Improvised Australian notice board, 'To the Great Push, Diggers Avenue' : Captain A M Cohen, 56th Battalion AIF

Rectangular wooden board taken from a ration box. Both vertical sides have nail holes, with the left side still retaining all four nails. These are bent as if ripped from the box. The following legend is stencilled to the face of the board : 'H.A.LANE & Co LTD / LONDON / 48 RATIONS'. Over this has been written in pencil, by an unknown hand: 'TO THE GREAT / PUSH / DIGGERS / AVENUE'. A further line has been written along the base, but only the words 'Mine' and 'Digging' are legible. The far left of the board has been decorated with a pencilled image of a running Digger, in puttees, slouch hat and feather, bayoneting a distressed German with a large handlebar moustache, wearing a field cap, one arm raised. The reverse is blank but for a large pencilled legend 'DIGGERS / AVENUE / [arrow pointing right]' in purple indelible pencil.

Related to the service of Alroy Maitland Cohen. Cohen was born in Sydney on 30 June 1881. He worked as a barrister at Edgecliffe Bay, Sydney, and enlisted on 1 December 1915. He had previously served with 35 Infantry Battalion, (Militia) as a Lieutenant 'since July 1915'. He was initially assigned to the fifteenth Reinforcements for the 4th Battalion with the rank of second lieutenant. He embarked for overseas service aboard the transport 'Orsova' which left Sydney on 11 March 1916 and arrived in Egypt on 13 April, where he went to 1 Training Battalion at Tel-el-Kabir on 15 April. On 3 May, Cohen was transferred to the 56th Battalion. The battalion sailed for France on 19 June via Marseilles and within the month fought its first major battle at Fromelles. The battle was a disaster, with heavy casualties.

Second Lieutenant Cohen survived Fromelles and attended a one-month course at the General Instruction School, France from 1 August 1916, resulting in his promotion to Lieutenant on 9 September. The battalion remained in the Fromelles sector which remained active and dangerous, with trench raids and increasingly cold weather. Lieutenant Cohen contracted influenza and spent the major part of November in hospital, returning to his unit on 22 November. Many men suffered from exposure.

On 2 April the 56th Battalion was assigned an assault on the German lines at Louverval, part of a number of assaults on the Hindenburg Line outpost villages, supported by the 55th Battalion, which attacked the nearby village of Doignies. These attacks presaged the Battle of Bullecourt and both villages were successfully taken. Cohen was shot in right leg below the knee during this attack, and was evacuated to the Research Hospital at Cambridge. His wound was described as 'perforating' but 'uncomplicated'. He was discharged 4 May and rejoined the battalion on 28 June. His good work saw him appointed Assistant Adjutant on 16 August 1917. By then, AIF operations had switched to the Ypres sector in Belgium. Here, the 56th Battalion fought at Polygon Wood on 26 September. Cohen was promoted to Captain on 8 October. He attended the Australian Corps Gas School from 9 to 18 February 1918. In the wake of the German Operation Michael, 5th Division was moved, on 26/27 March, to defend the sector around Corbie with 14th Brigade to the north of Villers-Bretonneaux; they remained here, in and out of the lines, until mid-May.

On 6 April Lieutenant Cohen was detached to 14th Brigade Headquarters as battalion Liaison Officer, remaining in this role until the end of the war. Soon after, on 18 May, Cohen was evacuated, suffering the effect of gas. He returned to 14th Brigade on 26 May.

During the 8 August Offensive, 14th Brigade remained in reserve for most of August but its actions were critical to the capture of Péronne, which fell on 2 September. That evening, they were relieved and moved into reserve about 900 metres east of Francourt. The following day, Lieutenant Cohen, making his way through a communication trench west of Vaire Wood, came across this sign, adapted from a broken up ration box, directing troops to 'the Great Push'. Some indication of the mood of the Australian troops during August 1918 can be gained by studying the drawing crudely but cheerfully decorating this sign.

The 56th fought its last major battle of the war, St Quentin Canal, between 29 September and 2 October 1918. Cohen missed this action as he was obliged to attend hospital with swelling and abscess in the back of his wrist 'due to a thorn'. He served in various capacities after the Armistice, on Courts Martial Duties and as a Claims Officer and with AIF Records, London. He returned to Australia aboard the 'Argyleshire' and his appointment was terminated on 16 November 1919.