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The Fortieth, a Record of the 40Th Battalion, A.I.F

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The Fortieth, a Record of the 40Th Battalion, A.I.F ^ RECORD A' ') The Fortieth A RECORD OF THE 40th BATTALION, A.I.F. BY F. C. GREEN il WITH A FOREWORD BY SIR JOHN MONASH lobart Printed for the 40th Battalion Association By John Vail, Government Printer 1922 92504 « • • • '• . • • •/ • . i ' • « « » « , K * ft • Foreword . Chapter — IV Page Chapter XX. L'Abbe Wood—Messenger Dogs Tried at Villers-Bretonneux—The Trenches at Villers- Bretonneux—Our Raid on an Enemy Post Back to Eeserve at Querrieu—Sports and Races—Into the Trenches at Hamel 138 Chapter XXI. The Battle of Amiens of 8th August, 1918—The 10th Brigade Reverse at La Plaque—The 10th Brigade Successful Attack at Proyart —Sergeant Statton Wins the V.C 148 Chapter XXII. At Reginald Wood—Capture of Bray by the 40th Battalion—A Further Advance Towards Cappy and Suzanne • • • • 158 Chapter XXIII. A Further Advance towards Clery—Clery Captured by B Company 168 Chapter XXIV. D Company Attack at Clery Copse 173 Chapter XXV. A Further Attack East of Clery—Exciting Events on the Mt. St. Quentin-Bouchavesnes Road—Back to Reserve at Hem 178 Chapter XXVI. The Advance from Roisel towards Hesbe- court—Resting at Red Wood—Failure of the Enemy's Night Bombing 186 Chapter XXVII. The Attack on the Hindenburg Line, 29th September, 1918 190 Chapter XXVIII. Conclusion 201 Epilogue 204 Appendix A. Casualties and Other Statistics 212 Appendix B. Decorations and Other Honours 216 Appendix C. Roll of the 40th Battalion 219 Index to Names of Persons and Places mentioned in the Narrative 245 List of Maps. No 1. Houplines Sector, Armentieres. 2. Bois Grenier Sector, Armentieres. 3. 10th Brigade Raid, Pont Ballot, 28th January, 1917. 4. 10th Brigade Objective, Battle of Messines, 6th June, 1917. 5. Battle of Broodseinde Ridge, 4th October, 1917. 6. Attack at Passchendaele, 12th October, 1917. 7. The Somme, Morlancourt, 28th March, 1918. 8. 10th Brigade Attack at Proyart, 12th August, 1918. 9. Bray-sur-Somme, 22nd August, 1918. 10. Clery Copse and Bouchavesnes Road (Battle of Mont S. Quentin). 10a. Trenches at Clery Copse, 30th August, 1918. 11. Hindenburg Line (Bony-Macquincourt), 29th September-lst October, 1918. FOREWORD. ijHE Australian soldier has won for himself a place in history. His reputation rests not merely upon his individual qualities of bravery in battle, steadfastness of purpose, resourceful- ness, and adaptability, but also upon his remarkable capacity for well-ordered collective action, for " team work " in the broadest sense. This quality, born in the conditions under which he grew to manhood in his home land, was nurtured and fostered by the environment of war, and by the creation in the field of the collective spirit. The battalion was the schoolroom ; its spirit the teacher and guide. Upon the fine comradeship and the sen.se of unity which were thus fashioned in the Australian battalions, the whole efficiency of the Australian Imperial Force did, in the last resort, truly depend. The battalion became much more than a tactical unit, a mere implement for achievement in the hands of the higher commanders. It was a psychological entity, a moral force, a sentient concourse, knit together by common impulses, common .strivings, and common ideals. It became the physical embodiment of that fundamental prin- ciple of the art of war, that moral cohesion and spiritual solidarity which constitute the essential ingredients differ- entiating an efficient fighting force from a mere body of armed men. Thus it was that the battalion became the nursery of the A.I.F. tradition, and it is because of this that the individual story of every A.I.F. battalion forms an indispensable part of the history of the A.I.F. Each one of the sixty infantry bat- talions, in spite of the very .striking uniformity in their standards and achievements, had its separate individuality, its distinct characteristics. It is due to each one of them that its story should be recorded, from the time of its formation until the last shot was fired. This book tells the tale of the Fortieth Battalion. It was a battalion which was in every way an embodiment of the best that was in the A.I.F. It had a notable career and a proud record of achievement. The fact that it was composed wholly of the men of a small island State, Tasmania, gave it a special stimulus to the highest emulation of all other units. In no other unit were the pride of origin, and the sense of responsi- bility to the people whom it represented, stronger than in the Fortieth. It enjoyed the almost unique experience of retaining the same commander and many of the same officers throughout its whole career. This gave to the Battalion the t VI inestimable benefit of the continuity of a single leadership. And that leadership was of a kind which proved itself worthy of a quite special remembrance. In Lieut. -Col. J. E. C. Lord the Battalion found an officer of ripe experience, with a full knowledge of men, and one having a broad and sympa- thetic outlook, a man capable of setting and of enforcing a high example, and of forming and guiding the soul of his com- mand. As a unit commander he enjoyed the implicit confi- dence of his Brigadier and Divisional General. I became accustomed never to need to look beyond him to those under his command. It was enough that he answered for his Bat- talion in all things, for their well-being, for their discipline, and for their readiness for and efficiency in battle. To set him the task was to find it as good as done ; and it was always well done. The performance of the Battalion at the Battle of Messines, its first adventure on a full scale, set upon it the seal of efficiency which was its hall-mark throughout all the hard fighting that followed until the end. In this uniformly high level of performance, and in the making of a record which was untarnished by any failure or shortcoming, this notable commander was supported by a devoted band of officers. Their names and their deeds are enshrined in these pages. Some of them gained a renown far beyond the limits of the Battalion. To know that an officer detached for other duties belonged to the Fortieth was always a guarantee of competence and efficiency. There is, however, one officer of this renowned unit of which next to nothing has been said in this book, and that because he is himself the chronicler. But the name of Frank Green became widely known throughout the A.I.F. for his soldierly qualities, his outstanding personality, and his capacity to do well every- thing that was worth doing. As Company Officer, and later as Adjutant, he laboured strenuously and sacrificed himself unflinchingly. In spite of physical strain, the result of repeated serious exposures to shell-fire, from which he more than once escaped destruction by the narrowest of chances, Captain Green fore- went the well-earned opportunity of an early return home after the Armistice, in order to yield to the unanimous wish of the whole Battalion that he should become its historian, thus giving until the end the fullest and most devoted service to his comrades in arms. How well he has done his task, and how fully tho glorious memory of the Fortieth Battalion has been perpetuated by his labours, this book bears witness. JOHN MONASH, 6th June, 1922. Lieut. -General Explanatory and Apolog^etic. The material for this record was collected by Captain Green during the winter of 1918-19 in France, and the narrative nearly completed by the time he returned with the last quota of the Battalion in September, 1919. Arrangements were at once made for publication, but pressure of other work, com- bined with unexpected difficulties in connection with maps and the appendices, made progress very slow. When Captain Green left Tasmania in May, 1921, the drawing of the maps was still unfinished, and in the absence of anyone with leisure and ability to look after the work, delays became more protracted, and the book as it now at length appears is without the benefit of his final revision. The sources of the work are, in the first place, the Battalion diaries and orders and other records, and Captain Green's own intimate and first-hand knowledge of nearly all the activities of the Battalion. But it soon appeared that the formal records, though on the whole carefully kept, were inadequate, and in many cases misleading. In the more con- fused and difficult operations it was only by collecting and comparing the individual narratives of those who had taken part in them that the story could be made clear. Luckily the Battalion was still together in the winter of 1918-19, and a sufficient number of survivors of all important operations was at hand. It was often by informal talks with half a dozen N.C.O.'s and men of one company or another, each con- tributing his bit and correcting the others, that the actual course of events was made plain. The Somme fighting of 1918 presented particular difficulties of detail, and a re-examina- tion of the ground under peace conditions was desirable. This Captain Green was able to make early in 1918 from Amiens right up to the Hindenburg Line, accompanied by other officers and particularly by Lieut. B. J. Jackson, whose quick eye for country and tenacious memory for detail made his assistance of particular value. There are no doubt here and there in the following narrative indul- signs of need for more careful revision, for which gence may be asked under the circumstances.
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