By the morning of 1 April, further north the British 35th Division at Dernancourt had been relieved by the men of the Australian 4th Division, with the 13th Brigade taking over their part of the line along the railway embankment from Dernancourt west to Buire. Just south, the Australian 3rd Division was holding Treux on the southern banks of the Ancre to the west of Sailly-Laurette on the northern banks of the Somme. Thus from Albert to the Somme the front was now held by two Australian divisions, each minus a brigade: the 4th Brigade (4th Division) was still north holding the line at Hébuterne, having with the New Zealanders and British helped stem a German breakthrough there; and the 9th Brigade (3rd Division) was allocated to the British XIX Corps south of the Somme near Villers-Bretonneux, having with the British cavalry not only stopped a German advance near Hangard Wood, but pushed them back almost 2 kilometres.1

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Further north, not far behind Flanders Fields, the 1st Field Company, 1st Division’s Lieutenant Cyril Lawrence, a 23-year-old blacksmith from East Brunswick in Victoria, was being darkly humorous at someone’s expense. He wrote home: ‘April Fool’s Day today. I wonder if you were caught. I managed to dodge it safely but had a fine joke on one of the others. Got someone to ring up on the phone and say that the General would meet him at a certain spot early this morning. He got up, put his best on and waited at the spot named; we selected a spot that they shell frequently. When we saw him coming home we sent a sapper down the road to meet him and casually mention that it was 1st April.’2

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Villers-Bretonneux south of the Somme had been a critical part in the line held by the British Fifth Army, but by early April, what was left of the Fifth Army was taken out of the line – except those units recently placed under the command of the Third Army. The partially reformed Fourth Army, commanded by Rawlinson, which had itself been removed from frontline duties following the disastrous 1916 battles for the Somme, was placed in the line.3

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The town of Villers-Bretonneux was now defended by a single Australian battalion from the 9th Brigade – the 35th – while the 33rd Battalion was placed in the town in support. As stated in the brigade war diary on 2 April, the ‘35th Battalion will tonight put the fourth company into the line in order to give each of the four companies of the Battalion its own defence in depth. 33rd Battalion will move up to Villers-Bretonneux in support of the 35th Battalion.’4

Brigadier Rosenthal was ordered by the commander of the British XIX Corps to fall back with his staff to their headquarters at Blangy-Tronville. This must have frustrated Rosenthal, who commanded from the front. He placed the command of his advance force under the dependable and good-natured Gallipoli veteran Lieutenant Colonel Goddard, commanding the 35th Battalion. The other two battalions of the 9th Brigade were positioned about 3 kilometres behind in reserve, where they began to dig a support trench line that would become known as the ‘Cachy Switch’ as it included Cachy and the Bois l’Abbé (behind Villers-Bretonneux). Rosenthal was informed by the commander of the British 18th Infantry Division, Major General R.P. Lee, that the Australian 9th Brigade was alone responsible for holding Villers-Bretonneux. To the north of Villers-Bretonneux in front of Hamel was positioned the British 1st Cavalry Division, while to the south around Lancer Wood was Lee’s tired and battered division. At this point Villers-Bretonneux had hardly been touched by the war, with most buildings, including its impressive chateaux and church, intact.5

With the withdrawal of the British Fifth Army, the French during the night of 2 April took over Hangard Wood, a few kilometres south of Villers-Bretonneux, and all the British line south of it. The British 14th Infantry Division (Fifth Army) was now relieved and transferred further north, the next day taking over the Hamel sector from the British 1st Cavalry Division (Third Army). However, the 6th Cavalry Brigade of the British 3rd Cavalry Division remained close by in support. All the next day, 3 April, it was noticed from generals on down that German aircraft were conspicuously active in the area, flying low; information was also coming in that German troops were massing close by, leaving little doubt that the next day would see a German attack against this part of the line.6

Among the German airmen was Rittmeister Manfred von Richthofen – known to all as the ‘Red Baron’ – and his airmen of the crack Jagdstaffel 11 squadron (Fighter Wing No. 1), better known as the ‘Flying Circus’. As recalled by Lieutenant Ernst Udet of Richthofen’s squadron:

Richthofen continued to dive until he was close above the Roman road. Tearing along at a height of about 30 feet [9 metres] above the ground, he peppered the marching troops with his two guns. We followed close behind him and copied his example. The troops below us seemed to have been lamed with horror and, apart from the few men who took cover in the ditch at the roadside, hardly anyone returned our fire. On reaching the end of the road, the Captain turned and again fired at the column. We could now observe the effect of our first assault: bolting horses and stranded guns blocked the road, bringing the column to a complete stand-still. This time our fire was returned. Infantrymen stood, with rifles pressed against their cheeks, and fired as we passed over them. Machine guns posted in the roadside ditches fired viciously at us as we flew overhead. Yet, despite the fact that his wings were riddled with bullets, the Captain still continued to fly just as low as before. We followed in close formation behind him, firing burst after burst from our Spandaus. The whole flight was like a united body, obeying a single will. And that was how it should have been.7

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General Ludendorff was now close to using up his reserves, but being so close to the vital railway hub of Amiens he was determined to take the town and its railway junction and in the process finally and comprehensively split the Allied armies. He envisioned a great pincer movement against Amiens and those holding the Villers-Bretonneux sector to the south (including Monash’s 3rd Division) and the Australians holding Dernancourt to the north (Sinclair-MacLagan’s 4th Division). Both divisions, along with elements of the arriving Australian 5th Division, would be in the thick of it.8

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During the early hours of 4 April, German artillery announced the southern pincer attack with shells tearing apart the British and French front lines. The intensive bombardment lasted an hour and then, along a 25-kilometre front, Ludendorff launched 15 divisions against the Allied lines – two-thirds falling against the French to the south and the remainder against Commonwealth forces.

The war diary of the 35th Battalion states that ‘the enemy opened a heavy & thorough bombardment of the town with HE [high explosives] & gas of all calibres. During the bombardment the 6th City of London Battalion (58th Division, Fifth Army) in the town lost about 100 men including senior Coy [company] officers.’9 Lieutenant Blomfield also recalled the gas, and the heroic actions of a fellow officer: ‘Lieutenant Clive Crowley was carrying a number of badly gassed men out of the fumes when he himself succumbed to the deadly gas – a great soldier was Clive.’10 It took Lieutenant Clive Crowley, a 27-year-old grazier from Barraba in New South Wales, two and a half months to die. He is buried in the Longueau British Cemetery.

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The German attack against Villers-Bretonneux would consist of four divisions. The northern attack against Hamel by just two regiments of the 4th Guard Division was to be a holding action to keep the British troops pinned down, while the main attack – supported by three divisions’ worth of artillery – would be against the Australians. The 228th Infantry Division either side of the old Roman road, supported by the 9th Bavarian Reserve Division, was to take Villers-Bretonneux. The attack to the south of the town by the Guard Ersatz Division against the British 18th Division was also meant to be a feint to stop them from supporting the Australians in the centre of the line defending Villers-Bretonneux.11

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Cutlack recalled how the ‘wreckage of Villers-Bretonneux was awful. When the 9th Brigade first arrived it was a pleasant, untouched little town, bearing every sign of prosperity, with good shops, and two fine chateaux. The inhabitants had gone, but the town stood whole. By the end of that Thursday it was a most horrible ruin, a revolting sight of torn and gutted houses and littered streets, littered too with dead here and there among the splintered glass, smouldering beams, and heaps of bricks.’12

As the German bombardment decreased, a fine rain began. When the shell-smoke cleared from their front, the men of the Australian 35th Battalion saw ahead of them platoons of Germans assembling just forward of Warfusée and Marcelcave. From north to south, these Germans were from the 14th, 3rd and 11th Bavarian regiments of the 9th Bavarian Infantry Division. They were soon climbing out of a sunken road between the two villages and heading straight for Villers-Bretonneux.

The right of the 35th Battalion was covered by the company commanded by Captain Gilbert Coghill, a 29-year-old professional soldier from Sydney. His men were separated by a railway embankment, and Coghill had ordered Lieutenant Wynter Warden, a 27-year-old clerk from Milton in New South Wales, to take charge of the northern half of the company while he directed the southern half. Coghill had the night before arranged with the British commander of the 7th Buffs of the British 18th Infantry Division, Lieutenant Ferguson, on his right that neither company would retire if attacked without first informing the other. Coghill knew that with their line so stretched, the only way they could hope to stop a determined German attack was to allow the Germans to come as close as possible before opening a devastating fire against them and hoping the heavy casualties would unnerve them and force them to rout. If they rallied and advanced again, he would repeat the tactic.13

Now, through the rain and mist, Coghill and his men saw masses of German troops advancing. Coghill ran along his section of the line ordering that no one was to fire until he raised his arm. He then stood on the embankment separating his company so that all his men could see him – so too could the Germans. Lieutenant Robert Browne, a 23-year-old commercial traveller from Adelaide, who was in a trench looking up at his CO, said: ‘Christ couldn’t make me stand up there.’14 As the leading Germans approached within 40 metres, Coghill raised his arm, which was immediately hit by a bullet. A torrent of rifle and machine-gun fire tore into the ranks of the Germans – Coghill’s tactics worked, and the Germans fell back in panic. The war diary of the 35th Battalion records that ‘these [Germans] were immediately dealt with by Machine Gun, Lewis Guns and rifles, with deadly effect – very heavy casualties being inflicted on the enemy who retired slightly. This action was repeated 3 times at slight intervals.’15 Each time, the German officers successfully managed to stop their men from falling back, and again tried to advance. Each time, the Australians saw the Germans seemingly herding together, offering a mass target of human flesh and bone. And each time there was Coghill, running from post to post, exposed to enemy fire, allowing the human mass to get close to his line before he gave the order to fire and slaughter the enemy in their tracks.16

Not being able to break through the southern flank of the 35th Battalion, the Germans now tried the British just south of Coghill’s line. After the first of these attacks the British troops withdrew, leaving Coghill’s right exposed. Coghill, leaving his platoon commanders in charge, raced about 500 metres across the fields until he found Lieutenant Ferguson. Coghill told him that his flank would be turned if his men did not return to their trench. Ferguson and his men headed back to their frontline position and, relieved that his right flank was secure, Coghill headed back to his company, all the time exposed to German fire. Just as he approached his position he turned around to see that the Buffs were again retiring. There was nothing he could do: he was completely exhausted and suffering from his wound. On returning he ordered a Lewis-gun team to cover his exposed flank; he just hoped the Germans were not aware that this part of the line lay open to them. Further south, the German Guard Ersatz Division was attacking the centre of the British 18th Division as a feint to keep the British troops there pinned down and away to the fighting to the north.17

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Just north of Coghill’s position, the centre and left companies of the battalion were pouring long-range machine-gun and massed rifle fire into the Germans who were advancing towards them. The enemy soldiers were momentarily checked, but quickly reorganised in groups and tried to advance again. At around 7 a.m., the whole German line was seen to advance in mass. As prearranged, a flare was fired to order the artillery to shell no-man’s land in front of the battalion. This, combined with the intense small-arms fire, forced the Germans to ground. ‘At 7 a.m.,’ records the battalion war diary, ‘the enemy advanced opposite our whole front, our SOS was sent up and was immediately responded to by an accurate barrage which fell on the dense masses of advancing infantry, cutting gaps in his formations.’18

However, to the north along the Roman road, the German bombardment against the Hamel sector held by the British 14th Infantry Division was devastating. The advancing Germans of 4th Guard Division broke through the right flank held by the British 8th Battalion, Rifle Brigade, leaving the left flank of the 35th Battalion exposed. The Australians were in real danger of being overrun: both their flanks now hung in the air, with the Germans of three divisions in a position to encircle the lone Australian battalion holding the centre of the line.19

Hamel was far from secure and the Germans attacked up the spur just east of the town, advancing into the gully where the village was located. The British retreated from the major eastern spur, as described by Cutlack: the ‘dog-tired British rearguards and the dismounted cavalry fell back to the next hill, the spur just west of Hamel, the last obstacle between the Germans and Corbie. That spur is the lower end of Hill 104, north of Villers-Bretonneux, and the hill was vitally important.’20 Indeed, it was located just half a kilometre north-east of the town and represented a high, bare shoulder of the plateau close to the Somme–Ancre junction. It commanded a clear view of the villages Neuville, Corbie and Fouilloy and as such was a key to the position just as much as Villers-Bretonneux itself was.21

With the collapse of the right flank of the British 14th Division, the Germans of the 207th RIR along with elements of the 48th IR, both attached to the 228th Division advanced towards Villers-Bretonneux just north and south of the old Roman road, and soon came across an abandoned aerodrome positioned just northeast of the now-exposed left flank of the 35th Battalion. As recorded in the battalion war diary, ‘The enemy taking advantage, attacked our left by moving along the evacuated trench, and firing into our rear.’22 Seeing that the Germans were shooting into their backs, the Australians were ordered to withdraw to their reserve position by their company commander, Captain Percy Light, a 47-year-old manufacturer from Sydney. However, the Germans managed to reach the reserve defensive line first and continued their advance, forcing Light’s men to fall back even further. It was now that four machine guns of the 9th Company opened fire, covering the Australians’ withdrawal by pouring fire into the advancing Germans until they ran out of ammunition. They too were now forced to fall back.23

Meanwhile, the CO of the centre company of the 35th Battalion, Major Henry Carr, a 35-year-old civil servant from Croydon in New South Wales, watched with his men as the British barrage hammered the German advance to their front. At this point Carr was not aware that both his northern and southern flanks lay exposed. It was not long, however, before he saw to his left a stream of men passing rearwards over the plateau immediately behind them. At first he thought they were German prisoners being escorted, but taking a closer look he saw they were Light’s men retiring. Carr sent a runner to tell Coghill of the deteriorating situation to his north. He was forced to pull back his front line, retiring up the gently sloping plateau towards Villers-Bretonneux and establishing a new line just south of the aerodrome to try to link up with what remained of Light’s company.24

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To the south, Coghill was concerned on receiving Carr’s message. Any retirement by the Australians would likely see the whole British line to the south disintegrate – the extreme left flank of the British line held by the Buffs had already retreated to the rear. It was now that he also saw Light’s company falling back in a big semicircle across the plateau to his left rear. Meanwhile, a German machine-gun crew had found a culvert that ran under the railway embankment and was pouring enfilade into his line to the south. Coghill called for volunteers to suppress this fire:

At this stage of the war, unless new drafts were present, volunteers for a dangerous task were not usually obtained without some pressure – it was obvious that a man could not volunteer many times and survive. Coghill had to intimate: ‘If you don’t volunteer, I’ll b well have to do it myself,’ whereupon one of his [lance] corporals, [James] Wilson, said, ‘I’ll go, Captain.’ Another man offered to accompany him, and, crawling on their stomachs with rifles and bayonets fixed, in view of the whole right flank, they reached a point south of the railway from which they shot down the machine-gunners and then rushed the post. Unfortunately they tried to bring in the gun, and, while doing so, Wilson was badly wounded and his mate was killed. Coghill with one of his men went out and pulled Wilson in.25

Lance Corporal James Wilson, a 29-year-old boot-trade supervisor from Paddington, received no official recognition for his bravery. The name of his mate who was killed in action remains unknown.

By now the Germans had followed up the retirement of Carr’s centre company and seized a small hillock on Coghill’s left. From here they enfiladed that part of Coghill’s company still commanded by Lieutenant Warden. Coghill and Warden agreed they had to withdraw to their support line in order to conform to Carr’s line; this was done in an orderly fashion by platoons. Coghill made contact with the left flank of the 7th Buffs who had retired earlier. He had been wounded a second time by a burst of shrapnel tearing into his knee, but even so, he remained in command until his men were settled into their new position. Only then did he painfully make his way to an aid station run by medical officer Captain Harold Thomas, a 31-year-old medical practitioner from Sydney who had earlier been ordered to retire further back from the front lines. Thomas had refused and kept his post just under the railway bridge south-east of the town to provide immediate treatment to the wounded. After receiving medical attention, Coghill made his way to Lieutenant Colonel Henry Goddard’s headquarters in the town to explain the situation. Coghill was preparing to go back to his men, but Goddard ordered him to stay out of the line.26

Appraised of the situation, Goddard ordered two companies of Morshead’s 33rd Battalion to move forward in support of the 35th Battalion. Morshead sent ‘A’ and ‘D’ companies forward, ordering them to take up a position just behind the left of the 35th, which at the time appeared to be the most threatened part of the line.27 Captains John Fry (a 31–year-old building contractor from Waratah in New South Wales) and Lesley Smith (a 23-year-old clerk from Rockdale in New South Wales) led their companies forward to the 35th Battalion, reaching a point 1200 metres east and south-east of Villers-Bretonneux, just south of the aerodrome. Soon after, at around 8.15 a.m., Goddard had Morshead send up another company – ‘B’ Company of the 33rd Battalion, led by Lieutenant Alfred Farleigh, a 33-year-old tannery manager from Arncliffe in New South Wales. This company was down to just 50 men, but as the left was still dangerously weak, Morshead’s last company – ‘C’ Company – along with seven Lewis guns, under the command of Captain Walter Duncan (a 25-year-old accountant from Inverell in New South Wales), was also sent into the line.28 Four heavy machine guns from the 35th Battalion had been placed in the town as a reserve and they too were sent forward. Carr placed Farleigh’s company on his own left with the remnant of Light’s company, with Duncan extending this part of the line further, across the Roman road, 250 metres into the sector of the British 14th Infantry Division.29

The Australian front was by 9.30 a.m. fairly secure. The Germans to the north were still pouring into the sector of the 14th Division, but the British held Hamel. Even so, the ground north of the Roman road was in danger of being captured, which would effectively isolate Hamel. The extreme northern flank of the Australian line was held by four machine guns, commanded by Lieutenant William Ross, a 24-year-old farmer from Wellington in New South Wales. The British troops just to their left soon retired from their position, leaving Ross and his machine gunners’ flank hanging in the air, isolated. They held on and inflicted heavy casualties among the Germans. Duncan’s company also poured enfilade into the German advance and ‘sent at least the nearer enemy to ground’.30

However, earlier, seeing the British line collapsing, the artillery of Monash’s 3rd Australian Infantry Division, located just north of the river Somme, had opened fire against the advancing Germans to their south, assisting the infantry and cavalry in holding ‘fast to the lower end of the 104 spur and to Vaire village in the Somme marshes. The 33rd and 35th Battalion men in the line [also] had splendid sniping with rifles and Lewis guns at Huns in the open.’31

In a response to an appeal from the commander of the British 43rd Brigade (14th Division) on Hill 104, the two leading regiments of the 6th Cavalry Brigade – the 3rd Dragoon Guards and 10th Hussars – charged up to either side of the British brigade. Indeed, ‘A’ and ‘D’ companies of Morshead’s 33rd Battalion had joined the British cavalry in a counterattack along Hill 104 near the road. This pushed the British line out towards the top of the Hamel gully, ‘making good the gap caused by the Rifle Brigade. They at once opened fire with machine guns and a Hotchkiss gun.’32 Now in contact with some of the infantry of the 14th Division, they formed a line slightly ahead of the summit of Hill 104 and on the spur leading down from it to the rear of Hamel. But between the 3rd Dragoon Guards and the Australians north of the Roman road, a hole in the line had emerged near the aerodrome. A message in the 33rd Battalion war diary at the time of 10.55 states: ‘enemy attack developing in the north side of VILLERS-BRETONNEUX–WARFUSEE–ABANCOURT Road. MGs [machine guns] in position. Our left flank is in the air.’33 However, just after 11 a.m. elements of the 3rd Dragoons and the 35th Battalion managed to fill the gap in the line just as the Germans advanced towards them. As described in the war diary of the 35th Battalion, the Dragoon Guards came up on the left of those elements of the battalion that had moved to help bridge the hole in the line – possibly the remnants of Light’s company – and helped stop ‘the enemy’s advance north of the WARFUSEE–ABANCOURT–VILLERS-BRETONNEUX Road’.34

The Australian infantry became involved in close-quarters fighting around the huts of the aerodrome, but soon the Germans were cleared from the position. By 11.30 a.m., Captain Duncan’s right was anchored against the aerodrome. Lieutenant Ross’s four machine guns, which had been fighting alone for almost three hours, along with the Australian infantry and British cavalry, were all now in contact, and Duncan reported that the enemy’s attack seemed to have stalled.35 Even so, Goddard knew no more ground could safely be given to the north or in front. Nobody was sure what had happened along the southern flank towards Hangard. The 35th and 33rd battalions were ‘both in the line; the 34th was in support on the north of the town, and the 36th on the south, ready for emergency on either side. It was hard to say which flank was the more dangerously weak.’36

However, it was now that Australians of the 3rd Infantry Division north of the Somme observed Germans in Hamel – these were the men of the 4th Guard Division, who had themselves unexpectedly broken through the British lines. The attack by two regiments – the 5th Foot Guard and the 93rd IR – was designed to be a holding action to keep the British here away from the fighting to the south.37 Indeed, German sources indicate just how unexpected this breakthrough was, as they had no reserve troops available to further exploit their success.

On the news of these successes the commander of the 4th Guard Division, Major General Count von Finkenstein, suggested to the commander of the XIV Corps that the 1st Division, then waiting close in rear, should be thrown in to widen the ‘breach’ north-east of Villers-Bretonneux. The suggestion was not approved – possibly because the 1st Division was the last reserve on this part of the battlefield. The 5th Foot Guard, which in Hamel had captured 300 prisoners, among them a British brigadier in his headquarters, was ordered to attack the spur west of Hamel, and elsewhere other steps were taken to continue the attack.38

Ten minutes after first seeing the Germans in Hamel, Brigadier ‘Pompey’ Elliott’s 15th Australian Brigade (5th Division), which had been assigned to guarding the Somme bridges, reported that stragglers of the 14th Division were entering Vaire, the next village north-west of Hamel along the southern banks of the Somme. Elliott sent Captain Harold Ferres, a 33-year-old grazier from Gippsland in Victoria, to ‘stop all stragglers and compel them to fight’, which he managed to do with the help of the British cavalry putting about 500 British infantry back into the line.39 As recorded in the battalion history, Ferres of the ‘58th Bn., was sent to Vaire and reported . . . that the enemy could now be seen in front of Hamel and the British were falling back. Ferres advised Elliott “he had stopped them and sent up ammunition”. Just after midday 2 coys of 59th were sent to report to 58th and to “lie up and dig in”.’40

Thirty minutes later, the Australian 11th Brigade (3rd Division) reported that German machine guns south of the river were firing into their backs. Meanwhile, a brigade of British field artillery was provided to Elliott to help repulse any attempt by the Germans to cross the Somme behind the front lines of the 3rd Division. Elliott was told that as soon as his brigade was relieved by the British 104th Brigade (35th Division), he was to cross the Somme to strengthen the Fourth Army’s flank and by doing so shore up the British 14th Infantry Division, which was in disarray. During this period Elliott’s brigade would be attached to Monash’s division.41