German gong and beater : 20th Australian Infantry Battalion, AIF Accession Number: RELAWM04081

Description

Circular metal gong with handle and gong beater. The handle has been fashioned out of a twisted wire suspender attached to two holes punched through the metal at the top. The beater is attached to the suspender. Attached to the centre of the gong is a brass plaque. Impressed on the plaque is 'GERMAN GAS ALARM GONGS / AS USED "IN" THE TRENCHES / BY THE GERMANS. / CAPTURED BY 20TH AUST/ INF BATTALION AT / FRAMERVILLE ON THE SOMME / FRANCE. ON THE MORNING OF / 10TH AUGUST 1918.'

Contextual Description

Gong and beater captured from the Germany Army by the 20th Infantry battalion on 10 August 1918 at Framerville, France. Various types of signalling apparatus were used for giving the alarms in cloud-gas and gas-projector attacks. The alarm had to be given the instant gas was detected and had to be loud enough for all to hear, as upon the first indication of a gas attack masks had to be donned instantly, making it impossible to give the warning by word of mouth. This led to the introduction of various kinds of horns operated by compressed air, gongs, mechanical hooters and rattles. Gongs and rattles were also used as warning in bombardments by gas-shell. Some gongs were worked by a pedal, a method which enabled the sentry on duty to give the alarm and protect himself at the same time. With the pedal type he could sound the warning with his foot while his hands were adjusting his respirator. Time was the chief factor especially in a projector, or as the Germans called it, 'gas-mine' attack, for the delay of even a second or two might mean death to those in the front line.

The 20th Battalion was raised at Liverpool in New South Wales in March 1915 as part of the 5th Brigade. A sprinkling of the 20th’s original recruits had already served with the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) in the operations to capture German New Guinea in 1914. The 20th left Australia in late June, trained in Egypt from late July until mid-August, and on 22 August landed at Anzac Cove.

Arriving at Gallipoli just as the August offensive petered out, the 20th’s role there was purely defensive. From 26 August, until its withdrawal from the peninsula on 20 December, the 20th Battalion was responsible for the defence of Russell’s Top.

After further training in Egypt, the 20th Battalion proceeded to France. It entered the trenches of the Western Front for the first time in April 1916 and in the following month had the dubious honour of being the first Australian battalion to be raided by the Germans. The 20th took part in its first major offensive around Pozières between late July and the end of August 1916. After a spell in a quieter sector of the front in Belgium, the 2nd Division, which included the 5th Brigade, came south again in October. The 20th Battalion provided reinforcements for the attack near Flers between 14 and 16 November, launched in conditions that Charles Bean described as the worst ever encountered by the AIF.

In 1917, the 20th was involved in the follow-up of German forces after their retreat to the Hindenburg Line, and was one of four battalions to defeat a counter-stroke by a German force, almost five times as strong, at Lagnicourt. The Battalion took part in three major battles before the year was out, second Bullecourt (3-4 May) in France, and Menin Road (20-22 September) and Poelcappelle (9-10 October) in Belgium.

The spring of 1918 brought a major German offensive. The 20th Battalion was one of many Australian battalions rushed to stop it, and it encountered some particularly severe fighting when ordered to attack at Hangard Wood on 7 April. With the German Army’s last desperate offensive defeated, the 20th participated in the battles that pushed it ever closer to defeat: Amiens on 8 August, the legendary attack on Mont St Quentin on 31 August, and the forcing of the Beaurevoir Line around Montbrehain on 3 October. Montbrehain was the battalion’s last battle of the war. It was disbanded on 20 April 1919.