MOUQUET FARM

Taranaki Daily News, 16 November 1916, Page 8

MOUQUET FARM

DAYS OF HEAVY FIGHTING.; 4USTH4LT.ANS EXGAtiEU,* (By C. \V. ]'ean, Official Correspondent with Australian Forces). On the same day on whirh the British loolc Guillemont and Leifzc Wood and reached Ginehy, on the same clay on which the French pushed their line almost to Combles, at the same time as the British attacked Thiepval from the front, the Australians for the fifth tune delivered another blow at the wedg-: which they have all the while been driving into Thiepval from the hack, along the ridge whose chest runs northwards from Pozieres past Mouquet K>rn).

It was a very heavy blow this time. On each occasion ttw r.'cdge has been driven a little futhcr forward. This time the blow Was heavier ana the wedge went further. The attack was made just as a summer night was reddening into dawn. Away to the rear, over Gnillemcnt—for the Australians were poshing almost in an opposite direction from the great British push—the first, light of day glowed angrily on the lower edges of the leaden clouds. You could faintly distinguish objects a hundred yards awaj. Our field guns from behind the hills; broko suddenly into a tempest of fire, which tore a curtain of dust from the red shell nraters carpeting, the ridge. A few minutes later the bombardment lengthened, and the line o Queenslar.ders. Tasmanians and Weste/n Australians rushed for the trenches ahead of them.

MOUQUET FA?.:?, v On the left, well dov.n the shouiaer of the hill towarjj. Th:cpva!, was the (hist heap of craters pd ashes with odd ends of seme shattered timber sticking out of it, which goes by"the name of Mouqiiet Farm. Jt was a big imports?* homestead some months ago. To-day it is the wreckage of a log, waterlogged in a boundless, tawny sea of craters. There is no sign of a trench left in it, th* entrances of the dugouts may be fourri here and there, like ratholes, about half a dozen of them, being dishevelled heaps of rubbish. They open into craters now No dcv.bt each opening has been scratched clear of debris a dozen times. You have to get into some of them by crawling on hands and knees. The first charge took the Western Australians far beyond the farm. They reached a position two hundred yards further and started to dig in there. Within an hour or two they had a fairly good trench out amongst the craters well in front of the farm. The farm behind them ought to be solidly ours with such a line in front of it. A separate body of men, some o 4 them /araianians, came like a whirlwind op iheir heels> Sato the farm. Part of the garrison which was lying out in in a rough lice of shell craters, found them on top of the craters before thej knew that there were British troops anywhere about. They were captured and sent back. The Australia!-;; tumbled over the debris Into iht farm itself.

The f.ght that raged for two days o'.; this ridge was not one of these in which the enemy put; up his hands as soon, as our men came on top of him. Far up on the top of the hills to the right, and in the maze of trenches between, and in the dugouts of the farm on t.h> left, he was fighting stiffly ovei the whole front. In the din) light, as the partv which was to take the farm rushed into it, a machine-gun was barking at them from somewhere inside that rubbish yard- itself. They could hear the bwk obvioush very close to them, but it was impossible to say where it eame from, whether thirty yards away or fi'-y They kucw it must.be firing frora behind one of the heap," of rubbish where the entrance of tilt dugouts probably was firing obliquely and to its roa." at the men who rushed past it. Th'ev c hosc the heap which seemed moat probable and fired six rifle grenades all at once into it.' Thera was a clatter and dust. The machine-gun went out like a candle. Later they found it lying smashed at the mouth of a shaft there. ■t he Germans fought them from "their rat" holes. When a man peered down the dark staircase shaft he sometimes received a shot from below, .sometimes a rifle grenade fired through, a hole in ? sandbag barricade which the Germans had made at the bottom of the stair. Occasionally a face would be seen peerincr ~p from bclow-for they refused to come out, and our men would flin? down a bomb or fire a couple of Shots. But those on the top of the stair always have the advantage. The Germans were bombed r.nd thot out of entrance after entrance and at last came up through the oniv exit left to tlieju. Finding Australians Rw.u'nr.iig through the place thev surrendered and the whole garrison of Mouquet Farm was_ accounted for. Tho c c who wore not lying dead m t.»c craters an;, dust heap were prisoners. Mouquet Farm was ours i.r.d l.ne of Australian infantry was entrencinflg wseli far out ahead cf it. '

ON THE I'.IDGE.

On the rldjp tho char?, had Jf.rthft* to ,v i Tt swarmed ofei onf German trencli i.nd on to a nm distant one The German. fought them trom the/, trench. Tho rush was : long' one una the German Vim time to find his feet after the bombardment. But the mcr. he was stnndia:. tip to were the shoot 0 a faa.ol Queensland regimen, and thoir.h 1' Germ guardsmen show «d fig!.. t!r. ::i, Gein.ans we have IV-'. 'iey 1..: v: mat-.-ii foi ih'fire of iiie.' boys. ' tc have beei. crowded v German dead a:.<l vouMl.-d. ( t... I>--- • ,or man trice":. A .'' l; back iiii the i.: ouch limllos. •' a tunc 1. in:•' for! 1-• av/.i". the lir.r to, C.'.yi. « .«> into i:.' o:!'.t;r. r Ol- ».u? <-t before the bo"",b.: v P-rt, the Queens!:.'.: : we:v mi* \.ie aj.vn with 1;.- ' bayonet, and .t was not lci". v K-V. the trench was *°The Qucenslandera who reached this trench and took it found themselves loot-in" out o\er a wide evpanse ot covntry. Miles ™ front of them and far away to then flank there stretched a virgin land. They were upon the crest of the ridge and the landscape be-ore them was the country behind the German lines. Except for a gentle rise somewhat further northward behind Thiepval the} had reached about tho highest point r.pon the ridge.

THS STRUGGLE IN THF C?STTI?. The conac-it-in trenches, between \lc'.v:ii'l'v Farm and the ridge above and behind it, were attacked by the Tasi mr.:.ian?. The firo was very heayj and ici'a mo—Mi it looked, y if tV jurt

of the line and the Queenslanders immediately next to it would pot be able to get in. Officer after officer was hit. Leading amongst these was a senior captain, a. man old for his rank, but one who was known to almost every iu»n in the force as ono of the most sinking personalities in Gallipoli. lie 'jad two bori.s in the Australian force, officers practically of his own rank. He was one of the first men on to Aiim: beach and was the. last Australian who left it. 1 had seen him just he as was leaving fot the fight some hours before. He carried no weapon but a walking stick. "I have never carried anything el=e into action,'' he said, "and I. am not going to begin now." He was ill with rheumatism, and looked it, and the doctor had advised that he ought not to be with his company. But lie- came back to them that evening for the fight, and one could see that it 'made."a world of difference to them. He was a man whom his own men swore by. Personally. one breathed more easily knowing that he was with them. It would be his last big fight, he told me. Half-way through that charge, in the thick of the whirl of it, he was seen standing leaning heavily upon his stick. It wok touch .and go at the moment whether the trench was won or lost. "Are you hit, sir?" askcu several around him. Then they noticed a gash in his leg und the blood running from it, and he seemed to be hit though the chest as well. "I will rea.'h that trench if the boys do," he said. "Have no fear of that, sir," was the answer. A sergeant asked him for 1 his stick: Then, with the voice of a hi# man, like his officer, tho sergeant ihoutad und waved the stick, and took the iu«n on. Hair dark, his figure was not uni'.k.e thaß of his c?:a. r iiander. They muds one further rush arid were into tho trench.

TO 'jfaii BITTER EXDA They were utterly isolated in tf". trench when they reached it. A German machine gun was cracking away in the same trench to their tight, Bring between them and the trench they had come from. There was barbed wire in front of it. When they tried to force a way with bombs up the trench to the gun, German bombers in craters behind the trench showered, bombs on to tliem. Then a sergeant crawled out between the wire and the machine gun. He crawled 011 his stomach right up to the gun ana shot the gunner with his revolver. "I've killed three of them," he said, as he crawled back. Presently a shell fell on him and shattered him. But our bombers crept out into craters behind the trench also and bombed the German bombers out of their shelters. That opened the way along the trench, and they found the three machine gunners shot, as the sergeant had said. The Tasmanians went swiftly along the trench after that, and presently saw a row of good Australian heads in a sap well in front of them. There went up 'a cheer. Other German guardsmen, who had been lying in craters in front of the trench anil a scrap of trench beyond heard the cheering; seeing that there were Australians 011 both sides of tliem thty stumbled to their feet and threw up their hands. They were marched oil' to the rear and the Tasmaniani joined up with the Queenslanders. So the centre was joined 1 to the left. On the right it was uncertain whether it was joined 01 not. There was a line of trench to be seen on that side running back towards the German lines. It was merely a more regular line of mud amongst the irregular mudhoaps of the craters; but there were the heads of men looking out from it—so clearly it was a trench. As the light grew they could make out men leaning on their arms and elbows looking over the parapet. Every available glass was turned on them, but il was too dark still to see if they were Australians. Two scouts were sent forward creeping from hole to hole. Both were shot. A machine gun tvas turned at once to the line of heads. They started hopping back down their tumbled sap towards the German rear. Clearly they were Germans. The machine gun made fast practice as the line of backs showed behind the parapet. There were Germans, not Australians, in the trenches 011 the Tasmanians' left --in the same trench as they. The flank there was in the air. There was nothing to do except to barricade the trench and hold the flank as best they could.

And for the next two days they held it, shelled with every sort of gun and trench mortar, although fresh companies of the Prussian Guard reserve constantly filed in to the gap which existed between this point and Mouquet Farm. Their leader who had promised to reach that trench with them was not there. They found him lying dead within a few yards of it, straight in front of the machine gun which they had silenced. So he had kept his promise—and lost his life. Th?y had a young officer and few sergeants. All through that day their numbers slowly dwindled- They held the trench all the next night, and in the grey dawn of the second day a sentry looking over the trench saw the Germans a little way outside of it. As he pointed them out lie fell back shot through the head. They told the Queenslanders. and the Quccnslandevs came out instantly and bombed from their side in rear of the Germans. The Queensland oflicei was shot dead, but the Germans were cleared out or killed. That afternoon the. Germans attacked that open flank with heavy artillery. For hours shell after shell crashed' into the earth around. A heavy battery found the barricade and put its fo'ui heavy shells systematically round it. They reduced the garrison as far as possible, and four or five only were kept by the barricade. The inevitable shell came through their shelter and left only two. 'lhen others were brought to stand by—shell? were falling anything from thirty to forty in the minute. The garrison dwindled to a handful had to shorten 't< length of trench, bringing in the wounded with it. One of the remaining sergeant—a Lewis gunner— back I frc::. an errand crawling, wounded dangerously through the neck. _ "I don't wa:'.l to go away," he said. ''lf I can't work a Lewis gun I can sit -by another ihap and tell him how to." In the end, when he was sent away, he was seen crawling on two knees and one hand, guiding with the other hand a. fellow gunner who had been hit.

"HAVE WE THE 1 FAP.M?' 1 That night a big gun, much tiggor than the rest, sent its shells roaring down through the sky somewhere near —thr men would be waked by the shriek of it and then fall asleep and waked again, by the crash of the enplosion. And still tlicy held the trench. Messages used to come into headquarters—l saw them myself—giving the exact state of affairs. Every other mes-, sago ended, "But we will hold on." Th« relief came. The fresh troops were able quickly to re-establish the line whet* it had been shortened and to round off unoccupied corners—grand fellows, those relieving troops,, and in great heart. Anil

the men who had hung on to that flank almost within shouting distance of Mouquet for two wild days and night* came put of the fight asking, "Can you tell me if wo have got Mouquet larinV Wo had net The fierce fighting in the broken centre had enabled us to liohl all the ground gained upon the ere it. Cut through this same gap the Germans tiad coma back against the farm. They swarmed in upon the garri'on of the farm, driving the men who were holding that flunk gradually in. Under heavy shell lire the'line dwindled and dwindle 1 until the Western Australians who had won t'ie farm ;ind held it for live hours numbered barelj sufficient tc -.nake good their retirement. The officer left in charge there, himself .wounded, withdrew the remnant. And the Germans entered the farm again.

But on the crest the line' still held The guard reserve counter-attacked it three times, and on the last occasion the Queenalanden had such deadly shooting against Germans in the open as cheered them in spite of all their failure. I saw those. Queenslanders marching out two dav» later witn * step which would do credit to a Guards regiment going in. So ended a fight as hard as Australians have ever fought. The Western Australians were robbed of the victory which their great charge deserved. The Tasmanians in some ways had tho hardest fighting of all.