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[Page 18]
our way back. When one considers that for distances of 20 to 30 yards there was no cover at all one can see what going back through such a barrage meant. But we got through without one of the eight sustaining a scratch and were home and asleep hours before the rest of the fatigue party could get through. Thus it always was in the line no matter what the barrage of fire was like, those with ration parties, whether officers, N.C.O's or men, allowed nothing to stop them getting the food up to the men in the front line. I have described this trip with rations, not because I wish to draw attention to our party, but because I do wish those who do not know what it means to take rations up to the line in places as Pozieres, Bullecourt, Ypres, and a hundred other places, to get a real conception of the peril and endurance such a trip meant. The men on these parties always had dangerous work and as a rule if only two or three were left they would get through to the men in the line with what they could carry, and often the whole thanks of the Battalion were due for food and the wherewithal to beat back counter attacks to such men as these. I have seen the saps lined with dead men killed on just such fatigues and yet the stream of ration carriers or ammunition bearers never wavered on their way through the hell above and the death below. Every attack has held not one instance but hundreds of such parties winning through and it would be superfluous to enumerate them.
Our next serious fatigue was trench digging. We went up and spent the night clearing the sap towards the front line for under the hail of shell that forever beat upon this sector, trenches were ever being destroyed. We worked all night and saw a ration party pass by. We passed a few jokes with them and they with us, but two hours after we passed several of them lying stiff and stark where they had fallen victims to a German shell.
The succeeding night saw us out in No Man's Land working at the highest pressure possible. Here we were preparing a system of "Hop over trenches" for the 4th Bn. We set to work with a will and soon had a hole deep enough to sit in if danger threatened. Just as we thought we had ourselves in safety we had to move and this we did three times during the night. Next evening we continued the work but this was a most unfortunate fatigue.- We lost half the party by shell fire before we had gone halfway and when we did get to the position the enemy put down such a heavy barrage that we could do nothing. We could not go forward or back and so we sat down for two hours, each minute seeming as though it may be our last. Yet we escaped and when things at last quietened down we returned to supports. Next day the Battalion told to make the attack went over from the system of trenches we had constructed and, though causalities were heavy, succeeded in taking the celebrated Moquet Farm position. We were soon after relieved by the 2nd Division.
In the march out through Centre Way we escaped without causalities but the Battalion relieving us had very heavy losses taking over. We bivouaced outside Albert that night and then by stages made our way to Doullens where we entrained for Poperinghe. Thus the first phase of the Australian 1st Division's activity on the Somme closed.
For us who had been through it, the name Pozieres held mixed memories. We were proud to have taken part in the battle but missed the good comrades who had gone and many a story grew about the names of the men who had gone under in the great adventure.
The end of the story we thought was told when in July 1917 we went to the unveiling of the memorial to the heroes of the Somme. We concurred with the remarks that were made and as we wandered on the old battlefields we told and retold the story of various events. We visited the Gully and the trench we had held and then set out for Lavieville, leaving, we thought, the old battlefield and ( to paraphrase Brookes) a part of Australia for ever.
All agreed this was the end but it was not so.- The March offensive