Military History Tours Australia On Tour - Our Other Anzac Day 28 April 2008
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Today the tour split. Those taking the shorter tour headed back to Paris or on to other locations. Those on the etended tour travelled to Ieper with their allocated historian on the way they had their fourth day of battlefield touring.
We travelled via Fromelles, VC Corner, the Cobber Memorial, Ploegstreert Wood and Messines. On arrival in Ieper, there was time to visit the Cloth Museum before dinner at the hotels.
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Today 28 April 2008 was a very big day for the logistic support team as the tour split with half travelling to Belgium and the rest back to Paris for the journey home, or to another location. Eight coaches headed back to Paris and our hospitality vehicles had to work very hard ferrying guests to Amiens to pick-up rental cars for ongoing holiday touring, or to the train station. By evening those on the extended Our Other Anzac Day Tour were all located in our Ieper hotels for the Belgian phase of the tour.
Last evening (27 April 2008) at the MegaCite in Amiens we conducted our Le Grande Bal Militarie. This Ball was attended by 800 people including our tour party, many local and government guests. We were pleased that Major General Paul Stevens, Director Australian Commonwealth War Graves, his wife and his support team were able to join us. A youth orchestra and choir from South Australia provided entertainment. At one stage we had at least 400 on the dance floor. Vocalists from the choir performed songs from the world wars. The young lady who sang the Edith Piaf numbers was given a standing ovation. The night concluded with a very moving rendition of Vera Lyn’s “We’ll Meet Again” which was well appreciated as many were leaving friends they had made on the tour to head home or elsewhere. Many have made friends on the tour and I believe they will meet again. Check the 27 April page for pictures of the Ball.
Colonel Graham Fleeton
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What Preceded the Conflict:
Ferocious fighting in the area in late 1914 early 1915,
Mid 1916, this part of Flanders near Armentieres was known as “The Nursery”.
It was used to introduce new troops to trench warfare.
Australian troops began arriving from the Middle East March / May 1916 .
The 1st 2nd and 4th Divisions were moved to the Somme
on 5th July 1916, the newest Australian Division, the Fifth, took up residence.
On 1 July 1916, the Somme Offensive began. The British lost 60,000 casualties on the first day. Suddenly the area around ’The Nursery’ gained new significance.
The British General Staff and Corps Commander LtGen Haking planned to create a diversion here, to keep German reinforcements from being sent to the Somme.
Conduct of the Battle
The key German position was ‘The Sugar Loaf’, a fortified location (probably an old farmhouse) that anchored a salient jutting out from the German lines.
The attack was planned for the 17th but was postponed. The Allied troops were exhausted from hauling supplies for the attack.
Ironically, on the 18th in what should have been a portent, the Bavarians held up a sign ‘Why so long – you are 24 hrs late’.
At that point the Allied objective had been achieved without a shot being fired. They should have quit while they were ahead.
On the 19th, an artillery barrage began at 11am. The Australian 5th Division attacked at 6pm together with the British 61st Division on the right. They attacked though ‘sally ports’ or gaps in their breastworks.
The Australian 15th Brigade quickly became pinned in no man's land in front of The Sugar Loaf.
Walter Downing, author of ‘To the Last Ridge, was in the 57th Bn, the 15th Bde’s reserve. His battalion watched as their colleagues advanced.
“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 one. The survivors spread across the front, keeping the line straight. There was no hesitation, no recoil, no dropping of the unwounded into shellholes. The bullets skimmed low, 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….
Here one man alone, there two or three, walked unhurrying, with the mien of kings, rifles at the high port and tipped with that foot of steel that carries the spirit of an army – heads high, that few, to meet the death they scorned. No fury of battle but a determined calm bore them forward. Theirs was an unquestioning self sacrifice that held back nothing. They died, all but one or two who walked through the fire by a miracle….
Fifty six remained of a full thousand. It was over in five minutes.”
The 8th and 14th Brigades to the left of the 15th captured 800 metres of the enemy front line trench. They penetrated towards what they thought was a second line of trenches; in reality just a string of muddy ditches.
They became over-extended and enfiladed and risked being cut off because of . inability of the 15th Brigade or the British 61st Div to neutralise the Sugar Loaf.
The British 61st Division, to the right of the 15th Brigade, now planned another attack and asked the already heavily strained Australian 15th Brigade to assist at 9pm as dusk fell. The attack by the 61st Division was cancelled, but news of this didn't reach the Australians in time. A brave but futile attempt was made by half of the Australian 58th Battalion, which was snuffed out with heavy losses.
General Haking decided to withdraw all troops to the old front line trenches and renew the attack the next day. German forces who had been driven from the line attempted to recapture both flanks of the Australian lines.
As night fell the troops tried to improve their defenses while others tried to reinforce. The Australians realised the situation and counter attacked the Germans and managed to stop the enemy from infiltrating further but were unable to drive them out.
At 2am the forward commander of the 14th Brigade realised that his right flank was exposed to the enemy. The Bavarians attacked again and forced their way further behind the 14th Brigade. Australian troops now found themselves being fired from both the front and rear.
By morning the only option was to charge the German troops holding the old German front lines behind the Australians in an effort to return to their lines.
By 3.45am the Australian who were left were now fighting their way back through German lines, making a charge back to their original battle starting positions. By 5.45 am on the 20th of July, the Australian 8th Brigade was forced out of the German lines.
By 8am, the general order to withdraw had been given. However, many parties of troops of Australian remained cut off and unable to break out, they continued fighting until finally silenced about 9.20 am.
The next three days were spent recovering wounded. Many more casualties were sustained in this process. The dead were left where they fell, although many had their ID tags recovered by their colleagues who despite some local truces, braved enemy fire to look for the wounded.
Their remains were still on the field at the Armistice two and a half years later. The skeletal remains could not be identified as their tags had been removed during the recovery of wounded. That is the reason there are no headstones in the VC cemetery; they are all ‘known unto God’.
Some 400 Australians from the 8th and 14th Brigades were captured, marooned in the mythical second line of German trenches. Many dead remained in the German positions. Some of these men were buried by the Germans, in an as yet undiscovered location.
It is believed that the site is adjacent to Pheasant Wood close to Fromelles. Action is currently in train to research the claim although there is some local controversy surrounding the plan.
In just 27 hours, the Fifth Division lost nearly 2,000 men killed, a quarter of the total lost at Gallipoli in nine months.
Acts of Courage: Fromelles was a disaster and news of it was not widely promulgated. It was described as a raid in some British documents. Downing’s was the first published eye witness account and was not published until 1920. No major bravery awards were made.
Chaplain Maxted, MC, was shot dead by a sniper the following day as he ministered to the dead and wounded in no mans land following the battle. He is buried in Rue de Petillon cemetery.
Fraser was later commissioned in the field as an officer. He was killed at Bullecourt the following year and has no known grave. His name is on the wall at Villers Bretonneux.
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The ‘Cobbers’ statue is by Peter Corlett of Melbourne and was inaugurated on 5 July 1998.
It is a depiction of a 40 year old farmer from Victoria: Sergeant Simon Fraser of the 57th Battalion AIF. Whilst he was recovering wounded on the battlefield Fraser heard a wounded man shout out “Don't forget me, cobber.”
Le Trou Aid Post cemetery is apparently excellent –very picturesque surrounded by a moat, only four of 351 graves are identified. Rue Petillon also contains 5th Division casualties and also casualties from earlier raids in the area. 291 Australians including some famous victims of Fromelles - Chaplain Maxted, MC and Sgt Challis a member of the 1915 Carlton AFL Premiership side.
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At the end of a long, straight stretch of road on the N365 leaving Mesen (Messines) for Ploegsteert, and just before a bend, is a small road leading off left into the countryside. Less than a kilometre along that road is Prowse Point Military Cemetery on the right, and just beyond that a Commonwealth War Graves Commission signpost for Mud Corner, Toronto Avenue, Ploegsteert Wood and Rifle House cemeteries. From there the road is well signposted to Toronto Avenue Cemetery at the edge of Ploegsteert Wood.
Stand in Toronto Avenue Cemetery where the wind rocks the trees and the sunlight glints down through the rustling leaves. Try to imagine this place during the night hours of 6–7 June 1917. Then it was full of columns of Australian soldiers, thousands of men of the 3rd Division, in full battle dress laden with rifles, ammunition, packs and all the other sundry equipment of war, along with hundreds of pack animals, all struggling through the dark towards the lines from which they would have to attack the Germans shortly after first light. As they moved forward, the enemy deluged the area with gas and incendiary shells.
The men of the 40th Battalion, the only all–Tasmanian infantry battalion of World War I, had to put on their gas masks (small box respirator) and wear them for hours as they laboured up towards the line. While these masks gave virtually complete immunity from gas, wearing them with a heavy pack, extra ammunition and a rifle caused laboured breathing and much physical distress. As the battalions struggled through Ploegsteert Wood, always ‘Plug Street’ to the men of the AIF, they passed transport animals collapsed on the sides of the roads, gasping piteously for air. In the wood itself things were worse.
Four marked tracks lay through the wood but in the dark, and in these appalling conditions, units lost their way and confusion reigned for a time. Numbers of men were killed, wounded or gassed. The sides of the ‘Bunhill Row’ and ‘Mud Lane’ tracks were strewn with men who could move no further. Somehow, the battalions made it through and most were at the jumping off positions north of the wood by dawn for the start of the great attack of 7 June 1916. Behind them, in the wood, more than 500 men had been put out of action in this night march.
Official historian, Charles Bean, recorded stories of the dogged determination to prove themselves among the men of the 40th Battalion. Private John Jeffrey, of Lower Barrington, Tasmania, became unconscious and was taken to an advanced dressing station. Recovering, he set out for the front carrying up extra machine gun magazines then promptly turned around and carried two wounded men back to a dressing station. Although wounded next day, Jeffrey refused to leave saying he could still carry ammunition. Lance Corporal Francis Cunningham, of Dunorlan, Tasmania, collapsed from gas, recovered enough to lead his section forward, collapsed again but stayed on and was wounded in the late afternoon. Private Wilfred Gale, of Elliott, Tasmania, also collapsed, recovered, and then continued to carry messages despite frequent relapses.
In Ploegsteert Wood today are the remains of eroded shell craters. In Toronto Avenue Cemetery are the graves of 78 World War I soldiers, all of them Australians, two of them unidentified. They stand in three rows, most of them joined together signifying that this is a mass grave. This is the only all–Australian cemetery in Belgium and the only one on the Western Front with headstones identifying those who lie here. VC Corner Cemetery at Fromelles, France, contains more than 400 Australian burials, all of them unidentified. They lie in mass graves with no headstones.
Toronto Avenue is in a low–lying area and it is difficult to keep the headstones from growing mould but, to keep up appearances, they have been successfully coated with a white substance. A wire fence has been sunk around the cemetery to deter the rabbits and other burrowing creatures. For years, few battlefield pilgrims came to Toronto but more are doing so now. On occasions, the Menin Gate buglers come to sound out those the mournful notes of the Last Post above this little group of Australians hidden in Ploegsteert Wood.
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What Preceded the Conflict:
Two years of planning and preparation particularly tunnelling by both British and Australian engineer Tunnelling Companies.
The tunnels were to establish gigantic mines under the ridge which could be exploded prior to an attack by infantry.
Meticulous planning and preparation by the “dream team” of British generalship in WW1 – Gen Sir Herbert Plumer (Comd 2nd British Army and an infantryman) and his COS MAJGEN Tim Harrington. Plans, models, rehearsals and briefings. Also Monash & Blamey at 3 Div and Currie at the Canadian Corps.
Plumer believed in a series of limited, achievable objectives – the “bite and hold” approach – rather than an all out assault. He also believed in the application of the principles of war, surprise being a principal one in this battle. He worked on the “3Ts” principle – Trust, Training and Thoroughness.
Conduct of the Battle
Battle preceded by a bombardment form 2266 guns
Integrated use of infantry, arty, tanks, aircraft (300 planes) and engineers
At 03:10 on 7 Jun, 19 gigantic mines were detonated which effectively blew the top off the ridge. Explosion rattled windows in Kent and was heard in both London and Dublin!
It was 3 (Aus) Div’s first action. As they moved up through Ploegsteert Wood, the Germans fired gas shells which caused 500 casualties. The Div, however, pushed on and assaulted the southern slopes and the flat areas around the Douve area. NZ troops took Messines village. Irish troops took Wytschaete.
Ridgeline captured in 90 minutes.
Lack of casualties in the first phase meant that the assault troops bunched together on the ridgeline as they waited to commence the next phase. They became skyline targets for German MGs and arty from the Oosttaverne Line. This caused a lot of casualties.
10,000 Germans vapourised on the ridgeline. Remainder dazed and driven mad by the explosions. Pleaded with the assault troops to be captured.
Results of the Battle:
Strategic and tactical ground gained (the ridge) but opportunities lost in the succeeding days and weeks by a change of comd (Gough instead of Plumer) and dithering as to when to launch the next phase.
Battle was fought in summer when the Flanders ground was dry.
Limited objectives
Arty cut the German wire before H hour – 106 instantaneous fuse
Tanks were not a critical part of the plan
Surprise achieved by mines and arty pauses in preliminary barrages
Air superiority
Effective counter battery fire
Troops well briefed
Cavalry not included in the plans thereby not causing an obstacle in the resupply system.
German relief in place during the battle with non counter attack trained troops.
Good administrative and logistics arrangements.
Acts of Courage:
Pte John Carroll 33 Bn – as soon as mines went off and barrage lifted, Carroll charged immediately. He took out two machine gun positions and rescued a wounded comrade. Awarded the VC.
CAPT Bob Grieve 37 Bn - called up a Stokes mortar and Vickers machine gun when held up by a German post. Mortar and MG couldn’t get forward due to en fire so Grieve took up a bag of bombs and started throwing as he advanced from shell hole to shell hole. This kept the German’s heads down and he outflanked the pill box and rolled more bombs through the slits. This silenced this position. Grieve was wounded by a sniper as he stood up to call his men forward. He was awarded the VC.
CAPT Francis Fairweather 38 Bn – captured a German Machine gun post whilst under heavy fire. Awarded the MC.
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Unless otherwise noted battle and battlefield descriptions are prepared jointly by the Military History Tours Historians, as are the photographs.
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