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Subject: A bit of history: 19 July 1916; The Battle of Fromelles
tjkhan    7/18/2006 4:34:26 PM
From The Sydney Morning Herald: The forgotten fallen July 19 2002 More than 5500 diggers were killed or wounded within a few hours at Fromelles. Casualties equalled the combined toll for the Boer, Korean and Vietnam wars. Yet, writes historian Ross McMullin, most Australians have never heard of the battle. The 5th Australian Division had just arrived at the Western Front after an enchanting train journey north from Marseilles through France at its midsummer finest. The weather was perfect and the countryside was something glorious, enthused Brigadier-General Harold "Pompey" Elliott, who commanded the 15th Brigade. On July 12, 1916, Elliott formally took charge of nearly two kilometres of the British front. He was soon notified that the 5th was to participate in an imminent full-scale assault with the 61st British Division. It was staggering news. It was also a crazy idea. The main culprit was a British corps commander, Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Haking. It was the performance of commanders such as Haking that endowed some British generals in the Great War with a notorious reputation for pernicious incompetence. Haking had a simplistic faith in all-out attack. According to Haking, even if a defending force was stronger than the unit attacking it, the attackers would win. Such absurdity during a war dominated by heavy artillery, machine-guns and barbed wire had been starkly demonstrated by mid-1916, by which time the English general had charge of the area near Fromelles recently occupied by the 5th. This sector had been relatively quiet, but Haking coveted the higher ground behind the German lines known as the Aubers Ridge. All eyes, apart from Haking's, were on British progress, or the lack of it, at the Somme. The great push there had been launched earlier in July. On the first day, 57,470 British soldiers were killed or wounded. It occurred to someone that the British were struggling at the Somme partly because the Germans had rushed defenders there, and if they could be deterred from doing this the Somme assaults would benefit. British strategists authorised a feint operation at Fromelles. Distracted by their concerns about the Somme, they overlooked obvious objections. Preparations for Haking's folly were rushed, inadequate and obvious to the enemy. The haste also played havoc with the effectiveness of the inexperienced artillery, whose role would be crucial. The commander of the 5th, James McCay, was delighted that his formation, the last of the four Australian divisions in France to arrive, would be the first to be used in a major operation. However, Elliott's growing misgivings were reinforced when he met the unimpressive British brigadier whose men would be attacking alongside his brigade and had to deal with the formidable German stronghold known as the Sugarloaf. Elliott asked that the likely holocaust that would result from having to cover twice the distance recommended for crossing no-mans-land in an attack be conveyed to the Commander-in-Chief, General Sir Douglas Haig. It was, but Haking's blustering optimism, the solitary constant among the fog of high-placed indecisiveness, prevailed. The attack was fixed for July 19. The attackers never had a chance. Machine-guns at the Sugarloaf, unsubdued by the artillery, slaughtered much of Elliott's brigade in a few minutes. W.H. Jimmy Downing later recorded his impressions: "The air was thick with bullets, swishing in a flat, crisscrossed lattice of death. Hundreds were mown down in the flicker of an eyelid, like great rows of teeth knocked from a comb." The Australian brigades on Elliott's left, which had less no-man's-land to cross and were further from the Sugarloaf machine-guns, succeeded in capturing 1000 yards of the enemy's front system. But after fierce fighting during that long dreadful night, the gains proved untenable and the Australians were forced to fall back to their front line. Hideous scenes were commonplace at the Western Front, but there was no more ghastly sight for Australians in the whole war than the scene in their front line after Fromelles. Red-splashed trenches were packed with dead and dying men. Another heart-rending spectacle confronted anyone looking out towards no-man's-land, where many Australians were raising limbs in pain or turning from side to side in obvious distress. The pitiful plight of helpless comrades inspired deeds of exceptional gallantry. Hundreds of wounded were saved. Even more could have been rescued if an impromptu truce arranged with the enemy by two members of the 8th Australian Brigade had been ratified. McCay disallowed it in accordance with Haig's order forbidding such agreements. In the end, 5533 Australians were killed or wounded. German casualties were much fewer. Adolf Hitler, then a 27-year-old dispatch runner in the Bavarian regiment opposite Elliott's brigade, emerged unscathed. A cover-up was swiftly authorised. The official British communiq
 
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