Ypres, 2022. 19^th July

Early start today to discover two battles which took place in World War I.

The first was the Battle of Fromelles which took place 106 years ago today, 19^th July 1916. Fought by the recently arrived 5^th Australian Division and British 61^st Division to attack a strongly fortified German position near the Aubers Ridge in French Flanders. It was to divert German resources moving south to the Somme.

The battle was a disaster with bad communications between the divisions. Messages to withdraw not being passed on and units being left without support from the flanks left in the killing zone. You can walk the battlefield and observe a large water trench which runs across it, making you understand what these guys went through trying to cross it with trained machine gun positions unloading bullet after bullet down its length. The battle lasted only 15 hours, mostly in the dark and left the Australians with over 5,500 casualties with just under 2,000 dead or dying from their wounds. Also, 400 were captured. This was 90% of the 5^th Division’s men.

General McCay the Australian commander should take his share of the blame as he would not agree to an offered truce from the Germans to remove the injured from the battlefield. An arrogant man, who wanted his men to be the first Australians in battle on the Western Front.

The British also suffered 1,547 casualties.

It was not until the Armistice in November 1918 that the battlefield could be cleared of the dead. 410 bodies found but could not be identified and were buried in the two mass graves with a wall of remembrance for the 1,299 unknown installed at VC Corner Cemetery.

In 2009 a mass grave was excavated, for soldiers buried by the Germans. It contains 250 Australians and British soldiers. The newest Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery was built to lay the bodies to rest. Many were identified using DNA.

This is a battle remembered mostly by Australians and forgotten by the British. Not helped in 2016 when the Australians did not invite the British to the annual commemorations due to “lack of space”, so much for Brothers in Arms.

I then moved south to Bullecourt near Arras. In early 1917 the Germans decided to shorten their defensive line and fall back to the strong points of the recently constructed Hindenburg Line. The British 5^th Army was to attack the Hindenburg Line south of Arras at Bullecourt. The first attack was on the 11^{th of} April 1917 using the 62^nd British Division and 4^th Australian Division. There was no artillery barrage, instead, 12 tanks were used. The German lines were heavily defended and with no artillery the barbwire was not destroyed. Belief that soldiers had managed to get far into the German 8 lines of defence meant that Artillery could not be requested due to the fear of friendly fire. Eight hours into the attack the decision was made to withdraw.

On the 3^{rd of} May 1917 another attempt was made with the British 62^nd Division and Australian 2^nd Division. This battle lasted until the 15^th May and was one of the most fiercely fought. Hand to hand battles within the maze of German Trenches. The British with the use of tanks managed to secure the outskirts of Bullecourt and the Australians reinforced by their 1^st and 5^th Divisions fought through the trenches to link up with the British. The Germans withdrew from the ruined town on the 15^{th of} May. The cost of this battle was very high. The first battle saw 3,330 Australian casualties and 1,170 taken prisoner. (The largest number taken in a single day during WWI). The British suffered 774 casualties. The second battle had 7,000 Australian casualties and 8,119 British casualties. This was the largest number of Australian casualties at over 10,000 in WWI.

When visiting the battlefield there is a feeling that the battle was only fought by the Australians, as they make up the mass majority of visiting tourists. The actual village of Bullecourt was captured by the British, yet most memorials in the village are to the Australians.

I feel visiting these little known, from a British point of view battles, should be encouraged as both British and Australian blood was spilt by courageous men over a 100 years ago. Irrespective if it was a victory or defeat, we should honour these men who fought in Hell so we can live our lives today.