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[Page 5]
Augustus Emerson Tennant
No 6904, 5th Battalion,
2nd Brigade, 1st Division, Victorians
Enlisted at Bendigo, 30 Sept. 1916
Sailed from Melbourne Oct. 24, 1916
left Lark Hill for France, May 13, 1917
First engagement, Polygon Wood, Menin Rd., Sept. 22, 1917
Stunt at slopes of Paschendale, Oct. 4, 1917
On ridge of " Nov. 1917
Zonnebecke – Dec. 1917
Whaechate – Xmas, Dec. 1917
Flanders mud – Jan. & Feb 1918
Fritz over the top – Mch-Apl. 1918
Flanders again –do—
Short rest – early May 1918
Raiding outposts – May, 1918
Holding line on Flanders front, June 1918
Raids – " " "
Amiens – to relieve other divisions – July 1918
Hop over on the Somme ([Indecipherable] ) Aug.9, 1918
St Martin Woods - - - Aug. 29, 1918
At rest at Ailly-sur-Close – Sept. 23, 1918
At Beauhain - - - Oct. 1918
On way to Berzuel on Nov.11, 1918 at 8 o'clock when armistice declared.
Hospital at Rouen Nov/18 with trench feet,
Dec 1918-May/19 at Base Depot, Le Havre
Demobilised 1st Oct. 1919
My Life In The Army
I am a New Zealander by birth and resided in Victoria for six years prior to the war. I enlisted in Bendigo Sept. 30th 1916 and on the 24th of Oct. of that year found myself on the boat Ulysis en route for the front. At Park Hill Salisbury plain I went through my drill.
After being there 2 months, Bronchitis sent me to Hosp. Fargo.
In May 1917 I was drafted to France found the 5 batt. A.I.F. at Flennincourt Wood. They were resting there for three months. Mt first "baptism" was at Ypres, Polygon Wood was one of the objectives that fell into the hand of the Australians during the time that my Unit was in this portion of the Menin Road Sector. Behind the attacking waces of infantry the Engineers party, to which I was temporarily attached, were subjected to severe barrages and suffered many casualties. I was twice blown up with small shells from quick firers called "whiz-bangs" but was lucky enough not to be shell-shocked from the effects of concussion.
Some of the incidents in connection with this first experience are noted in my Dairy as follows.
Bombs, gas Wind-up shock baptism
My most vivid and lasting impressions of experiences in this war are in and around Ypres. That is the place where the German hordes made their first and continued attacks to break through the British lines. There gas was first used by them on the Canadians