36th Battalion AIF. Before leaving Australia for Europe.

BATTLE OF VILLERS BRETONNEUX Story from the Newcastle Sun 1937. written by War Historian C.W.Bean

'9th BRIGADE IN FIGHT OF ITS HISTORY'

36th BATTALION SAVED SITUATION

How a swift, counter-attack by the 36th Battalion under Colonel Milne retrieved a very awkward situation, when other units of the 9th Australian Infantry

Brigade began to fall back during the first Villers Bretonneux battle on April 4, 1918. is told by the Official War Historian (Captain C. E. W. Bean) in the

fifth volume of the Official History of the A.I.F., just published.

The 9th Brigade, which was drawn from Newcastle and the North, 'made the fight of its history in defence of that village,' writes Captain Bean.

ON April 3, German 'planes flew Slowly over, the front line, and Judging by their behaviour, Major Carr, commanding the front line of the 35th,

assured the C.O's. staff officer, Captain H. J. Connell- (Hamilton), who came round the battalion's line after dork, that the enemy would attack

next morning. At 5.30 a.m. the enemy put down a heavy barrage on the village, but after the bombardment there was a puzzling lull.

The morning was dull with fine rain at Intervals, and presently when the fog lifted the enemy could be seen advancing In platoons in close order.

A deadly fire from rifles and Lewis guns greeted them and they fled. Alter three or four efforts, the Germans previously attacking Captain G.G. Coghill's company along fee railway swerved to the south and concentrated their efforts upon the line of posts of the 7th Buffs beyond Coghill's right flank. After the first of these attacks the Bulls got out or their trenches and withdrew. Coghill went and Interviewed Lieut.D. G. Ferguson of the Buffs and asked if they would come back if he gave them covering fire from his Lewis guns. The Buffs agreed, and return ed, but as Coghill was returning to his own line he looked round and saw the Buffs again retiring.

At seven o'clock the whole German line was seen to advance. The British artillery barrage, combined with a concentrated small arms flre, sent them to the ground. Through a misunderstanding, some of the cavalry machine-guns had not stayed on with the infantry on the front of the newly-arrived 14th Division and the advancing Germans were not stopped, the right battalion of the 14th Division breaking. The 35th,. south of the road, could see the enemy crossing to the northern side, but not what happened there. A withdrawal was ordered to the second line. Half of Lieut. C. L. Thomson's platoon under Sergeant A. W.

Harrison (Toronto), not receiving the subsequent order to withdraw, fought on until their ammunition was gone,found the enemy all around them, and, although they tried to make a show with their bayonets, were captured.

Thomson, superintending the withdrawal of the rest of his men, was killed Just as he reached the support position. The Germans on the left arrived at the alignment of this trench almost as soon as the Australians, continued on, the left of the 35th folllnc further back. Tho four attached machine-guns of the 9th

Company covered them steadily. One gun crew on the left, remaining until its ammunition was exhausted, found, on retiring, that the Germans were already behind it. The officer. Lieutenant C. D. Lockhart, and Sergeant H. A. Lawton were the lost to leave. Lawton was shot and though Lockhart carried him for a

while, was eventually captured, as was Lance Corporal D. F. Mackie, who tried to save the gun. Rushed Machine Gun Major Carr and Captain Hawkins,pf the centre company, congratulating themselves that the offensive had foiled, observed a stream of men passing rearwards over the plateau behind them. Carr sent a runner to Inform Coghill of the right company,and ordered Lieutenant E. C. Barlow (New Lambton) of his left platoon to form a flank.

The Germans on Coghill's front hod crept up to a culvert under the rail way embankment, from which they enfiladed with a machine gun the line to the south. Coghill called for volunteers to go out and suppress the gun,saying, 'If you don't volunteer I'll ?well have to do It myself.'Corporal J. R. Wilson and another volunteered, and, crawling on their stomachs with rifles and bayonets fixed, in view of the whole right flank,they shot down the machine gunners

end then rushed the post. Unfortunately, they tried to bring in the gun, and Wilson was badly wounded and his mate killed. Coglilll, with one of his men, went out and pulled W1I son In.

The 35th Falls Back

. Immediately after the morning's battle, the XIX. Corps had buttressed the front at Vlllers-Bretonneux by ordering forward from Bols l'Abbe the wo remaining battalions or the 9th Brigade, the 34th and 36ith, to defend the town, if necessary, on the north,south and east.Advancing in open artillery formation, both reached the neighbourhood of the intended assembly positions without serious loss, notwithstanding the shell fire on these hollows. At 1.10

xm., the Germans began a severe bombardment of this area for over an hour.

The 34th lost severely, many of its headquarters staff being hit. Among these were Major H. L. Wheeler'

(Newcastle) senior company commander. News arriving during the morning that the Lewis guns of the 35th Battalion were choked with mud,Lieutenant-Colonel O. B. Benson, of the eth London, offered to change six with six of his own. This was done.In the posts of the 35th many of the tired men were half asleep, when about 4 p.m. some of those on the right saw the whole British line to the right retiring. It was afterwards ascertained that the Germans had

broken through farther south, and that when they emerged from Lancer Wood, behind the right of the 53rd and 55th Brigades, these troops fell back, the movement spreading quickly until it reached the right company of the 35th Battalion.Lieutenant Warden, then commanding tho right, ordered the men to move back and form a defensive flank, but the men of the 35th next in the line, seeing Australians retire, thought that a withdrawal or the whole battalion

was in process and began to fall back.Among some of the Junior officers there was on unusual element of weakness. The right of the 33rd and 35th

simply got up and retired. As the movement spread northwards, Carr and Hawkins tried desperately to stop It, but some of the Junior officers

would not heed. The whole line of the 35th went.

Carr, with one- machine gunner.halted for a time, firing at the enemy south of the railway streaming towards Vlllers-Bretonneux, but soon there was nothing to do but to follow the troops. Only the portion of the 33rd on the extreme left stood still.

The Counter-attack

Colonel Goddard, commanding the 35th, was bitterly disappointed and mortified, when the news reached headquarters. He turned to Colonel Milne, of the 36th, and told him to counter-attack at once. Milne leaped to his feet, saluted and went out. Goddard sent Connell, his staff officer — 'a mainstay throughout' — to survey the position from the railway bridge, and to rally the 35th there if possible. Captain Sayers, commandIng the reserve company of the 35th,ran to lead his men, and hold up the Germans east of the town while the 36th was getting ready.

The first hint of any trouble to come under the notice of the 36th,resting . south of the town, was the retirement through them from 4.15 p.m. onwards of British infantry, who said that Germans were coming on in thousands.

The 36th knew It must counter attack, and asked the British to stay and Join them. The retiring troops,however, hod passed the limit of their endurance and efforts to rally them were fruitless. Milne, after surveying the position, ? determined to attack with his whole battalion south 'of the railway towards the Monument Farm and Wood.Speed was the chler requirement. To his company commanders he said, 'Go till you're stopped and hold on at all costs.'

'Good-bye, boys. It's neck or nothing,' he said as he walked along the lines. Moving at a Jog trot the 36th quickly passed the crest and come in view of the advancing Germans,who were at that moment emerging,apparently in five waves, from the Monument Wood, a quarter of a mileaway.

The pace or the 36th was very fast and at the sight of this grim line, the enemy at once hesitated and then turned and ran back into the wood.

Meanwhile Captain Sayers ana Captain Connell had run to the railway bridge, where the latter rallied ; a retiring detachment of the 6th Lon

don Regiment. Sayers rushed back to the village and led out his company, and with Connell. extended the men north of the railway.36th Sweeps Forward

With Sayers's company north, and the 36th south or the railway, the counter-attack moved swiftly. Connell, on his way back to town, met two companies or the 6th London coming out of It. and he set them to advance several hundred yards behind the Australians. ...Ahead of them, the 36th, in one long line, swept forward at a great pace into on intense fire of small arms.On the right and centre, officers and men fell thickly from the first Monument Form Wood was an ugly place to tackle. The flre from these enclosures split tne advance. Captain J. E. W. Bushclle led the left company, and Major B'. B. Rodd (New

castle) the centre.Captain O. J. C. Tedder was on the right. Bushelle's and Rodd's companies were held up by flre from the wood and from the haystack north

of it. For the moment it looked as if the whole movement might becoming to a stop and Major Rodd sent a message to Bushclle with a view to resuming the advance.An answer came back that he need not worry— the advance would go on. At this stage Rodd was severely wounded by a shot from the haystack,

and after giving directions as he lay on the ground, handed control of his men to a sergeant. Bushclle carried forward the left, and the Germans in the wood, finding themselves outflanked, began to run back in increasing numbers.

 

In this engagement the 36th lost 150 men, a quarter or its strength, including more than half Its officers. By night the 36th's left had driven bock the enemy for at least a mile, and Its right for nearlv half a mile. The frontwas firmly held, but there was nothing behind it.

Captain Sayers's Exploit

North of the railway cutting Sayers's company of the 35th advanced with equal success. The enemy immediately ahead numbered 100 nnd as the

35th advanced some of them ran. Lieutenant T. E. Thompson (Wcston) was wounded at' 15 yards range. Captain Sayers leaped among three of the enemy in a shell hole. He hit one of them on the head with tho man's own helmet, strangled the second and the third escaped. Sayers's advance ended a little short of the bridge.

A continuous line, though a thin one, was re-established north west as south of the railway, and at an hour after midnight began an advance with out barrage. The 33rd and the left company of the 34th had sharp flghting at the second aerodrome, but seized the old support line beyond it. Farther north tbe cavalry also advanced, and farther still down near the Sonune. the 15th Australian Brigade was In action. The 36th and the 6th London spent the night digging their line of posts beyond Monument Wood.Up in the front the night drew to an end without attack from the enemy.In this operation the 36th Brigade lost 30 officers and 635 men. The strength of the brigade was probably 2250.

'

The German offensive of April 4,'says Captain Bean, 'though it failed in Its object, had driven back the Fourth British Army on Its whole front. Immediately to the south the XXXVI. French Corps . . . was driven back as much as two miles ... but here the deep penetration was only nt one point and with French reinforcements steadily arriving the danger had probably been less than at Villers Bretonneux, the capture of which might at the lowest estimate have influenced the whole remainder of the spring campaign. The averting of this danger on this occasion must be credited

largely to the 3rd Cavalry Division and the 36th Australian Infantry Brigade.

Done