Australians on the Western Front 1918 Volume I by David W. Cameron

Author:David W. Cameron
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9781760144043
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia

By now both companies were close to achieving their objective. However, Wallach’s men were not sure where they should dig in. Storkey and Lipscomb went forward looking for the clearing, which would provide an excellent field of fire, but the woods continued beyond the track to the bottom of a depression. Although the scrub thinned out here, it dipped into a valley where the undergrowth was again thick and any man entrenched in it would be unable to see ‘beyond the muzzle of his rifle’.18 About 400 metres beyond this point they saw a bare, open knuckle of ground along the western edge of Lancer Wood with a trench line running around it. Even more disturbing were the two German companies deploying there. Obviously it would be suicide to entrench in the bottom of the valley with the Germans above. That said, their existing position was just as dangerous as they would be blind to any German advance by the thick scrub. Storkey and Lipscomb had no choice, and just as dawn broke they gave the order for their men to fall back to their original jumping-off line west of Hangard Wood. The officer responsible for the left flank of ‘A’ Company, 20th Battalion was informed of their withdrawal while a runner was also sent to make contact with Portman directly, further south, informing him of their retirement.19

‘C’ Company of the 20th Battalion faced a similar predicament. It was on a slight hillock on the spur, and while the thin scrub allowed a good field of fire, it provided little cover for the Australians and presented them as excellent targets for the German machine gunners. The ravine below, which was difficult to see into, also provided the Germans with plenty of cover from which to launch a counterattack. Several hundred Germans could be seen assembling on the spur opposite, which screened Aubercourt. As feared, at 6 a.m., under cover of intense machine-gun fire, the Germans launched a counterattack from the ravine against Portman’s right. They smashed through the extreme flank of Portman’s company but failed to push the advantage. Lieutenant John Coolahan (a 36-year-old salesman from Sydney) with Private Hugh Callaghan (a 25-year-old clerk from Sydney) moved to cover this flank, looking for a place to position their machine gun. Their gun crew was in the rear of the woods waiting for the word to advance, and Callaghan soon made his way back to them after being ordered by Coolahan to bring forward Corporal James Noble (a 38-year-old cook from Geelong in Victoria), who was in charge of the machine gun. Both got through, but they found Coolahan apparently dead (he was in fact mortally wounded and would die as a prisoner of war). Callaghan was killed, while Noble was wounded and made his way back to his machine-gun crew.20

With his right flank about to collapse, Portman sent Sergeant Max Clifton, a 23-year-old groom from Sydney, and half a dozen men to further support that part of the line. Portman

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.