Letters from Sergeant Francis William Madden

Frank wrote these letters to his parents on 31 July 1916 and they were later published in the South Coast Times. He was killed 19 days later.

 

We are at present having a spell a little behind the firing line; we came out of the firing line five days ago. Following on from my last letter, we marched 12 miles and about midnight we dropped into the old original trenches near ______. We did not sleep much here as out guns of all calibres were around us, and the firing was incessant throughout the night. In the morning we had a look around the German trenches we had heard so much about. War material lay scattered everywhere, thousands of rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition, bombs, unexploded shells of all calibres, in fact I never saw so much war material before. Their dug-outs are simply marvellous; some of them have fully fifty steps leading down to them, and to put it plainly, for trench life they were luxurious, the walls are papered, lovely stoves, and full kitchen ragouts; fine bedrooms with best of bedsteads in them and big mirrors, in fact as comfortable as ordinary cottages in Australia. Of course, the trenches were battered out of recognition and hundreds of the dug-outs have not been opened out yet, but most of them are full of dead Germans. Every trench had electric lights in it, and the power house was well equipped. Everything pointed to the great resourcefulness of the Germans. Railway lines were everywhere and the artillery which shifted them from their positions must have been terrible as German dead were laying about everywhere in thousands and this is almost three weeks after they were ejected. So I tell you the perfume was a little more than strong.

While there we had a fairly quiet time but on the night of the _________ we were ordered to the front line to assist the capture of a German stronghold. Prior to this the Tommies had made a number of unsuccessful attacks on the town. On the way to the trenches we lost a couple of men as a big high explosive shell hit right amongst us. We were not disturbed again till we were in the trenches. The bombardment just before the attack began was something terrific, all kinds of war material being used. When it was time for the “hop-over” there was little of the village, let alone by the Germans, left. By daybreak on Sunday morning the village or what was left of it was occupied by the Australians, and about 100 German prisoners were taken. We had a terrible time taking after the town; we dug ourselves in and Fritz opened up properly, no shrapnel being used, all high explosives, and they just rained large and small and of all calibres from six inches to 15 inches, the conclusion being terrible. Each shell would level about thirty yards of trench and bury the occupants. During Sunday P. Hay was wounded in the head. Tom Hindmarsh had his leg and hand smashed and young Ted Evans, from Corrimal was killed also Oscar Hart from Wollongong. These were all the Coast chaps I knew in the battalion. On Sunday I was the only one left out of six. The others being caught by a shell. On Monday the bombardment grew worse – as a matter of fact, the men who participated in the Lone Pine charge said it was a picnic to the Somme.

On Monday night we left the village, and A Company with the machine gunners and bombers (not 100 men in all), went out to capture a German trench. This was the most successful raid of the division as we captured 100 yards of trenches, took 50 prisoners, and killed hundreds, and we only ad four casualties and one killed; besides that, we captured seven big machine guns over the sides togt away, we had ten machine guns on them and the carnage amongst the Germans was awful. We then had to clear the trench of German dead, and deepen it, so as to afford a little protection from Shell fire, which was beginning to become most unbearable again. It was here that Good, my sergeant friend in that photo I sent you, was killed, also the little Corporal, Crockett (you also have a photo of him). So you see I have lost most of my old friends but I still have my friend Henry with me; he is doing well.

We were relieved on Wednesday night, at midnight, and then had to march about _______ miles before we could camp, and then it was only for the night, and it was not until Friday that I had the first wash for a week, and I had not changed or had a sleep for well over a week, so you can see I had very little time to write. The morning we came out I received a nice mail also a parcel of cigarettes, socials, sweets, etc., and I can tell you they could not have come at a more opportune time. I put the socks on immediately and the chewing gum and cigarettes came in handy on the following march. Ic an tell you it was very thoughtful of them.

After I came out I met all the Balgownie boys, including Percy Davies. They were all looking real well; they were to go in where we had just left, and from what I can make out they are going into the firing line to-day. All I hope is that they do not receive it as bad as we did, for I am sure if they do I can see a few more Balgownie boys getting wounded, etc.

We are likely to have a good spell now, as we have to wait until our reinforcements arrive. I will rite home again as soon as possible, I have three letters to write to people whose sons have been killed; using a trench phrase, “it is fairly rotten,” in other words, it is our last tribute of respect to our dead mates.