Missing brother turns up after war

The story was revealed to the Post by Goulburn man Wayne Adams, who said his grandfather Harrie McKenzie Adams and his younger brother Leslie Thomas Adams were both serving with the AIF in France in April 1917. 

Les was missing in action after the battle for Riencourt and his brother, Harrie  presumed he was dead – but their fates were to take a strange twist.

“In April 1917  the 13th Battalion were a very seasoned outfit, Les had been wounded at Pozeries and now their company would be part of a major offensive involving the 4th Division AIF and 62 British Division,” Mr Adams said.

“They would attack the Hindenburg Line, supported by tanks. The Germans were well prepared and on April 11, 1917 Les left the trench. It was a bloody murder as the tanks had failed to break the lines of barbed wire and men were mowed down by horrendous hails of machine gun bullets, by nightfall Australia had over 3300 casualties and the 13^th Battalion had lost two thirds of their men including Private Leslie Adams.”

“The news was not good for Harrie as Les was listed as MIA or “missing in action” and Harrie presumed he was killed,” Mr Adams said.

“Harrie was wounded and gassed during offensives at Passchendaele and Messines and on the fourth occasion was shipped to England in May 1918 to see out the war but what happened to his brother Les?”

“Out of the blue, some four months later, Harrie received a letter from the Red Cross asking him to send send food parcels for his brother and hope returned that they would be united.” 

Mr Adams found the actual letter that Les had written to Harrie in 1917, courtesy of the National Archives of Australia. 

The letter explained that: Private Leslie Adams had been captured after German troops overran his position. 

“I was one of the bombers who tried to hold off Fritz. As bombs were soon exhausted we used all of Jerries bombs we could find,” he wrote.

They were captured and he was taken as a prisoner of war, eventually to East Prussia to work on “houses and railway lines that had been destroyed by the Russians.” 

“Conditions were very very hard,” he wrote. They worked 11 hours a day on little food. He was bashed by a guard and spent the rest of the war in hospital, until he was re-repatriated to Scotland at its end. 

Mr Adams said both Harrie and Les married and brought their war brides back to Australia. Harrie gained a welding job at Garden Island and Les eventually became a station master at Bell in the Blue Mountains.

The complete letter stating what happened to Leslie Adams is below:

STATEMENT CONFIDENTIAL, March 6, 1919 England :

“Private Leslie Adams A co 13th Btl My Battalion took part in the attack on the Hindenburg Line. Our objective, I understood was the village of Riencourt. We were to be supported by tanks in the attack but they failed to reach the wire. I got as far as the second enemy trench in front of the village. In the attack different units got mixed. I saw very few of my own company in the trench where I was.

“The Germans made repeated counter attacks. They got around our flanks. An officer asked the bombers to hold off the enemy while the rest of the men tried to get back.(The order to retreat had been given) I was one of the bombers who tried to hold off Fritz. As bombs were soon exhausted we used all of Jerries bombs we could find.

“When there were only five of us left an officer came along and told us to follow him as he had discovered a tunnel leading back towards our original position. We followed him into the tunnel but discovered there was no outlet. The Germans came along and easily captured us as we were unarmed. I was wounded.

“After capture all the un-wounded and slightly wounded prisoners were taken to Lille and placed in the notorious Fort McDonald. I spent ten days there and was marched to Danuai for work behind the lines, we were billeted in a French civil prison while there, the food was bad and very scanty. The men were literally starving.

“I was kept working behind the lines for about seven weeks when I was transferred to Dulmen, I remained there for nine weeks and then was sent to East Prussia. There we were made to work on houses and railway lines that had been destroyed by the Russians earlier in the war. Conditions were very very hard. We had to work eleven and a half hours per day.

“The tasks were hard and if a man failed to carry the load set for him he got knocked about. I once failed in my allocated task and was so severely beaten by the sentry with his rifle that I was put in hospital and as a result remained there until my release.

“I was in hospital about eleven months altogether. About the end of November 1918 I was sent to Danzig and travelled via Copenhagen to Leith, arriving in Edinburgh and Dartford. Signed L Adams and witnessed 517 A O Parre.”