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Hindenburg Line

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Bellenglise, Fourth Australian Division Memorial

Some bloody soldiers – Hindenburg Outpost Line, 18 September 1918

When the Imperial German Army withdrew from Péronne in early September 1918 it fell back to positions running north and south of the Fourth Division Memorial. These were known as the ‘Hindenburg Outpost Line’ by the British and west of them lay two old British lines smashed through by the Germans during their great offensive of 21 March 1918. These old British lines were garrisoned by the Germans, making the approach to the Hindenburg Line proper a formidable one. Feeling they had the Germans on the run, however, the British high command approved an assault on the old British lines and, if successful, a quick follow up attack on the ‘Hindenburg Outpost Line’.

On the night of 17–18 September, men of the Australian First and Fourth Divisions moved up to a start line east of the villages of Hargicourt in the north and Le Verguier in the south, along a six and half kilometre front. Many of these soldiers had been fighting now for weeks and most Australian battalions were virtually at half strength due to casualties and lack of reinforcements. Nonetheless, according to Charles Bean they were in ‘bounding spirits’ as they marched again into battle. By the end of the day the First Division to the north had seized all its objectives.

The attack towards the ‘Hindenburg Outpost Line’ trenches began to the east and south of Le Verguier, a couple of kilometres away. The ground lay over a series of spacious valleys north of the River Omignon and was led by the 48th Battalion (South Australia and Western Australia) in what was to be the unit’s last action of the war. They soon met the well directed fire of the German machine gunners but got into the German line and watched as many enemy soldiers tried to escape. Padre William Devine, 48th Battalion, described their fate:

The 45th Battalion (New South Wales), ‘advancing in magnificent order’, now drove on through the line taken by the 48th.

An official photographer was with the battalion as it fought up to the summit of another valley hilltop capturing German guns and infantry. His series of images shows the Australians moving across the open countryside to the east of the Fourth Division Memorial and, having gained their objective, stopping to watch the British artillery bombardment hit the German positions on the ‘Hindenburg Outpost Line’ around the memorial area. That night the 46th Battalion (Victoria) stormed the ‘Hindenburg Outpost Line’ in a rainstorm which made the German defenders seek shelter. Many of the enemy were reserve troops who had rushed forward earlier in the day in anticipation of an Australian attack at dawn on 19 September. Hundreds surrendered causing the Australians some problems:

At this point in the action the right flank of the 46th’s position in the newly captured line was vulnerable on the right to the south–west of the Fourth Division Memorial. Two companies of the 48th Battalion came up to drive the enemy back from a maze of trenches covered by enemy machine guns. Part of the position was captured with the help of one whom Padre Devine of the 48th christened a ‘young firebrand’:

Thus, wrote Padre Devine, the 48th Battalion gained its one and only Victoria Cross of the war awarded for an action during its very last engagement – the seizure of the ‘Hindenburg Outpost Line’. For Devine this fact added a particular poignancy to the deaths of those killed in these final actions. The battalion dead were recovered from the battlefield and initially buried further towards Le Verguier at Dean Copse. Devine drew particular attention to a Port Adelaide labourer, Private Nathaniel Lunt, age 33, who had joined the battalion when it was formed in Egypt in early 1916.

Lunt was considered one of the characters in the battalion, the ‘hero of many fights both in the line and out of it’. Lunt’s personal AIF dossier at the Australian National Archives reveals a number of these incidents earning him undoubtedly the title of ‘larrikin’:

But ‘larrikin though he may have been Lunt did his share of the fighting’ for the 48th Battalion. He was badly wounded in the hell that was Pozières in August 1916. As his record shows, in November 1916 a large piece of metal was removed surgically from this wound.

Lunt lies today in Plot 4, Row B, Grave 2, in the Bellicourt British Cemetery about six kilometres north–east of where he died on 20 September 1918 as the 48th Battalion consolidated its position in the trenches south of the 4th Division Memorial. There is no epitaph on his headstone and perhaps Padre Devine can be allowed to speak for this forgotten ‘digger’ and his two mates, Privates Punch Donovan and Cork Daly, men Devine regarded as ‘essential to the identity of the 48th’:

Standing at the Fourth Division Memorial one can recall that it was men like Private Nathanial Lunt who made the military achievements of the AIF possible as much as its generals, colonels and sergeants.

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© 2008 Department of Veterans' Affairs and Board of Studies NSW :: Last update - November 2008

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