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War Memorial
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Memories
Long after the war, Ivan Jose MC asked Ernest Samuel March MM of Kapunda South Australia (stretcher-bearer, 50th Battalion) if he could recall the circumstances surrounding the death of his brother Wilfrid Jose at Noreuil.
In 1967, Ernest wrote to Ivan and in response to his request did his best to describe the events of that fateful day fifty years earlier.
I will try to give you an account of what happened that day. But I warn you that was about 50 years ago & my memory is not so good now as it was then & we also had several other battles after that one, but I’ll try to give you as accurate as I can.
He provided a detailed sketch outlining the start line from which C, and D Companies attacked Noreuil village as well as that from which A, Company attacked a flat vacant block of land. He recalled how they were ordered to leave their positions in the sunken road shortly after midnight and make their way to the top of the embankment where they were to remain and wait for zero hour, which as usual was at dawn.
Shortly after they’d arrived on the embankment, it began to snow and continued to do so until long after daybreak.
Had about 3 inches of snow. At the break of day, we started to attack.( previous to the attack our scouts had been out & reported back the village full of Germans & the vacant block of land no Germans to be seen.)
When C and D Companies got into Noreuil, they encountered very few enemy and experienced little trouble in capturing the village but when A Company attacked, it was as if they had walked into an ambush. Immediately the attack commenced A Company realised the Germans around the vacant land had been waiting for them.
… imagine the targets we made for them, our dark forms on the snowy white background). We had only gone about 50 yards & our boys were getting knocked like skittles. Then our work with the stretchers began. The snow made our job very difficult.
Ernest explained that he and the other stretcher-bearers could see small mounds ‘just like newly formed graves’ and how they had to uncover each mound to see if the men beneath them were dead or alive and how the process of recovering the dead and wounded took about twice the normal time.
When we got back we had to go through all that again as the bodies we looked at before were covered with snow again & we had to look and make sure whether there was a body there or a wounded man.
When he and his mate returned to the aid post with their second case, March asked the OIC of the reserve Company for a couple of his men to help them and two quickly volunteered. He explained it was customary to call for volunteers for Stretcher Bearing and ‘never detailed men for that job.’
By the time, this small party started moving again, all the other stretcher-bearers following the advancing troops, had gone ahead so Ernest and his comrades did not know what was going on until they caught up later that night. They were then told the company had reached their objective and linked up with the other two companies of the supporting battalions on either side of them.
Ernest said there had been ‘one or two incidents which happened during the attack’ but their troubles really began when after two volunteers joined them they were fired upon while putting a man on the stretcher.
A sniper that the boys had missed was lying in a shell hole & started firing on us. He got one of the boys in the head with a bullet & he died almost instantly (boy named Potts, son of the Reverend Potts a fine lad, I knew him fairly well).
A few minutes after William Potts was struck down, the sniper fired again and shot the other volunteer through the shoulder. With both volunteers out of action, Ernest and his mate commenced to dress the wound in the second volunteers shoulder when the sniper fired yet again.
… it must have been my lucky day as the bullet hit the Rising Sun on the collar of my tunic and glanced off – no damage except it bent the Rising Sun out of shape, but gave me a hell of a fright. My old mate and myself were left without help …
After hastily placing the wounded volunteer on a stretcher and with bullets flying all about them, Ernest and his and his cobber ran as fast as they could towards the sunken road.
Although almost breathless by the time they reached the road, the men unharmed and delighted to meet up with Captain Long and their ‘old Sergeant.’
Charles Long from Hyde Park South Australia was an original member of A Company, 10th Battalion who was transferred to the 50th on its formation; after being commissioned, was made commander of 13th Australian Light Trench Mortar Battery.
Captain Long who was then in charge of a Stokes Gun Crew asked the stretcher-bearers how things were going and when told about the sniper asked the men to try to pinpoint his hiding place. Both men agreed on a shell hole they believed the sniper was hiding in and Captain Long said, ‘I’ll get him’ and after writing a note sent it off to his gun crew who were then just a little way down the road.
Now the Stokes shell is a shell about 15 inches in length and 3 inches in diameter; when fired you can see it travelling through the air & it turns over & over endways; we stood there & watched it travelling & it landed right on top of the sniper.
As soon as the shell exploded, Ernest grabbed Captain Long’s hand and while almost shaking it out of the socket said, ‘that’s the stuff to give the bastards.’
Ernest also wrote about another incident that occurred as they passed by what was thought at the time to be was an empty concrete pillbox.
… the Germans came out of it & opened up with their machine guns from behind. A sergeant (Johanson) called on his men & charged at them with bayonets. He fell riddled with bullets in his legs.
The wounded Sergeant was Andrew Johanson MM who had enlisted in February 1915 and served with the 10th Battalion at Anzac. He had been transferred to the 50th Battalion on its formation and was awarded the MM for bravery at Mouquet Farm in 1916; although seriously wounded during this incident he did not return to Australia until 1919.
The Germans dragged him into the pill box, but a Lance Corporal could speak the language. He got close to the wall and told them they were surrounded by Australians. They best surrender & they did – about 60 of them came out with their hands high in the air.
Ernest said he thought the battle at Noreuil was one of the worst the 50th Battalion went through and recalled that about 70 of the Battalion’s casualties were fatal. He said he could not recall ‘who picked up Mr Jose’ but said he knew ‘he was amongst those buried.’ He apologised to Ivan for not being able to provide him more information and explained how he and his mates had been out during the four or five nights retrieving bodies and burying them. He said they ‘got about 10 or 12 each night.’
He explained how the Germans would shell the cemetery each night and how after bodies had been blown up out of their graves he and the others would rebury them.
He concluded his letter by assuring Ivan that as far as he was concerned he had given a fairly accurate account of what he had seen of the battle as well as much of what those who were ‘in the actual fighting’ had told him.
I was too busy looking after wounded. … Please excuse the writing as my sight is not too good. It has been an ordeal writing it & several times I was on the point of giving it up. …
Recommendation for Military Medal: - 3403 Private Ernest Samuel March
On 26 September 1917 near ZONNEBEKE, this man who was a stretcher-bearer, worked continuously during this operation. During the many periods of heavy hostile shelling he stuck at his work in the most gallant manner. When not employed carrying he thoroughly searched sectors of ground for wounded, in spite of frequent enemy sniper fire. - MM - Awarded