The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
Officers of the 11th Battalion, examining part of the machine gun in the German machine gun post (German outpost line before the attack) which parties of the 11th Battalion, operating from the house in the distance, (Australian front line before the attack), about 150 yards, rushed and captured at Mont de Merris, during the guerilla warfare conducted by the 1st Division in defence of the Hazebrouck sector, in June and July, 1918. They met with some opposition as can be seen from the empty cartridge cases lying around. In many of the positions including machine guns with machine guns still in them one would fail to find any expended cartridge cases after an advance. Left to right: A. C. Elliott MC; Lt L. G. Riches MC; Captain John Stuart Dight Walker MC (killed in action 21 July 1918).
This village, east of Hazebrouck, is here seen (beyond the trees) from the front line of the 11th Battalion on 17 June. A daylight raid had just been made against a German machine gun post situated at
Lieutenant L G Riches MC, of the 11th Battalion, examining a German stick grenade in a captured German strongpost at Mont de Merris. The village of Strazeele can be seen in the top left hand corner.
Strazeele, France. 17 June 1918. A German field gun near a captured strong post on Mont-de-Merris, in Northern France. It was here that the 11th Battalion, in the attack some days before, encountered
View from one of the front-line posts established by the 1st Division in pushing forward east of Hazebrouck. In front is Lieutenant L. G. Riches MC of the 11th Battalion sitting on a German field gun
These trench mortars at Mont-de-Merris captured by the 11th Battalion were still too near the front line to be removed with safety. Major A. M. Phillips DSO, and Lieutenant L. G. Riches MC (pointing)
A machine gun post constructed in the Hindenburg Defence System. Machine guns operating from this point covered a large part of the country captured by the 30th American Division operating with the Au
