Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 251
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[Page 251]
125
assaulting troops of these formations were conveyed about forty miles in fleets of solid-tyre, double-decker, London buses, painted wartime grey, to a tract of topography nearly identical with that around Messines, for the purpose of rehearsing the big attack under the supervision of our Sixth Army Commander, General "Bertie" Plumer, and his staff.
Our battalion was billeted for over a week in a small farmers' village, Vaudringhem, in the verdant hills, nearly twenty miles direct south-east of Boulogne, preparing for the big day.
After the rehearsal ended, all officers down to Company commanders were called to a big conference on the hill to hear the comments of the generals. As Army Commander, fat little, pink-cheeked General Plumer had first "say". He kept puffing out his big white moustache, and all he said was that he thought the rehearsal had gone off very well, but the men made too much noise, which, I thought, was a rather inept criticism, as they were supposed to be following a "creeping barrage" of artillery shells exploding within less that a hundred yards of them, and the din of it would be deafening. Then Lieut-General Godley, as Corps Commander, muttered a few almost inaudible inconsequential remarks that seemed to have little relevance to the exercise. Next it was the turn of our Divisional Commander, Major-General John Monash, and for fully ten minutes he gave a masterly and clear analysis of the whole operation, pointing out errors and weaknesses and suggesting improvements. It showed the professional soldier was very badly compared with the citizen amateur, and we Australians were very proud of our Monash on that occasion.
125A - [See Page 253 for 125A]
On the 7th of June after a long night march up to our jumping-off trench, through a thick mist of phosgene gas laid down the enemy artillery, we got into position shortly before the big mines were fired simultaneously, an hour before daylight, in one tremendous blast that rocked the earth, and blew the overlying trenches and their occupants out of existence.
This was the signal to begin the assault. Immediately we climbed over our parapet and started our advance across no-mans-
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