Allan and Percy were well prepared for the role they would play in the taking of Broodseinde. For two nights the battalion had been camped in a field on the edge of the busy Ypres-Zonnebeke Road. During the day they had received additional ammunition, flares and water. All were familiar with the terrain and the objectives of the planned assault. The 10th Brigade, comprising the 37th, 38th, 39th and 40th battalions, was to attack along a 500-metre front. The 37th was to take the first objective and the 38th would then leap-frog and take the second objective, followed by the 39th taking the third. The 40th was responsible for the final objective.2
As darkness fell on 3 October the battalions began the single-file march forward along the duckboards to the front line. Sporadic enemy artillery fire caused heavy losses as the men moved up to their positions. From midnight the area was relatively quiet. By 2.00 am the men were in position. As light rain fell, they waited under the cover of waterproof capes along the white tape of the jumping-off line that traversed the shell holes.
Just 40 minutes before the scheduled attack German artillery opened fire on the Allied troops. It was immediately assumed that the Allied plan of attack had been revealed. In fact, the enemy artillery fire signalled a German attack on the village of Zonnebeke, immediately to the west of Broodseinde, scheduled for exactly the same hour as the Allied assault. The enemy bombardment was ferocious. Stretcher-bearers carried wounded to the rear as the troops waited. There was little the men could do but pray as shells rained down all around. Approximately one-seventh of the attacking force was hit prior to zero hour, although the 38th Battalion diary indicates that it suffered few casualties.3
At 6.00 am and under the protection of their own artillery, the Allied troops clambered from their shell holes. Many paused to light a cigarette before beginning their approach to no man’s land, relieved to be released from the bombardment of their line. The leading 37th Battalion had crept forward during the German barrage to avoid the heavy artillery fire; they were now within 30 metres of the German pillboxes on the summit. Despite being under heavy fire, the German infantry almost simultaneously commenced their approach. The German soldiers hesitated, perplexed by the sight of the approaching troops. Australian Lewis gun teams opened fire. In the resulting confusion fierce hand-to-hand fighting erupted as enemy machine-gun posts fell to the advancing Australians. The 10th Brigade was subjected to heavy fire but continued its advance through the valley. German machine-gun fire burst from the ruins of a farm; bombs and grenades took out the enemy post and the diggers continued their advance as the battalion diary describes:
In the centre a machine gun post at Israel House gave trouble for a time. On the right the main opposition came from concrete pill boxes about Judah House and Springfield Farm; the latter yielding several Machine Guns and about 150 prisoners. In almost every case opposition was overcome by working round to the rear of the pill-boxes and throwing in a “P” bomb or Mill’s grenade. Rifle grenades were little used. Generally speaking our men kept so close to the barrage that they were on the enemy before he could recover from it. 4
Along the front the assault pushed forward. By 7.30 am the 38th Battalion had reached its first objective.5 Prisoners were taken in droves. The next move forward commenced at 8.10 am. Under cover of heavy artillery, the 39th and 40th battalions reached the ridge where they could see the green fields of farmland in the distance and the rear areas of German-held Belgium. By 9.12 am, both I and II Anzac had reached their objectives. While intense German shelling continued, the Australians fortified their positions, repairing and improving trenches and constructing new front lines and support areas.6
On 4 October, 12 divisions attacked on a 13-kilometre front and, despite fierce resistance, the Broodseinde attack succeeded, described as ‘the most complete yet won’. Five thousand German soldiers were taken prisoner. Official German records described the battle as ‘the black day of October 4th’.7 They had been driven from one of the most strategic positions on the Western Front. From the ridge to the east of Ypres, British forces had victory in their sights. Yet the sacrifice had been enormous. The three Australian divisions had suffered 6500 casualties.8 The 38th Battalion War Diary records 184 casualties with 34 killed, 143 wounded and seven missing.9
On the night of 5/6 October the 38th was relieved soon after a heavy enemy barrage had opened on the exhausted soldiers. They marched wearily through the night to Ypres and then on to Vlamertinghe, just east of Poperinghe. It had been a hard-won victory. Within a few days they would be back to face an ordeal which was to become their own living hell.
FRANCE, OCTOBER
In France, some kilometres away from the scene of Allied victory, Charlie was preoccupied with finding his wounded brother. He had searched the nearby hospitals and continued to make inquiries. He wrote from the rest camp at Boulogne on the French coast of the willingness of the Australian nurses to help and their concern for those attempting to trace missing friends and relatives.
9th Oct 1917
My Dear Mother,
… Of course I have not heard how Geordie is getting on as I will not get any mail while I am here, I hope to hear when I get back how he is getting on also to get some mail from you I wrote to Pearl last Sunday and to you a few days before that, I hope you are getting my mail regular for I write to you regular. There are a lot of Australian Hospitals about here and a lot of our wounded come here, I have inquired at a lot of places if Geordie was there, but there was no one of our name in them. I am sure he has gone to England, the nurses are only too pleased to help anyone looking for wounded friends and the Australian nurses are only too pleased to do anything they can for us, one of them the other day asked me if we were getting plenty to eat and if I had plenty of money as she would give me some but of course I had plenty and thanked her very much. There are 6 out of my company along with me and we are having a very pleasant time. I bought a little Christmas present for Pearl yesterday and have sent it to her I hope she gets it alright. I do not know yet if she got the parcel we sent her about last May, there were some boats sunk about that time but I hope the parcel was not on any of them. I weighed myself yesterday and went 12 stone 8lbs so I still hold out, I got my photo taken last week they were to be done today but I only got two of them and they are hardly dry enough to send but I will send you another one later, the people over here are not the best at taking photos …
PASSCHENDAELE — BELGIUM, OCTOBER
While Charlie was preoccupied with finding George, his brothers were preparing for the next phase of the Ypres campaign: the taking of the village of Passchendaele, visible from Broodseinde Ridge. Continual rain since 4 October had transformed the Ypres battlefield into a sinister morass of thick, sticky mud — the Battle of Passchendaele was doomed from its inception. On 9 October, in Gough’s sector at Poelcappelle, two British divisions and the 2nd Australian Division launched their initial assault on the village. They met fierce resistance — the Germans had sent in fresh troops. The Allies were exhausted from their Broodseinde attack and from the effort it took just to reach the front line through the fields of mud. Little time had been allowed for preparation and the infamous enemy pillbox defences appeared virtually impregnable. Allied artillery was bogged in rear areas and what was available was insufficient to shatter the German defences and shield the advancing troops. Swift advances such as those of Messines and Broodseinde which were ideal for overpowering such defensive positions were now impossible in the muddy morass. Shell holes filled with mud claimed the lives of those unlucky enough to slip from duckboards: men, horses and mules. The landscape was devoid of all vegetation. Stunted, blasted stumps of trees were all that remained in a sea of deep, black mud and shell holes filled with putrid water.
Given the conditions, little ground was taken on 9 October apart from some gains at the northern point of Poelcappelle. The order to continue forward was given heedless of the conditions. The taking of Passchendaele and beyond was the objective of the 3rd and 4th Australian divi
sions combined with the New Zealand Division and five British divisions. The 38th was to reach the third objective, a line just beyond the village. Inexplicably, the 38th had been ordered to push forward over a much greater distance than the troops at nearby Poelcappelle. On 10 October the 3rd Division found itself preparing to attack yet again. Depleted divisions had been reinforced, new equipment issued. But it was not enough.
As darkness fell on the evening of 11 October, the Australians filed forward into their positions, moving along congested tracks, each man grasping the pack of the man in front in an effort to maintain contact in the gloom. Rain fell in an unremitting deluge. They huddled under their greatcoats and waterproof sheets as best they could as the German artillery mercilessly shelled the Allied positions.
At 5.25 am on 12 October the advance commenced. Allan and Percy went over the top with the 38th. Heavy enemy shelling had already reduced the attacking force. Rifles and machine-guns were clogged. Artillery bombardments were ineffective as shells fell into the sticky mess, failing to explode or smothered by thick mud. The great guns became bogged on impassable tracks or sank beneath their own weight as they fired. German troops rushed to the ridge, fortifying pillboxes and trenches and firing down on the advancing soldiers. Allied casualties were heavy.
At 8.40 am Major Giblin of the 40th Battalion reported that he could not continue; he could only find 200 men for the advance from his position in the swamp of the Ravebeek Valley below Passchendaele. Above him on Bellevue Spur, the Germans were decimating his men. By early afternoon he had received no reply, such was the state of communications. Further messages were sent by lamp and pigeon. Reinforcements eventually arrived but the position was hopeless. They were being gradually destroyed by the intense artillery fire.
A small party of the 38th managed to make its way to Passchendaele after the surrender of German troops in an enemy pillbox at the point known as Crest Farm on the outskirts of the village. Allan and Percy could have been members of the party. Finding no German troops and lacking support, the team withdrew.10 As they moved back the men were targeted by heavy fire. Crest Farm had been reoccupied by enemy forces and fire from Bellevue Spur rained down on the Australians. The New Zealand Division to the left on the spur had not been able to capture the formidable pillboxes protected by uncut wire along the ridge.
The remaining troops of the 37th, 38th and 40th battalions, under the command of Major Giblin, formed a line close to their first objective. The situation was impossible. Giblin ordered the men to retire to their start point. By 3.00 pm, those who could had retreated, others lay dead or wounded in the Flanders mud.
On the night of 13/14 October the surviving men of the 38th Battalion were relieved.11 The Allied operation had failed and the name Passchendaele became synonymous with the horror and futility of war. It was here that the Australian 3rd Division suffered its highest casualties of the entire war. Of the men of the 38th Battalion who went over the top that day, 62% were now casualties with 381 men killed, wounded or missing.12 The 3rd Division lost over 3000 men. The New Zealand losses also totalled around 3000 while the 4th Division had lost 1000. 13
There were few reinforcements to replace the Australian casualties. The once eager volunteers were no longer streaming onto the ships which would carry them to the great adventure. The casualty lists and the maimed returned soldiers were testimony to the reality of this war. The conscription bill had failed. The Australian forces, having lost 38,000 men in eight weeks, would depend on the return of the sick and wounded to reinforce their severely depleted ranks.14
In total, there would be 11 battles in the third Ypres campaign which stretched through the months of June until November 1917. Of these battles, the Australians were called on to spearhead five, the third through to the seventh.15 Three of these attacks were made in conditions which encouraged success and were regarded as such despite massive losses. The final two battles of October would forever mark Passchendaele as a bloody, senseless slaughter.
Canadian forces relieved the remains of the Australian battalions. Haig continued to press ahead with his plan. While there was little hope of a breakthrough before the onset of winter, the capture of Passchendaele Ridge remained a priority. By mid-November the Canadians had achieved Haig’s objective and had taken Passchendaele, effectively creating a dangerous salient on the top of the ridge where they could be enfiladed from three sides. It was here at Passchendaele, after the Canadians had broken through to the village, that Haig’s Chief of staff, Lancelot Kiggell, is reported to have covered his face with his hands and cried as he surveyed the scene from his car: ‘Good God, did we really send men to fight in that?’ 16
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PASSCHENDAELE, 2011
Tyne Cot Cemetery, Broodseinde Ridge. The Cross of Sacrifice and memorial to the 3rd Division sits above the remains of a German blockhouse that looked down on the valley (author photo 21 April 2011).
The remains of one of two German blockhouses inside the cemetery gates (author photo 21 April 2011). 21.04.2011
Today, Tyne Cot Cemetery, the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the world, sits atop Broodseinde Ridge where the Australian troops halted on 4 October after reaching their objectives. It is the last resting place of close to 12,000 men. The remains of the German strongpoints can still be seen in the area from Ypres to Tyne Cot; the rubble of Israel House and farm buildings at the site of Judah House where the 38th Battalion established its headquarters and then further on to Springfield Farm. Most formidable are the two pillboxes that guard the entrance to Tyne Cot Cemetery. Looking out from these at the Allies’ avenue of approach is sobering. They are just two of many from which the soldiers were raked with machine-gun fire as they fought their way through barbed wire, shell holes and enemy artillery.
The memorial to the 3rd Australian Division, which captured the pillboxes on this small area of land, lies within the grounds of the cemetery. The Cross of Sacrifice sits atop a German blockhouse, its inscription recording that the 3rd Division captured the blockhouse on 4 October. It was then transformed into an advanced dressing station. Surrounding the inscription is a laurel wreath behind which the original pillbox can be seen. The memorial looks out over the rows and rows of Allied crosses and towards the approach that the men took through the valley.
My father stands at the marker of ‘The Road to Passchendaele Australia Walk’ (author photo, 21 April 2011).
The railway cutting and the remains of the line (author photo, 21 April 2011).
We walk to Dash Crossing, the point marked as ‘The Road to Passchendaele, Australia Walk, 4 October 1917’, just below Tyne Cot Cemetery. It is an old railway cutting, peaceful and green in early spring. Australian soldiers advanced along this cutting on 4 October. We stop at the point where the men of the 44th Battalion halted, where the uncovered remains of a section of the Ypres-Roullers railway line can now be seen, trying to visualise the battle. We stand along the 3rd Division start line where the men formed up on 12 October just outside Tyne Cot Cemetery. We look across the ploughed fields trying to visualise the mud, the shell holes, explosions, the roar of artillery, the inescapable horror. This was the site of some of the bloodiest fighting in the attempt to take Passchendaele. I recall a photograph of Australian soldiers resting in this railway cutting taken by an unknown official war photographer. Austin Garnet Henderson is one of two men watching the photographer. The exhausted soldiers rest among the dead. Austin was a signaller with the 38th Battalion, originally a member of D Company along with Percy, Allan, Charlie and Albert and had sailed on the Runic with Allan and Percy. He had been shot at Messines but returned a few weeks later and, by late October, was attached to the postal service of the 10th Brigade. He returned to Australia aboard the Rio Padro in June 1919.17 Though we cannot be sure, my father has often looked at the face of the other man and wondered whether the haunted soldier was Allan Marlow — it could well have been him. But, while there is a definite likeness, there are no insignia or other identifiers t
o confirm that the exhausted man is Allan.
Photographer Frank Hurley kept a detailed diary of his front-line experiences. His diary entry for 12 October describes the scene in the cutting:
Every 20 paces or less lay a body. Some frightfully mutilated, without legs, arms and hands and half covered in mud and slime. I could not help thinking as Wilkins and I trudging along this inferno and soaked to the skin, talking and living beings, might not be the next moment one of these things — it puts the wind up one at times. We pushed on through the old Zonnebeke station (now absolutely swept away) up to Broodseinde and entered the railway cutting near the ridge crest … I noticed one awful sight: a party of, ten or so, telephone men all blown to bits. Under a questionably sheltered bank lay a group of dead men. Sitting by them in little scooped out recesses sat a few living; but so emaciated by fatigue and shell shock that it was hard to differentiate. Still the whole way was just another of the many byways to hell one sees out here, and which are so strewn with ghastliness that the only comment is: “that poor beggar copped it thick”, or else nothing at all.18
Dead and wounded in the railway cutting, Broodseinde Ridge, 12 October 1917. On the far right facing the camera is Austin Henderson. The man we believe could be Allan is in the middle of the photograph also facing the camera (AWM EO3864).
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2011
In Passchendaele we sit opposite the rebuilt church which the men of the 38th reached on 12 October; we eat some pastries from the local bakery and watch the villagers go about their daily life. Aerial images of the pulverised village present a stark testimony to the resilience of the Belgian communities who rebuilt their physical surrounds and their spirit, only to be crushed a few decades later in the German occupation and then to rally once more. We walk along Canadastraat, the road the men of the 38th took to reach the church. We arrive at the Canadian memorial which marks the Canadian capture of Passchendaele on 6 November 1917. This was the site of Crest Farm, the massive blockhouse that rained murderous fire on the Australian and later the Canadian forces. We look across the fields in which the Australians were slaughtered, where many remain, the final resting place of the men whose names are etched on the walls of the Menin Gate or at Tyne Cot.
ANZAC Sons Page 48