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[Page 4]
to be called by a "whose next?". 1 waited until 3 were finished and decided to go and be fixed up.. I had no Xray and felt the knife penetrate my arm before I was properly off. Metal fragments had taken part of my tunic flannel into my arm and these were left behind during the operation. They eventually festered after a couple of months causing a funny bone sort of pain.
From Rouen I went to Barracks Hospital Aldershot in England and then to a convalescent hospital at Farnham, Surrey.
I rejoined the Battalion after the enemy had mined and left tine town of Bepaume. One of my first jobs was to try to rescue men who had been trapped in a deep enemy dugout beneath the Town hall. The rescue attempt was hopeless.We found out later that these men were members of the French Government.
The Battalion moved on to Lagnicourt in preparation to attack, at night. We moved up in battle order and halted in a sunken road.
On our way up we noticed two of our tanks; our first experience of tanks to aid our attack. From 9pm we waited for advice to advance in extended order. 10pm came and no move. By 11pm troops had taken off equipment and boots and went to sleep in holes dug in the side of the road. It was almost dawn when the alarm was given. The enemy had attacked. They had been brought forward in lorries from miles back. All clean shaven, also clean boots and uniforms. Lucky for us we were on a hill and they swarmed along a valley on our right. They had travelled some considerable distance when one of our battalions In reservevwho had been alerted, together with artillery stopped their advance causing heavy losses amongst the enemy. Our casualties were not heavy but we spent most of the day using prisoners who were captured to carry stretchers bringing in their own wounded men to the aid post.
Our next move was towards Bullecourt and the Hindenburg Line. Plans were made for the attack, we were to make to be rehearsed on similar type of country, following air observation by our planes and aerial photographs. Imaginary pill boxes, Machine gun placements and gun positions were placed in the area where we were to hold our experimental attack.I remember in moving to this area we crossed a field of green peas. We treated ourselves to them. The crop was ruined and as usual the farmer would be well compensated. They were even paid to allow us to sleep In the barns and stables. They were a hungry mob. We paid both in cash and blood. However the whole affair was a foolish mistake as we found out later that spies must have watched our rehearsal
Soon after came the attack at Bullecourt. Zero hour was 11pm.
We advanced in extended order at 9pm and were instructed to go forward until we reached a white tape, lie down and keep silent until zero hour. The result was there were many long waves ot men lying behind white tapes facing the Hindenburg Line waiting for zero hour in warm weather. Five minutes before 11pm the enemy artillery opened up on the waves of men awaiting to attack. Our own artillery then attempted to shell the enemy. However due to the poor condition of overused guns many of the shells fell short on the waves of the waiting men.The result was that when zero hour arrived very few were able to make the attack. Survivors made their way back to the shelter of the sunken road. kt 9am a further attack was made and a portion of the Hindenburg Line was occupied. This resulted in only sandbag barriers between us and the enemy as we made attempts to bomb our way along the trench. We spent 3 days m Bullecourt. Our casualties were terrific. After 14 days in Pozieres and 3 days In Bullecourt only 12 of the Company to which I belonged came out.
Moving on from Bullecourt, after receiving reinforcements from Australia, we occupied the line at Ploegstraat for a couple of months.No attacks were made. It was 14 days in the front line and