intended to offer a desperate resistance. The Hindenburg Line east of Peronne, followed generally the line of the St. Quentin Canal, but opposite the sector held by the two American Divisions the canal ran into a tunnel for some four miles from Bellicourt to Le Catelet, and the line really constituted a very strongly defended bridge head across this gap in the obstacle formed by the canal. To make use of this natural bridge offered the best chance of quickly penetrating the Hindenburg system with a large force of all arms, but it was obvious that the enemy would be prepared for such an attempt, and that the whole organisation, carefully thought out during his previous occupation of this country, would be designed to frustrate it.
The general plan of attack somewhat resembled that of August 8th. The two American Divisions were to attack at dawn under an intense barrage, and penetrate to the green line, over a mile east of the canal, while the 5th Australian Division on the right, and the 3rd on the left, were to follow through and exploit success to the “Red Line,” some three miles further.
The weather changed on the 28th, and became very cold. This was really a blessing in disguise, as the supply of water to such large concentrations of horses and men in this high, streamless, country, where the wells and bores were so deep that only those with power installations yielded a useful flow, was a difficult problem.
Fleets of motor tanks supplied drinking water, but horses had to travel long distances to watering points, and wait hours in long queues, four deep, and extending literally miles along the roads.
The early development of all sources of supply in any area captured was thus of great importance, and No. 2 section was told off to this task in the zone allotted to the 11th Field Company, with instructions to pay particular attention to the canal tunnel, where springs were reported to exist. No. 1 section was allotted to roads, No. 3 to clearing cross-country tracks for the artillery, and No. 4 was split up over the 11th Brigade and its battalions, to search dugouts and look after accommodation generally.
The attack developed at dawn on Sept. 29th, but was not immediately successful. Apparently the American assault troops broke through the German line under cover of the barrage, but neglected to “mop up.” The consequence was that large numbers of Germans, as soon as the barrage and the closely following attacking wave had passed, emerged from their numerous dugouts, and manned machine guns and anti-tank defences. The 3rd Division, moving forward in readiness, came under heavy artillery and machine gun fire before it reached the old outpost line, and was in effect faced with the task of attacking the complete Hindenburg defences without the help of artillery, which could not
be used on account of the uncertainty as to the position of the Americans. Under these circumstances, progress was naturally slow. Fortunately the attack had been more successful on the right divisional front, and the 44th Battalion on the extreme right of the 3rd Australian Division had succeeded in getting a footing in the Hindenburg line proper, and making a flank to the north. The sappers attached to the Battalion Headquarters became involved in various tasks somewhat different to those for which they had been allotted; an attempt to make the best use of a stray tank led to some exciting incidents, which only ended when the Boche, with a field gun at point blank range, put the tank out of action.
No. 3 section succeeded in clearing a short length of artillery track, but generally speaking, very little of the sapper programme was accomplished, and the sections spent the night in the trenches three-quarters of a mile south-east of Ronnsoy.
On the 30th the 3rd Division continued the attack, and on the 1st of October succeeded in taking Bony, a small village right in the main Hindenburg line and almost over the canal tunnel, chiefly by means of persistent bombing along the network of trenches. After this good progress was made. The sappers meanwhile had discovered an extensive old British minefield, part of which had been noticed by No. 3 section on the 29th, when several of our tanks were put out of action by it. Large numbers of mines were removed and de-detonated from the field, which, curiously enough, was marked by danger notices both in English and in German. On the 1st a party of No. 1 section made an investigation of the whole of the canal tunnel, working from the Southern or Bellicourt end. On the 2nd dugouts in the main Hindenburg line were searched and cleared; a number of notice boards erected, and an O.P. constructed East of Bony; while the investigation of the tunnel was continued, through a number of the various entrances made by the Germans along its length.
The tunnel, which is some four miles in length and 25 feet in diameter, was dug in the time of Napoleon, and was found to be in good order, and equipped with pumps (but without engines) and piping to deliver water to the surface at a number of air shafts. The water was tested, and found to be drinkable after treatment, with the usual small quantity of chloride of lime, but before the Company could do anything towards making it available, the 3rd Division was relieved on Oct. 3rd by the 50th British Division, and the Coy. evacuated the bivouac which it had occupied at Toine Wood, close to the trenches in which the sections sheltered on the night of the 29th. The Company Transport had moved east of Templeux-le-Guerard on the 30th.
Exploration of the famous Hindenburg system had been full of interest, not only because of the tunnel, with its German-made stairway entrances, its concrete entrance defences, and its long
line of barges used for the living accommodation by the Boche during his previous tenancy, but now damp and dilapidated; but also on account of the fame attaching to the trench system itself. To some extent this was disappointing; the trenches, although very wide, were not well made, and the dugouts were numerous, but not elaborate. The barbed wire, however, was astonishing in its extent and density.
The casualties in this, destined to be the last action in which the unit took part, were 11 wounded (including gas), of which one subsequently died. For good work on the morning of the 29th Sappers Chapman and Gallwey received the Military Medal.
On the evening of the 3rd the whole Company bivouacked in a pleasant, peaceful wood near Liercourt, and on the 5th entrained at Peronne, less transport, which proceeded by road and joined the unit in billets in the little village of La Leu, near Airaines, in the lower Somme valley. On October 9th the Company moved to Forceville, South of Abbeville, and was training and refitting in this peaceful area when the armistice was signed.
As this is a war narrative it will not be necessary to describe the change from military training to civil education; the drifting away of members for early repatriation or non-military employment in England; or the departure of demobilisation quotas and the winding up of the Company; but a fitting termination may be made by referring to the third and last Christmas spent in France. The unit at the time was at Bernapré, a few miles S.W. of Forceville, where it had moved on Dec. 10th. Each section had a rough and ready messroom, lavishly decorated with holly and mistletoe for the occasion, and each was the scene of great feasting and jollification, quite free at last from the black shadow of war, and doubly pleasurable because of the conviction that the next Christmas dinner would be in Australia. Geese and ducks in large numbers and other good things to eat, together with liquids appropriate to the season, were purchased from funds supplied by friends in Australia.
The energetic efforts of the unit’s supporters, chiefly in South Australia and in Queensland, resulted altogether in the sum of £378, which was added by instalments to the Company’s funds. The possession of this money rendered possible Christmas feasts, sports gatherings, and other distractions, and, above all, a regular system of subsidies to section messes, which helped greatly to improve the standard of living. This opportunity is gladly taken of expressing the Company’s sincere and grateful appreciation for the labour of its friends.