Notes my Great Uncle Allan took while in the French trenches during WW1.

Allan Lorenzo Tongs' diaries are now held at the State Library of Victoria (Australian Manuscipts Collection) - they are quoted in recently published book: "Private Wars" by Greg Kerr (Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195507991) - see footnote.

Sailley is a most peculiar town. It has two main streets one running eastward in a curve through Erquingham to Armintiers. The other runs north and south towards Steiwerts. The one running towards Armintiers is long and rambling. That is to say that houses straggle along on either side with open spaces between. In the other street the houses are exactly opposite compact and two or three storied. The 8th battalion were in billets near by and one day while I was standing on the pavement an 8th battalion fatigue party marched past and who should be one of them but? X. I had a yarn with him then and he told me that Y was in C company of 8th. So as soon as tea was over I went and looked Y up. We then went and found X and the three of us had a night together and talked of old times at home. It seemed as funny to think that last time we met was in Australia and now a year after many adventures we should meet in a small town in France. We had two or three nights together and then the Brigade was ordered up behind Ypres. We arrived here on the 9th of June and bivouacked three days. I have not seen either X or Y since. I believe they are going in the trenches again soon. This brings me up to date. The above is really only an outline of our doings. From now on I will endeavour to keep as good an account of things happening as I can.
22nd June 1916 Thursday we struck our bivouac at 8AM and got into marching order. After hanging round for the order to move until 11 o'clock, it came along, and we took up our packs and set off for a camp about a mile down the road. There were a great many enemy aeroplanes coming in sight from time to time. They were very bold for our anti aircraft were continually bombarding them. Still they did not stop, one in particular, until suddenly two of our aeroplanes appeared in sight. Then followed a duel which would be hard to describe. Our planes were much faster and soon came up on the Saube , and one after rising above it suddenly darted down and opened with a machine gun. The German got away however back to its lines. We arrived at the camp and had to wait till a Tommy regiment evacuated it. Then we took over the huts. There is a nice YMCA connected with the camp and tonight I went down to it and had an enjoyable evening. It ended up with a service and I was very much taken with the minister and will go again
Written 9PM with fountain pen in very bad order.
23rd June. Today hot and sultry. I changed from breeches into shorts and found them much better. I was detailed for mess orderly and was expecting to get fatigue work, as we have again joined our platoon. Some Signallers were detailed for night fatigue, but the signalling Sergeant complained and they took them off. We got in very good Semaphore signalling today and I am beginning to get good at it. Had a general inspection by Brigadier General Forsythe. It was merely to congratulate our raiding party which about a fortnight ago did some good work. Received a letter from home dated April, 1st from mother with quite a lot of news in it. Have read through twice up to the present. Tonight last night and the night before I attended a concert and service in a YMCA tent just down the road. Have just about exhausted my pay and will have to wait a week before pay day comes again.
24th. Towards evening last night a big thunderstorm came up, the first I have seen in France. Heavy rain continued till six o'clock in the morning and now at one o'clock it looks like rain again. I never saw such a place for rain. One nice day to a weeks slushy weather. Have been practicing semaphore all morning, then crossed over to YMCA and then to canteen and had some coffee, biscuits and some French cake. We are continually getting rumours that the Russians are doing great things out on the Eastern frontier. The English papers to some extent confirm these rumours. Then lookout is hopeful. Here I will try and give a description of the country in which we now are. It is on the Franco Belgian border and is beautiful country. All low round hills and shallow valleys with avenues of trees along both sides of streams which have no doubt in the absence of soldiers would be clear and beautiful, but continued washing in them does not improve them. The green grass is knee deep on the slopes of the hills, while each hill is crowned with a small picturesque French cottage. Every valleys lined with beautiful trees in straight lines, also along each fence, and they do not seem to affect the growth of the trees at all. This afternoon signalling practice carried on as usual. I received some papers from home and have since been deeply interested in them. I noticed ___ brothers death was reported. He was supposed to be missing but that confirms it. Fancy a poor mother losing two sons while the third is somewhere in the firing line. I wrote part of this, this morning.
25th Rolled out of bed somewhere about 7 o'clock and after washing had our usual breakfast, bread and boiled bacon and tea. Today is Sunday and nothing doing till church parade. The Church parade was held for the first time in many days in the YMCA tent which is not far from our camp and it came off very well. Chaplain Miles our Battalion Chaplain held the service but he is not so good with men as the Rev Mr Clarke the manager of the YMCA. In the afternoon I went down and wrote a letter using my last green envelope. I had a cup of tea and two or three buns during the afternoon. This evening I attended the service held by Mr Clark and don't think that I ever attended a more beautiful service.
26th Again up at reveille and usual routine through the day. Tonight went to YMCA and secured a fist class seat and heard Mr Alex Watson, whom I once saw in Australia, give a recital and the packed tent showed the approval. It was magnificent. Fancy this sort of thing within shell fire. Met Les M. Everyone is out on the night fatigue at Hill 63. A battle squadron of air craft has just passed over towards Plogg st.
15/7/16 The diary keeping did not last long. It is so hard to remember it each day and if you miss a day there is always the tendency to keep putting it off. Well we remained in the camp three weeks and I did very little but practice signalling all the time. One night however we had a nasty job. Four hundred of us were sent to carry up poisonous gas to the front line. This is a very dangerous job as should one get broken by falling, or get hit with a bullet or shrapnel it will kill all who get a whiff of the gas. Those gas cylinders were very heavy and the duck boards wet and greasy, while if you slipped off you fell into about two feet of water beneath. We were stiff tired and sore for a week after this, there were several strained backs and we all still regard the job as a kind of nightmare and hope we never get another like it. While we were in this camp the Battalion X and Y are in was in the firing line and they were getting strafed pretty heavily. I was wondering how they were getting on but learned from some of their mates two days later that they were all right. We then went to the trenches and had just got settled down when the Tommies came and relieved us. Coming out of these trenches we were continually coming under machine gun fire and once they cut the leaves over our heads. Since then we have done route march upon route march. From Neive Eglise to Bailiul six miles 2 days in Bailiul Picture Theatre. Extrained at Bailiul travelled all night to Doulleus-Doulleus to Berteacourt 14 miles, night at Berteacourt. Berteacourt to a small town 8 miles. Still here expecting move many tired and footsore. Received parcel from home, also two or three papers. Cantonette to Healvilliers, Healvilliers to Senlis, Senlis to Albert, Albert to Reserves Ponziers. On the 22nd July we under cover of darkness marched from up from Albert and took up a position in Sausage Gully about 4 miles from Poziers. These were reserve trenches which at one time had been the British front line. The bombardment previous to the advance was well in progress when we left Albert but by the time we were in position it had reached its fiercest and what a spectacle. One of the most severe bombardments of the war. It was wonderful, awe inspiring, and awful to watch. The whole gully lay below us, one of the mass of batteries and they were all in action and firing with their utmost capacity. As for the noise, it was deafening. The first Brigade advanced against Poziers. After hard fighting they took the town and were holding on under terrible shell fire. The morning of the 23rd we went up about a mile nearer Poiziers and came into the outskirts of Fritzs shelling. Wounded were pouring down to the ambulances some with blighties, some badly wounded. Here we stayed about three days and then moved up to supports and the Companies each took their turn in the firing line. The barrage of German fire never ceased, though at times it eased off. It was an awful experience. Dead men lay at every turn. Some dead for three or four days, some more. German, English and Australian there they lay with their mangled forms giving up a dreadful smell. That smell which once experienced can never, never, be forgotten. The 1st and 3rd Brigades had taken the town, and the trenches occupied by us were on the edge of the Delville wood and town. The Battalion headquarters was on the edge of the town nearer Sausage Gully. The main street of Poziers lay through the centre of the village and past headquarters. Leading back from there, was a road or track down to Supports, and from Supports a poor communication trench led to reserves. Part of the time I was running at Battalion headquarters. Then I was sent down by the Colonel to run for RSM at the dump back in supports. The whole section was subjected to a continuous bombardment by Fritz's heavy artillery and high explosives and shrapnel. Men were being killed everywhere. Heaps of dead lay where they had been placed out of the road. I saw one shell land right on three dead bodies and they disappeared. Such sights were common. Trenches were blocked in places by dead men. A chamber of horrors. The living appeared to be dead if lying down. Everyone subjected to the bombardment sat with moody expectation of the end and would scarcely make room for the messengers and the wounded. Men who had been wounded got back with a happy look on their faces. Thank God we only spent two days in the advanced line that time. In all we were six days in. We were relieved by the 22nd and marched back taking several days to Bonneville where we had about a fortnights rest. The different jobs I had were 1/ Guiding 17th Battalion 2/ Messages to all Battalions of Brigade 3/ Back to Dup and guide to C company 4/ Back to brigade headquarters, Chalk Pit and Barrage 5/ Guiding Colonels of 6th Brigade up to Battalion Headquarters
At Bonnevile I remained on Battalion Headquarters for about a week longer but could do very little owing to a sore foot. Then I was recalled to the Company, as, owing to sickness and wounded we were reduced to three in number (The Signallers B Company) I returned to Company and then we had a good bit of signal practise. All this time we were in doubt as to where we were going next and it gave us a nasty taste when we got orders to pack up and return to Poziers. We went back over the old route and every march was agony to me with my sore foot. The first march back to the Orchard 5 miles then Montreled thirteen miles to Vadencourt wood. Three or four days here and away we went back to Albert and Poziers. The first night was spent in a reserve trench up a bit from Albert and early next morning we moved up to nearer reserves where we stayed two days. Here we lost Poyner and the younger Poyner was wounded. Next we moved into tramway Trench and this
was our base of operations for the next six days. The main stunts were Digging in no man's land, we lost a good many men but the operation was extremely successful. At night we held the strong point under murderous fire, lost more men, Young included. Burying party in the strong points all the time under murderous fire. When we were relieved we went over and took rations to the eleventh when they hopped over and did their fatigues that night, fooling about in no man's land. Witnessed the downfall of an enemy plane. Two Germans fell from a great height and dropped dead ten yards from us. Awful - This was one of the most awful sights one could imagine. dead Australians everywhere, some dead Germans and every time a shell lobbed it stirred up dead bodies.
Description of Poziers Stunt as I saw it.
22nd July Bombardment. My position Reserve trenches in the midst of our artillery. Thousands of guns all firing, noise dreadful. Flashes light the sky and looking down from the elevated position, all an awful sight of guns firing, shells exploding and dense smoke covering all . Bombardment lasts all night.
23rd. Move up to closer reserve or trenches taken from Germans about a week before by the Tommies. The 1st and 3rd Battalions took Poiziers from the Germans. Here we found tons of souvenirs. German rifles, cartridges, mess tins, helmets, caps and overcoats, bombs and shells of all descriptions. The German dugouts were immense excavations with as many as six rooms lighted by electricity. We found a workshop and canteen. The latter of course had been looted. In one dug out we saw mirrors of cut glass and in everyone were chairs. These articles without doubt had been captured from the French peasants. Rather exciting message I had here. Message to 5th and 8th Battalions. Each Battalion was hard to find and the message took a whole morning. At the 8th Battalion a road that I had to pass was being heavily shelled and many had been killed and wounded and the dead were lying in heaps. Many of these had died on their way from the trenches to the dressing station. The stretcher bearers here were doing magnificent work and trip after trip they made while we waited at the 8th Battalion. I enquired how X and Y fared and was rejoiced to find that they were safe. My mate and I got back safely from this message. * The next big run I had was to guide the 17th Battalion into reserves after finding their position. The Sergeant who was with me got them settled and we prepared to return to our trench. We found then that we were lost and just then the 7th and 5th Battalions had to charge. The whole British artillery opened and one gun near us knocked the Sergeant over with the concussion. We wandered about amid the artillery for two hours, getting more and more bewildered in the maze of trenches and communication trenches and wires. At last we saw a familiar battery and striking the right direction from this we found our trench. Next morning we moved up into the village of Poizers and the awful sights that I saw there I shall never forget. The place was literally strewn with dead bodies. Australians and Germans lying where they had dropped. In one case one of our own battalion lay with two dead Germans lying with him with bayonet wounds. He had killed both and then in his turn had been killed. One of the dead Germans was wearing the Iron Cross ribbon. The shelling was hellish. No description could give any idea. Our running here from the Battalion, the Company and the Brigade were just dashes through all kinds of fire and many runners were killed. Two days of utter awfulness and we were relieved, sadly diminished. Here Fritz used gas, and phosphorous shells and caused a lot of casualties with both. On the Second Division he also used liquid fire. It was during this fighting that we got the order to advance 400 yards and dig in. Fortunately for us the Germans had excavated that part and we just had to dig in but before we got well started they saw us and began to shell us heavily. We heard the 8th Battalion on our left come into touch with some Germans and they made a terrible noise with their bombs. We lost about 20 men out of our small company that night. One chap simply disappeared, someone saw a leg afterwards, which they thought belonged to him, but no one could be certain. You can imagine how quick we got down, for the deeper down the safer you were from machine gen bullets which were cracking around just like the noise a crackling fire makes. It three hours to get down four feet all along and then we thought we would be relieved but were told to hold the trench for 24 hours. I can tell you I was not sorry when it was all over.
After Poiziers we marched in heavy stages down to the railroad and entrained for Goeddarsvelat from there to Victoria Camp near Poperingle and Ypres moved again after three days to Poperinghe, then by train to reserves in Ypres salient and did some fatigue. There my sore foot quite recovered. A fortnight here and then into the front line. A quiet fortnight then back to Poperinghe for a good rest of a fortnight, back into the salient and am now installed in dugouts in reserves and having a good time.
10th Sept 1916 Description of dugouts now occupied by us.
These huts consist of long rooms, adjoining and running parallel having outlets at both ends. Along each side of these rooms are three tiers of bunks with wire netting mattresses and we find them very comfortable. The one we are in has only one side with the bunks in. This being Company Headquarters and more room is needed . The bunks themselves are superior and there are only NCOs and signallers in it. We have the phone in here and we are having a splendid time as far as possible in the trenches. We are rather lazy as we arrange the telephone so that it can be handed from bunk to bunk. When one man has finished his shift during the night, he just wakes his neighbour and hands over the phone and all we have to do is keep awake for two hours take and send any messages going through. These huts have nine rows of sandbags on top of them and they are very safe, but the front is very quiet and only gas is feared. Of course these are only in reserves, but don't think the front will be any worse than when in last. Shift 4-6PM did two hours extra. Rose and washed 8:30 AM. Breakfast 9 o'clock. Spent the day practicing on buzzer and reading. Rest of shift here much the same till 14th Sept. March to Devonshire camp again prior to starting perhaps back to Somme.
15th Oct. Reveille 7:30. Set out 10AM pass though Poperinghe. Sunday Devonshire camp to Poperinghe about 2 miles. Poperinghe to Abcele two miles. Abcele is fairly large town. I saw some 5th Battalion here. After Abcele saw Ypres Aerodrome. Many planes were practicing, rising and descending, both scouts and battle planes. We marched about eight miles and were billeted in barns about three quarters of a mile from Stenwood. Went into Stenwood at night with Jim and had a feed. Most modern town I have seen in France.
16th Oct. Marched through Stenwood with band playing. Band did not play much after this. First town Bavincliove. This was the hardest march done in France, 17 miles, mostly open country. We passed through Cassell a fairly large town. Just after passing through Cassell we passed the most beautiful chateaux we have seen in France. It was a large white house with spacious grounds, well kept lawns and a cemented moat round the whole grounds, with willows and other trees overhanging. The lake or moat had boats on it and the whole thing was grand. Most of the country after this was open and after a very long and tiring march, we were billeted into very poor billets. We got hundreds of little spiders which got into our cloths and generally made us miserable.
17th Oct. Start this march with rather sore feet owing to yesterdays lengthy marches. The first town very small named Buysochere. A little further on La Krugg and later on Leddesscele and Moinalin and over Pont de Hornalin. Then winding around St Onla, came through two other villages and billeted in Perquelles.
18th Oct. We had the day off and in the morning we knocked round the town. Saw a beautiful church, bought some candles and chocolate. In the afternoon I walked to Wattin four miles away and had some good practice in French conversation and got home fairly late.
19th Oct. Voting day for conscription.
The end
Footnotes

* This note was written on the left hand page - the rest of the diary in the excise book is on the right hand page only.The next mention of X and Y
Poor Y. Just after we had found each other. He was shot by a sniper out in the fartherest trenches. I was speaking to him the night before we went into action, that was two nights before he was killed. He X and I spent a quiet night together and talked of home and the times we would have when we returned. X was wounded they tell me. I suppose by now he is in England. Good luck to him. I am unhurt, thank God, but I was not in as hot a part as X and Y. Our unit was much more fortunate. Everyone I ask about Y's death seem to have a different tale to tell. His own pal told me a sniper shot him. Another fellow said he was killed by a piece of shrapnel. It is often hard to tell and if he was killed in an advanced position he might be seen again. I don't know the exact movements of their Battalion that day, but from what I can gather they certainly had a much rougher time than we did.

Photographed prior to leaving North Motton Tasmania for WWI.

Unknown, Morton Butler, Alex Peebles, Charles Butler, Allan Tongs

Another letter that Allan wrote was a "Glimpse at Pozieres"

Commonwealth War Graves Commission Site

Are you wanting information about an Australian's service history during WWI?
The National Archives Office can help - If you e-mail ww1prs@aa.gov.au a copy of a persons WWI War Service file can be purchased for $15.00.

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"Private Wars" by Greg Kerr (Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195507991)

This remarkable book is an inspiring tribute to the dignity, humility and courage of the men who fought on our behalf in one of the twentieth century's bloodiest wars. Greg Kerr traces the experiences of about 160 participants in the Great War, using 200 rare photographs to illustrate the front line as seen by soldiers, and to profile the reality behind the mythical Anzacs. Few of the photographs or extracts included in Private Wars have appeared in other military books, and many were gathered from private sources. Private Wars: Personal Records of the Anzacs in the Great War thus preserves invaluable records of Australia's participation in one of the defining events of the twentieth century.
As in Greg Kerr's highly acclaimed book, Lost Anzacs: The Story of Two Brothers, the material is raw and engrossing. We see the soldiers in transit, in battle, convalescing, in repose, at play, and privately suffering. Survivors write frankly about the inevitability of slaughter, on both sides. Death lurks at Gallipoli, yet an ex-miner from Broken Hill defiantly smokes a cigarette in view of the enemy; a lieutenant likens the slaughter to a wallaby drive; and a sergeant suggests that Gallipoli would make a good sheep run. On the Western Front, an artillery driver finds the body of a woman in a trench full of dead German soldiers, while an officer writes that angels would weep at what they saw. In Private Wars: Personal Records of the Anzacs in the Great War the Anzacs' authentic voice-alternately hopeful and suffering-is captured in judicious and uncensored extracts from their letters and diaries: 'Probably before this letter reaches you George I will have a medal or a commission, a wooden leg or a wooden cross. Maybe it is much the same whatever happens for all is changed nowadays and the world is upside down.' Private John McInerney 'Passed through Lyon about 7.30. bonza big place. Get a great reception all along the line had breakfast or dinner or whatever it was at Macon at 11.30The roads look A1, chalk white, winding in and out among the hills. Passed train load of French soldiers at St Germain Au Mon d'or one of them gave me a drink of wine, good oh!' Private Douglas Westwood 'We found eight dead Germans & would you believe it there was a dead woman with them. My God it made my blood boil what I saw. I suppose they took her from one of the towns they captured. Well I could not help kicking one of them. She did have a sorrowful look on her face. We carried her out and gave her a decent burial. We found nothing on the Germans we left them where they wereMy word the day of reckoning will come for Kaiser Bill. He will have to pay for it all.'Driver Ewart About the author

Greg Kerr is a Melbourne writer and journalist. He has worked for the Herald, the Age, and the Sunday Age, and is a contributor to Australian Film 1978-1994 (also available from Oxford). His book Lost Anzacs: The Story of Two Brothers (1997) relates the experiences of his grandfather and great-uncle in the Great War.