The training though not heavy included numerous short route marches, with pack mules, battalion transport, etc. it being thought possible that in the near future, the 2nd Division would have to advance very rapidly in pursuit of the retreating enemy, We also performed a day’s operations with Tanks in action. During the few evenings we had amusement in the way of improvised picture shows and concerts. We then moved the battalion closer to the line on September 26th, camping the first night on the fore slopes of Mont St. Quentin, using lean to shelters and splinter proof dugouts which barely gave sufficient protection against the rain and wind, Next night we again marched to the village of Villers Bretenoux and camped alongside the 40th American Division, occupying old dugouts, shelters etc. For about two days we halted in this vicinity and obtained an opportunity to observe the methods of American troops when in the Forward area.

Americans, assisted by Australian and British officers and N.C.O.’s in all branches of the service, were holding the line just about the Hindenburg Line. They had attacked, together with Australian and British troops and had been mainly responsible for its capture and penetration in the vicinity of Bellicourt and Nouroy. They had suffered terribly however, and at one stage had really failed and it was only due to the 4th and 5th Australian Inf. that the complete capture of the Hindenburg line had been effected at this portion of the American front.

The supply branch of the service was not efficient, rations for certain battalions often being delivered to wrong sectors. Men seemed to go to and fro from the firing line just as they pleased. There was a great waste of supplies and our men really fared very well whilst here encamped, as they were able to purloin as much extra food as they could possibly use. American cooks would suddenly take it into their heads to visit the firing line to see for themselves how their comrades were faring, leaving their cookers in rear to look after themselves.

Signallers and runners would peruse messages for their superiors before they were delivered and in fact evidences of bad discipline and muddle and inefficiency were numerous. In fact without the assistance of the Australian Staff officers and N.C.O.’s the general impression was that the American Troops would have soon found themselves in a hopeless tangle. The personal courage of fighting qualification of the Yanks was absolutely beyond doubt as the evidences of the carnage in the trench systems of the Hindenburg Line remained to show. The whole trouble was that the Staff Officers and Junior Officers and N.C.O.’s had not had sufficient experience of the highly technical methods of the war at this stage, to successfully combat such past masters of the art of war, the Germans, when fighting with their backs to the wall in an almost impregnable position. Almost immediately after the penetration of the Hindenburg tine and after sharing our quarters with the Yanks for the past three days, we moved per road in the daylight to Hargicourt, just in rear of the famous Hindenburg line.

The roads en route were packed with every kind of transport and troops, American and British, all on the move, either in or out, along the semi destroyed roads and through the shell wrecked villages. Arrived at our destination, an open field behind the Hindenburg Line in the neighbourhood of Bellicourt Tunnel, we dumped our surplus gear and adopted our fighting order, plus the usual extra supply of bombs and S.A.A. etc. Having a couple of hours to spare, Lt. Cameron H.C. and I took the opportunity of inspecting the system of the Hindenburg Line. Following a railway embankment we were soon standing on an elevated point from whence we were able to see two or three miles in either direction.

The trenches were wide and deep and studded at points of vantage with concrete Machine Gun emplacements and concrete dugouts where the troops could shelter from our shellfire, whilst tank traps and trench mortar positions were also very numerous. The whole system which was strategically built in this area was strongly protected by belt after belt of thick, well laid barbed wire entanglements. Ahead and behind the trench system was the famous Bellicourt Tunnel which joined two portions of the Somme Canal. Further on lay the villages of Nouroy and Bellicourt, both quite destroyed and both of which lay built on the fore slope of a ridge overlooking the Hindenburg Line. The Bellicourt Tunnel was quite two miles long containing several air shafts which were used by the Germans as strong points and from which they emerged to take the inexperienced Yanks in the rear, taking some 1,500 prisoners.

To the right was a deep ravine and the Canal cutting, quite 40 ft. deep, through which the canal flowed before entering the tunnel. The tunnel and the cutting together with the wide trenches and undulating nature of the ground proved great obstacles to our tanks, many of which were to be seen lying dotted here and there where they had come to grief in an effort of penetrate the system. Whilst we took in the scene a large party of Americans were engaged in collecting the dead Yanks from amongst the otherwise deserted trenches and after having interred a large number, there were still over 100 bodies laid out in all stages of mutilation ready to be examined for identification purposes, before being buried. The method of the burial party was to scour the area for bodies and then to wheel them in barrows to a position where they were to be buried.

In the Bellicourt Tunnel there was supposed to be a German “Corpse factory” where the Germans were alleged to have boiled down corpses in order to extract the fat to make glycerine, etc. Investigation by experts soon exploded this theory, however, and it was found that the bodies in the cauldron-like boiler were killed by a British delayed action shell which had penetrated the air-shaft and killed the Germans who had been sheltering in the Tunnel.

A brief survey of the System at this point was quite sufficient to impress one with the evident great strength of the positions and filled an observer with feelings of great admiration for the extreme bravery and determination of the attacking troops who had literally torn the place from the grip of the enemy. Casualties were very high mainly on account of the inexperienced Americans failing to perform the necessary duties of clearing the dugouts as they passed.