Now Richard Laws's war service begins

The story by Helen Butler continues.

 DETENTION

Sergeant Richard William Laws

On 4 December 1916, Sgt Laws was the Sergeant in Charge of the Guard, for 24 hours from 3 pm, a duty he had often done before. There were 8 prisoners held in the guard house - not prisoners of war, but fellow soldiers being held on various charges from drunkenness to desertion.  Sgt Laws did all his inspections of the camp throughout the night as set out in the regulations, and all was well. On his 8 am inspection, all was still in order.

Soon after the sergeant left the guardhouse on his 8am inspection,  2 of the 8 prisoners escaped, telling the others to say nothing for an hour or so, to give them time to get away. Both were notorious and frequent offenders, and one of them was being held awaiting his trial for escaping from another gaol. About 9 o'clock a Provost Sergeant walked past, and the other prisoners told him that the two had escaped.  The provost sergeant found Sgt Laws and told him to go and report their escape. Sgt Laws could not believe the escapees could be far away and did a search for them. When he did not find them, he then went up to the command centre to report the incident. But unluckily the Provost Sergeant had appeared there a short while before him.

Dick Laws was charged with neglect of duty in allowing two prisoners to escape. This was an automatic charge for the commander of the guard, no matter what the circumstances. He also incurred a second charge in that he failed to report the escape (even though he was about to do so after his search for them). Dick was held in the guard room for 11 days until tried on 17 December by 3 British army officers. He did not question any of the witnesses and he said nothing in his own defence, probably realizing it was useless to do so. Conviction and sentence were automatic – Guilty and 2 years hard labour.

Three days later, the Australian Captain in charge of the Australian troops at Etaples appealed against the sentence very strongly, stating Sergeant Laws had been at the base for 2 months and had carried out his duties most satisfactorily, and the escapees were clever repeat offenders. The sentence was reduced to 6 months. Dick spent Christmas in gaol. Then on 6 January on further appeal by his Captain, the sentence was suspended and Dick was released to join his unit. However his conviction remained, and is still in his record today. He was reduced to Private, and would never advance in the army with this blemish on his record.

At last the time had come for the Reinforcements to join their 9^th Battalion at the battlefront, and they all left – except Private Laws! He was required to stay at Etaples to give evidence in the trial of the 2 who had escaped when he was in charge of the Guard. ( They had been caught the next day.)

Card to brother Lionel

Card sent to his brother Lionel

After their trial, Dick finally reached his 9^th Battalion on 18 February 1917, which was 16 months after he had enlisted.

Private Laws on right

FIRST  PERIOD  with  the  NINTH  BATTALION -  8 Weeks

The 9^th Battalion had been in the thick of the fighting since coming from Egypt to France in March 1916. In 8 months they had fought the battles of Pozieres, Monquet Farm, and Flers. Casualties were heavy and reinforcements had periodically arrived, but the 15^th reinforcements had not been needed until now. After the bitter cold and extreme wet and mud at Flers, “nearly all the troops were more or less ill”. They were taken out of the line for 2 months to recover their normal health through sports, marches, and adequate food and rest.. On 20 January they were about to sit down to a belated Christmas Dinner donated by the people of Queensland.(They had been in the line on Christmas Day.) Suddenly in marched their 15^th Reinforcements, quite unexpectedly from Etaples, and the dinner was shared with them. But Private Laws was still at Etaples, to arrive a month later to join them.

The Battalion story gives a detailed picture of the weather here in the winter of 1916-17. While it was getting colder from October to January, there was constant rain. Then there was a hard frost, followed by heavy snow and unbelievable cold. On 24 January the Band could not play. This freeze lasted a month. The thaw began on 17 February bringing fog every day for 2 weeks, and the soil which had been churned up deep by big explosives, now became deep mud where even a horse could disappear.

Dick arrived just as the thaw began, and almost immediately saw the action he had waited so long for. On 22 February in the fog the Ninth Battalion moved up to the front line to relieve the 11^th Battalion. The plan was to make an all-out attack on the area known as the Maze, which the Germans had held strongly for some time.

Preliminary small patrols, however, found all the German positions had been evacuated. Under cover of the fog, they had quietly withdrawn back to their new stronger Hindenburg Line. The men of the Ninth

pressed forward as quickly as they could in the difficult wet and foggy conditions to gain as much ground as possible, reaching well beyond the Maze.  But soon they were in range of the enemy machine guns and snipers well placed safely in their new concrete positions, and they suffered many casualties. For 4 days and 4 nights in drizzling rain and slippery soft mud they pressed on with pratically no sleep and part of the time with no rations. The Ninth held this new territory and were finally relieved by the Eleventh.  The history of the Ninth records - “Great gallantry had been displayed by all ranks under very difficult conditions”.

After this, the Ninth moved back behind the lines and most of March did training to incorporate the new Lewis machine gunners into every platoon.

On 4 April the Battalion set out on a long, very wet and cold march up to the front, arriving with depressed spirits at Logincourt at dusk on 6 April. They moved into position in their section of the front.  The plan was for them to go forward and attack Queant after the battle of Bullecourt was won on their left, But on 9 April the battle of Bullecourt was lost, and the attack on Queant was cancelled. Five days later, the Twelfth arrived to take over from the Ninth.

The day before this, Dick Laws was carried out disabled with Trench Foot. In his 2 months with his battalion he had experienced some action.  It was to be 3 months more before he could return for more.