Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

DOUST, George Edward (1897-1968)

44th Battalion, 11th Brigade, 3rd Division

George Edward Doust was born on 20 June 1887 in Esperance, Western Australia, the third of twelve children of George William Doust and Catherine (Kate) Griffin. He enlisted in the AIF on 19 Jan 1916 as a member of the 44th Infantry Battalion.

The 44th Battalion was raised at Claremont, Western Australia in February 1916. It formed part of the 11th Brigade of the 3rd Australian Division, and soon became known as "Old Bill's Thousand" after its first commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel William Mansbridge. The battalion left Australia on 6 June and proceeded to Britain for further training. It arrived in France on 27 November and entered the front line trenches of the Western Front for the first time on 29 December near Armentieres where the men endured the bitter winter of 1916-17.

On 27 January 1917, George was appointed as Lance Corporal and in March the battalion left Armentieres and marched to Ploegsteert in Belgium. On 1 May 1917, they left the front line bound for a training area near St Omer before returning to Ploegsteert on 1 June.

The Battalion’s diary for June 1917 reads:

June 7 - Division engaged on the attack on Messines Ridge. Battalion formed part of Reserve.

June 8 – Battalion moved out to take that portion of the “Green Line” between the La Douve River and Huns Walk on Messines Ridge. The frontage of the attack was about 1100 yards, and the Battalion attacked in the following order. D Company on the right, then A Company, then C Company and B Company on the left. The attack was very successful, and we captured the green line about 4 am with slight casualties. The Hanging on afterwards was however very severe and before the battalion were relieved, we suffered about 300 casualties. Battalion Headquarters was situated near Schnitzel Farm until they were blown out of there. Then they occupied a shell crater nearby. On two occasions during the night the Green Line had to be temporarily evacuated by our men owing to them being shelled out by our own artillery. This was afterwards adjusted.

Battalion relieved on 11th/12th June by 43rd Battalion.

June 12 – Battalion marched to Hillside Camp, Neuve Eglise.

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1346074

The Battalion returned to the front line at Messines Ridge in mid-July and remained there until 22 August. On 13 August George Doust left the battalion for duty with the 11th Training Battalion at Larkhill in England. On 8 November he was attached for duty with the permanent cadre of the Overseas Training Brigade at Tidworth and promoted to Temporary Corporal.

On 1 May 1918, George returned the 44th Battalion in the Somme Valley and at his own request, he reverted to his previous rank of Lance Corporal. After suffering heavy casualties at Broodseinde Ridge in October 1917 the battalion had wintered in Belgium before moving south to the Somme Valley after the Germans launched their Spring Offensive, during which it undertook defensive operations in front of the vital railhead of Amiens, including repelling a German attack around Morlancourt.

After the German offensive was blunted, a lull period followed during which the Allies slowly sought to gain the initiative, undertaking several "Peaceful Penetration" operations. In July, the 44th took part in the Battle of Hamel, assigned the task of flanking the village to the north and south in support of the 43rd Battalion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/44th_Battalion_(Australia)

On 1 July 1918 a company of the 131st Infantry Regiment 33rd Division American troops with some Headquarters details arrived to take advantage of the 44th Battalion’s battle experience. One platoon of the Americans was attached to each company of Australians. 795 men altoghether. During the afternoon a practice attack was carried out on the ground in the vicinity of the camp at Bois De Mai near Allonville before beginning their march to Hamelet.

The Battalion’s diary for July 1918 reads:

Hamelet – 3 July – (‘Y’ DAY) – During the day hot meals were carried across the river to the Battalion.

The day was spent in rest, no movement being allowed on account of the enemy obtaining possible observation. Final reconnaissances were made by officers and NCOs of the forward area and in liaison with tanks and neighbouring units who were to participate in the attack. Later forty eight hours’ rations and extra bottles of water were issued.

5 am – Orders were received through Brigade Headquarters that all American troops attached to the battalion were to return to Allonville and had to be clear of the area by 9.45 pm. This caused a great deal of disappointment to both the Americans and our own troops, the former being exceedingly disappointed to participate in the battle, - their first. Our boys were equally disappointed to lose their new allies with whom they had already become fast friends.

The withdrawal of the American troops came at the insistence of their commander, General Pershing. Pershing had fought hard, not only with the Allies but with his own government, for his fundamental and reasonable policy of preserving American troops, to fight as an American army on an American front. The Australian battalions were forced to reorganise their arrangements immediately. Some to bring up additional men. Others simply closed up their ranks.

3 July (Continued) – As the attacking organisation was somewhat disarranged a number of troops from ‘C’ Echelon were brought up to complete the strength.

Artillery. The usual harassing fire by artillery and machine guns is kept up during the night to disarm any suspicion the Hun may have of anything unusual, and in conjunction with the low-flying aeroplanes to drown the noise of the tanks moving forward to their assembly position.

Hamelet – 4 July – (‘Z’ or ‘Zero’ Day) – At about 1 am under cover of darkness, the Battalion move forward by overland routes to the taped assembly position immediately forward of our front lines and in rear of the troops detailed for the first objective (43rd Battalion).

The Battalion formed up in lines of Sections in single file and the assembly was completed without a casualty at 2.45 am. Everything pointed to the attack being a complete surprise to the enemy for although he fired his usual and numerous Very Lights he apparently had no suspicion of what was happening. Zero Hour was fixed at 3.10 am, when it was decided there would be sufficient light to enable the tanks to see where they were going and yet not endanger the assembly by having too much light prior to the attack taking place.

From Zero minus 8 minutes (3.2 am) until Zero (3.10 am) our artillery carried out a heavy harassing shoot whilst our planes flew low overhead dropping bombs on the enemy forward systems. This enabled the tanks to complete their assembly on a tape line about a thousand yards behind the infantry tape line.

At 3.10 am our creeping barrage opened on a line about two hundred yards in advance of the infantry tape line remaining there for four minutes. Guns of all calibre were used at various ranges making the barrage about 800 yards deep.

3.14 am – At Zero plus 4 minutes, according to the pre-arranged time table, the barrage crept forward closely followed by the attacking infantry whilst the tanks raced up to get in front of the troops before they reached the first line of resistance. A good ‘kick-off’ was made and the troops fot well clear of the enemy barrage which was weak and scattered and did not come up for several minutes after Zero.

3.41 am – The 43rd Battalion reached and overcame all resistance on the first objective without much trouble and a Zero plus 31 minutes the barrage halted for ten minutes to enable the 44th Battalion to leap frog through the 43rd Battalion. This was quickly and successfully done and the 44th Battalion commenced to follow the barrage to the final objective on the top of the crest. Six tanks moved into Hamel to mop up the village.

The Battalion divided into two and moved around each side of the village, each half battalion being preceeded by three tanks. A small wood on the left of the village was cleared and the trenches immediately east of the village were mopped up without any serious resistance being met.

4.45 am – Towards the final objective which was reached by the three front companies varying from 4.45 am to 4.55 am, a good deal of machine gun fire was met but this was quickly overcome by combined tanks and infantry. The tanks proceeded to mop up the space of 400 yards between the front line and the protective barrage and consolidation was proceeded with at all speed.

The final objective consisted of a heavy line of trenches with strong points every few yards, but owing to the very effective barrage by our own artillery considerable digging had to be done to afford the necessary protection to the troops from hostile artillery and machine gun fire. There were many dugouts in the system from which a large number of prisoners was taken.

5.13 am – At 5.13 am the protective barrage died down and the tanks withdrew having completed their task.

Touch was obtained with the units on both flanks who had also obtained their objectives, they being left – 42nd Battalion, right – 15th Battalion.

Apart from desultory shelling the line was quiet until late afternoon when the enemy commenced to shell more violently.

At 10.30 pm the enemy who had moved up to a strong point by means of a sap in considerable numbers counter-attacked our left company (A Company). After a vigorous hand-to-hand combat with bombs and bayonets some of the enemy succeeded in lodging in some of the numerous saps and small posts in the maze of trenches in this vicinity. Fighting continued until about 2 am when a bombing attack, the companies on the right co-operating, was organised. By 2.30 am this attack had mopped up all the enemy in our system killing over a hundred, capturing 6 officers and 50 other ranks approximately, 10 machine guns and other war material.

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1345561

Three days later the battalion was relieved and withdrew to a wood near Allonville where a hot meal and rest awaited them. On 29 July 1918 George was promoted again to Temporary Corporal.

In August, the 44th joined the Allied Hundred Days Offensive after which it took part in several attacks against the Hindenburg Line in the final months of the war. Its final battle came in early October 1918, at the Battle of the St Quentin Canal. By the time it was withdrawn for rest, it was down to just 80 men and it did not return to the line before the war came to an end in November 1918; total casualties during the war amounted to 437 killed and 1,346 wounded. A total of nine drafts of reinforcements were sent to the battalion between June 1916 and July 1917. The 44th Battalion received 15 battle honours for its involvement in the fighting on the Western Front.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/44th_Battalion_(Australia)

George returned to Australia on the troopship Somali on 1 June 1919.

On 3 May 1921 at the age of 33, George married 20-year-old Esther Hughes at Deanmill, a historic timber town located in the South West region of Western Australia, near Manjimup. The couple had five children. George died on 3 December 1968 and is buried at the Manjimup Old Cemetery.