Frederick William Higgins - National Archives of Australia

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YANDOIT TO YPRES
By Allen Hancock
Frederick William Higgins was born in 1895 in Yandoit, a small community established
during the Victorian gold rush near Daylesford. Fred was the eldest son of Austin Higgins
and the grandson of William Bridgland Higgins who had originally migrated to South
Australia with his father from Kent in 1840.
KENT
What would make a family pull up their roots in 1840 Kent, jam themselves into a wooden
vessel and sail half way round the world to a land about which they knew very little, most
likely never to see their relatives again? Two pieces of legislation passed by the British
Parliament in 1834 may hold some answers.
The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, known widely as the New Poor Law, was an Act of
the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government of Earl Grey that
reformed the country's poverty relief system. The law curbed the cost of poor relief, which
had been spiralling throughout the nineteenth century, and led to the creation
of workhouses. The law arose out of a wider drive for Poor Law reform, and completely
replaced earlier legislation based on the Poor Law of 1601.
An Essay on the Principle of Population by The Reverend (Thomas) Robert Malthus, a
British cleric and scholar, influential in the fields of political economy and demography,
set out the influential doctrine that population growth was geometric. Unless checked
population increased faster than the ability of a country to feed its population. This
pressure explained the existence of poverty, which he justified theologically as a force for
self-improvement and abstention. As a political moralist he opposed the old poor laws as
self-defeating, removing the pressure of want from the poor while leaving them free to
increase their families, thus leading to an unsustainable increase in population.
The findings of the 1832, Royal Commission into the Operation of the Poor Laws were
that the old system was badly and expensively run. The Commission's recommendations
were based on two principles. The first was less eligibility – conditions within workhouses
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should be made worse than the worst conditions outside of the workhouse so that
workhouses served as a deterrent: only the most needy would consider entering them. The
other was the "workhouse test", that relief should only be available in the workhouse.
Austin Higgins was not a pauper. He lived with his wife and 11 children in Trottiscliffe,
Kent and his occupation in 1840 was that of a farm labourer and bailiff which meant that
he would have been in charge of the running of a farm for a well-to-do farmer. His three
eldest sons were also farm labourers while his wife and two eldest daughters were
domestic servants. But Britain in the grip of industrialisation, with small farms being
swallowed up by more profitable larger holdings and tenants being forced to seek work in
the cities, was not a place that offered much hope for families employed according to the
fortunes of others. There were a lot of poor around and their numbers were growing daily.
The second piece of legislation that would have influenced the decision to move was the
South Australia Act 1834 (Foundation Act) that enabled the province of South Australia to
be established. The act stated that 802,511 square kilometres (309,851 sq mi) would be
allotted to the colony and it would be convict-free.
The South Australian colony was the vision of Edward Gibbon Wakefield. His early life
included the 1826 abduction of 15-year-old Ellen Turner after luring her from school with
a false message about her father's health. The couple were married in Gretna Green,
Scotland and travelled to Calais before Turner's father was able to notify the authorities
and intervene. The marriage was annulled by Parliament and both Edward Gibbon
Wakefield and his brother William, who had aided him, were convicted at trial and
sentenced to three years in prison. There were also strong suspicions that he had resorted
to forgery and also perjury, although no charges were ever brought to a trial.
In 1831 Wakefield became involved in various schemes to promote the colonisation of
South Australia. He believed that many of the social problems in Britain were caused by
overcrowding and overpopulation and he saw emigration to the colonies as a useful safety
valve. He set out to design a good colonisation scheme, one with a workable combination
of labourers, artisans and capital. The scheme was to be financed by the sale of land to the
capitalists who would thereby support the other classes of emigrants.
The South Australia colony took several attempts to get going. Although initially
Wakefield was a driving force he found that as it came closer to reality he was allowed
less and less influence. Eventually he was frozen out almost completely whereupon he
took offence and severed his connections with the scheme.
The principle behind the new colony was that instead of granting free land to settlers as
had happened in other colonies, the land should be sold. The money from land purchases
would be used solely to transport reliable labourers to the colony free of charge, as well as
skilled workers, rather than paupers and convicts. Land prices needed to be high enough
so that workers who saved to buy land of their own remained in the workforce long
enough to avoid a labour shortage.
From 1834 to about 1860, assisted emigration to South Australia was mainly financed
from the sale of crown land and was administered by the Colonial Land and Emigration
Commission in London. It was the Commission who managed the money, selected the
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emigrants, and chartered the ships. Other emigrants under land grant or nominee schemes
travelled on private ships. Opportunities for assisted migration were widely promoted.
According to the regulations and conditions under which emigrants were to be selected for
passages to the Australian colonies, the emigrants must be of those callings which from
time to time are most in demand in the colony. They must be sober, industrious, of general
good moral character, and have been in the habit of working for wages, and going out to
do so in the colony. They must also be in good health, free from all bodily or mental
defects, and the adults must be in all respects be capable of labour and going out to work
for wages, at the occupation specified on their Application Forms. The candidates who
received a preference were respectable young women trained to domestic or farm service,
and families in which there was a preponderance of females. Single men could be taken
unless they were sons in eligible families, containing at least a corresponding number of
daughters. Under the regulations the emigrants were sign an undertaking not to quit South
Australia for at least the space of two years after arrival. [i]
The first settlers and officials set sail from London for South Australia in early 1836. By
the end of 1839 the population of the colony had grown to over 14,000. On 4 January 1840
Austin Higgins (49), his wife Mary (nee Nash)(48) and their children, John Middleton
(22), Sarah (20), William Bridgland (18), Elizabeth (16), Henry (15), Thomas (14), Sophia
(11), Charles (9), Jane (5) and Mary Maria (4) boarded the three-masted barque ‘Eliza’ in
London with all they owned in the world and set sail for South Australia.
TUNGKILLO
Steerage in the mid-19th century typically consisted of the area immediately below the
main deck of a sailing ship. The ceiling height of the between-deck was usually 6 to 8 feet.
The bunks, made of rough boards, were set up along both sides of the ship. The bunks
were ordinarily positioned so the passengers lay in the direction of the ship, from fore to
aft. Each bunk was intended to hold from three to six persons, and these were often called
family bunks. If passengers were lucky, there would be enough head-room to be able to sit
up on their beds.
The Eliza arrived at Port Adelaide on 14 May and the passengers were visited by the
emigration agent, whose duty it was to board the vessels as they arrived, and, after
examining the condition and discipline of the passengers, to offer such counsel as may be
needed for their guidance. An employment office had been established in the growing
town of Adelaide and the family soon found farming work in Port Gawler about 43 km to
the north.
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Despite a depression in the first few years in the colony the family managed to prosper.
The eldest son, John, died in 1844 but the older children began to marry and to start
families of their own. William married Susanna Holman on 4 March 1843 and their first
son, John Henry, was born the following year.
During the period 1841-1851, South Australia was the site of Australia's first mining era.
The mining boom followed the discovery of silver-lead ore at Glen Osmond, in the
foothills of the Mount Lofty Ranges on the outskirts of Adelaide. The Glen Osmond
discoveries were quickly followed by the discovery and exploitation of a large number of
mines, the most significant being the copper deposits at Kapunda (1844) and Burra (1845).
The mining of copper ores at Kapunda and Burra caused the first major decentralisation
away from Adelaide and by 1850; Burra with a population of 5000 was the largest inland
town in Australia and seventh largest overall. In 1850, minerals constituted 67% of the
value of exports from the Colony and wool 29%. A large proportion of the population was
directly or indirectly dependent on mining and South Australia was the third largest copper
producer in the world.
These mineral deposits, the first exploited less than five years after first settlement of the
Colony, had a profound effect on settlement. They brought about a major influx of capital
and immigrants into the Colony after the depression of the early 1840s and provided
employment for a large number of people. Land was surveyed for mineral tenements,
mining townships and agricultural purposes. Basic road networks were established during
this period to cart ore to Port Adelaide for shipment to Wales and also deliver heavy
machinery to the mines.
In September 1846 Australian Mining Company purchased the mineral rights to 20,000
acres to exploit a copper discovery in the vicinity of Reedy Creek, 50km east of Adelaide.
Operations commenced at the Tungkillo mine in 1847 and in 1848 a town was surveyed at
the mine. [ii]
Austin Higgins saw an opportunity in the mining boom, not so much for working in the
mines, but to take advantage of the need to provide other services such as transport to
support them. Austin moved the family, minus Sarah and Elizabeth who were now
married, to Reedy Creek. William and Susanna had their second son, William George, at
Reedy Creek in 1849.
On the night of 23 May 1851, with no warning of anything wrong Susanna Higgins died
suddenly in her sleep leaving William widowed with two infant sons to raise. According to
the inquest, after the examination of medical and other evidence the jury returned a verdict
of “Died by the Visitation of God”. It was very common in the middle of the nineteenth
century to attribute sudden unexplained deaths to this cause. Visitation was invariably
spelt with a capital V in due homage to the Almighty. As knowledge of pathology
improved, many doctors came to dislike deaths being ascribed to ‘Visitation of God’,
believing that it was unfair to blame God for deaths which were the result of pathological
changes. There was some active correspondence in the British Medical Journal of 1874,
the doctors condemning the traditional verdict and coroners defending it. [iii]
A year later William re-married. Mary Yourn had only recently arrived in the colony with
her sister and brother-in-law from Cornwall. They were married on 8 March 1852 in
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Blakiston, a small mining village between Littlehampton and Nairne in the hills east of
Adelaide.
CLUNES, CLYDESDALE AND YANDOIT
The 1850s was a decade that would change the face of the Australian colonies. In May
1851 there was a report of gold being discovered near Bathurst in New South Wales. The
Victorian authorities, eager to prevent its population from joining the gold frenzy in NSW,
offered a reward of £200 for any gold found within 200 miles of Melbourne. In 1851, six
months after the New South Wales find, gold was discovered at Ballarat, and a short time
later at Bendigo Creek. The 'rush' was well and truly on. Victoria contributed more than
one third of the world's gold output in the 1850s and in just two years the State's
population grew from 77,000 to 540,000. [iv]
In 1849, the Australian Mining Company surveyed a township on its land near the
Tungkillo mine. The township, named Southend, had a population of 600 people at its
peak in 1850 but was virtually abandoned when the mine closed in 1851. Cornish miners
from the copper mines at Burra and Kapunda saw the benefit in moving to the goldfields.
In early January 1852 reports began appearing in the South Australian newspapers
regarding overland travel to the Victorian goldfields. During 1851 there had been reports
of people overlanding to New South Wales on account of gold discoveries there, but prior
to January 1852, most travel to Victoria from South Australia was by ship from Adelaide
and then overland from Melbourne to the goldfields. Continuing reports of gold
discoveries in Victoria from late 1851 onwards and increasing numbers leaving South
Australia for ‘the diggings’ provided the impetus for finding the shortest, and quickest,
route.
In late January the Adelaide Morning Chronicle published a suggested overland route to
the Victorian goldfields - on the basis of information provided by Sergeant Rose, a
policeman who had for two years been stationed at Mosquito Plains (McIntosh’s Station),
and was acquainted with the whole country between Adelaide and Mt Cole, near Mt
Alexander. The same report appeared in The South Australian Register on 31 January
1852. A significant number of travellers made their way overland - a journey which
generally took around 6-8 weeks - depending on the route taken, a distance of
approximately 725 kms. [v]
Early in 1853 Austin Higgins led his family on a trek to the Victorian goldfields eventually
settling in Clydesdale. William’s own family’s movements through the goldfield’s can be
tracked through the births of the children. Elizabeth Jane (Clydesdale 1853, died 1854),
Austin (Barkers Creek 1854), Eliza (Victoria 1855), Sarah (Castlemaine 1857), Thomas
(Jim Crow 1859) and Mary Ann (Yandoit 1860). William and his brother Henry finally
settled in Yandoit where William ran a cartage business mixed with farming. Two more
children were born to William and Mary, Albert (1862, died 1863) and Elizabeth Jane
(1864). In 1866 William’s wife, Mary, passed away.
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Yandoit is located about 20 kilometres north of Daylesford and was first occupied in the
1840s by the Captain John Hepburn, a former mariner turned pastoralist who held under
Government licence about 20,000 acres (80 km. In 1854 rich alluvial gold was discovered
in Nuggetty Gully and later along the tributary gullies of the Yandoit Creek. In 1855 and
1856, the number of diggers increased sharply, as other gold areas declined. Early in 1855
about 5,000 diggers rushed the Yandoit area. On the north-west side of the slopes here
large nuggets were the rule rather than the exception. Nuggets of 750oz. 600 oz. 300 oz.
240 oz. and 50 oz. were recovered.
Deep lead mining began in 1858 and, by the late 1860s, Yandoit was supported by a
mixture of farming and mining. Many Italians and Swiss-Italians settled in and around the
town and built many of its surviving local stone buildings. Yandoit was surveyed in 1861
and proclaimed in 1885. Its population in 1861 was 232, but had declined to 77 by 1881.
Tragedy struck the family in Feb 1871 when William’s eldest son from his first marriage
was killed in a farm accident. According to the Argus of 7 February 1871:
When William died in 1893 his left an estate consisting of forty acres of land at the head
of Old Nuggetty Gully to be divided between Austin, his eldest son from his marriage to
Mary, and John, his eldest son from his marriage to Susanna. By that time Austin was
married to Amelia Bear and they had two children of their own, Amelia Mary (1887),
Austin Charles (1889) and Violet May (1891). Frederick William was born in 1895.
KEW
When the future associated with gold mining began to die out Austin Higgins moved his
family to Melbourne and settled in Tennyson Street, Kew. Not far from their home the
Melbourne Outer Circle Line lay dormant at the end of the street. Although by the time the
family moved into Tennyson Street the line had already closed its link with Fred’s future
had already been in place.
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The Yarra River brick and steel viaduct over the Yarra at Alphington, not far to the east of
Tennyson Street, was built for double tracks although only one track was ever laid. It has
three brick and two stone piers between its abutments supporting four 110 foot steel spans,
three over the land and one over the Yarra. The brickwork has bluestone footings and there
are stone cappings to the piers. Work on this bridge commenced in February 1889, but was
not completed and tested until November 1890.
In charge of the line’s construction, a young engineer named John Monash had a narrow
escape during the building of the Yarra viaduct. He was supervising the lifting of heavy
stones on the bridge works when a rope snapped and a huge stone dropped close to his
head. He recorded the incident in his diary saying: 'I seemed to live over all my life in a
flash. By good luck I was paralysed with a moment's hesitation; had I moved a step it
would have been all over with me". [vi]
Had he moved that step then Fred’s story may have been much different.
After Federation in 1901, one of the first acts of the new Commonwealth was to create a
national Defence Department. In 1911, compulsory military training in peacetime
(referred to as Universal training) was introduced. All eligible males of a specific age
group were liable for military training in peace time and for service within Australia in
time of war. This new army consisted of a small permanent garrison, a paid part-time
militia and a force of unpaid volunteers. Before the First World War, Australia was the
only English speaking country to have a system of compulsory military training during a
time of peace.
Between 1911 and 1929 Australian males between the ages of 18 and 60 were required to
perform militia service within Australia and its borders. There were three levels of
training. Boys between the ages of 12 and 14 had to enrol in Junior Cadets, which were
mainly school based and did not wear uniforms, from 14 to 18 they became members of
the uniformed Senior Cadets and from 18 to 26 years they became members of the
Citizen's Military Forces, requiring 16 days' paid training per year up until they reached
the age of 20, after which they had to attend an annual muster.
Exemptions were given to those who lived more than five miles (8 kilometres) from the
nearest training site, those passed medically unfit, to resident aliens and theological
students. Those who failed to register for military training were punished with fines or
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gaol sentences. Many boys did not register for their military training, and between 1911
and 1915 there were 34,000 prosecutions, with 7,000 gaol sentences imposed.
Fred did his duty for two years as a Senior Cadet and then for nine months as a noncommissioned officer with the 56th Infantry Battalion (Yarra Borderers). He was promoted
2nd Lieutenant on 1 July 1914 and served in that capacity for a further 2 years and 3
months. He was again promoted to 1st Lieutenant when he transferred to the 53rd
(Glenferrie) Infantry Battalion at the Drill Hall in Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Although the
original timber building has long since been replaced the drill hall is still in use for the
Army Reserve in 2013.
In 1912 he passed his Senior Public Examination at Melbourne University and qualified
for entry into the Commonwealth Public Service. Fred worked as a clerk with Customs at
Customs House in Flinders Street, the building now doing service as the Immigration
Museum.
When war broke out in 1914 the government pledged Australia's whole-hearted support to
Great Britain. "To its last man and last shilling", according to Prime Minister Andrew
Fisher. Australia recruited a force of volunteers for overseas service with the Australian
Imperial Force (AIF). With the landing at Gallipoli by the ANZACs on 25 April 1915
Australia formally entered the Great War in Europe. Things did not go well in that
campaign and the call of King and Country for young men to join in was loud and
insistent, particularly to those already serving in the units of the militia. Fred’s cousin,
Charlie Vessey [vii], enlisted on 20 July 1915 but Fred was torn in two directions. Should
he go or should he stay.
O 8 October 1916 Fred applied for a commission in the Australian Imperial Force. His
record shows no details as to why this was not granted but one reason may have been that
by 1916 the Army had sufficient soldiers with experience in the front line to fulfil its
needs. What the Army really needed were replacements for the thousands of ordinary
soldiers lost during that first year of the war. Fred finally enlisted on 14 October 1916 as a
member of the 9th Reinforcement, 4th Machine Gun Company.
BELTON PARK
On 16 November Fred embarked on the SS Orsova at Port Melbourne, appointed as Acting
Sergeant for the voyage only. He arrived at Plymouth and after a few days waiting at the
Australian Details Camp at Perham Downs he was transferred to the Machine Gun
Training Centre at Grantham on 24 February 1917.
In the early days of the war the allied armies suffered from the murderous effects of the
German firepower, in particular their use of machine guns. Although all infantry battalions
had two machine-guns and the number was increased to four by February 1915, the
experience of fighting in the early clashes of the war had proved that the machine guns
required special tactics and organisation.
The British War Office decided to form one Machine Gun Company for each infantry
brigade using the existing Vickers Machine Guns. At the battalion level they would be
equipped with new, lighter weight Lewis Guns. The Australian Army followed suit and the
Australian Machine Gun Companies made use of the centralised British training facilities
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at the Machine Gun Training Centre, Belton Park about 3 km north of Grantham in
Lincolnshire on what is now the Belton Park Golf Club.
The Vickers Machine Gun had been the primary machine gun for the British Army since
November 1912. It had an effective range of 2,000 metres but could deliver indirect fire
for over 4,000 metres by firing at a high angle at target areas well behind enemy lines.
This plunging fire was used to great effect against road junctions, trench systems, forming
up points, and other locations that might be observed by a forward observer, or zeroed in
at one time for future attacks, or guessed at by men using maps and experience.
Sometimes a location might be zeroed in during the day, and then attacked at night, much
to the surprise and confusion of the enemy.
The weight of the gun 11 to 14 kg depending on the gear attached with a 20 kg tripod. The
ammunition boxes for the 250-round ammunition belts weighed 10 kg each. In addition, it
required about 4.3 litres of water in its evaporative cooling system to prevent overheating.
The heat of the barrel boiled the water in the jacket surrounding it. The resulting steam
was taken off by flexible tube to a condenser container.
The gun and its tripod were carried separately. The tripod would be set up to make a firm
base, often dug into the ground a little and perhaps with the feet weighted down with
sandbags. The water jacket would be filled with water around the barrel. The evaporative
cooling system, though heavy, was very effective and enabled the gun to keep firing far
longer than air-cooled weapons. If water was unavailable, soldiers were known to resort to
using their urine. It was sometimes claimed that crews would fire off a few rounds simply
to heat their gun's cooling water to make tea, despite the resulting brew tasting of
machine-oil.
A typical machine gun crew consisted of up to 6 men. The commander acted as the gunner
and was the one responsible for firing the gun. The loader sat to the gunner's right, and fed
in belts of cloth, into which the rounds had been placed. The weapon would draw in the
belt, pull each round out of the belt and into the breech, fire it, and then drop the brass
cartridge out of the bottom. The cloth belt would continue through to the left side and
wind up on the ground.
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Two additional men were required to carry the ammunition and there were normally two
spare men as part of a crew. These men also acted as observers to identify targets and to
watch the fall of shots as well as hand loading the ammunition into belts and providing
protection for the gun crew.
Each machine gunner would spend up to six weeks training at Belton Park before being
sent to the front. Fred’s record shows that he arrived on 24 February but he remained there
until September, except for a fortnight from 11 to 28 April when he was in Belton Hospital
suffering from influenza. It’s likely that the centre was making use of his experience as a
militia officer in some sort of training or administrative capacity. Unfortunately the facts
may never be known since the centre’s archives were destroyed in a fire during WWII.
PASSCHENDAELE
On 27 September Fred crossed the channel via Folkstone and Etaples to finally join his
unit, the 4th Machine Gun Company. On the same day the 11th Machine Gun Company left
Steenvoorde in Belgium and route marched to Poperinghe. That night they camped in tents
about one mile south of the town where they spent two nights. At about 8:00 pm on the
night of the 29th, just as the sun was beginning to set an enemy aeroplane swooped low
overhead and dropped two bombs close to the tents in which the 11th Machine Gun
Company was camped. Nine men were killed while another 42 were wounded. With a
large portion of the unit’s strength out of action the remainder boarded a train from
Poperinghe to Ypres where they marched through to their new bivouac area on the Menin
Road near Polygon Wood where Australian units had been involved in major actions at
both locations only days earlier.
On 4 October the 11th Machine Gun Company lined up for action with 12 other allied
divisions along an eight mile front facing the otherwise unremarkable Belgian village of
Broodseinde. By the end of the day the below-strength company was depleted by the loss
of another 9 casualties.
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Fred hardly had time to drop his kit at the Australian Depot Camp in Etaples before he was
sent to board a train bound for Flanders. One thing the Australians were learning was that
even a successful operation could be costly. The 11th Machine Gun Company was at the
end of a two-day rest break at the hutted camp near Brandhoek, about midway between
Poperinghe and Ypres when Fred and other reinforcements caught up with them. Fred was
assigned to a gun crew and that night the unit took over in the front line from the 198th
Machine Gun Company.
After Broodseinde, for the first time in years British troops on the Western Front stood
face to face with the possibility of decisive success. An essential condition was good
weather. [viii] Nevertheless in two and a half months, British, including ANZAC,
casualties had been over 200,000 for advances of less than three miles. The British Prime
Minister was bitterly opposed to what he saw as General Haig launching division after
division into the Ypres bloodbath.
Rain recommenced late on 4 October, and had not ceased by 9 October, the date set for the
next attack on Passchendaele. Most officers saw this as the end of the offensive, but Haig
was adamant that the recent successes should be taken to a decisive conclusion. The 2nd
Australian Division fanned the flank for an attack by the British 66th Division, but they
were forced to struggle at times through water up to their waists and, in a desperate fight,
both the British and Australians were driven back, the 2nd Division suffering 1253
casualties.
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It was decided to go ahead with the attack on Passchendaele, scheduled for 12 October,
although, with the 9 October failure, the distance to be traversed was now much greater.
The 3rd Division was given the main role, to attack Passchendaele ridge and village, while
the New Zealand Division attacked Bellevue Spur. The 4th Division was to provide a
supporting role.
For the operation of 12 October the 16 guns of the 11th Machine Gun Company were
detailed to form a barrage covering the brigade’s front as the left flank of the 3rd Division’s
part of the attack. 1 hour before the attack was to begin the sections on the front line were
withdrawn and taken to concrete dugouts to await further action. The previous afternoon
the reserve sections and stores were moved to Judah House. Two men were left in charge
while the sections returned to the dugouts.
Once the attack had commenced the company moved up to Judah House and from there
they followed the attacking infantry. Their intention was to set up gun positions near Crest
Farm and provide indirect fire into the enemy’s rear.
In the muddy conditions the infantry units had been unable to reach their objectives and
the machine gun sections came to a halt on a spur near Augustus Wood. At about 12:45 pm
the infantry began to withdraw necessitating the withdrawal of the machine guns as well.
During the withdrawal the company lost three of its guns in the swampy ground. [ix]
The 11th Machine Gun Company’s casualties during the advance, the halt and the
withdrawal amounted to 2 men killed and 9 wounded. Although 20 Australians penetrated
to the village, little ground was gained and held in the entire operation. The 3rd Division
and the New Zealand Division each suffered some 3000 casualties.
Active participation of Australian infantry at Passchendaele virtually ended on 12 October
with the Australians providing only support tasks. Canadian troops were brought in and
began their attack on 26 October, eventually taking Passchendaele on 10 November.
GAS
On 17 October the 11th Machine Gun Company had eight guns dug in on Abraham Ridge
providing barrage support against the German lines and their rear areas. The Germans
retaliated with intense artillery fire with both shellfire and mustard gas.
Chemical weapons in World War I were primarily used to demoralize, injure and kill
entrenched defenders, against whom the indiscriminate and generally slow-moving or
static nature of gas clouds would be most effective. The types of weapons employed
ranged from disabling chemicals such as tear gas and the severe mustard gas, to lethal
agents like phosgene and chlorine.
The most widely reported and, perhaps, the most effective gas of the First World War was
mustard gas. It was a vesicant, a substance that causes painful blisters, that was introduced
by Germany in July 1917. The Germans marked their shells yellow for mustard gas and
green for chlorine and phosgene; hence they called the new gas Yellow Cross. It was
known to the British as HS (Hun Stuff) while the French called it Yperite, named after
Ypres.
Mustard gas was not a particularly effective killing agent, although in high enough doses it
could be fatal, but it could be used to harass and disable the enemy and to pollute the
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battlefield. Delivered in artillery shells, mustard gas was heavier than air, and it settled to
the ground as an oily liquid resembling sherry. Once in the soil, mustard gas remained
active for several days, weeks, or even months, depending on the weather conditions.
The skin of victims of mustard gas blistered, their eyes became very sore and they began
to vomit. Mustard gas caused internal and external bleeding and attacked the bronchial
tubes, stripping off the mucous membrane. This was extremely painful. Fatally injured
victims sometimes took four or five weeks to die of mustard gas exposure. [x]
The 11th Machine Gun Company maintained the position on Abraham Heights for three
days before being relieved by the incoming Canadians but one of the early casualties was
Fred who was taken from the front to the 11th Field Ambulance and next day to the 44th
(British) Casualty Clearing Station at Nine Elms, 5 km west of Poperinghe.
On 19 October Fred had reached the 1st Australian General Hospital at Rouen.
More than 14,000 British and allied casualties had been produced in the first three months
of its use and by the end of the First World War more than 120,000 British mustard
casualties had occurred. The most commonly injured areas of the body were: eyes
(86.1%), respiratory tract (75.3%), scrotum (42.1%), face (26.6%), anus (23.9%), back
(12.9%), armpits (12.5%), neck (12%).
Of course it wasn’t only the Germans using chemical weapons during the First World War.
A German corporal described his personal experience with exposure to mustard gas.
After a mustard gas attack soldiers might think nothing more about it for a few hours or
even a day. But eventually red spots would form on the skin that quickly turned into
painful blisters. If a soldier underwent a direct attack and inhaled mustard gas, it wouldn't
take long to feel pain and swelling in his nose and throat as the blisters developed, sealing
the airway.
Some of the more serious respiratory symptoms would take longer to surface, needing
anywhere from 24 to 48 hours to appear. This latent period played havoc with soldiers
exposed during the war, rendering troops incapacitated, filling infirmaries, taking up
valuable human resources, bogging down reinforcements and generally demoralising
soldiers.
Military doctors couldn't purge the effects of mustard gas in the body. Medical staff could
treat the skin with ointments consisting of bleaching powder and white petroleum jelly and
flush the eyes with saline solution which helped some. For the more severe respiratory
symptoms medics treated patients with a menthol solution soaked into gauze administered
through a metal breathing mask. This treatment alleviated dry cough but didn't cure the
bronchial infection. For the most severe casualties, medics quarantined the affected
– 15 –
patients and hoped for the best. In the end early detection proved to be the best way to
defend against the most serious respiratory effects.
YPRES
After 2 weeks at the 1st Australian General Hospital Fred was transferred to the 11th
Convalescent Depot at Buchy, a village about 30 km north-west of Rouen. Fred remained
there for a full two months eventually rejoining his unit on 29 December at Le Bizet, 2 km
north of Armentieres. The next day they were in the front line again in a sector comprising
farmland between Ploegsteert, a little further north along the road to Messines, and
Touquet, about the same distance to the north-east of Armentieres.
The relief of units in the front line was nearly always carried out in silence in the dark and
the times and days would be random in order to stop the enemy taking advantage of the
vulnerability of soldiers moving in and moving out. It doesn’t always work.
On 28 January 1918 the 11th Machine Gun Company was relieving the 22nd Machine Gun
Company in the line between Ploegsteert Wood and the River Lys. As the company was
moving towards the line German artillery began shelling the road. Two men were killed
and nine were wounded during the relief.
At this time the company strength was 13 Officers 149 Other Ranks and was capable of
putting 16 guns in the line. For purposes of control the company front was divided into
three sectors. The right sector had 5 guns, the centre sector 6 guns and the left sector 5
guns. Gun teams each consisted of 1 NCO and 4 men. Company reliefs of two men per
gun team were carried out every four days. 8 anti-aircraft guns were mounted in the
support line during the day but enemy aircraft flew too high to be engaged.
Between 4,000 rounds and 6,000 rounds were fired each night on targets identified by
infantry scouts and observers, and from intelligence reports. The principal targets were
Duriez Farm, where enemy working parties were active at night, and roads used by enemy
transport. Neutralising fire was also directed at machine guns in Soap House and Laundry,
while the division’s patrols were operating. Reports by scout officers indicated that
casualties were inflicted by the unit’s fire, particularly at Duriez Farm. Close touch was
maintained with infantry scout and intelligence officers.
– 16 –
On 7 March the 3rd Division was relieved from Le Touquet – Warneton Sector during
afternoon and evening and moved back to hutments in Le Nieppe – Romarin area. The
next day the division boarded trains at Steenwerck and travelled Desvres. The 9th, 10th,
11th, and 23rd Machine Gun Companies concentrated at Bournonville for the purpose of
re-organising and forming 3rd Australian Machine Gun Battalion. The marked a
significant change in the way the Australian machine gun companies operated since the
companies attached to each brigade would now come under the control of their own
Battalion Headquarters which itself was under divisional control.
VILLERS-BRETONNEUX
On 21 March 1918 the Germans unleashed an attack which, in scale and destruction,
surpassed any other in World War I. 32 German divisions, with 25 more in reserve,
advanced over a 43 mile front. By nightfall a German flood had inundated forty miles of
the British front; a week later it had reached a depth of nearly forty miles, and was almost
lapping the outskirts of Amiens; and in the ensuing weeks the Allied cause itself was
almost submerged. These weeks rank with those of the Marne in 1914 as the two gravest
military crises of the World War.
The British defended stubbornly but were steadily forced back. British casualties were
over 300,000 as they achieved miracles of heroic endurance.
By 30 March, the German, having failed in their main objective of achieving a major
breakthrough in the British lines, were attempting to force a divide at the point where the
British and French armies met. They had come too close to the strategically important
town of Amiens to give up without a further effort to take control.
On the night of 31 March/1 April the 3rd Division was in the line east of Amiens supported
by the 3rd Machine Battalion. The divisional front extended from the River Ancre in the
north between the villages of Treux and Ville Sur Ancre to the River Somme between
Sailly-Le-Sec and Sailly-Laurette. Battalion Headquarters was at Ribemont.
– 17 –
The 9th Machine Gun Company, with the 9th Brigade, had been detached to the British 61st
Division operating south of the River Somme in the Villers-Bretonneux area. The 10th
Machine Gun Company was in the line on the left half of the divisional front with its
Company Headquarters in the Chateau in Treux. The 11th Machine Gun Company, along
with two sections of the 15th Machine Gun Company was in the line on the right half of
the divisional front with its Company Headquarters in Sailly-Le-Sec. The 23rd Machine
Gun Company was in Ribemont with half the company being in reserve and the remainder
manning the Ribemont defences. At 7am on 1 April the 23rd Machine Gun Company left
Ribemont to change over with the 10th.
On 3 April the 9th Machine Gun Company, with an attack appearing imminent, was kept
busy improving their positions on the front line east of Villers-Bretoneux and in the village
itself. 2 sections from the 10th Machine Gun Company were detached to the 11th Machine
Gun Company to take over from the sections from the 15th Machine Gun Company. In the
meantime the 11th endured heavy shelling around Sailly-Le-Sec throughout the day.
At 5:45 am on 4 April the Germans opened a heavy bombardment on the town of VillersBretonneux, the trenches and the area behind. When the shelling stopped about an hour
later the German infantry could be seen through the early morning mist, gathering in
platoon-sized groups about 700 metres way. The Germans struck with 15 divisions on a
front of 21 miles, two thirds French, one third-British. In the northern sector, the 9th
Brigade, including the 9th Machine Gun Company, and the British 18th Division.
The four guns on the line immediately opened fire and inflicted heavy casualties causing
the Germans to fall back. Five minutes later the Germans came on again but this time they
came close enough to force the infantry to the left of the machine guns to withdraw. This
left the 35th Battalion and the machine guns exposed on their flank and allowed the
Germans to move through. The left flank of the 35th Battalion fell back to form a defensive
line against the Germans while the machine guns remained in place to protect the
movement. Before the guns themselves could be withdrawn into the defensive line the
enemy had captured one gun and put another out of action.
– 18 –
Half of the reserve guns were moved to the front line and by 8 am the company had 10
guns firing with four in reserve in Villers-Bretonneux. On the left flank the British and
Australians continued to be forced back to the very edge of the village while the machine
guns of No 3 Section continued firing and inflicted heavy casualties on the Germans. After
three hours of isolation the guns were reinforced by a company of the 34th Battalion and a
unit of British Cavalry.
At 5 pm a heavy bombardment fell on the right flank of the line and when it ceased the
German infantry attacked en masse. Six machine guns opened fire inflicting heavy
casualties. Still the Germans advanced and eventually the right flank was forced to give
way along with the machine guns. The line was almost at the point of collapsing
completely when a counter attack came from the British Cavalry, the 9th Brigade reserve
and a battalion of Londoners and the line was restored. [xi]
The other Machine Gun Companies had their own issues to deal with. In the afternoon the
11th Machine Gun Company was bombarded by German light mortars (Minenwerfers or
‘Minnies’) killing two of the company’s officers. To the north at Treux information was
received of an imminent attack. The 23rd Machine Gun Company prepared themselves to
give a warm reception. At 7:15 am on 5 April the preparatory bombardment began against
the line from Treux through to the 3rd Division’s Headquarters at Ribemont.
The next morning the 9th Machine Gun Company was relieved from the front line along
with the rest of the 9th Brigade. Villers Bretonneux was shelled heavily through the day but
no other action took place. The 10th Machine Gun Company undertook barrage work along
with four guns from the 11th. The 11th Machine Gun Company was shelled throughout the
day losing one gun.
To the north of Ribemont the 4th Division was attacked by the Germans in an attempt to
drive through to Amiens along the road from Albert. This attack also included the left
flank of the 3rd Division where 23rd Machine Gun Company in the line around Treux.
At 7:15 am a heavy bombardment opened up on the forward areas with high explosive and
shrapnel. After a short time the bombardment moved back from the font line to include the
villages of Treux, Buire, Ribemont, Merricourt and Heilly. An hour after the barrage began
the German machine guns opened fire sweeping over the village of Treux.
At about 9:45 am a party of German infantry, estimated to be around 500 men, were seen
advancing toward Treux. The guns opened fire immediately causing heavy casualties
among the Germans. When a group of 200 or so became bunched up on of the gun crews
ran forward and engaged them. Most of the enemy soldiers were killed by sustained
machine gun fire. When another party of around 300 came from the direction of Ville Sur
Ancre they were immediately met with machine gun fire and artillery dispersing them and
forcing their withdrawal.
At Sailly-Le-Sec the 11th Machine Gun Company was having its own problems. The
enemy had captured Bouzencourt, immediately to the south across the Somme. German
machine guns had been moved almost to the south bank of the river and fired several
bursts at the village. When several rounds entered the Company Headquarters the
Australian guns let loose and quickly made the German positions untenable.
– 19 –
As the war progressed the technology associated with military aviation had developed too.
Aircraft now played a big part in the battle to regain control of the Somme. One of the
most famous was Baron Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron) and the four squadrons
he commanded as Jagdgeschwader 1 (the Flying Circus). By 1918, he was regarded as a
national hero in Germany, and was very well known by the Allies.
Just after 11:00 am on 21 April Richthofen was fatally wounded while flying over
Morlancourt Ridge, near the Somme River. Richthofen was hit by a single .303 bullet,
which caused such severe damage to his heart and lungs that it must have produced a very
speedy death. In the last seconds of his life, he managed to make a hasty but controlled
landing in a field on a hill near the Bray-Corbie road, just north of the village of Vaux-surSomme. When Australian soldiers reached the aircraft, Richthofen was still alive but died
moments later. Sergeant Ted Smout of the Australian Medical Corps, reported that
Richthofen's last word was "kaputt".
It is now generally agreed that Richthofen died following an extremely serious and
inevitably fatal chest wound from a single bullet fired from the ground, penetrating from
the right armpit and resurfacing next to the left nipple. Many sources have suggested that
Sergeant Cedric Popkin was the person most likely to have killed Richthofen a machine
gunner with the Australian 24th Machine Gun Company. He fired at Richthofen's aircraft
on two occasions: first as the Baron was heading straight at his position, and then at long
range from the right. Given the nature of Richthofen's wounds, Popkin was in a position to
fire the fatal shot, when the pilot passed him for a second time, on the right. [ xii ]
– 20 –
On 24 April, at 4:45 am on a dull and misty morning, heavy German artillery fire
descended on the British troops who were now occupying the line in front of VillersBretonneux. Behind the town Australians met young soldiers withdrawing who told them
the Germans were advancing with flame-throwers and with tanks. Amiens, now a dull,
deserted and shell-damaged city, was under direct and serious threat. Most of the German
thrust fell on the southern side of Villers-Bretonneux. [xiii]
At that time the 3rd Machine Gun Battalion was operating with the 3rd Division in the area
to the north of the Somme. The 9th Machine Gun Company was in Bonnay, about 1 km
north of Corbie, although heavy gas shelling during the day forced them to move further
north to Franvillers. The 10th Machine Gun Company was in reserve at Ribemont. The 11th
Machine Gun Company was in the line at Mericourt. The 23rd Machine Gun Company was
in Treux engaged in barrage and direct fire tasks supporting the 10th Brigade.
The 1st and 2nd Divisions had been moved to Amiens from Flanders when the first attacks
had begun but the 1st Division had been turned around to meet another German advance on
Hazebrouck. South of the Somme the Germans fought through to the Amiens side of
Villers-Bretonneux, which was being pounded by artillery fire. It was essential that the
allies mount a quick and powerful counter attack before the enemy could consolidate.
However only the Australian 13th Brigade (4th Division) and 15th Brigade (5th Division),
which were in reserve, and some British battalions were available.
The two Australian brigades were each under the most redoubtable leaders of the AIF:
Brigadier Generals William Glasgow and HE "Pompey" Elliott. Both were tough,
courageous and battle-wise. At the appointed time of 10pm, the supporting artillery
opened fire, but the infantry were not ready. German flares fizzed into the sky, falling in
red, white, green, and golden bunches, and their artillery began to retaliate. Heavy fire fell
on the town, bringing down roofs and walls and setting buildings on fire. Glasgow's men
eventually moved off from their start positions with bayonets fixed, and more than an hour
later Elliott's did too. Each group was met by heavy machinegun fire.
– 21 –
The Australian advance rolled forward, often straight into the face of machine-guns. To the
south the men were finding their way over unfamiliar ground in the darkness. The fighting
went on throughout the night, and the Australians eventually got to the other side of
Villers-Bretonneux.
The Australians lost about 1,500 men in the action, killed or wounded. Later an officer
from the 4th Division looked over the battleground. He wrote:
"All about us lay the dead, pitifully boyish-looking Tommies who had been driven out of
Villers. Among them were the equipments of our 13th and 15th Brigade men who had died
in the recapture ... and had been buried. The price to the enemy was shown in the greyclad clusters of [their] dead."
With the re-taking of Villers-Bretonneux the German advance was stalled although the
constant raining of artillery continued. Having spent 42 strenuous days in the line between
the Rivers Ancre and the Somme the 3rd Machine Gun Battalion went into reserve at
Querrieu for ten days from 11 May. Even well back from the front things were not quiet as
bombing by enemy aircraft continued.
– 22 –
On their return to the line the battalion took over the defence of the Villers-Bretonneux
Sector. Each company maintained a small nucleus at the Rear Headquarters at LamotteBrebiere. Throughout the time in that sector the personnel of the nucleus was changed
every second or third day. The couple of days out of the line gave the men the chance of a
spell, swim and change of clothing. The weather of late had been “real surfing weather” as
the battalion’s war diary put it, “and a daily sight in the area is to see some men
swimming, others clothed perhaps in a digger hat meandering up and down the Somme in
all sorts of weird tubs ranging from horse troughs to classy gondolas. Their serenity is not
disturbed in spite of the occasional whine of an HE shell or the bursting of a “woolly bear”
(a German shrapnel shell that burst with an explosion of black smoke) and other types of
Hun shrapnel”.
On 30 May 1918, as a consequence of the Australian government's directive that all senior
commands be held by Australians, Lieutenant General John Monash was appointed to
command the Australian Corps and General Sir William Birdwood selected Major General
Gellibrand to take Monash's place in command of the 3rd Division.
BATTLE OF HAMEL
During July the battalion was moved to the Hamel sector where a captured German
prisoner provided information about the effects of the harassment by the long-range
machine gun fire on the enemy morale. On 15 July Fred Higgins was promoted to
temporary corporal.
On 4 July, operations by the Australian Corps against Hamel and surrounding areas were
launched using the under-strength 4th Division as the attacking force supported by the 11th
Brigade, which included the 11th Machine Gun Company and the 6th Brigade from the 2nd
Division. The attack was also supported by the attachment of a number of US troops. For
the first time in the war American troops acted as part of an offensive, and the first time in
history that US troops would fight under a foreign commander. Ten companies were sent
as attachments to the Australians, in an effort to give the Americans some first-hand battle
experience, ach American platoon attached to an Australian company and integrated into
the battle plan.
The day before the attack the commander of the American Expeditionary Force in France,
General John J. Pershing learnt of the plan and ordered six of the companies to withdraw.
This meant that battalions had to rearrange their attack formations and caused a serious
reduction in the size of the Allied force, the 11th Brigade now attacking with 2,200 men
instead of 3,000.
At 3:02 am on 4 July, a day chosen in deference to the Americans who were mostly no
longer participating, the supporting artillery opened up with its usual harassing
bombardment. Having been conditioned over the past two weeks to expect a gas attack,
the German defenders pulled on their gas masks. This restricted their movement,
situational awareness and ability to communicate. Masked by the noise of the
bombardment, 60 tanks moved while No. 101 Squadron of the British Royal Air Force
– 23 –
provided additional cover by dropping 350 25-pound bombs to the east of the Australian
front.
Then at 3:10 am the main barrage began with flanking smoke screens laid down by the
artillery and trench mortars. The creeping barrage began 180 m in front of the attacking
troops and continued 550 m beyond that. The infantry rose along the whole line and began
following the barrage at a distance of 70 m. Although the barrage was mostly accurate,
some rounds fell short at the junction of the 4th and 11th Brigades, virtually wiping out one
American squad and one platoon of the 43rd Battalion.
At 03:14 am the barrage advanced and the infantry continued to follow it into the cloud of
smoke and dust caused as the chalky ground was churned up by the exploding shells. This
made observing the line of the barrage difficult and obscured some of the objectives in
front of the infantry. Some American troops, keen to keep up with the experienced
Australians and unsure of where the barrage was landing, dashed headlong into the shellfire and had to be turned around. The attack was then put in, coming up against three
major German strong points: the "Pear Trench", the Vaire and Hamel Woods, and then
Hamel village itself.
Situated south-west of Hamel, on the reverse slope of a gentle spur, the Pear Trench
formed the centre of the 4 km front over which the Australians attacked. The 4th Brigade
was assigned to assault the position supported by three tanks that became lost in the
darkness and failed to arrive on time for the attack. The trench became the scene of heavy
and confused fighting as the Australian infantry met grenades and machine-guns with
bayonets. The Australians reached the designated halt-line and had stopped for "smoko"
when the supporting tanks finally arrived.
To the south of both the village of Hamel and the Pear Trench, the Vaire and Hamel Woods
were joined by a narrow strip of trees. The Hamel Wood was the northernmost of the two
and situated in low ground that rose towards a hill where the Vaire Wood grew. To the west
of the wooded area, on the other side of the road that linked Hamel with VillersBretonneux, the Germans had constructed a kidney-shaped trench, which the Australians
had dubbed “Kidney" or "Vaire Trench". Occupying a commanding view of the ground to
– 24 –
the west, over which the Australian infantry had to assault, the position was reinforced
with barbed wire, and anchored with multiple machine-gun posts. As the British tanks
moved up in support, the 4th Brigade advanced through the trench and into the woods.
The task of taking the strong points around Hamel was assigned to the four battalions of
the 11th Brigade supported by the 11th Machine Gun Company. 98 minutes after setting
out the 11th Brigade had captured its objectives and the 11th Machine Gun Company had
set up new gun positions on the eastern slope of the spur.
HUNDRED DAYS OFFENSIVE – AMIENS TO THE SAINT QUENTIN CANAL
On 8 August 1918, the Allies launched their Hundred Days Offensive to the east of
Amiens and the 3rd Division was tasked with leading the Australian Corps in the attack.
For the first time the Australians would fight side by side with the Canadians who would
attack on their right flank to the south of the railway. The British would attack on their left
flank north of the Somme. The weight of the Allied fire support was intense as over 2,000
artillery pieces opened up on the German defences. The assaulting infantry battalions were
each assigned a frontage of about 900 metres which they assaulted with two companies
forward and two in support. Thick smoke meant that the attackers found it difficult to
maintain their spacing and some of the supporting armour was also delayed. Nevertheless
the attack proved successful, as the Australians overwhelmed the German defenders and
by the end of the day the division had achieved all of its objectives.
To the north the British had struck difficulties and had been unable to move as quickly.
Enemy fire from the north bank of the river caused heavy casualties on the exposed
Australians until the US 131st Infantry Regiment was able to leap frog past the British and
take care of the threat.
The Battle of Amiens became a major turning point in the tempo of the war and the
Germans were forced to withdraw to the Hindenburg Line once more. A daylight attack on
Proyart by the 10th Brigade on 12 August, the capture of Bray-sur-Somme by the allies to
the north and a steady advance eastward saw the 3rd Machine Gun Battalion at the end of
August facing the formidable barrier of the Somme near the town of Perrone and behind it,
– 25 –
Mont Saint Quentin. The battalion had been in the line for the whole of July and August.
At the beginning of July its strength had totalled 972. By the end of August, despite the
addition of 42 reinforcements the total strength was down to 865.
On a hill, dominating the Somme River and its lakes, Péronne was a well-fortified place
during the early Middle Ages. The ramparts were built in the 9th century. All that remains
today of the ancient fortress is the Porte de Bretagne. Mont Saint-Quentin overlooks the
Somme approximately 1.5 km north of the town. The hill is only about 100 metres high
but because it is situated in the bend where the river turns from flowing north to flowing
west it dominates the whole position and is of strategic significance. It was a key to the
German defence of the Somme line and the last German stronghold before the Hindenberg
Line.
Originally built in the 1700s to connect the Somme and Scheldt Rivers, the Germans made
use of the St Quentin Canal as an additional defensive barrier forward of the Hindenberg
Line. East of Peronne the canal ran through a tunnel for approximately six kilometres
between Bellicourt and Venhuille. Fearing an attack across the canal would be costly,
Lieutenant General Monash decided to assault over the top of the tunnel.
With the Australian Corps exhausted from almost continuous operations since 8 August,
Monash had only two divisions in a reasonable state for combat - the 3rd and 5th - and was
thus reinforced with the 27th and 30th United States Divisions. The plan was for the
numerically superior Americans to breach the Hindenburg Line above the tunnel, and
another defensive line a kilometre to the rear. The Australians would then pass through and
assault the German line near the village of Beaurevoir, another four kilometres back. The
attack would be supported by 90 tanks and heavy artillery concentrations.
– 26 –
The inexperience of the Americans was telling. An operation launched to secure the start
line on 27 September 1918 was unsuccessful due to their failure to properly clear dugouts
and trenches. The same mistakes were repeated by the 27th US Division when the actual
attack was launched two days later. With all of the tanks destroyed or disabled, and the
uncertain position of the forward troops preventing the use of artillery, the advancing 3rd
Australian Division was forced to fight for the ground that the Americans were planned to
have already taken. In the confusion of battle, some American pockets that had been left
without effective leadership willingly went along with the Australians as they advanced
and there are documented accounts of soldiers from both nations fighting alongside each
other in ad-hoc mixed outfits. [xiv]
On 2 October the 3rd Division was removed from the line for rest and reorganisation and
was out of the line when news of the Armistice came on 11 November 1918. By 5 October
the 3rd Machine Gun Company was in its new billets around the town of Airaines about 20
km south of Abbeville and spent the next several weeks resting and training. Many even
managed to take leave in England. Fred’s permanent promotion came through on 9
November, two weeks after his return from leave, as the battalion began to reorganise
itself ready to return to front-line duty.
News of the Armistice reached the town first, the power of rumour proving that it was
faster than official information. Cities, towns and villages were decked out in red, white
and blue and the citizens celebrated. For the soldiers, training continued as the autumn
turned to winter, but with less intensity. The training was more to keep them busy and
often consisted of sports rather than anything war-like. And it rained almost constantly.
– 27 –
Demobilisation became the word on everybody’s lips. How soon could they get home? At
Monash’s insistence a policy of ‘first in, first out’ was adopted with the longest-enlisted
soldiers being sent home first. Each division was required to classify their men according
to their date of enlistment and put them into “quotas” of 1,000 each. 1,000 men being a
normal trainload, a normal shipload, and also a number readily organised as a battalion.
Each “quota” was to have, if possible, its brass band, its education staff, and organised
provision for recreation.
It was recognised early that men with other than soldierly skills were needed to administer
the drafts for demobilisation. Initially 150 soldiers were identified and transferred to the
Chief Paymaster’s Office in London and immediately put to work. Fred Higgins was one
of these and on 14 January 1919 he was transferred to the Australian Army Pay Corps.
Partly because of the urgent desire of the Australian government and of the A.I.F. itself to
get on with repatriation, partly because the British Command preferred to have more
docile troops in the army of occupation, the Australian divisions in France had not been
sent to occupy the Rhineland. The divisions remained mainly among the friendly Belgian
towns between Dinant on the Meuse and Charleroi. There the force spent the next six
months, quickly shrinking.
The groups were brought successively to the camps on Salisbury Plain and by the end of
May there were 70,000 Australians in residence. Through the energy of Prime Minister
Hughes and of the transport staff, ships were allotted by the British Shipping Control
much more quickly than had been expected; and as each ship became available a quota
was called on to fill it. The 40,000 convalescents went separately, under medical control
and arrangements.
Fred remained in London until his turn finally came. On 26 June he was temporarily
promoted and on 7 July he departed for home on the Chemnitz as its Pay Sergeant.
From January 1918 an unusually deadly influenza strain involving the H1N1 virus began
to infect people across the world. To maintain morale, wartime censors minimized early
reports of illness and mortality in Germany, Britain, France, and the United States; but
papers were free to report the epidemic's effects in neutral Spain. This created a false
– 28 –
impression of Spain as especially hard hit – thus the pandemic drew the nickname
‘Spanish flu’.
For men crowded onto troop ships the risks associated with the virus was aggravated. The
severest test to the discipline of the A.I.F. during demobilisation occurred when some of
the troops on arriving transports found themselves quarantined almost within sight of their
homes because of the discovery of, perhaps, one case of suspicious sickening for influenza
among 1000 men. But in, only one such instance was there serious trouble. In most others
the good sense of the men and the efforts of ships’ captains and officers and quarantine
authorities in organising recreation enabled this tedious delay to be borne with good
humour. As Australia was the only country to escape, for at least a few months, the
terrifying influenza that raged elsewhere, the soldiers’ tolerance of this last trial was
possibly of very great value to their nation.
On 23 August Fred was admitted to the ship’s hospital, probably with flu-like symptoms
that were exaggerated by his earlier gassing. When the ship docked in Melbourne two
weeks later he was transferred directly to hospital.
After almost a year since the Armistice Fred was discharged from the Army on 25 October
1919 and he returned to the Public Service. Fred married Kathleen Meares in 1926 but the
couple remained childless. He died in 1968.
http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/australia/SAassistedindex.shtml
Australian Mining History Association, Annual Conference, Hahndorf, South Australia, 12–18 September 2011
iii http://journal.nzma.org.nz/journal/115-1157/52/
iv http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-gold-rush
v http://www.cornishvic.org.au/overlandgold/
vi Outer Circle Railway Anniversary Trail, City of Boroondara, http://www.boroondara.vic.gov.au/ourcity/history/resources/outer-circle-railway
vii See Charles Weaver Vessey, http://mappingouranzacs.naa.gov.au/detailspermalink.aspx?barcode_no=8397938
viii Bean, C.E.W. The A.I.F. in France 1917:877
ix 11th Machine Gun Company War Diary
x
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_weapons_in_World_War_I
xi 3rd Machine Gun Battalion War Diary 4 April 1918
xii http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Baron
xiii http://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-04-25/australias-gallant-contribution-to-the-turning
i
ii
xiv
http://www.awm.gov.au/units/event_147.asp