THE MOST TERRIBLE BATTLES FOR THE AUSTRALIAN ARMY

THE MOST TERRIBLE BATTLES FOR THE AUSTRALIAN ARMY

A British emplacement after a German gas attack at Fromelles, July 19, 1916.

Today, 106 years ago, on July 19, 1916, the battle of Fromelles began and would become one of the most terrible battles for the Australian army on the western front  which, four days later, on July 23, 1916, will know in Pozieres, one of their most terrible battles on the front of the Somme.

The attack on Fromelles on July 19, 1916 was the first major battle fought by Australian troops on the Western Front. It was a feint designed to prevent the Germans reinforcing their troops on the Somme, where the Allies had launched a major offensive on July 1. The ruse, however, was unsuccessful.

Towards the evening of July 19, 1916, the Australian 5th and British 61st Divisions attempted to seize 4000 yards of front line centred on the "Sugar Loaf". However, the British bombardment, which commenced on July 16, had warned the Germans that an attack was likely. As the troops moved into position on 19 July, they were unaware that they were being watched by German observers a mile away. The Germans heavily shelled the assembly area and communications trenches, causing hundreds of Australian and British casualties before the attack even started.

The assault began at 6pm with three and a half hours of daylight remaining. The front line to the north of the "Sugar Loaf" was on average 200 metres wide and the Australians quickly crossed no-man’s-land, seized the German front line, and then pushed on for 140 metres in search of a supposed third and last line of the German trench system. No such line existed and the Australians began forming a thin disjointed series of posts in the intended position.

Other Australians attacked opposite the "Sugar Loaf" where no man’s land was 400 metres wide. The Germans had survived the British shelling and quickly manned their machine guns. Within 15 minutes they had decimated the attacking waves of Australians, forcing the survivors to find shelter. British troops attacking south of the Sugar Loaf suffered a similar fate and made no progress. The British planned a second attempt to capture the Sugar Loaf salient and asked the Australians for help. This plan was cancelled but the news arrived too late to stop the Australians mounting another attack with equally disastrous results.

The next morning the Australians that had breached the enemy’s lines were forced to withdraw to their own lines. The Australians suffered 5,533 casualties in one night, the worst 24 hours in Australia’s military history. Many fell victim to German machine-guns. The Australian toll at Fromelles was equivalent to the total Australian casualties in the Boer War, Korean War and Vietnam War put together. It was a staggering disaster that had no redeeming tactical justification whatsoever. It was, in the words of a senior participant, Brigadier General Harold Edward "Pompey" Elliott, a "tactical abortion".

Private Joseph Stephenson, 14th Machine Gun Company was wounded during the battle of Fromelles on July 20, 1916 and wrote this letter for his mother:

"I was wounded at Fromelles on July 20. We charged and captured three lines of German trenches the day previous, but I managed to go through that day without a scratch. It was a terrible charge and one I will never forget. How anyone got through without being hit is nothing short of a miracle.For two days before the charge we bombarded the enemy very heavily, and Fritz was put to a lot of trouble as all their parapets were blown away. All of a sudden Fritz started on us with his big guns and high explosive shells, they kept it going all day, and I tell you things were very lively.It was funny to see us ducking when they came screeching through the air just above us. I was covered in dirt many times by the shells exploding, but did not mind, as dirt is very much softer than a piece of shell.After a few hours our trench was considerably damaged, but considering the very few casualties we came to the conclusion it would take a lot to shift us. Our artillery started again and paid them back.The night before the charge we had to build a new "possy" for our machine gun, as Fritz had knocked the other one down with a shell. Anyhow, we got on the parapet and started our job with sand bags, but flares kept going up and we had to get down.When the flares burnt out up we could go again, and this sort of thing went on for a long while, when all of a sudden they trained a machine gun on us. I did not wait to get down, but fell by the shortest way.When all was quiet we started once more, and keeping on all night finished our job before the morning. All morning Fritz sent along shells and we sent 60 pound bombs. Everybody was anxious, and at 5.30pm the order came along to fix bayonets and stand to the parapet. This was done, and when the whistle blew at 5.40pm our gallant 5th Division hopped the parapet and were out to make a name for themselves.We faced heavy fire and lost a lot of men before we had gone 20 yards, but we still pushed on, followed by two more lines. We got to the German first line. Some of our boys stood on the parapet and used the bayonet, while others preferred to get right inside the trench and throw the bombs which we all carried. Most of the Germans cleared before we could get to close range.We pushed further on through thick scrub which was alive with snipers. It was here we had very heavy hand-to-hand fighting and took a lot of prisoners. All was well done, excepting that they shelled us and let loose the gas, but fortunately the wind was favourable and carried the gas back over their own lines. Needless to say we had our gas helmets ready to pull on. Then they flooded the trench and in a short time we were knee deep in water.We pushed on further until we reached their third line of trenches, but they counter-attacked, and we returned to the second line amongst the water, which was now up to our elbows, and we stayed in this for 11 hours, and were than relieved by the New Zealanders.Most of our gunners had been killed or wounded, but we went to our old front line and stayed there to be relieved the next night, but my luck was out, for at 1.30am on the 20th, shrapnel burst above our gun crew, and I was wounded in the right forearm and left shoulder.Cecil Evans got it in the leg, while a third man got hit in the right hand, and our fourth man was not hit at all. I made my way to the dressing station, where I found the sleeve torn right out of my coat and a big hole in the back. The coat was saturated with blood. I had to wait, as there was a lot there.The field dressing was no good, as the wound in my arm was so big, so I took off my puttees and another wounded man bound up my arm. I had lost a lot of blood and got very weak, so I laid on a stretcher for an hour, when my wound was dressed, and I was sent to the clearing station. It was there that I met Tom Hill, an ex-Goulburn policeman, and Verne Conolly (also from Goulburn). They gave me a dry cigarette, and we talked for a while, but they were kept going carrying in the wounded, and did not have much time to spare.I was taken away by motor and properly dressed, put on a hospital train, and sent to Boulogne No. 2 Canadian Hospital, where I was washed and put to bed. I was very thankful for this. It was strange being in bed, but I did not fall out. I had a good meal, and felt OK. I was sent away the same night on board a hospital ship, and was taken off at Dover. We were put on a hospital train again and sent to the Edmonton Military Hospital, where I was again put to bed, and have been there ever since. I can only use my left hand (my right being smashed up), and cannot, therefore, write to all my friends.Will you please take this letter to the local papers and ask them to publish same, so as my friends will know my whereabouts. My address is No. 2904, Gunner J.V. Stephenson, Eleanor West Ward, Edmonton Hospital, London 5."

W.H.Downing wrote in "To The Last Ridge", a poignant account of the violence of the Battle of Fromelles as follows:

"The 60th climbed on to the parapet, heavily laden, dragging with them scaling ladders, light bridges, picks, shovels and bags of bombs."Scores of stammering German machine-guns spluttered violently, drowning the noise of the cannonade. The air was thick with bullets, swishing in a flat lattice of death. There were gaps in the lines of men,wide ones, small ones. The survivors spread across the front, keeping the line straight... The bullets skimmed lo, from knee to groin, riddling the tumbling bodies before they touched the ground. Still the line kept on."Hundreds were mown down in the flicker of an eyelid, like great rows of teeth knocked from a comb, but still the line went on, thinning and stretching. Wounded wriggled into shell holes or were hit again. Men were cut in two by streams of bullets. And still the line went on... It was the charge of the Light Brigade once more, but more terrible, more hopeless."

More than a hundred years have passed but the fields of Fromelles, the poppy fields of the Somme do not forget the bravery and the sacrifices of the young Diggers, the courage of all the sons of the young and strong Australian nation with which we are united in the most beautiful and the strongest of friendships which was born in the trenches of the great war and which, in the remembrance will last forever.We are proud and honored to watch over these young men who, for us, for France fought with determination and who, together, in mateship gave their lives. We will always watch over them as our sons to keep their memory strong and alive, so that their names live forever.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,we will remember them.🌺