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PAGE 20 Edited Extracts from C. W. BEAN'S
EXTRACTS
Friday, 11 September 2009 12:23:58 PM
Below are excerpts listed from Bean's History of the first World
war, as extracted by my cousin Clyde
SMYTHE and myself.
Capital letters for the name of the family member. The
bracketed numbers refer to footnotes about the
SMYTHE brothers.
Fromelles
 and remains
of bunker. Hilters bunker (behind soccer) field photos nearby in fields,
 .
Volume 3, Ch. 13, Page 433 (Battle of Fromelles) 20 July 1916 -
"For some reason the order for withdrawal seems not to have been
received by the 14th Brigade report-centre until 7.3, or by Cass
until 7.50. The Barrage around his position had been ordered long
before, and began to fall at 5.40; and to the long delay which
followed must be attributed to the loss of a great part of Cass's
right flank. On receipt of the final order he at once passed word
for his men to move to the rear through the well-traversed trench
across No-Man's Land, which, with the help of CAPTAIN
SMYTHE'S
(207) company of the 56th and Captain Scott's of the 5th Pioneers,
had now been dug from four to six feet deep and duck boarded
through to the old German front. At the first command to withdraw
there was some disorganisation, part of the men around Cass's
headquarters attempting to run across the open to their old
trenches. The enemy turned upon them with machine-guns and they
lost heavily.
(THIS OFFICER WAS CAPTAIN VERN SMYTHE)
Pozieres Memorial
Volume 3, Ch. 18, Page 618 (Pozieres Heights) - 27 July 1916
-
"Some tried to occupy their minds by playing cards (82). The
company of the 22nd in this trench lost all its officers and a
great part of its men through this bombardment; and so great was
the carnage in the 24th that for months afterwards, even when "K"
Sap had almost been obliterated, its course could easily be traced
by the half-buried bodies with the red and white colours of the
battalion still showing on their arms. At the eastern end of the
village the 19th Battalion had been heavily bombarded; and the old
semicircular trench of the 11th and 12th Battalions behind the
northern edge of the village etc." (82) - "It is related in the
history of the 24th Battalion
(The Red and White Diamond - Page
95), that an officer passing along "K" trench saw four men playing
cards. On the parapet above them was the body of their sergeant
who had been playing cards with them, his hand, being taken by a
mate. When the officer passed that way again, those four men were
dead."
(THIS OFFICER WAS LIEUTENANT (later) CAPTAIN VIV SMYTHE)
- See
Dorothy's notes.
Mouquet Farm
Volume 3, Ch. 23, Page 818 (Last Attack on Mouquet Farm) - 26
August 1916 - "The isolated Victorians being evidently in a
desperate situation, the artillery barrage was called down north
of the farm at 10.20 a.m. Gellibrand ordered the 24th to suppress
the enemy in the farm by two bombing attacks from the south and
south-east. This perilous duty was accepted by LIEUTENANT
SMYTHE,
(36) and the parties were organised: but, as the artillery could
not be employed for fear of hitting the isolated troops, and the
available trench-mortars were in positions from which the
objective could not be hit, the order was at the last moment
cancelled. A renewal of the attack on Point 54, ordered for noon
after renewed bombardment by heavy artillery, also remained
unattempted, apparently because the artillery had overshot their
target. The abandonment of these projects was fortunate: it is
unbelievable that such efforts made in broad daylight against an
alert enemy strongly occupying positions of great strength had any
chance of success."
(THIS OFFICER WAS LIEUTENANT (later) CAPTAIN VIV SMYTHE - AFTER
THAT VIV WAS CALLED MOUQUET BILL) Ed.
Volume 4, Ch. 10, Page 361 (Lagnicourt) - 13-14 April 1917 -
"Above the canal south-east of Hermes, a party of the 3rd
Battalion was fired on by the Germans in a square copse which it
had been ordered to occupy. This was mentioned in Bert's diary
dated 13th). There are quite a few mentions of actions by the 3rd
Battalion (Bert's) on Pages 361, 363, 364 and 367. On
Page 364, there is a notation at the bottom of the page which
reads "It caught the 3rd Battalion's Brass Band, whose members
had for the first time been ordered forward to carry rations to
the front. The battalion is said to have gone without
breakfast."
Volume 4, Ch. 12, Page 436 (Second Battle of Bullecourt) - 3 May
1917. (This was the day that Bert and Julius Ordo
CLARKE (a distant cousin
on the maternal side of the family) were killed and Julius' brother Hercules
Lionel CLARKE was injured and he
died the following day. "The 24th Battalion which, with the
23rd behind it, advancing along the depression, next to the road,
reached the wire with little loss. A German machine-gun which
fired at them through the barrage was silenced by Lewis gunners
shooting form the hip as they advanced. At the wire the rear
waves came up too close, and in the craterfield there the order of
the battalion was broken, and (Cont'd Page 437) -
Volume 4, Ch. 12, Page 437 (Second Battle of Bullecourt) - still
dated 3 May 1917 - the troops pressed forward dangerously close
to the barrage; but when it lifted they were in the German trench
with the last shell, and the enemy garrison, having no time to
leave its dugouts was easily suppressed. Looking over their
shoulders as they entered the trench, the Victorians on the right
saw the failure of the 5th Brigade. Everyone knew the plans and
objectives, and so, as a matter of course, LIEUTENANT
SMYTHE of
the leading company of the 24th, after capturing O.G.1. in his
sector, led a party into that trench on the 5th Brigade's side of
the road, bombing the dugouts as he went. He met no opposition
until, when 200 yards along the trench, he came close upon some
German machine-gunners who were busily firing towards the
Australian lines. As SMYTHE
had insufficient force for attacking
them, he had to be content with exchanging a few bombs and
revolver shots, and then stationed a post two bays further back to
block the trench and safeguard the flank.
(Continuing further down the page) - The three following waves
of the 24th and those of the 23rd had meanwhile passed over O.G.1.
to the left of the road, and had then lain close to the barrage as
it fell on O.G.2. At 4.16, the moment it lifted, these troops too
were into the trench before the Germans were ready to meet them.
Here the 24th captured a machine-gun, two light trench mortars, an
automatic rifle and a Lewis Gun."
Volume 4, Ch. 12, Page 448 (Second Battle of Bullecourt) - still
dated 3 May 1917 - "It was only a few minutes earlier that
LIEUTENANT SMYTHE of the 24th had placed his flank-guard 200 yards
along this trench. He was returning down it to his proper sector
when he saw the last of Gilchrist's attack, and immediately
afterwards came upon that very keen officer hurrying eastward,
quite alone, along O.G.1. "These men are all right. All they
want is a leader!" said Gilchrist. When SMYTHE began to explain
the position to him, "All they need is a leader," Gilchrist
repeated, and pushed past him down the trench.
(THIS OFFICER WAS LIEUTENANT (later) CAPTAIN VIV SMYTHE)
Volume 4, Ch. 12, Page 456 (Second Battle of Bullecourt) - still
dated 3 May 1917 - a note at the bottom of the page states) -
"LIEUTENANT SMYTHE
of the 24th most gallantly devoted part of his
own small bomb store (for use by Captain Gilchrist of
the 18th Battalion) and charged one of his NCO's to keep up the
supply."
(THIS OFFICER WAS LIEUTENANT (later) CAPTAIN) VIV SMYTHE)
Volume 4, Ch.12. Page 488 (Second Battle of Bullecourt) - 3rd-4th
May 1917 - "Then tired, unkempt, reduced in numbers but
bursting with pride the 6th Brigade came out. (After their
part in the battle). This was early 4 May and they had to
fight off a German counter attack that was beaten off. Its men
looked for no recognition of their victory and none awaited them.
No special congratulations awaited them, no high commander picked
them out for special approbation. Indeed the higher command knew
little of what the Brigade had done. It's four Battalions came
back into close reserve from which they organised as four
companies of a single Battalion that daily helped others to secure
the foothold they had seized. But their achievement won them a
tribute which they would have prized beyond all others.
An officer of the 2nd Battalion records that his incoming
troops, forced to trample on the dead crowded in the narrow
trenches, were at great pains during that day to avoid stepping on
any whose sleeve carried the red and white patch of the 24th
Battalion. "We understood that it was they who took this
position," he says simply. In the whole battle from Vimy to
Queant, theirs had been almost the only success." (On a note
at the bottom of the page was written) "Also a British airman
flying very low over the headquarters of the brigade on the
afternoon of the 3rd dropped a message - "Well done Australia!"
I personally feel the tributes written above are for my uncle and
his two second cousins, who lost their lives in this battle. Ed.
Viv's son Clyde, advised that Pozieres was his worst experience of
the war with Bullecourt and Passchendale (Tyne
Cot Memorial ) close behind. Clyde also
wrote on another report that Viv described Pozieres and Mouquet
Farm as 'his worst of the worst trials in W.W.1.' He particularly
felt that being 'packed tight in "K" Trench in total darkness -
ordered not to move - while being shelled by an intense German
barrage was virtually beyond endurance. The successful attack on
the Hindenburg Line at Bullecourt was regarded by his father as
his most satisfying action of the war.
My mother told me that Viv suffered very badly with hay-fever many
times. There are a few entries on his Service Documents of being
sent to England to hospital. Uncle Viv told me that he found it
almost unbearable to send men out on patrol, when he knew that he
would not see many of them again. He had to repeat these orders
far too often.
(The 3rd MAY WAS THE DAY THAT BERT WAS KILLED WHEN THE 3rd
BATTALION RELIEVED VIV'S 24th)
Volume 4, Ch. 19, Pages 826-827 (Polygon Wood) - 26 September 1917
- "The 14th Brigade's second objective included 1,000 yards of
the Flandern 1 Line, and a number of pillboxes. Then the 56th and
the 55th launched this final stage of the advance at 7.30, they
found the Flandern Line recognisable only by the shreds of the
entanglement, and the pillboxes were easily taken, but sharp fire
came from the right. The source of this was the German
Headquarters at Polygonebeek, which at the moment lay short of the
barrage and un-attacked by the 29th, which was not yet up. Company
Sergeant-Major Brewer and Loney were killed trying to remedy
this. Captain Plomley (56th) sent Lieutenant Scott to secure the
flank, but the place was soon afterwards taken by the 29th. The
56th and 55th passed the Flandern Line and were fired on by
machine-guns from two pillboxes beyond. CAPTAIN SMYTHE (56th)
with some of his men captured one of these together with 15
Germans and Lieutenant Slater with three of the 55th took another
and 30 prisoners. This for the time ended serious resistance, and
the Australian infantry with characteristic nonchalance, roamed
over the plateau."
(THIS OFFICER WAS CAPTAIN VERN SMYTHE AND THE ACTION FOR WHICH HE
WAS AWARDED A BAR TO HIS MILITARY CROSS)
Volume 4, Ch. 21, Page 896 (Passchendale 1) - 9 October 1917 -
"Meanwhile the enemy had just reached the wood when suddenly a
machine-gun was suddenly switched on it from near Dairy Wood, 150
yards farther north. This almost wiped out the left. Under
CAPTAIN SMYTHE the centre had pushed on into the copse, a thin
stubble resembling Polygon Wood, and now swung round facing this
gun. It was most difficult to detect, but Lieutenant Scales and
Sergeant Radley eventually caught sight of it in a heap of bricks
between Daisy and Dairy Woods. They sniped several of the
Germans, who thenceforward could only make hurried shots.
(THIS OFFICER WAS CAPTAIN VIV SMYTHE - HE MUST HAVE BEEN PROMOTED
BY THIS TIME). Ed.
Volume 4. Ch. 21, Page 899 (Passchendale 1 - Daisy Wood) 9 October
1917 - "CAPTAIN SMYTHE (24th) with Lieutenant and Sergeant
O'Hara (19th) and Lieutenant Gow (24th), enclosed the wood in a
line of posts. Before dark, through the persistency of Taylor
and SMYTHE, the essential parts of the 6th Brigade's objective had
been secured."
(THIS OFFICER WAS CAPTAIN VIV SMYTHE - HE WAS A TEMPORARY MAJOR
WHEN THE WAR ENDED)
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