Arrived at Divisional Headquarters, I handed over my horse and joined the Divisional billeting party which was being embussed in motor lorries to proceed to the rear. Shortly afterwards, we began our journey of over 40 kilometres over the devastated and ruefully destroyed battlefield, passing en route through the famous towns and villages of Hargecourt, Peronne, Villers Bretoneaux and Amiens to the village of Vignecourt. It would be impossible to imagine a more melancholy scene than was presented to us as we lumbered along through this scene of desolation and destruction. Not a tree or village that was not lifeless and destroyed. Not a house that was not shell holed, nor an acre of ground that was not pitted with numerous shell holes or dug up with trenches or sown with barbed wire and rank weeds. Little cemeteries met the eye at every turn, whilst isolated crosses mutely pointed out the grave of some fallen soldier.
The only work in a state of repair throughout this wilderness was the road system which it was necessary to keep in good order to carry the heavy transport. For over 40 kilometres, the scenery was much the same and we were heartily glad when at last our lorry emerged from this horrible shell torn belt and we commenced our last stage of a few kilometres towards Vignecourt. We arrived at the village at about 3 o’clock and at once proceeded to obtain a meal at a nearby estaminet.
My work of obtaining billets for our Battalion which was due to arrive later, immediately commenced and by dusk the job of allotting officers and men to their various billets was completed. At about 9 pm, the Battalion marched into the village, having returned from the line per train to Amiens where it had disentrained and marched to Vignecourt and half an hour later all ranks were safely ensconced in comfortable billets with the prospects of a long rest and the probability that they had seen their last days of front line warfare, there being rumour afloat that the enemy was routed and suing for an armistice. This was October 6th. There was no certainty that the war was about to end, nor could the Australian Corps afford to act on that assumption. Dame Rumour had circulated the idea, which fact added to the prevailing general opinion, gives me my reason for making the statement. It was given out for certain, however, that the Australian Corps was to be given a good long spell, justly earned, after having participated, as a unit of the nth Army under Sir Henry Rawlinson, since April 8th, 1918, in the magnificent defence of Amiens.
The story of what was accomplished as a fighting Army Corps, of the diligence, gallantry and skill which was exhibited and the audacity and prowess with which all ranks acted during this period, justly earned for the Australians, from the press, civilians and army alike, congratulations and admiration of the highest possible nature. The Corps had been in the line since the battle of Menin Road in September 1917, the infantry at last being relieved from the line by the 2nd American Army Corps a little over 12 months later, on October 6, 1918.
The 20th now settled down to refit and reorganise. Having in view the possibility of a return to the firing line, light drill and training was commenced almost immediately. The great part of the time however was expended in games and other amusements. An officer was detailed in each battalion to act as sports officer, his duties being to organize in his battalion, teams to participate in the inter-battalion sports, football and hockey tournaments. I was detailed to this duty for the 20th Battalions. Since I had been relieved from the necessity of performing other battalion routine duties, I was enabled to concentrate all my time and energy in arranging and organising my new work. The Officers and N.C.O.‘s contributed a sum of 200 francs to a sports fund, which was augmented by a donation of 100 francs from the Battalion Canteen. With this money I was instructed to procure any sporting materials we were likely to need.
We were also assisted by donations of material by that good and useful organization the Y.M.C.A. which came to light with a set or two of football jerseys and a football so that we were very soon equipped with all necessary material. Football was always popular and four inter-battalion games were played resulting as follows: 20th v 17th lost, 20th v 18th lost, 20th v 19th lost, 20th v 5th A.M.C. won, so that the 20th were only successful in winning one game. Later on a battalion sports meeting was held, which included foot racing, high jump, long and broad jump, three legged races, relay races and many other items of a popular nature. Prizes were liberally distributed from funds raised from the previously mentioned sources and Brigade Sports Meetings a Boxing tournament and Divisional Horse show were also held at different times during our sojourn of about six weeks at Vignecourt, to all of which the troops were obliged to attend in lieu of parades. At such meetings the barracking was very keen, each battalion encouraging its own competitors in a very keen, if noisy fashion.
During the evenings, also, the time was charmed away with the aid of concerts and picture shows which were held in an Aeroplane hanger near by. Miss Leas Ashwell’s troupe of entertainers obliged on two occasions, giving each time a concert fit to be reproduced anywhere and which were greatly appreciated by all ranks. In addition, our Brigade troupe called the “Green Diamonds” gave their usual bi-weekly entertainments. So that it can be easily seen that whenever the battalion was enable to indulge in a rest of any duration, it made the best of the respite and enjoyed itself to the fullest extent possible.
On October 23rd, I was notified of my award of the Military Cross for my actions during the operations of August 8th, receive the congratulations of Col. Forbes, Major Macdonald and all other officers of the battalion. I forthwith adorned my tunic with a slip of the ribbon of the Military Cross and was known from then onward as Lt. W.H. Elkington, M.C.
From this date onward and in fact during the last half of the month of October and early in November, the news from the front line was of such an exciting and victorious a nature that it was almost possible to foretell the end of the war. In fact, one or two false alarms did come through, only to be contradicted immediately and contrary information received instead. The situation map on the wall in the Officers Mess revealed very rapid movement from day to day as the Huns retreated in disorder towards Germany, leaving in his wake an enormous quantity of war material He was being thrown back at such a rate that it was almost impossible to keep contact. The roads, bridges, buildings and railways were frequently mined as he retreated, thus adding enormously to the difficulties of the victorious Allied Armies. The first week in November brought cold, wet weather, and so we remained, when not otherwise occupied by the side of our coal fire in our billets.
Our coal fire was generally made from coal which was mostly pilfered or “salvaged” as the operation of thieving from the Army was generally called. Our Batmen were usually past-masters of this art, from necessity, and in fact so was everyone else. The Artillery generally “salvaged” horses, limbers, etc.when required. The Army Corps “salvaged” tarpaulins, G.S. Waggons, ropes etc.and so the operation of helping oneself to the property of other branches of the service went on from day to day, right throughout the Army.
Our billets were really good at Vignecourt, the bed I occupied being built of almost solid, carved walnut. The mattress was huge affair, containing dozens of small spiral springs, the top mattress being filled with feathers. The bed clothes were both plentiful and clean, being surmounted with a huge balloon like counterpane stuffed with feathers. The room itself contained other expensive furniture in keeping with the bed. I must admit that having performed the work of billeting myself, I had seen to it that I had had the best billet the village had to Offer. For all this, the owner of the billet received the gorgeous sum of one franc per diem.
Our Company Officers mess was also comfortable containing a table, chairs and piano, which latter I am afraid was rather ill used. Food was plentiful, though expensive to purchase. Eggs were 3/9 per dozen, a fowl cost about 7/- each, butter 3/6 per lb. and 2/6 per tin for preserved fruit, with potatoes at 12 lbs for 2/6.
Just prior to this date, and during our stay at Vignecourt we had seen the collapse of Turkey, Bulgaria and Austria and as all the world knows, on November 11th at 11 am, 1918, the German nation had been granted an Armistice by the victorious Allies.
When the news came to us in this more or less isolated village of old men and women, with troops galore, the whole population seemed to go mad with delight. The old French people ran out of their houses into the roads, shouting “Vive les Allies” “Vive la France” “Vive l’Australie” etc., clapping the soldiers on the back whilst one and all wanted to kiss every soldier within reach. Champagne and wine literally flowed. Bottles of wine, champagne, etc. which had been secreted for years in anticipation of this great event were at last taken from their hiding places and soldiers and civilians clinked together, the glass of victory and thankfulness.
The battalions of the 17th and 18th and 20th, each supplied music of a patriotic nature in turns, in the Square near the Church whilst civilians and soldiers danced and gathered round to listen and be thrilled through and through with patriotic fervour. The French children produced their fireworks and danced for very jog and altogether whilst there was no “Mafeking” yet the scene was one of intense joy and thanksgiving. A few hours of this went on, when all troops were fallen in and filed into the local cathedral. Here a thanksgiving service was held with civilians and soldiers side by side, whilst Padre Cluné M.C. and the French civilian Curé delivered their respective addresses, The Te Deum was then sung and the service ended, after which, things returned to something like normal.
On November 20th, a ceremony took place in the Cemetery of Vignacourt in which the graves of Australians who were there interred were handed over to the keeping of the French Children as a future duty. The ceremony was extremely impressive, even moving the French to tears, when the distinguished French General referred to the brave Australians who had given their lives for them etc. At the conclusion of the function, rifles were discharged over the graves by a firing party, after which Last Post was sounded and the parade dismissed.
November 21st terminated our period of rest at Vignacourt and it was during the afternoon of that day that “B” company entrained and were soon lumbering on their way across the devastated region between Albert and Cambrai. En route to the battered towns of Peronne, Rosieres, and Cambrai were passed and after a very slow, uncomfortable and tedious journey, the Company finally disentrained at the Village of Bertry. This village was situated on the outskirts, on the Eastern edge of the devastated belt and was near the village of Le Cateau which was famous as the scene of more than one battle during the famous retreat from Mons “B” company, under the charge of Capt. Morgan-Jones acted during the next couple of days as a working party to unload the Divisional transport as it arrived on trains from Vignacourt. The common assumption prevalent throughout the ranks was that we were en route to join the army of occupation at Cologne on the Rhine so that the spirits of the troops were high in anticipation. The trains arrived at intervals, carrying complete units, including troops, horses, and transport and disentrained as such. So soon as a train arrived at the dilapidated siding, it was promptly swarmed by fifty men and very soon limbers and waggons were bundled off the waggons to the roadside, where waiting horses were harnessed up and driven off en route to wherever the battalion was going. The company had been divided into two parties of about 50 men under officers, which performed tours of duty lasting eight hours each.
During our time off, we occupied temporary billets in the houses of the village nearby. Consequently, we had ample time and opportunity to get into conversation with the French civilians who still occupied the village and who had only been released from captivity by the Huns about three weeks before. These poor people all had similar stories to tell and when one looked at them one could quite believe their stories. They had been robbed, bullied and starved for over four years and all were a sullen downcast look as if they were afraid of giving offence.
In Bertry, the Huns took all the possessions of the civilians and only left them the bare necessaries of life to carry on their daily lives with. For instance, the people were only allowed one suit of clothes, one bed each, one set of cooking utensils, etc. all else of value being either put into storage or sent back to Germany as plunder. The Huns used to probe the walls and gardens for secreted valuables and in fact carried on a systematic programme of looting. When we arrived, the civilians had hardly a thing to call their own and were dependent on the Army for support. From the rail head at Bertry, a matter of 250,000 civilians were daily rationed and streams of motor lorries left the station daily, loaded with loaves of bread with which to feed them. We heard one or two rather romantic stories also which I here set down.
In one case, an officer of the East Surrey Regiment, was wounded during the retreat from Mons. He was secreted by the French women of the village and disguised as a woman, thinking no doubt that he would thus evade capture and soon effect his escape. Time went on and he used to go to work with the other women to the brush factory and in fact lived as a French woman. This lasted for four years until he was released just before the Armistice by the advancing British troops.
Another officer did the same but was betrayed by a woman spy who informed the Germans. The Huns thereupon shot the officer’s benefactress for hiding him. When the British took the village, the spy was arrested and handed over to the French, who court-martialled her for murder and sentenced her to imprisonment for life. The German officer was cordially hated by all. He seems to have been an arrogant bully, both to his men and to the French civilians.
They took everything from the French to provide for their own comfort and made their own men work to that end also, so that it was regarded as a great event by all concerned when an officer was killed. They held control over their men more by fear than by leadership. For a long time in Bertry, British prisoners were used as beasts of burden by the Huns, who made them drag the guns about and for other similar work. They fed them miserably and the British Tommies used to ask for bread from the French civilians as they passed along, which they could not give. However, the French women managed to give them boiled potatoes occasionally, but one day a woman was caught doing so and was sentenced to a term of imprisonment for having done so.
The civilians never heard any outside news and it was only when an aeroplane flew over and dropped pamphlets containing war news that they were able to find out how the war was going. Every stick of furniture was looted from Bertry, whilst all metals including brass, lead, copper and zinc were taken away to manufacture munitions of war.
The only good thing that can be said of the Huns was that they were reduced to dire straits themselves. The searched the homes of the French at any hour or time for clothing and took what they wanted. The French always endeavoured to hide anything which they did not want the Germans to get and often would bury stuff at night in boxes and sacks, but the Huns would watch them and would often find the place and dig up the hidden goods.
The German officers were reduced to wearing French women’s underclothing as they themselves were only issued with artificial goods made from paper which did not seem very comfortable. French civilians were not allowed without the bounds of their village except to work the farms and most of the villagers had not been 5 kilometres from the village for four years, even though they had relations near by.
One girl was given fourteen days in Caudry Gaol for refusing to obey the order of a German Sergeant to empty some bags of straw. The Huns also pilfered her home and then burned it down together with five other houses. One day a German Officer walked into a French house and demanded food, which was supplied. Before eating it however, he went to the next room to wash, etc. and on coming out to his meal, he found that the cat had eaten it! He reported the matter in a fearful rage to the Town Commandant (a German) who notified the local Mayor that in future all cats in the village were to be muzzled! According to our informant, this was done by fitting the cats with calico muzzles.
However, when we broke through the Hindenburg Line at the St. Quentin Canal, the Germans became greatly perturbed and frightened and the French frequently used to tease the German soldiery with the question as to when they were going to Paris? until at last it was made a crime to mention the word Paris. It must have been a very welcome sound to the civilians to hear the British guns coming closer and closer every day until at last the storm broke on their own village, passed and they were free! The French are very emotional people and cried for joy at their deliverance.
And so, in listening to such stories and in performing our duties at the railway siding, we passed away two days, until all the Divisional transport had been unloaded and we were free to rejoin our battalion at Bohaur which we reached next day after a march of about 12 kilometres. Here we went into billets for the following two days. We found the village much knocked about and was the billeting area for the whole of the 2nd Division.
It was the scene of some fierce fighting some six weeks previous and the Germans had ordered all civilians back to the Belgian border from whence they had only arrived at Bohaur a couple of days before the Australians. They were for the most part in a poverty stricken state, and more often than not came back to a shell battered home or a house which was now only a heap of rubbish. None of the returned civilians had eaten bread for the past ten days, and had lived on practically nothing at all and had plenty of stories to tell of the brutality of the Hun. They were all glad to be back from captivity however, and knew that it was only a matter of days when they would receive relief. We gave the people with whom “B” coys officers were billeted two tins of Bully Beef, some bread and jam and they were delighted.
A large number of Allied prisoners of war were also at this time making their way back through our village, most of whom had horrible stories to tell of the insane brutality of the Hun. Some of the tales we heard, told us at first hand by late prisoners of war, lead one to think that some German soldiers had diseased brains. For instance, one Frenchman said that amongst the prisoners of war in one camp in which he was a captive were some Poles and Cossacks. The Poles on one occasion were stripped naked in the snow and compelled to march up and down in front of some Polish women, also stripped naked, whilst the Huns roared with laughter at the “funny” sight. The Cossacks were always noted for their huge appetites and they were systematically starved until them were mad with hunger. The Huns were then delighted to watch them fight for scraps of food which they used to throw in the mire. These and other stories even worse were told us in all faith by repatriated prisoners of war whom we met about the Belgian border at this period. The stories only had the effect of rousing our indignation and made us swear to take revenge if we ever got the opportunity and made us feel as if we would almost to have carried on the war.
On the morning of the 3rd day, the 5th Brigade moved out of Bohain by battalions at intervals of 15 minutes. After a march of 15 kilometres, we arrived in the later afternoon and in cold misty weather, at the destroyed village of Masinghein, which had been the scene of some terrific fighting just prior to the Armistice. We camped for the night in shelters erected amidst the ruins of the village, which was occupied by about a hundred haggard and starved looking civilians. They informed us that during the occupation they had fared very badly as the Mayor of the village had been in league with the Germans and had made a pot of money out of bread, which it had been his duty to distribute to the civilian population. He had sold large quantities of it to the German soldiery and had invested the proceeds in German War Loans, now they swore that they would get him arrested at the first opportunity. We were thankful to move on again next morning, and marched on to the Village of Beaurepaire, a small village of 400 population and situated three kilometres from Prisches wherein was billeted the remainder of the Brigade.