In the Footsteps of Private Lynch
Page 23
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost I would like to acknowledge the late Edward Lynch, as without his wonderful story I would never have been inspired to follow in the footsteps of the 45th Battalion and write this book.
I would like to thank the Lynch family for their support, encouragement and endless patience. Edward Lynch's daughter Shirley provided the family photographs and answered my many queries, Ned Lynch checked that the facts pertaining to his father were correct, and Lynch's grandson Mike Lynch gave me support and friendship. Thanks again to Jane Harrison for granting me permission to publish Somme Mud.
At the Australian War Memorial I would like to thank Mal Booth, Head of the Research Centre, and Margaret Lewis, Manager of Information Services, for providing assistance with trench maps and, most importantly, putting the 45th Battalion War Diaries online. Peter Burness, Concept Leader, kindly answered some rather odd queries and Craig Tibbitts, Curator of Official Records, checked the manuscript for historical inaccuracies. Also Pat Sabine, Head of Photos, Film and Sound, and Ian Affleck, Senior Curator of Photographs, provided advice on photographs and background information.
Thanks to Virginia Gordon for providing me with the full set of the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918.
Thanks go to my publisher at Random House, Meredith Curnow, my editor Sophie Ambrose, and to Vanessa Mickan-Gramazio for her comprehensive edit of the original manuscript.
Thanks also to those many friends who offered encouragement and support and understood why I was never around.
Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Heather, and my boys for their patience in allowing me to work in peace and for keeping up the coffee, toasted sandwiches and soup.
GLOSSARY
A.I.F. Australian Imperial Forces
A.W.L Absent Without Leave
Blighty Britain
block defended barricade in a trench
Bull Ring training area at Étaples, general training ground
bully beef tinned meat common in Allied armies
chats body lice
clink gaol
C.O. Commanding Officer
cobber friend, mate
colour patches distinctive shoulder badges indicating a division, brigade, battalion or unit within the A.I.F.
cove man, bloke
dixie metal container for eating food
duckboard wooden decking
field dressing bandage carried by all troops
Fritz common name for a German
funk hole hole in the side of a trench for sleeping and protection
furphy horse-drawn cast iron water tank around which stories were told, hence the term 'furphy', a tall story, rumour or lie
gas various poisonous gases used by both sides during the war
gas respirator gas-mask used to prevent inhaling poisonous gas during a gas attack
'get a Blighty' getting wounded badly enough to be sent to England
hop-over climbing out of the trench to attack the enemy line
H.Q. headquarters
Kamerad! German word meaning 'comrade', used when wishing to surrender
Lewis gun American-designed lightweight machine-gun
lift the artillery would 'lift' from one map reference to another at predetermined times so that following, attacking infantry, could assault the enemy trench
limber two-wheeled cart used to carry stores or ammunition
Maconochie a mixture of tinned meat and vegetables
Mills bomb British-issue hand grenade
Minenwerfer German trench mortar
mooching hanging around, waiting, wasting time
mopping up eliminating remaining enemy pockets of resistance after the main attack has gone through
no-man's-land the dangerous land between two opposing trench lines
O.C. Officer Commanding
O.R.s other ranks
parados the rear edge of a trench (the opposite of a parapet)
parapet built-up front edge of a trench, which protected men
pill-box concrete machine-gun emplacement
pioneers infantry troops trained and equipped to perform light engineering tasks
platoon army unit of thirty men under a lieutenant and sergeant
puttees cloth strips wound around the legs from below the knee to the top of the boot
respirator gas mask
reveille dawn wake-up bugle call
route march hard marching between two points
salient prominent or projecting part of the line often protruding out from the main frontline
sap trench dug towards the enemy from which more trenches radiate out each side
scabbard metal sheath for a bayonet
screw picket twisted metal post to hold up barbed wire
section ten men usually under the command of a corporal
S.R.D. Service Rum – Dilute. This rum came in a concentrated form and needed to be watered down before drinking
stand to stand ready for the enemy, usually at dawn and dusk
start line the line from where an attack commences
Stokes mortar British small trench mortar
strafe fired upon by shells or machine-guns
stunt action or attack on the enemy
tapes cotton tapes laid down to designate the starting line for an attack
Taube German fighter aircraft
Tommy British soldier, deriving from 'Tommy Atkins'
wire barbed wire
wiring party group of men who put up barbed wire
NOTES
One: Good-bye Sydney Town, Good-bye
1. Adam-Smith, Patsy, The Anzacs, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1978, p. 9
2. Bean, C. E. W. (ed.), Official History of Australia in the Great War of 1914–1918, vol. III, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1942, p. 48
Two: France and Fritz
1. Lee, Major J. E., The Chronicle of the 45th Battalion AIF, Australian Defence League, 1924, p. 36
Three: Holding the Line
1. Bean, Official History, vol. III, p. 921
2. Bean, Official History, vol. III, p. 920
3. 45th Battalion War Diary for January 1917
Seven: Straightening the Line
1. Lee, Chronicle of the 45th Battalion, p. 37
Nine: The Carrying Party
1. Lee, Chronicle of the 45th Battalion, p. 40
2. Bean, Official History, vol. III, p. 956
3. Bean, Official History, vol. IV, p. 41
4. Lee, Chronicle of the 45th Battalion, p. 39
5. Bean, Official History, vol. IV, p. 69
Ten: Mixing it at Messines
1. Bean, Official History, vol. IV, p. 599
2. Ibid.
3. Bean, Official History, vol. IV, p. 595
4. Lee, Chronicle of the 45th Battalion, p. 48
5. Bean, Official History, vol. IV, p. 673
6. Red Cross Society Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau Records
7. Ibid.
8. Bean, Official History, vol. IV, p. 679
Eleven: A Quiet Innings
1. Lee, Chronicle of the 45th Battalion, p. 49
2. Letter in the AIF personal file of Lt. William Gocher, NAA Records
3. Lee, Chronicle of the 45th Battalion, p. 48
4. 45th Battalion War Diary for August 1917
Twelve: Passing it on at Passchendaele
1. Lee, Chronicle of the 45th Battalion, p. 50
2. Lee, Chronicle of the 45th Battalion, p. 53
Thirteen: Digging in at Dernancourt
1. Pedersen, Peter, Villers Bretonneux: Somme, Battleground Europe series, Pen and Sword, Barnsley UK, 2004, p. 67
2. Pedersen, Villers Bretonneux, from the diary of Private Robert Cude, p. 41
3. Pedersen, Villers Bretonneux, p. 22
4. Lee, Chronicle of the 45th Battalion, p. 59
5. Beaucoup Australiens Ici: The Australian Corps in France 1918, Department of Veterans Affairs, Canb
erra, 1999, p. 24
6. Beaucoup Australiens Ici, p. 25
7. Bean, Official History, vol. V, p. 360
8. Bean, Official History, vol. V, p. 416
9. Lee, Chronicle of the 45th Battalion, p. 62
10. Bean, Official History, vol. V, p. 404
11. AIF personal file of Lt J. S. Terras, NAA Records
12. AIF personal file of Private A. D. Wells, NAA Records
Fourteen: Around Villers-Bret
1. Bean, Official History, vol. I, p. 16
2. Rule, E. J., Jacka's Mob: A Narrative of the Great War, Carl Johnson and Andrew Barnes (eds), Military Press, Melbourne, 1999, p. 127
3. Private John Hardie, 33rd Battalion, quoted in Pedersen, Peter, Villers Bretonneux, p. 34
4. Pedersen, Peter, Villers Bretonneux, p.113
5. Bean, Official History, vol. V, p. 603
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Bean, Official History, vol. V, p. 604
9. 45th Battalion War Diary for 25 April 1918
10. Bean, Official History, vol. V, p. 674
11. McMullin, Ross, Pompey Elliot, Scribe, Melbourne, 2002, p. 409
Fifteen: Hammering at Hamel
1. Lee, Chronicle of the 45th Battalion, p. 65
2. Ibid.
3. Cooper, Duff, Haig, vol. II, p. 292, quoted in Bean's Official History, vol. VI, p. 157
4. Bean, Official History, vol. VI, p. 262
5. Lee, Chronicle of the 45th Battalion, p. 66
6. Bean, Official History, vol. VI, p. 270
7. Bean, Official History, vol. VI, p. 279
8. Bean, Official History, vol. VI, p. 285
9. Bean, Official History, vol. VI, p. 290
10. Bean, Official History, vol. VI, p. 291
11. Ibid.
12. Bean, Official History, vol. VI, p. 304
13. Rule, Jacka's Mob, p. 305, quoted in Bean's Official History, vol. VI, p. 304
14. Bean, Official History, vol. VI, p. 306
15. Bean, Official History, vol. VI, p. 309
16. Bean, Official History, vol. VI, p. 328
17. Bean, Official History, vol. VI, p. 335
Sixteen: Leap-frogging to Victory
1. Rule, Jacka's Mob, p.128
2. Rule, Jacka's Mob, p. 327
3. Rule, Jacka's Mob, p. 339
4. Rule, Jacka's Mob, p. 340
5. Rule, Jacka's Mob, p. 345
6. Rule, Jacka's Mob, p. 482
7. Rule, Jacka's Mob, p. 518
8. Ibid.
9. Rule, Jacka's Mob, p. 525
10. Rule, Jacka's Mob, p. 529
11. Ibid.
12. Rule, Jacka's Mob, p. 531
13. Rule, Jacka's Mob, p. 534
14. Lee, Chronicle of the 45th Battalion, p. 70
15. Ibid.
Seventeen: Following Fritz
1. Bean, Official History, vol. VI, p. 614
2. Bean, Official History, vol. VI, p. 873
3. Bean, Official History, vol. VI, p. 908
4. Bean, Official History, vol. VI, p. 906
Eighteen: Fini la Guerre
1. Shirer, William L., The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Pan Books, London, 1975, p. 49
2. Lee, Chronicle of the 45th Battalion, p. 75
3. Bean, Official History, vol. VI, p.1053
4. 45th Battalion War Diary for March 1919
Nineteen: A Dinner to the Troops
1. Bean, Official History, vol. VI, p. 1057
2. Kent, David, From Trench and Troopship: The Experience of the Australian Imperial Force 1914–1919, Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, 1999, p. 196
3. Bean, Official History, vol. VI, p. 1073
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