Next day, May 28, Capt. Jones took charge of the advance party to the front line trenches and in proceeding thither was badly wounded by what was supposed to be a .77 shell. This left Lt. Clarke of 18th, attached to 20th, in charge of “B” coy with myself as second in command and under this officer, we proceeded that night to a portion of the line astride the Bray-Corbie Road, and almost opposite the village of Morlancourt, taking over from the 8th Brigade. For seven “peaceful” days and nights, we garrisoned this section of the line, spending our time mostly in sniping at the enemy whenever opportunity arose, or in persecuting his nearer posts by discharging hundreds of the new .36 Rifle Grenades into them daily, with unknown results. A great deal of work was done also in digging new posts and in deepening, widening and draining our system of trenches, until it was pronounced by the visiting “Brass Hats” to be the best cared for portion along that sector of the front.

On the morning of the 8th day of our term in the line, the Huns “woke up” at dawn and sent down quite a heavy barrage, which included that part of the line occupied by “B” company and that held by the 19th Btn on our left. Being in an elevated position, we were able to see the Huns advancing on the 19th through the high crop but lost sight of them before they actually reached our lines. The result of the attack was not long in doubt, as the 19th lads very soon reduced the attackers to a panic and caused them to retreat in disorder, leaving many prisoners, besides numerous dead and wounded and without having caused much loss to the 19th. The barrage, though not very heavy, caused our signalling and telephonic communications to become disconnected, thus leaving our own headquarters in doubt for some time until we were enabled to despatch a runner with information back to Btn Headquarters. Only one or two minor casualties occurred and I believe some of the men were a bit disappointed at not being able to have a shot at the Huns.

The day passed peacefully enough with only a few shells passing to and fro at intervals and at about dusk we were warned to be in readiness to be relieved that night. Orders also said that we were to send out a covering patrol in front of our section of the front, to include 1 officer, 1 sgt. and 10 other ranks armed with Lewis gun, bombs and rifle. Since it was my turn for patrol, I accordingly got the necessary men together and when it was sufficiently dark, sallied forth through an opening in our wire and began the patrol of our front. We had scarcely been out five minutes before the Huns began a furious fusilade with whizz-bangs most of which fell short and in the neighbourhood of where I had my patrol, thus making our progress so difficult and dangerous that we were forced to shelter in a sump hole on the road side, using for draining purpose and into this, six of us crept to await the time when the bombardment should dwindle down sufficiently to enable us to proceed.

Presently, the British Artillery supporting our Brigade opened up with 18 pounders in answer to the Hun bombardment so that presently we were amidst two fires and were hard put to it to keep low enough in our shelter to escape the flying splinters and shrapnel. To make matters worse, the German trench mortars opened up on our extreme right post with a tornado of bursting shells and mortars mixed with machine gun fire. The row was terrific and the shells began to fly by the hundred, filling the air with acrid smelling fumes as they burst and making it impossible to see any distance as we lay in readiness to use our Lewis gun on any of the enemy who may come our way.

After about 20 minutes of this sort of thing, the firing gradually dwindled down and as we had been out long enough to allow the relief to take place, I ordered the men to return slowly to our trench, using the shell holes as cover. By this means, we were able to get back safely, but missed the opening in our wire which we had used on going out, with the result that a rather “windy” private, belonging to the relieving battalion threw a bomb at us as we stood there trying to explain ourselves. However, we were saved from destruction by a Corporal Reeves of our own company, who had not yet left the line and had been awaiting our arrival which he had expected lower down the trench.

From Cpl. Reeves, I learned that the Huns had raided our trench and had killed two men of the relieving 27th Btn. but had been unsuccessful in obtaining any identification, as our bombers and Lewis gunners had driven the attackers off. Altogether, the Huns had made three raids on our Battalion front during the past three weeks and had been severely repulsed on each occasion, once especially by the 17th Btn. before our arrival, in which instance they suffered over 100 casualties.

Going back to our “B” coy headquarters, we found that the company had proceeded back to reserve at the Chalk Pits at Heilly. Accordingly, I set out with my party and after a somewhat weary march, rejoined my company and lay myself down to rest until morning. The next two days were expended in resting and refitting whilst Lt. Balmanno of “B” coy got together a large raiding party with which it was proposed to raid certain German posts. This raid, though well prepared, never eventuated as it was later decided that the 7th Brigade should make a concerted attack and thus advance their line “holus bolus” instead. For this purpose, a tremendous bombardment on the whole divisional front took place at dawn, two days later and the 7th Brigade were successfully advanced on a front of some 800 yards, taking many prisoners and causing the enemy much material damage.

Whilst this attack was taking place “B” company, together with working parties from the 17, 18, and 19 Btns were engaged in burying signalling cables just in rear of the attacking troops. This work had gone on for four nights previously, but apart from a liberal gas shelling on each occasion, the work was successfully accomplished without undue casualties or untoward incident.

Our battalion had completed eight days duty in reserve on the outskirts of Heilly, in this fashion, when it was relieved by a Battalion of the 8th Brigade and proceeded by route march through the village of Heilly and Carbie and thence across country to Querieux, being shelled whilst on the march (at one point) by long range German artillery. On the outskirts of Querieux, we found the rest of the 5th Brigade drawn up and resting in the open fields whilst numerous motor lorries were being lined up on the roadside. Into these Waiting lorries the men of the various battalions were loaded in their proper order, after which the convoy travelled along the Amiens Road to the suburb of Amiens called Riverie where the troops were disembussed and allotted to billets in the empty and evacuated houses. We were then informed that we were to enjoy a rest for at least fourteen days, during which time we were to have leave in turns, together with sports and a little training.

For once, those in command in high places, kept their word and every day two lorries loaded with troops on leave journeyed to the picturesque town of Abbeville, there to enjoy a brief respite from their arduous duties in the forward areas. I was fortunate enough to manage leave in this fashion on two occasions, each of which I enjoyed to the full and as usual spending the time in eating and drinking nice food and palatable wines, whilst also the change of scenery and the sight of a civilian face had the effect of doing me a lot of good. The billets allotted to “B” coy were situated in houses just at the entrance to Riverie on the main Albert Road, but the accommodation being too scanty to house the whole company, No. 7 platoon had to be content with shelters erected on the “dugout” principle. During the fourteen days rest in this locality the Germans continually shelled Amiens with a naval gun having a range of over twelve miles. In the distance a report would be heard, and then the screeching sound of the approaching shell which passed over our heads en-route for the city, where it burst amongst the houses with a resounding crack which echoed and reverberated amongst the high walls for quite a minute before all was quiet again.

As a result of shelling by this big gun and the constant depredations of the night bombing ‘planes, Amiens soon presented a sadly battered appearance, and it has been estimated that quite 75% of the houses and buildings suffered mutilation from this cause. The city had long since been evacuated by the population and the big emporiums had had their goods transferred to other localities by the Army transport, the value of goods saved in this manner running into millions of Francs.

During the period of evacuation prior to August 8th, when the enemy was thrown back, Amiens was guarded by a special force of gendarmerie and military police whose duty it was to prevent unnecessary destruction of property and looting of what was left of goods in shops, furniture, etc. As they had authority to shoot any offenders on sight, it will be understood that the property of the departed citizens was fairly effectually guarded. On the outskirts of Amiens in the neighbourhood of the suburb of Riverie, occupied by the 5th Brigade were situated the market gardens which hitherto had supplied the city with vegetables and which at the time had been abandoned to the tender mercies of the troops.

In fairness, it must be said that the gardens had really been handed over to the care of the Australian Corps, but the “salvaging” operations of the men soon left nothing in the way of strawberries, carrots, currants, lettuces and other fruits and vegetables for the Corps to care for. Here the troops would go “boating” in flat bottomed punts, punting their way along the irrigation canals, collecting the fruit and vegetables from the island gardens as they passed along.