German 137th Infantry Regiment (Elsassisches) shoulder strap : Lieutenant General Sir John Monash, AIF

Shoulder strap for the 137th Infantry Regiment. Field grey wool strap with white piping and red chain stitched number '137'. With the strap is a handwritten note in indelible pencil on the back of a piece of a German postcard that reads, '137th I.R. / 3rd Bttn / 108th Div. / captured 4/7/18 / by 4th Div. / south of Vaire Wood'.

Single shoulder straps were routinely removed from dead or captured Germans for intelligence purposes, so that the names of the units opposing the Allied forces could be established.

This shoulder strap was collected on 4 July south of Vaire Wood during the Battle of Hamel and sent to the Australian Corps Headquarters, under the command of General John Monash.

The 137th Infantry Regiment (IR) were in positions around the old Roman road between Villers Bretonneux and Warfusee. On 4 July they faced men from the 23rd and 25th Battalions, AIF. The diary of the 21st Battalion records men of the 15th and 137th IR being moved through the battalion headquarters.

However, the soldiers from the 137th IR may not have been captured by men from the 21st Battalion, who were located north of the 23rd and 25th Battalions. The 23rd Battalion noted in their war diary that due to lack of soldiers to escort prisoners, those captured by the 23rd Battalion tended to be mixed up with prisoners captured in other areas.

On 4 July the 23rd Battalion took about 90 prisoners north of the Roman road, while the 25th Battalion captured over 90 prisoners, south of the 23rd Battalion. Neither battalion recorded what units their prisoners had come from, but, based on their objectives, there would have been men of the 137th IR among the prisoners.