History of the 11th Field Company Australian Engineers, Australian Imperial Force — A Closer Reading

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In Category - World Events

Authors: Anonymous Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2018 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- Australia; Australia. Australian Army. Australian Imperial Force (1914-1921) Engineers. 11th Field Company Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 34,764

Reading time 152 min

Text sections 22

The catalog record for History of the 11th Field Company Australian Engineers, Australian Imperial Force — A Closer Reading provides practical reading context through 34,764 words, 2 hr 32 min estimated reading time, and 22 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 12.6 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- Australia,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #58005

A unit history written by the 11th Field Company for its members, this account uses spare, factual prose to record the sappers' work in France, from water supply to tunnel clearance, with a dry humor and precise detail that reveal the authorial choices in diction and description.

Editorial Edition Score 4.7/5

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Description quality20 pts
Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
EPUB file integrity20 pts

Total of 100 points, scaled to a 2.5-5.0 range. Editions with an empty description or a missing EPUB file are not scored.

Edition quality

File: pg58005

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CHAPTER I. EARLY DAYS 7

” II. MESSINES, YPRES, AND AFTER 15

” III. THE DEFENCE OF AMIENS 21

” IV. THE GREAT OFFENSIVE 36

APPENDIX I. ROLL OF HONOUR 48

” II. “LINE” SERVICE 49

” III. STRENGTH STATEMENT 50

” IV. NUMBER OF PRISONERS 50

” V. VARIOUS STATISTICS 51

” VI. ANALYSIS OF OFFENCES 51

” VII. ROLL OF HONOUR (AWARDS) 52

” VIII. NOMINAL ROLL (continuous service, FRANCE) 53

HISTORY OF THE 11TH FIELD COMPANY

AUSTRALIAN ENGINEERS.

1. AUSTRALIA, ENGLAND, AND FRANCE.

The Company was formed in Australia, Headquarters and Nos. 1 and 2 sections being raised in the Fourth Military District, and two sections in the First Military District. Selection of personnel commenced in the beginning of March, 1916, but Officers had previously been selected and trained at the Engineer Officers’ Training School, Sydney. The O.C. (Captain R. J. Donaldson), 2nd in command (Lieut. O. B. Williams), and a number of N.C.O.’s and men came from the 12th Field Company A.E., C.M.F., at Broken Hill; 2nd-Lieut. J. M. Norton from the 11th Field Coy., A.E., C.M.F. (Adelaide); while 2nd-Lieut. S. W. Matters came from South Australia, and 2nd-Lieuts. R. W. Lahey and H. St. A. Murray, from Queensland.

The quotas were collected and trained separately, that from South Australia at Mitcham Camp, near Adelaide, and the Queensland sections at Enoggera, near Brisbane, until 29th April, 1916, when the Company concentrated at Mitcham. Work was then carried on with the full Company, at the same time stores and equipment were slowly collected. Horses were issued from the remount depôt, not for overseas service but for training purposes, but proved so wild as to give the drivers more practice in colt-breaking and riding buck jumpers than in the routine of military horse mastership and drill.

The technical stores of a Field Company are very extensive, but by ransacking Adelaide warehouses to fill the gaps in the available army supplies, Ordnance succeeded in almost completing the equipment. Two tool carts came from 12th Field Company, C.M.F., at Broken Hill (afterwards re-numbered the 11th), and one from a Queensland Field Coy. The pontoons were made at Cockatoo Docks in New South Wales, but the Weldon trestles, bridging wagons, and water cart were not ready in time. The Sappers were issued with green leather infantry equipment, but this was afterwards changed in England for web. No rifles were issued until the unit reached England.

Embarkation took place at Outer Harbour (Adelaide) on 31st May, 1916, on H.M.A.T. A 29, s.s. “Suevic,” in company with the 11th Field Ambulance (Lieut.-Col. Downey).

After a rough trip round the Lleuwin the “Suevic” arrived at Fremantle on 6th June, 1916, and embarked the 44th Battalion (Lieut.-Col. Mansbridge, D.S.O., who became C.O. troops).

Crossing the Indian Ocean the vessel sprung a small leak which necessitated calling at Durban for the services of a diver. The stay was only twenty-four hours (21st June, 1916), but the troops had a route march through the town.

Cape Town was reached on 24th June, 1916, and left on 27th. As was expected the yellow flag was flown and no leave was granted, but the troops had a route march and a sports meeting.

The next port of call was St. Vincent, reached on the 11th July, 1916. No one was allowed on shore. The run from here was through the submarine zone, and was attended with the usual discomforts. The pontoons of the Company first saw service being installed on the boat deck as emergency lifeboats.

Finally, after a long voyage, during which there was a considerable amount of sickness and the death of one member of the unit, disembarkation took place on July 21st, 1916, at Plymouth. The unit entrained to Amesbury and marched to Camp 20, Lark Hill, Salisbury Plains, joining up with the 3rd Australian Division, then slowly concentrating. The Company was the first of the Divisional Engineers to arrive, and at once came under the orders of Lieut.-Col. H. O. Clogstoun, R.E., C.R.E., of the division.

Before commencing training, the members of the unit received four days’ disembarkation leave, which was keenly enjoyed after the confinement and discomfort of the troopship. Work had barely started at Lark Hill before orders were received to proceed to Brightlingsea, in Essex, for pontoon training, in the Engineer depôt there. No camp being available, all ranks were billeted on the townspeople, and were the first Australians to visit the place. Some surprise was expressed at the lightness of complexion and English speech of the visitors, and both the military authorities and the townspeople were agreeably surprised to find that their lives and property were not appreciably jeopardised by the wild Colonial soldiery.

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The preface of this history declares it a 'little book about a little unit,' written by the company, for the company. That framing shapes every sentence: the prose is lean, factual, and deliberately unadorned, as if the author trusts the events themselves to carry weight. There is no grand rhetoric about war or nation; instead, the text dwells on practical problems—watering horses in a 'high, streamless country,' clearing mines from a field marked by danger notices in both English and German, or investigating a four-mile canal tunnel dug in Napoleon's time. The authorial voice is that of an engineer reporting to his mates, not a historian addressing posterity.

The Engineer’s Eye for Detail

The author’s diction consistently favors technical precision over emotional appeal. When describing the Hindenburg line, the text notes that the tunnel was '25 feet in diameter' and equipped with 'pumps (but without engines) and piping to deliver water to the surface at a number of air shafts.' The water, we are told, was 'drinkable after treatment, with the usual small quantity of chloride of lime.' That phrase 'the usual small quantity' implies a routine, almost bureaucratic familiarity with such tasks. Elsewhere, the account of the failed American assault on September 29th is rendered in a flat, almost clinical tone: the Americans 'neglected to “mop up,”' and Germans emerged from dugouts to man machine guns. The author does not condemn; he simply records the tactical error as a fact. This restraint is a deliberate stylistic choice, one that prioritizes clarity for the unit’s veterans over dramatic effect.

Voice and the Collective ‘We’

Though the author is anonymous, the narrative voice is unmistakably that of a participant. The preface speaks of 'the old member of the unit' and hopes to 'provide a framework on which he can build up memories.' This sense of shared experience permeates the prose. When describing the work of No. 2 section on water supply, the text notes that 'the early development of all sources of supply in any area captured was thus of great importance.' The 'thus' implies a logical conclusion reached by the company itself, not an external judgment. Similarly, the account of the minefield includes the detail that it was 'curiously enough, marked by danger notices both in English and in German.' That 'curiously enough' is a quiet aside, the kind of observation a soldier might make to a comrade. The author assumes his readers share his frame of reference, and he writes accordingly.

Structure as a Reflection of Purpose

The book’s organization mirrors its intended audience. Chapters are chronological, but within them the narrative shifts between sections (No. 1, No. 2, etc.), each with distinct tasks. This structure allows a veteran to follow his own section’s movements. The prose is dense with place names—Ronnsoy, Bony, Bellicourt—and with the specific language of military engineering: 'O.P.,' 'barrage,' 'mop up,' 'de-detonated.' There are no maps, as the preface explains, because the author assumes every Australian home has a map of the war zone. The appendices are equally functional: a roll of honour, a strength statement, an analysis of offences. The book is a tool for memory, not a literary artifact. The author’s choices in structure and content are entirely subordinated to that practical goal.

Dry Humor and Understatement

Beneath the factual surface, a dry humor occasionally surfaces. The preface mentions 'memories both grave and gay' and the possibility that 'the name of a village may raise a smile at the recollection of some good jest.' In the text itself, the humor is more implicit. When a stray tank is put out of action by a German field gun 'at point blank range,' the author notes that the sappers' attempts to use it led to 'some exciting incidents.' That is the only description of what must have been a harrowing episode. Similarly, the discovery of the minefield is related without drama: 'Large numbers of mines were removed and de-detonated.' The understatement is a form of camaraderie, a shared understanding that the worst moments need not be spelled out. The author trusts his readers to fill in the gaps.

This is not a history for the general reader, nor does it pretend to be. Its value lies in its specificity: the exact dimensions of a tunnel, the precise sequence of a failed attack, the quiet pride in solving a water-supply problem. For those who were there, these details would unlock memories. For the rest of us, they offer a rare, unvarnished glimpse into the daily work of a field company—a record made by engineers, for engineers, and shaped entirely by that purpose.

Reading how the sappers fixed a pump with wire and patience, I remembered my grandfather’s shed—same quiet stubbornness. That feeling returned with Action Front — Edition Insights, where the mud and dry humor felt like an old letter I’d half-forgotten. These books don’t shout; they just sit beside you, waiting for the kettle to boil.