Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

HANCOCK, Robert Claude (1895-1965)

^{2nd Australian General Hospital – 1st Field Ambulance, 1st Division}

Pigeons, Trams and an FJ Holden

I never really got to know my grandfather very well; he died in 1965 aged 70 following a long stay in the Dawe Park Repatriation Hospital suffering from a bout of pneumonia and pleurisy. I was only 13 and my most vivid memories of him are of pigeons. A flock of pigeons circling the house with a flag up, pigeons clunking home through the traps, bins of seed concoctions stored in the shed. I remember he once drove trams in Adelaide but in my time, he operated a signal box. And of course, there was his pale green FJ Holden kept immaculate in the garage at the end of a driveway of neatly raked white gravel. But Robert Claude Hancock, Bob, or Claude to most, Grandpa to us, was more than just about pigeons, trams and an FJ Holden.

In 1915 Port Pirie was going through a period of tremendous opportunity due to the expanding smelting industry. The town had a beach considered to be a preferred holiday destination by miners’ families from Broken Hill and Bob lived with his family only yards from it. Bob had a good job at the smelter working as an engine driver operating the steam engine supplying power to the plant. But Solomontown in the early part of 1915 was not the most inspiring place on earth for a young man recently turned 20. Things were happening elsewhere.

After Federation in 1901, one of the first acts of the new Commonwealth was to create a national Defence Department. A program of universal military training was introduced in 1911. All males of a specific age group were liable for military training in peacetime and for service within Australia in time of war. The new army consisted of a small permanent garrison, a paid part-time militia and a force of unpaid volunteers. As a member of the age group liable to peacetime training, Bob did his duty with the 81st Infantry Regiment.

When war broke out in 1914 the government pledged Australia's whole-hearted support to Great Britain and recruited a force of volunteers for overseas service with the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). "To its last man and last shilling", according to Prime Minister Andrew Fisher. On 25 April Australia formally entered the Great War in an active role with the landing at Gallipoli by the Anzacs. Things had not gone well and the call of King and country for young men just like Bob to join in was loud and insistent particularly to those already serving in the units of the militia. 2 weeks after the news of Gallipoli reached Australia, Bob Hancock lined up at Adelaide’s Keswick Barracks, with his father’s letter of permission, to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force.

Bob was allocated to the Australian Army Medical Corps and, after some basic training in treating casualties, was posted to the reinforcement group of the 2nd Australian General Hospital in Egypt as a medical orderly. Bob’s unit left Australian shores from Port Melbourne aboard the troopship Anchises on 26 August. The Anchises was a fairly new ship built in Belfast in 1911 and for its time would have provided as comfortable a journey as was possible, for its largely non-combatant passengers, considering the vagaries of the Southern Ocean in late winter. The journey would have consisted of a lot of additional training related to the treatment of sick and wounded soldiers.

During the Gallipoli campaign, the medical convalescent system in Egypt was becoming choked up. On 15 June 130 men who had been sent to the Australian convalescent home at “Al Hayat” (Helouan) were sent back to the hospitals because the home was already full of invalids. Increased accommodation was sought by further expansion of No. 1 Australian General Hospital. The Grand Hotel at Helouan was taken over and staffed from the A.A.M.C. reinforcement and reserve pool and was used for a time as an additional home for convalescents.

The Ras el Tin quarter of Alexandria is all that is left of the island of Pharos, the site of the actual Pharos Lighthouse having been long ago weathered away by the sea. On the east is an open bay; to the west, a modern harbour lies where the ancient port of Eunostos, with its inner basin Kibotos, once existed.

The heat of summer was coming on, and the necessity for providing seaside accommodation for the convalescents from Cairo became obvious. Consequently, the Ras el Tin school was taken over and turned into a convalescent hospital for 500 patients. It consisted of a very large courtyard, surrounded by (mostly) one-story buildings, and was about 400 yards from the sea. In the courtyard, a Recreation Tent, provided by the British Red Cross, Australian Branch, was erected by the YMCA. The whole formed an admirable seaside convalescent hospital.

The winter storms of the Southern Ocean behind them the passengers on the Anchises must have felt relief as the ship steamed north up the Atlantic coast of Africa and into the blue waters of the Mediterranean. Their first view of Alexandria would have come as a blessing having arrived at last mixed with the excitement of a foreign shore and the apprehension of the dangers surrounding them.

It was hardly like going to war at all. On arrival in Alexandria Bob was assigned to the Ras el Tin Convalescent Depot. It might not have been all sun and sand taking care of wounded soldiers on their way to recovery within a stone’s throw of the beach but it wasn’t struggling up the cliffs of Anzac Cove either. With the evacuation from Anzac Cove in December, the work of the hospitals in Egypt would have decreased dramatically over time.  Bob was promoted to Corporal in February 1916 and by March the First and Second Divisions had left Egypt bound for France. By June Australia had four divisions operating in France.

Bob’s sunny days in Egypt were about to come to a sudden halt. On 22 June Bob was hospitalised himself with an abscess in his groin. While treatment of such an infection today would often be with antibiotics in 1916 it required surgical intervention to drain and clean the affected area. Bob was transferred to the Third Australian General Hospital in Abbassa just outside Cairo.

In France, the Anzacs had joined in the fighting at Fromelles and on the Somme at Mouquet Farm and Pozieres. Bob returned to Ras el Tin after two weeks of treatment but on 9 August was admitted to the convalescent hospital at nearby Montezah Palace for evacuation to England aboard the hospital ship Kanowna.

Just before the beginning of the war, the Liverpool Corporation rented 25 acres in Fazakerley from the Hospitals Committee for a temporary hospital for Infectious Diseases which was commonly known as "Sparrow Hall Hospital" after the farm of the same name which previously occupied the site. With the outbreak of war, the hospital was the site of the First Western General Hospital for injured soldiers.

Although his debility was described in his record as “slight” it was enough to keep him in the less than inviting climate of Liverpool until January 1917 when he embarked from Folkstone aboard the Belgian steamer, Princesse Clementine bound for France.

Throughout the war, the area around Etaples was the scene of immense concentrations of Commonwealth reinforcement camps and hospitals. It was remote from attack, except from aircraft, and accessible by railway from both the northern and the southern battlefields. In 1917 100,000 troops were camped among the dunes. The hospitals, which included eleven general, one stationary, four Red Cross hospitals and a convalescent depot, could deal with 22,000 wounded or sick.

On 8 January Bob was moved from the Australian General Base Depot at Etaples to the Second Australian General Hospital at Wimereux near Boulogne. It was a very large hospital, expanding from 520 beds to 1900, which were housed in 1300 huts and 600 tents. The hospital had a critical role in evacuating sick and wounded from the front back to England.

A General Hospital was normally located on or near railway lines to facilitate the movement of casualties from the Casualty Clearing Stations on to the ports. The Great Hotels and other large building such as casinos were requisitioned but other hospitals were hutted and constructed on open ground. In the base areas such as Etaples, Boulogne, Rouen, Havre, Paris, Plage, General Hospitals operated as normal civilian hospitals do, having all the departments and paraphernalia. Bacteriological and X-ray units would be attached, and pathological research on the field conditions found was undertaken.

Starting on 24 February 1917, the First Division took part in the pursuit of the German forces as they retreated to their prepared fortifications in the Hindenburg Line. The division advanced against the German screen towards Bapaume and, on the night of 26 February, the 3rd Brigade captured the villages of Le Barque and Ligny-Thilloy. On the morning of 2 March, they withstood a German attempt to retake the villages. The First Division was then withdrawn to rest, joining the Fourth Division. The Anzacs’ pursuit was carried on by the Second and Fifth Divisions.

By April, the First Division was once again part of the British Fifth Army (formerly the Reserve Army). On 9 April – the day the British launched the Battle of Arras – the First Division captured the last three villages (Hermies, Boursies and Demicourt) used by the Germans as outposts of the Hindenburg Line, thereby bringing the British line in striking distance of the main Hindenburg defences. This action cost the division 649 casualties.

The First Division was in support during the First Battle of Bullecourt which was the Fifth Army's main contribution to the Arras offensive. Once the first attempt on Bullecourt had failed, British attention concentrated on Arras and the Fifth Army's front was stretched thin with the First Division having to cover 13,000 yards (12,000 m).

The Germans attacked with 23 battalions against four Australian battalions. Despite their numerical superiority, the Germans were unable to penetrate the Australian line. The First Division's artillery batteries in front of Lagnicourt were overrun and the village was occupied for two hours but counter-attacks from the Australian Ninth and Twentieth Battalions (the latter from the 2nd Division) drove the Germans out. In this action, the Australians suffered 1,010 casualties, mainly in the First Division, against 2,313 German casualties. Only five artillery guns were damaged.

On 3 May the Second Battle of Bullecourt commenced with the First Division in reserve but it was drawn into the fighting on the second day. The Australians seized a foothold in the Hindenburg Line which over the following days was slowly expanded. The German attempts to drive the British from their gains finally ceased on 17 May and the First Division was withdrawn for a well-earned extended rest.

While the Anzac divisions were fighting through the Hindenberg Line, Bob was kept busy with a steady flow of wounded through the hospital. The two attacks on the Hindenberg Line saw 10,000 Australian casualties. For Bob, the war was starting to get busy. The war wasn’t just taking its toll on the combatant soldiers; it also took its toll on the medical units directly supporting them. Experienced medics were needed at the front. On 12 May Bob was transferred to the First Field Ambulance in support of the First Division and was promoted to temporary Sergeant.

The field ambulance was the most forward of the medical units and the first line of documentation. The field ambulance was a mobile front line medical unit. Each came under command of a division and had special responsibility for the care of casualties of one of the brigades in the division. Each division had three field ambulances. The theoretical capacity of the field ambulance was 150 casualties, but in battle, many would simply be overwhelmed by numbers. The ambulance was responsible for establishing and operating several points along the casualty evacuation chain, from the Bearer Relay Posts which were up to 600 yards behind the Regimental Aid Posts, through the Advanced Dressing Station, to the Main Dressing Station. It also provided a Walking Wounded Collecting Station, as well as various rest areas and local sick rooms. The Ambulances would usually establish 1 Advanced Dressing Station per brigade and 1 Main Dressing Station for the division.

Bob’s time was spent in the relatively relaxed period where the division was resting but on 31 July he was moved to the Second Australian Casualty Clearing Station at the small outlying locality of the French town of Steenwerck in Flanders. The role of the casualty clearing stations was to facilitate the movement of casualties from the battlefield on to the hospitals. The general rule was one casualty clearing station per division but they were under Army Corps rather than under divisional control.

A casualty clearing station was a very large unit and could hold a minimum of 50 beds and 150 stretchers to treat a minimum of two hundred sick and wounded at any one time. In normal circumstances, the team would be seven medical officers, one quartermaster and seventy-seven other ranks. There would also be a dentist, a pathologist, seven nurses and other non-medical personnel attached. In times of stress, this number could be increased and a specialised ‘Surgical Team’ could be brought forward. Because they were so large they needed up to about half a mile square of real estate. Each casualty clearing station would carry its own marquees and wooden huts to create medical and surgical wards, kitchens, sanitation, dispensary, operating theatres, medical stores, surgical stores, incineration plant, ablutions and mortuary, as well as sleeping accommodation for the nurses, officers and soldiers of the unit. Sanitation was dug, and a water supply assured.

They were usually situated about 20 kilometres behind the front lines; roughly mid-way between the front line and the base area, and about 500 yards from a main railway line or waterway system. Transportation to a casualty clearing station could have been via horse-drawn or motor ambulances. This was the first line of surgery and the furthest forward of nursing staff but treatment could still only be limited.

The holding capacity was about four weeks for men to be returned to their units or be transferred by ambulance trains or inland water transport to a hospital. The seriousness of many wounds challenged the facilities of the casualty clearing stations and as a result, their positions are marked today by large military cemeteries.

On the same day that Bob was sent to the Second Australian Casualty Clearing Station the First Division's artillery was in action for the start of the Third Battle of Ypres although for the infantry things remained relatively quiet. Bob spent a little over five weeks at Trois Arbres caring for a backlog of wounded there and helping to move them on or back to their units ready for the next phase of the battle.

During the pause in Allied general attacks between late August and 20 September, the British changed some basic infantry tactics, by generally adopting the "leap-frog" method of advance. Waves of infantry would stop once they reached their objective, and then consolidate the ground while other waves passed through the objective to attack the next one and the earlier waves became the tactical reserve. The general adoption of the method was made possible when more artillery was brought into the attack. By 8 September Bob was back with the division.

Drier weather and extensive road repairs had made it much easier for the British to move vast amounts of supplies forward from the original front line. Visibility increased except for frequent ground fog around dawn, which helped conceal British infantry during the attack, before clearing to expose German troop movements to British observation and attack.

On 20 September the infantry moved forward. The Allies attacked on a 13,300-metre front but the main attack was made by the British X Corps and the First Anzac Corps on a 3,700 metre front on the Gheluvelt plateau along the Menin Road Ridge. Steady pressure by the British 47th Division had advanced the British front line near Inverness Copse a considerable distance, during the pause in large operations in early September, which made better jumping-off positions for the attack by 1 Anzac Corps. The four divisions advanced behind a creeping barrage of unprecedented weight. The increased amount of artillery allowed the heavy guns to place two belts of fire beyond the two from the field artillery; a machine-gun barrage in the middle made five belts of fire, each 180 metres deep in front of the infantry. The creeping barrage started quickly, lifting 50 metres every two minutes and this allowed the British infantry to surprise the German outpost garrisons, while the Germans were still in their shelters by looming out of the mist. After four lifts, the barrage slowed to 100 metres every six minutes.

Most German troops encountered were so stunned by the bombardment that they were incapable of resistance and surrendered immediately, despite few of the concrete pill-boxes and Mebu shelters being destroyed by the British artillery. In the few areas where the German defenders were capable of resisting, they were quickly outflanked in the mist. The new system of local reserves allowed the Allies to maintain momentum despite local checks. In the few areas where the Germans were capable of resisting they inflicted heavy losses before being overwhelmed.

The Germans made many counter-attacks, beginning around 3.00 p.m. until early evening, all of which failed to gain ground or made only a temporary penetration of the new positions on the Second Army front. The attack was a great success and showed that the German defences could no longer stop well-prepared attacks made in good weather. Minor attacks took place after 20 September as both sides jockeyed for position and reorganised their defences.

A larger attack by the Germans on 25 September recaptured pillboxes at the southwestern end of Polygon Wood at the cost of heavy casualties.

The First Division was relieved by the Australian Fifth Division before the next assault, the Battle of Polygon Wood (26 September), but in turn took up the advance for the following Battle of Broodseinde (4 October), the third and final of the successful bite-and-hold attacks conceived by General Herbert Plumer of the British Second Army. This battle marked the peak of British success during Third Ypres and apart from minor roles on the southern flank of the Canadian Corps during the Battle of Poelcappelle, First Battle of Passchendaele and the Second Battle of Passchendaele, it was the end of the First Division's involvement.

Winter came quickly in northern France but with it came a welcome break in the fighting. For many, including Bob, a short 2-week furlough in England was possible but it wasn’t long before they were back. What exactly happened next is uncertain but whether it happened in England or whether it was a simple slip on the icy ground on his return to France, Bob found himself in the hospital with a sprained ankle they day he returned to France. Ten days later though, Bob was back with his unit in Messines.

Chemical weapons in World War I were primarily used to demoralize, injure and kill entrenched defenders, against whom the indiscriminate and generally slow-moving or static nature of gas clouds would be most effective. The types of weapons employed ranged from disabling chemicals, such as tear gas and the severe mustard gas, to lethal agents like phosgene and chlorine.

The most widely reported and, perhaps, the most effective gas of the First World War was mustard gas. It was a vesicant, a substance that causes painful blisters, that was introduced by Germany in July 1917 before the Third Battle of Ypres. The Germans marked their shells yellow for mustard gas and green for chlorine and phosgene; hence they called the new gas Yellow Cross. It was known to the British as HS (Hun Stuff), while the French called it Yperite (named after Ypres).

Mustard gas was not a particularly effective killing agent (though in high enough doses it can be fatal) but can be used to harass and disable the enemy and pollute the battlefield. Delivered in artillery shells, mustard gas was heavier than air, and it settled to the ground as an oily liquid resembling sherry. Once in the soil, mustard gas remained active for several days, weeks, or even months, depending on the weather conditions.

The skin of victims of mustard gas blistered, their eyes became very sore and they began to vomit. Mustard gas caused internal and external bleeding and attacked the bronchial tubes, stripping off the mucous membrane. This was extremely painful. Fatally injured victims sometimes took four or five weeks to die of mustard gas exposure.

On 3 March Bob was detached to the Australian Corps Gas School for training in the treatment of the victims of German gas attacks but by the end of the month, the division was on the move again.

The 1st Division was still at Messines when the Germans launched their final offensive starting on the Somme with Operation Michael on 21 March 1918. In the first week of April, the 1st Division, along with the 2nd, began moving to the Somme when, on 9 April, the Germans launched Operation Georgette; an attack north and south of Armentières followed by a swift drive towards the vital rail junction of Hazebrouck.

The 1st Division, having reached Amiens and about to join up with the Australian Corps, was ordered to turn around and hurry back north. Hazebrouck was reached on 12 April, just in time to relieve the exhausted British divisions. Holding a line 8 km east of the town, the 1st Division helped halt the German advance on 13 April (the Battle of Hazebrouck) and then repulsed a renewed offensive on 17 April after which the Germans abandoned their push, concentrating instead on the high ground west of Messines.

The division remained active in Flanders from May to July, engaging in a process of informal but carefully planned raiding known as Peaceful Penetration. Peaceful Penetration was an Australian infantry tactic (though also used by the New Zealanders), which was a cross between trench raiding and patrolling. The aim was similar to trench raiding (namely, to gather prisoners, conduct reconnaissance, and to dominate no man's land), with the additional purpose to occupy the enemy's outpost line (and so capture ground). In some units, it was treated as a competition, with units often competing to see who could capture the most prisoners. Their greatest success came on 11 July when they took 1 km of the front, 120 prisoners and 11 machine guns from the German 13th Reserve Division. This unrelenting pressure had a severe impact on German morale.

They might have called it “Peaceful” but it wasn’t without its risks. There was still a steady, but thankfully much slower, the flow of wounded coming through the Field Ambulance units to keep medics like Bob busy. But it couldn’t continue.

On 8 August 1918, the Allied offensive operation that would end the war began with the Battle of Amiens. But Bob wasn’t there. On 5 August he was evacuated through his own unit to the Casualty Clearing Station for surgery for acute appendicitis.  By the time the first dust of the battle had settled Bob had been shipped to England to the Third Southern General Hospital at Oxford.

At the outbreak of war, many of Britain’s institutions were converted to hospitals to serve a growing number of wounded. Several of buildings in Oxford, including those of Oxford University were used to provide beds for the Third Southern General Hospital. Bob once told my father that he was awoken one night (most likely during his time at Oxford) when the patient in the bed next to him needed treatment. Unable to get the attention of a nurse, Bob got out of bed and began to see to the patient himself, ripping out his own stitches in the process.

On his discharge from hospital, Bob was transferred for duty to the 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital at Dartford, 26 km southeast of central London. From Dartford Bob was sent off on leave with orders to report to Littlemoor Camp near Weymouth two weeks later. Littlemoor Camp was little more than a short stopover for Bob because he was sent on from there to Number 4 Command Depot at Hurdcott Camp near the village of Fovant in Wiltshire.

Hurdcott Camp was established in 1915 for various regiments from London, and several from the north of England. A small hospital was established for them but in August 1916, when the Australian forces took over the camp the hospital was enlarged. No 3 Command Depot made its headquarters in the farmhouse and the camp and facilities were greatly expanded to accommodate the thousands of Australian wounded from the battlefields in France.

It was staffed by Australian medical services and had at least 172 beds. A report quoted in the Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services explained that “In the first six months of 1918 the Group Clearing Hospital at Hurdcott admitted 3,368 patients, discharged 2,118 to their units and sent 1,010 to other military hospitals. The average number of patients in hospital being 172.” A Group Clearing Hospital (sometimes called Convalescent Hospital) was classified for being sent patients who would take at least six months to be fit to return to active service.

The White Horse of Salisbury Plain is probably more famous but Hurdcott Camp is also famous for its hillside depictions of regimental badges including the Rising Sun and a map of Australia carved by the soldiers living there throughout the war.

Bob would have been kept busy at Hurdcott with a steady turnover of wounded as the fighting in France continued well into October when the Hindenberg Line was finally broken. Eventually though, on 11 November, the war was finally over and the Anzacs were able to think about going home.

Going home was alright for most but medics like Bob still had work to do. In December Bob was moved to the camp at Northbridge Deverill and then back again to Hurdcott.

Eventually though on 6 January 1919, Bob boarded a train bound for Liverpool and on 8 January boarded the troopship SS Orsova for the journey home. As a medic, Bob was needed to look after the large number of wounded on board. Even after he arrived back in Australia on 18 February it took another two months before he was discharged.

Now you’d think that would be an end to it but no. Despite being kept busy Bob still had some time on his hands. When he arrived home in Adelaide he brought with him the promise of marriage to his English fiancé, Emmy. Bob set to work and built a home for his bride at 541 Port Road West Croydon and anxiously waited for her to make the journey out to Australia. On the day she was due to depart Bob received a telegram. Emmy couldn’t leave her mother and she wasn’t coming.

Some time later he was in a café in Rundle Street when he met Ellen Miller, Nell to most, Nan to us. They were married in 1922. In 1927, Nell by then pregnant with my father, they moved into the house at West Croydon. There they raised two boys and Bob kept his pigeons, worked for the tramways and drove his FJ Holden. After the Chevy of course. The FJ Holden hadn’t been invented yet.