Further south, just beyond Cachy Switch trench and its wire, Captain Harburn blew his whistle and his men were soon approaching the edge of the valley south of the town. Germans here, along the railway embankment, swept the valley with concentrated rifle and heavy machine-gun fire. Others continued to fire from Bois d’Aquenne, which was now to the rear of the attackers. Lance Corporal Butler was advancing into the fire, and later wrote ‘going down into the next valley, I suddenly became aware of bullets striking sparks out of the flint stones just in front of my feet and realised that we were being fired on. I shouted to the section to spread out and moved obliquely to spoil the enemy’s aim, but with the next burst, he hit one of my men (Roy Plane) in the chest with several bullets. I left one of the others to do what he could for him, but I guessed that his wounds were mortal – and so they proved.’1

Harburn avoided crossing into the valley, and with Lieutenant Charles Town (a 23-year-old farmer from Pingelly in Western Australia), commanding a platoon of 40 or so men, pushed on towards the Monument. From his right front he could see the trees of Monument Wood just south of their position, and while the wood was strongly held by the Germans, these enemy troops were focusing all of their attention on the men of the 52nd Battalion, south of Harburn’s position. He and his men pushed on, heading north between the wood and the town. As they advanced they came across a number of Germans, who promptly threw down their rifles in surrender; however, Harburn gave the order ‘no prisoners’ and they were killed with a burst of Lewis-gun fire. The Australians had not gone much further when a strong force of about 200 Germans were seen advancing towards them, firing from the hip with rifles and automatic rifles. The Australians immediately went to ground, invisible to the advancing enemy. They waited until the last second and then opened fire. To make matters worse for the Germans, a party of the 50th Battalion had worked their way behind them, and also opened with devastating fire. The surviving 60 or so Germans surrendered and all were sent to the rear, including their six machine guns.2

Harburn’s company continued its advance to the edge of the valley south of the town and halted there, as German machine-gun tracers were seen to crisscross the deadly open space – the fire originated from the railway embankment. Harburn ordered Lieutenant Roy Earl, a 23-year-old farmer from Bunbury in Western Australia, to deploy his men in the valley so as to cut off any German retreat from the town in that direction, and to attack any German stragglers who were trying to enter the town. Earl and his men soon came across a party of Germans. After they fired a volley the enemy troops scattered, but the Australians managed to capture several, along with three machine guns. They continued their advance toward Villers-Bretonneux with two scouts out in front, Lance Corporal Cecil Burt (a 23-year-old labourer from Solomontown in South Australia) and Private Reginald Helyar (a 26-year-old sleeper hewer from Nannup in Western Australia), who literally stumbled into an assembled German platoon near a farmhouse. Private Alan Barber, who was part of Earl’s platoon, recalled: ‘Turning a corner, [we] came face to face with a party of forty Germans. Helyar threw a bomb [grenade] at them and the two soldiers ducked back around the corner. The Mills bomb exploded amongst the Germans, causing several casualties. Helyar and Burt charged back around the corner. Burt threatened the Germans with his Lewis gun, regardless of the fact that it was practically useless. Bullets had struck the mechanism . . . during the advance, deeming it necessary to pull the cocking handle each time a single round was fired. The Germans promptly surrendered.’3 These prisoners and four captured machine guns were escorted to the rear while Earl deployed his men to cover the extreme left flank of the advance of the 13th Brigade.

Meanwhile, just south of Harburn’s ‘C’ Company, the centre and right of the 51st Battalion, represented by ‘A’ and elements of ‘B’, were continuing their advance towards the outpost line, making contact with ‘D’ Company of the 52nd Battalion to their right. The entrenched Germans here belonged to the 5th Foot Guard Regiment, who inflicted heavy casualties among these men. Among the Germans here was Company Sergeant Major Elfeldt, who recalled in the regiments history:

The 7th Company [5th Foot Guards] … at once made for its rifle pits and waited. It could not shoot as the Grenadier were in front, but the rifle-fire ahead weakened and died out. The front line had evidently been taken. Men of the Grenadier came running back through its line, and were halted and took position behind. The three light machine-guns of the 7th Company and two heavy machine-guns attached to it were hurriedly mounted. By this time the [enemy] could be seen 100 metres away. The machine-guns opened and the attackers immediately in front took cover in shell-holes. But by the light of flares numbers of others could be seen pressing forward on the left, where the gap was. The two heavy machine-guns were at once switched round on to these, while the light machine-guns tried to keep down the enemy ahead, and the riflemen to pick off ‘the few daring Englishmen’ [sic – Australians] who nevertheless attempted to push forward there. Lieutenant Rossbach and his platoon commanders directed the shooting and fired flare after flare to keep the scene illuminated.4

Among the Australians killed here was Lieutenant Joseph Barrett (a 24-year-old timber hewer from Capel in Western Australia) with the 51st Battalion was shot through the stomach as he tried to take out an enemy machine-gun post by rushing the position while throwing Mills bombs. The men were forced to ground and returned fire, but for now their advance came to a halt. They would soon be advancing again when the 52nd Battalion to the south flanked these Germans, who were forced to withdraw.5

Indeed, the 52nd Battalion continued its advance even though a German machine gun was spraying a deadly hail of lead against ‘D’ and ‘A’ companies, who were leading the attack along this part of the line. Lieutenant Frank Rogers (a 29-year-old clerk from Perth) with the 52nd was commanding a platoon of ‘C’ Company who had advanced behind the two leading companies; they outflanked and killed the German machine gunners, allowing the advance towards the Domart road. As they moved forward a number of German posts were encountered but all were overrun. Lewis gunners of the battalion cut a terrible swathe through the retreating Germans.6

Not far behind, Captain Forsyth continued to treat the wounded as they came in, as well as tending to those lying all around his aid post near Cachy Switch trench. Lieutenant Colonel Whitham, commanding the 52nd Battalion, wrote in the battalion’s war diary:

Captain Forsyth had not previously taken part in field operations and the fearless courage he exhibited during the advance from the jumping-off line and afterwards in dressing wounded in an exposed spot was highly commendable and had an excellent effect on the morale of those near him. It was found to be impractical to establish Battalion Headquarters and the Aid Post on the position selected on the map prior to the attack, as the area was too intensely swept by machine-gun fire from a flank, but Captain Forsyth halted his small squad of assistants and dressed the many wounded of his battalion where they were lying around the first obstacle encountered by the attacking troops. He remained there until daybreak when it was possible to re-establish his RAP position to the rear and he stuck to his heavy work until wounded on the night 25th/26th April.7

Captain Robert Forsyth would survive his wounds and return to Australia in 1919.

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Further east, Captain Harburn and his men of ‘C’ Company, 51st Battalion, along the left of the line in this sector, were close to the road between the Monument and the eastern outskirts of the town. In getting there they had suffered casualties from the German machine guns entrenched along the railway embankment to the north. As they pushed further, they found an abandoned German 77mm field gun and field kitchen near the edge of Monument Wood and within minutes came across another four abandoned 77mm field guns. They now reached the road, where Harburn instructed Lieutenant Town to take his platoon to clear the northern outskirts of Monument Wood of Germans – he had no idea how strongly the enemy held this position. Meanwhile, he headed south-west in search of the remainder of his battalion and the 52nd.8

The men of the 52nd Battalion had earlier rushed strong German positions along the Domart road, with German flares turning the darkness into light as the Australians advanced across the plateau. The right companies were targeted with machine-gun fire, halting their advance for a short period, but soon the eight machine-gun posts were rushed. Those men on the left were able to enter the orchard at Monument Farm. Sergeant Major Elfeldt later wrote:

Again the machine-gun fire strikes the onrushing English [sic – Australians]. The leading men fall but others charge on. These too are mown down, but new waves always come on cheering in their place and rush forward into our machine-gun fire. Those in front could still be stopped but not the flanks. Their Lewis guns hammer with tracer bullets into the German line, the brilliant streams of phosphorescent missiles mowing this way and that with most demoralising effect. The right flank broke; the fusillade was drowned in an English [sic] cheer. One machinegun after another became silent, its ammunition ended. ‘With a loud cheer’ the attackers came on again. The defenders gave way, dragging off their machine-guns. All round one can hear only loud English [sic] cheering. As the line gives way, the English [sic] machine-gun fire strikes it from front and back. The tracks of tracer ammunition comb this way and that, crossing one another, claiming their victims. In addition, British artillery-fire striking into our ranks increases the confusion . . . The English [sic] follow hard on our heels. With great uproar they sweep through the dark night. Where at some points an attempt is made to put them on their defence, their machine-gun fire soon breaks the resistance, and mows down many of our troops.9

Meanwhile, the 51st Battalion’s Sergeant John Keeley (a 21-year-old postal assistant from Busselton in Western Australia) and his men were also making towards the wood and reached a quarry, where they found a German tank – likely the Elfried – lying on its side. Scattered around were British wounded, who had lain there since the previous morning. Just south of Monument Farm the Germans were still heavily entrenched.10

By now the right of the 52nd Battalion was near its final objective: Monument Wood. Major Craies, who was commanding the battalion’s reserve – ‘B’ Company – came up to establish the line and found that the battalion had split in two, with the right linking up with the British who were helping to cover their southern flank. The British 7th Bedford Battalion too had almost reached its objective, gaining the ground beyond the road leading into Hangard Wood. A patrol was sent out under Sergeant Thomas Folkard, a 36-year-old station hand from Tambo in Queensland, to find the left of the British battalion, which was soon done. Craies now sent a platoon to take up a position across the road to bridge a gap that had developed there between ‘A’ and ‘D’ companies.11

Now a German battery targeted the men of the British 7th Bedford Battalion who were covering the southern end of the line, not far from Hangard Wood. These troops retired to the rear. Sergeant Henry Wright (a 23-year-old miner from Waratah in Tasmania) and Corporal Frederick Aylott (a 28-year-old carrier from Brisbane and a former Light Horseman) took 20 men over to help steady the British and got them to dig in near the Domart road, 500 metres behind their former line – here the flanks of the British and the Australians were exposed. A platoon from the 52nd Battalion advanced into Monument Wood on the south-east flank but was forced to retire with a few prisoners because of heavy resistance. The wood was held in strength. With this, Craies, who was the most senior officer in the line, realised they could not advance into Monument Wood and hope to hold it. He ordered the advanced parties to fall back, facing the wood, while ‘A’ Company of the 52nd Battalion had already bent back to make contact with the 7th Bedford Battalion to its right rear. The 50th Battalion was deployed to the rear in support.12

It was at this point that Harburn who had unknowingly bypassed his own battalion – the 51st – came across the men of the 52nd Battalion digging in short of Monument Wood. He asked Craies to advance and support him in clearing the wood, but was told this would be impossible given that the men of the 7th Bedford Battalion would not advance to cover their flank and they had no hope of holding the wood even if they could capture it. Harburn had no choice but to fall back onto the left and take up a position at the head of the valley, south of the centre of Villers-Bretonneux; this meant that his northern flank was exposed to German fire from the town. Harburn ordered Lieutenant Town and his men to retire to the present line established by Craies, but in doing so Town was shot by a sniper and died soon afterwards, as recalled by Sergeant Charles Broad, a 38-year-old teamster from Perth: ‘I wanted to stop and bandage him up, but he said “Don’t worry about me” and I do not think he spoke again.’13 Soon Sergeant Keeley, still in the quarry with the German tank, was informed by one of his patrols that the front line was now behind him; he and his men were forced to withdraw. Further north, intermittent Lewis-gun fire could be heard – this was from Lieutenant Earl and his men in the valley, who throughout the early-morning hours fired on German parties trying to either leave or enter the town. Harburn wrote to Charles Bean after the war:

I reported to Lieutenant Colonel Christie [the battalion commander] my actions and that my approximate strength of the battalion now in the front lines was two officers (this is including myself ) and 120 other ranks. I wanted support from him at once. We had a few brushes with the Hun during the balance of the night but in small parties and they kept Lieutenant Earl and his men going until daylight. At daybreak we were in command of the position looking into Villers-Bretonneux on my left flank and Monument Wood, straight in front of me. My left flank was still in the air. We did not get in touch with the 15th Brigade, nor did I know what became of them.14

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By 1.30 a.m., Lieutenant Colonel Whitham of the 52nd Battalion and Lieutenant Colonel Robert Christie, a 35-year-old professional soldier commanding the 51st Battalion, were both located at Cachy Switch. They were informed that a line had been established but that their southern and northern flanks remained exposed – details were unclear. Within hours, Lieutenant Moreton Crocker (a 20-year-old schoolteacher from Gatton in Queensland) with a party of linesmen from the 4th Divisional Signal Company had established telephone communications directly to the 52nd’s front line and the battalion headquarters. In doing so, the party were continually targeted by German fire, but somehow they managed not only to establish communications but keep them open.15 By 4 a.m. it became clear that the approximate position of the 13th Brigade’s line was about 1000 metres short of its objective. However, it was judged to be able to ‘squeeze out the Germans then in Villers-Bretonneux if the 15th Brigade reached its objective’.16

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During the early-morning hours, carrying parties were sent to the rear to bring back ammunition and rations to the battle-weary troops of the 13th Brigade holding the front line. Among them was Corporal Steadman, a 32-year-old machinist from Perth with the 51st Battalion:

I was put in charge of the ration fatigues. I had to lead the men over the battle area of the previous night. Well you can guess what a slaughterhouse it was like. I never saw anything like it in my life and I would never like to see it again . . . There were only about 200 of us left. The remainder were all lying round about the wire entanglements of the previous night’s battle. They were laid on top of the wire and all around it. We picked up our rations and got back safely. Previous to going into the line, our rations were very small. For instance, three men and sometimes four to a loaf of bread, so you can guess what it was like to share 1000 men’s tucker between 200. There was a lot of waste: quite a lot of us could not eat after seeing such an awful sight on the battlefield.17

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With first light, the 51st Battalion and the survivors of the 2nd Northamptonshire had an excellent view of the railway station and bridge as they were positioned about 750 metres south-west of it. On seeing Germans retreating from this direction, a number of Lewis guns from the 50th Battalion opened fire, and for now the surviving Germans withdrew back into the town. They still occupied numerous pockets of the nearby woods to their flank and rear. At about 6 a.m., Captain Houlton of the British 1st Battalion of the Tank Corps made a welcome appearance at the 13th Brigade headquarters with his three Whippet tanks. He had been ordered by his commander to deal with any German tanks and help clear the Germans from the town.18

Christie requested that he clear the wood, and Houlton was more than happy to help since there was no sign of any German tanks in the vicinity. By 7 a.m. the Australians saw to their delight Germans streaming through the wood like frightened rabbits, with the tanks not far behind them moving along the eastern edge into the valley south of Villers-Bretonneux. The tanks destroyed the machine-gun positions in the woods and rounded up parties of Germans sheltering in the valley. It was all over by 8 a.m. The wood had been cleared and large numbers of Germans had been taken prisoner, with few if any casualties to the British and Australians. The 2nd West Yorkshire now entered south of the wood, assisted by the Sherwood Foresters, and by 9.30 a.m. the Bois d’Aquenne was clear of Germans – having taken another 75 prisoners in the process.19

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Bizarrely, as all of this was going on, just after 9 a.m. a German officer to the front of the 52nd Battalion along the southern end of the line came forward under a white flag:

A German officer was brought into the headquarters of the 52nd Battalion under a flag of truce, to summon the 13th Brigade to surrender. This Hun officer declared that the Australians had fought well but were surrounded by the 4th Prussian Guard Division, and offered them the alternative of laying down their arms or being overwhelmed. While the officer was there, another German was similarly brought in with a written message to the same effect. The 52nd [Lieutenant] Colonel sent these emissaries, violently protesting, under escort back to Brigade Headquarters to discuss the matter there, and went on digging in where he was. It was unquestionably a piece of pure bluff.20

Needless to say, the Australians had no intention of complying with the German demands – indeed, Brigadier Glasgow informed Lieutenant Colonel Whitham on hearing of the German demands: ‘Tell them to go to hell!’21