Military History

Dennis is listed as being killed in action on 31st March 1918. The 8th Battalion war diary entries for the 30th and 31st March are transcribed below.

Gentelles – 30.03.1918: The Brigade left the buses at St. Nicholas, three miles SE of Amiens and marched into Gentilles, where the men were fairly comfortably billeted in barns and rations were issued. The morning was spent in sleep and the afternoon in cleaning up. At 8 P.M., the Commanding Officer was summonsed to Bde. HQ where he received a warning order to be prepared to relieve the 34th Australian Infantry in the front line that night. A conference of Company Commanders was held on return from Brigade HQ and provisional orders issued. At 10pm definite orders were received at Brigade to march at midnight.

Villers-Brettonneux – 31.03.1918: The Battalion marched through Cachy, and thence along the road running almost due east, passing 1/2 mile south of Villers-Brettonneux. The 34th, Australian Inf. had attacked the afternoon previously and made a slight advance, and the portion of line taken over from them was on a frontage of 1500 yards in a SW direction from the Villers-Brettonneux Rd. at a point about one mile west of Marcelcave. It consisted of a series of hastily dug rifle pits with a field of fire of from 500 - 900 yards. The 7th Queens came into the line on our left and the 10th Essex on the right. The total strength of the Battalion in the trenches was 469. The total length of line taken over, i.e., 1500 yards, was out of all proportion to the strength of the Battalion.

Dispositions of companies were as follows: “A” Right, C Centre, “B” Left, “D” Co., in reserve, were ordered to dig a continuous fire trench in support to the Front Line, and about 700 yards in rear of it, there being no possible site for this trench closer to the Front Line. Bn. HQ’s. was situated near a bank about 300 yards in rear of “D” Co. The day passed without any noteworthy incident.

NB: Newspaper reports from the time state that Dennis was shot through the head on 4th April 1918. The war diary for April 1918 does not mention Dennis by name and we leave it up to the reader to choose between all the official records which stated 31st March and the newspaper report as to the actual date of death. We have used the Official Records.