Some bloody soldiers—18 September 1918

Members of the Fourth Division, France, April 1918 [AWM E01963]

When the Imperial German Army withdrew from Péronne in early September 1918 it fell back to positions running north and south of the Fourth Division Memorial. These were known as the 'Hindenburg Outpost Line' by the British and west of them lay two old British lines smashed through by the Germans during their great offensive of 21 March 1918. These old British lines were garrisoned by the Germans, making the approach to the Hindenburg Line proper a formidable one. Feeling they had the Germans on the run, however, the British high command approved an assault on the old British lines and, if successful, a quick follow up attack on the 'Hindenburg Outpost Line'.

On the night of 17–18 September, men of the Australian First and Fourth Divisions moved up to a start line east of the villages of Hargicourt in the north and Le Verguier in the south, along a six-and-a-half-kilometre front. Many of these soldiers had been fighting now for weeks and most Australian battalions were virtually at half strength due to casualties and lack of reinforcements. Nonetheless, according to Charles Bean they were in 'bounding spirits' as they marched again into battle. By the end of the day the First Division to the north had seized all its objectives.

Le Verguier [DVA]

The attack towards the 'Hindenburg Outpost Line' trenches began to the east and south of Le Verguier, a couple of kilometres away. The ground lay over a series of spacious valleys north of the River Omignon and was led by the 48th Battalion (South Australia and Western Australia) in what was to be the unit's last action of the war. They soon met the well directed fire of the German machine gunners but got into the German line and watched as many enemy soldiers tried to escape. Padre William Devine, 48th Battalion, described their fate:

The remainder had run to a hollow on the other side of the rising ground and most of them took up a position along a sunken road there … Their plight was a sorry one … for they were right on our artillery's protective barrage. More enemy dead were strewn over that small area than the writer of these pages had ever before seen gathered on the same extent of ground. Many of those who came under the heavy fire ran forward with hands upraised in token of surrender and from this place and the adjoining dug-out one hundred and eighty nine prisoners were taken.

[William Devine, The Story of a Battalion, Melbourne, 1919, pp.148–9]

The 45th Battalion (New South Wales), 'advancing in magnificent order', now drove on through the line taken by the 48th.

An official photographer was with the battalion as it fought up to the summit of another valley hilltop capturing German guns and infantry. His series of images shows the Australians moving across the open countryside to the east of the Fourth Division Memorial and, having gained their objective, stopping to watch the British artillery bombardment hit the German positions on the 'Hindenburg Outpost Line' around the memorial area. That night the 46th Battalion (Victoria) stormed the 'Hindenburg Outpost Line' in a rainstorm which made the German defenders seek shelter. Many of the enemy were reserve troops who had rushed forward earlier in the day in anticipation of an Australian attack at dawn on 19 September. Hundreds surrendered causing the Australians some problems:

… some of the crowd of prisoners arriving at Couchman's headquarters [Major Frank Couchman] showed signs of aggression, especially one officer; but a Victorian corporal by keeping them on the move to the rear averted any outbreak. A captured officer remarked to Couchman: 'All I can say is you are some bloody soldiers'!

[Charles Bean, The Australian Imperial Force in France, 1918, Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, Volume VI, p.926]

Private James Park Woods, age 25, a vignernon from Western Australia, joined the Australian Imperial Force in October 1916. [AWM A02640]

At five-feet three-inches tall (1.6002 metres) he had not been allowed to join until the height restriction, five-feet six-inches (1.6764 metres) in 1914, was reduced in 1915 to five-feet two-inches (1.5748 metres).

At this point in the action the right flank of the 46th's position in the newly captured line was vulnerable on the right to the south–west of the Fourth Division Memorial. Two companies of the 48th Battalion came up to drive the enemy back from a maze of trenches covered by enemy machine guns. Part of the position was captured with the help of one whom Padre Devine of the 48th christened a 'young firebrand':

A lad named Woods [Private James Woods] hoisted himself on the parapet of a neighbouring trench. He was soon the aim of many bullets; but the fortune of war, as remarkable in its friendships as in its spites, dealt kindly with him. Lying on his stomach whilst his comrades below fed him with bombs, he created such havoc in the strong–point that when reinforcements arrived their task was an easy one.

[William Devine, The Story of a Battalion, Melbourne, 1919, p.150]

Men of the 46th Battalion (Victoria) in a captured trench in the 'Hindenburg Outpost Line', near Bellenglise, France, September 1918. [AWM E03366]

Thus, wrote Padre Devine, the 48th Battalion gained its one and only Victoria Cross of the war awarded for an action during its very last engagement—the seizure of the 'Hindenburg Outpost Line'. For Devine this fact added a particular poignancy to the deaths of those killed in these final actions. The battalion dead were recovered from the battlefield and initially buried further towards Le Verguier at Dean Copse. Devine drew particular attention to a Port Adelaide labourer, Private Nathaniel Lunt, age 33, who had joined the battalion when it was formed in Egypt in early 1916.

Lunt was considered one of the characters in the battalion, the 'hero of many fights both in the line and out of it'. Lunt's personal AIF dossier at the Australian National Archives reveals a number of these incidents earning him undoubtedly the title of 'larrikin':

Headstone of Private Nathaniel Lunt, 48th Battalion (South Australia and Western Australia), Bellicourt British Cemetery. [DVA]

14 March 1916—appearing unshaven;
24 April 1916—not parading when ordered to do so;
19 May 1916—failing to comply with an order;
21 June 1916—creating disturbance after lights out;
11 July 1916—using abusive language to an NCO;
19 July 1916—wilfully damaging Government property.

[For Lunt's file online see RSL Virtual War Memorial].

But 'larrikin though he may have been Lunt did his share of the fighting' for the 48th Battalion. He was badly wounded in the hell that was Pozières in August 1916. As his record shows, in November 1916 a large piece of metal was removed surgically from this wound.

Lunt lies today in Plot 4, Row B, Grave 2, in the Bellicourt British Cemetery about six kilometres north–east of where he died on 20 September 1918 as the 48th Battalion consolidated its position in the trenches south of the 4th Division Memorial. There is no epitaph on his headstone and perhaps Padre Devine can be allowed to speak for this forgotten 'digger' and his two mates, Privates Punch Donovan and Cork Daly, men Devine regarded as 'essential to the identity of the 48th':

Drawing of Dean Copse, Darryl Lindsay, from William Devine, Story of a Battalion, Melbourne, 1919, opposite page 153.

Always conspicuous in an attack, but as soon as the climax of that excitement had passed sought fresh interest in the odd jobs that ensued from it. If prisoners were to be taken to the rear, the duty of escort was regarded as theirs by right, and many were the antics with which they performed the task … They received decorations, and none were better deserved, but the same gipsy character which made them so useful to the Battalion as regular and irregular scouts, made promotion impossible.

[William Devine, The Story of a Battalion, Melbourne, 1919, p.151]

Standing at the Fourth Division Memorial one can recall that it was men like Private Nathanial Lunt who made the military achievements of the AIF possible as much as its generals, colonels and sergeants.