Pozieres
Page 38
Souter, Lion and Kangaroo, p. 190.
Joynt, Breaking the Road for the Rest, p. 3.
Andrews, The Anzac Illusion, p. 12.
Quoted in Scott, Australia During the War, p. 859.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 August 1914, p. 5.
See Foxcroft, MS 9613, SLV; Joynt, Breaking the Road for the Rest, p. 56; Belford, Legs-eleven, pp. 1–2; and Chapman, Iven G. Mackay, p. 9.
Scott, Australia During the War, p. 1. Robson’s statistics in appendix 3.
Hughes, The Fatal Shore, p. 14.
O’Neil, The Poetical Works of Henry Lawson, p. 4.
Hughes, The Fatal Shore, p. xiv and Bean, The Story of Anzac, p. xlvii.
Series B2455, Ernest Victor Lee aka Ernest John Jefferies, NAA. ‘Boy–soldier’ was the term used to describe underage soldiers such as Lee in an article in Every Week, 22 May 1919, p. 1.
Chapter 5: Storming Pozières
Battle plans in Maze, A Frenchman in Khaki, p. 496; Wren, Randwick to Hargicourt, p. 159; and Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 476–77, 494.
The events of that night, and Maze’s role in them, are described in A Frenchman in Khaki, p. 158–9 and Bean, Anzac to Amiens, pp. 158, 241.
Quoted in Bean, ibid., p. 159.
Maze, A Frenchman in Khaki, p. 159.
The German side of the narrative, including the order not to abandon one inch of ground, is described in Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 519–24. Bean’s sources included official German histories, regimental histories, prisoner interviews, mémoires, and captured documents.
Von Below’s order is quoted in Sheffield, The Somme, p. 88.
The Times, 12 August 1916.
ibid., 19 August 1916, p. 5.
Intelligence, I Anzac Corps, 1/30/6, AWM.
The German barrage and disorientation of the Australians described in Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 495; Wren, Randwick to Hargicourt, p. 162; Newton, The Story of the Twelfth, p. 98; and Harris, 1DRL/0338, AWM. The description of the gas shell also contained in Harris.
Atmosphere in the trenches awaiting the Allied barrage described in Bean, Anzacs to Amiens, p. 239 and Maze, A Frenchman in Khaki, p. 160.
Champion, 2DRL/0512, AWM.
Barrage described in Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 496, 522 and Horton, 1DRL/0359, AWM. Australian, British, and French divisions contributed.
Quoted in Mant, Soldier Boy, p. 53.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 498. Subsequent quotation ibid.
Bean, Letters from France, p. 104.
Maze, A Frenchman in Khaki, p. 161.
Preston, ‘John Leak’s V.C’, p. 30.
Foxcroft, MS 9613, SLV.
Maze, A Frenchman in Khaki, p. 161 and Preston, ‘John Leak’s V.C’, p. 30.
Maze, A Frenchman in Khaki, p. 161. Rough ground described in Keown, Forward with the Fifth, p. 167.
Foxcroft, MS 9613, SLV.
Series B2455, William Percy Clemenger, NAA. Dossier contains ‘Army Form A45: Proceedings of a Medical Board’. Clemenger later returned to his battalion but was killed in Belgium in 1918.
Estimate of 2000 is based on the 1st, 2nd, 11th, and 12th battalions each supplying two companies of roughly 250 men to capture the first objective.
Foxcroft, MS 9613, SLV.
Quoted in Taylor and Cusack, Nulli Secundus, p. 190.
Horton, 1DRL/0359, AWM.
Chapman, Iven G. Mackay, p. 75.
Quoted in Kearney, Silent Voices, p. 189.
Maze, A Frenchman in Khaki, p. 162.
Bean’s accounts of his ordeal and the situation in the dugout in Bean, 38-3DRL/606/52/1, pp. 31–38 and 38-3DRL/606/54/1, pp. 53–61, both AWM.
Preston, ‘John Leak’s V.C’, p. 31.
Scene described in Harvey, From Anzac to the Hindenburg Line, p. 129 and Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 501–04.
Quoted in Belford, Legs-eleven, p. 278.
Preston, ‘John Leak’s V.C’, p. 31.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 505.
See ibid., pp. 504–05; Harris, 1DRL/0338, AWM; and Wren, Randwick to Hargicourt, p. 163.
Maze, A Frenchman in Khaki, p. 162. Subsequent quotations ibid.
General Staff, 1st Australian Division, 1/42/18, Part 2, AWM.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 519–24.
Drake-Brockman, The Turning Wheel, p. 104.
Shoobridge, PR00626, AWM.
General Staff, 1st Australian Division, 1/42/18, AWM.
Quoted in Butler, The Western Front, p. 58.
Belford, Legs-eleven, p. 282.
Quoted in Taylor and Cusack, Nulli Secundus, p. 181.
Quoted in Butler, The Western Front, p. 58.
Drake-Brockman, The Turning Wheel, p. 105.
Shoobridge, PR00626, AWM.
Series B2455, Sydney Alfred Stredwick, NAA.
Coates, MS 10345, SLV.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 526.
Masefield, The Battle of the Somme, p. 85.
Chapter 6: Consolidation
Maze, A Frenchman in Khaki, pp. 164–65.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 516–17. Donovan Joynt indicated that a nucleus of officers and non-commissioned officers was kept at the brickworks to replenish units suffering heavy casualties. See Joynt, Breaking the Road for the Rest, p. 81.
Maze, A Frenchman in Khaki, p. 165; Wren, Randwick to Hargicourt, p. 167; Foxcroft, MS 9613, SLV; and Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 532.
Foxcroft, MS 9613, SLV.
Horton, 1DRL/0359, AWM.
Chapman, Iven G. Mackay, p. 75.
Maze, A Frenchman in Khaki, p. 165.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 514.
Wren, Randwick to Hargicourt, p. 167.
ibid.
Harris, 1DRL/0338, AWM.
Quoted in Taylor and Cusack, Nulli Secundus, p. 190.
Foxcroft, MS 9613, SLV.
Laing in a letter dated 30 July 1916, quoted in Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, AWM.
See Terraine, Douglas Haig, p. 215; Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 526; and Sheffield and Bourne, Douglas Haig, p. 208.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 527.
Haig’s routine is sourced from Charteris, Field Marshal Earl Haig, pp. 193, 196, 205–09.
Tim Travers speculated that Haig’s personality revolved around an almost obsessive need for order. See Travers, The Killing Ground, p. 103.
Quoted in Sheffield and Bourne, Douglas Haig, p. 211.
Clark, The Old Dead Tree and the Young Tree Green, pp. 24, 28.
Hughes’s strident views are documented in Charteris, At GHQ, p. 145; Fitzhardinge, The Little Digger 1914–1952, pp. xiii, xiv; Hudson, Billy Hughes in Paris, pp. 1–2; and Bean, Anzac to Amiens, p. 290.
Hughes’ popularity discussed in Bean, Anzac to Amiens, p. 291. Hughes’s character discussed in Charteris, At GHQ, p. 145; Fitzhardinge, The Little Digger 1914–1952, p. xiv; and Horne, Billy Hughes, pp. 115–16.
Quoted in Whyte, William Morris Hughes, p. 209.
Hughes expressed concern about the British cabinet’s apparent lack of set policy in managing the war. See Bean, Anzac to Amiens, p. 291 and Andrews, The Anzac Illusion, pp. 73–74. Britain finally established a war cabinet in December 1916; its purpose was to formulate British war strategy.
Hughes’ visit is outlined in Bean, Anzac to Amiens, pp. 291–92 (quotation p. 291); Hudson, Billy Hughes in Paris, p. 2; and Whyte, William Morris Hughes, part three.
Bean, Anzac to Amiens, p. 291 and Whyte, William Morris Hughes, p. 247.
Whyte, William Morris Hugh
es, p. 193 and Charteris, At GHQ, p. 145.
Fitzhardinge, The Little Digger 1914–1952, p. 115 and Charteris, At GHQ, p. 145. Charteris recorded that dinner was memorable because Hughes committed the unforgivable offence of arriving late. To Charteris’s surprise, Haig waited patiently.
Fitzhardinge, The Little Digger 1914–1952, p. 116.
Chapman, Iven G. Mackay, p. 68.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 47.
Chapman, Iven G. Mackay, pp. 13, 71.
Quoted in ibid., pp. 3, 76.
Information about Howell-Price in Wren, Randwick to Hargicourt, pp. 195, 167; Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 60; and Nairn and Searle, Australian Dictionary of Biography 1891–1939, vol. 9, p. 382.
Preston, ‘John Leak’s V.C’, p. 31.
The Herald, 27 July 1916, p. 7.
Maze, A Frenchman in Khaki, p. 165.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 516.
The moniker’s origins can be found in Easterly, Belgian Rattlesnake, Collector Grade Publications, Ontario, 1998. The gun’s tactical importance and design is outlined in Griffith, British Fighting Methods in the Great War, pp. 128–34.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 546.
Bean refers to Haig’s bulldog spirit in Bean, Anzac to Amiens, p. 243.
Sheffield and Bourne, Douglas Haig, p. 209.
Charteris wrote that the army held Haig in ‘veneration’; see Charteris, Field Marshal Earl Haig, p. 388. Lewis explained that the public trusted leaders such as Lord Horatio Kitchener as they trusted God; see Lewis, Our War, p. 210. For a newspaper article lauding Haig, see The Times, 5 August 1916, p. 7.
See Sheffield and Bourne, Douglas Haig. On 29 July 1916, Field-Marshal Sir William Robertson sent Haig a letter wanting to know whether the Somme losses would be offset by commensurate gains (p. 213); Haig described how French general Joseph Joffre exploded in rage on 3 July when Haig refused to renew an attack upon Thiepval after the initial failed attack (p. 198).
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 527.
Haig’s character is described in Travers, The Killing Ground, pp. 101–18; The Herald, 29 August 1916, p. 1; and Wiest, Haig, p. 62. Haig’s objective of enduring to the ‘victorious end’ is quoted in Charteris, Field Marshal Earl Haig, p. 213.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 529.
Quoted in Sheffield and Bourne, Douglas Haig, p. 212.
Horne, The Price of Glory, p. 32. Horne cited von Falkenhayn calling off the offensive against the Russians at Tannenberg in 1914, even though the Germans were on the cusp of victory, as another example of his overly cautious nature.
See De Groot, Douglas Haig, 1861–1928, p. 166 and Wiest, Haig, p. 62. De Groot and Wiest speculated that this incident influenced Haig to persevere with offensives long after the hope of victory had passed.
Charteris, At GHQ, p. 151.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 529–30.
The German shelling and reaction of the Australians in Harvey, From Anzac to the Hindenburg Line, p. 130; Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 517–18; Maze, A Frenchman in Khaki, p. 165; and Wren, Randwick to Hargicourt, p. 168.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 518. Subsequent quotations p. 514.
Documents recounting the soldier’s surrender, including Callaway’s letter, in Callaway, PR87/237, AWM.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 541.
Laing in Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, AWM.
Article 23 of the 1907 Hague Convention forbade combatants to kill or wound an enemy who had surrendered.
Ferro, The Great War, p. 123.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, AWM.
Taylor and Cusack, Nulli Secundus, p. 180.
Host, 1DRL/0428, AWM.
Walter Elkington’s diary described the conditioning training at Étaples. See Urban, ‘Somme Anzac Digger’, p. 35.
Breed, ‘From France with Love 1916–1918’, p. 84.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 541.
Callaway, PR 87/237, AWM.
Quoted in Chapman, Iven G. Mackay, p. 75.
Thomson, ‘Steadfast until Death?’, pp. 464–65.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, AWM.
Ferro, The Great War, p. 123.
Foxcroft, MS 9613, SLV.
General Staff, 1st Australian Division, 1/42/18, Part 1, AWM.
Chapman, Iven G. Mackay, p. 75; Coates, MS 10345 and Foxcroft, MS 9613, both SLV; and Wren, Randwick to Hargicourt, p. 167.
Foxcroft, MS 9613, SLV. Foxcroft donated the photographs, along with his diary, letters, and papers, to the library.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 249.
Treloar, An ANZAC Diary, p. 278.
The Herald, 27 July 1916, p. 7.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/52/1, AWM.
See Bean, 38-3DRL/606/17/1, AWM, pp. 21–34. Information about Ashmead-Bartlett in The Mercury, 8 May 1915, p. 5.
The Times, 22 June 1916, p. 7.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 530.
Maze’s story in Maze, A Frenchman in Khaki, p. 167–69.
General Staff, 1st Australian Division, 1/42/18, AWM.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 534.
Belford, Legs-eleven, p. 283.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 538 and Wren, Randwick to Hargicourt, p. 169.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 541.
Belford, Legs-eleven, p. 284.
Series B2455, George Robert Stewart Walters, NAA.
Foxcroft, MS 9613, SLV.
Chapter 7: The Pozières Ridge
Quoted in Hetherington, Blamey, p. 39.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 549–50.
ibid., pp. 349, 551.
See ‘Lessons Drawn from the Battle of the Somme’ in Bean, 38-3DRL/606/ 244/1, AWM. Page 4 indicated that British prisoners were surprised that so many German machine guns were operational after the seven-day bombardment that preceded that 1 July attack.
Intelligence, I Anzac Corps, 1/30/6, AWM.
Browning, The 52nd Battalion, p. 44. Masefield wrote that men became dizzy and sick from the noise of hammering machines guns combined with the deafening explosion of shells. See Masefield, The Old Front Line, p. 127.
See ‘Experience of the German 1st Army in the Battle of the Somme’ in Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, AWM.
Foxcroft, MS 9613, SLV.
Preston, ‘John Leak’s V.C’, p. 31.
Belford, Legs-eleven, p. 289.
Bean, The AIF in France 1916, p. 552.
Bombardment of 24 July described in Bean, The AIF in France 1916, p. 352; Foxcroft, MS 9613, SLV; Harris, 1DRL/0338, AWM; and Belford, Legs-eleven, p. 283, 286. Position of German guns in Intelligence, I Anzac Corps, 1/30/6; for description of shelling see Keown, Forward with the Fifth, p. 174.
Quoted in Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, AWM. Subsequent quotation ibid.
ibid.
Wren, Randwick to Hargicourt, p. 170. Subsequent quotation ibid., p. 171.
Quoted in Chapman, Iven G. Mackay, p. 75.
Taylor and Cusack, Nulli Secundus, p. 191.
Coates, MS 10345, SLV. Subsequent quotation ibid.
Rations reduction in Wren, Randwick to Hargicourt, p. 170; reliance on pigeons in General Staff, 1st Australian Division, 1/42/18 and 1st Infantry Brigade, 23/1/12, both AWM; Dead Man’s Road in Bean, Anzac to Amiens, p. 245.
Quoted in Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 553.
ibid., p. 555.
Wren, Randwick to Hargicourt, p. 171.
Foxcroft, MS 9613, SLV.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, AWM.
Belford, Legs-eleven, p. 292.
Be
an, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 558.
ibid., p. 560.
Keown, Forward with the Fifth, p. 169.
Bean, The AIF in France 1916, pp. 560–61.
Quoted in Austin, Our Dear Old Battalion, p. 139.
Londey, ‘If I Die at any Rate I Will Have Tried’, p. 30. Subsequent quotation ibid.
7th Battalion AIF Association, PR87/215, AWM.
Moorhead, 3DRL/7253, AWM. Subsequent quotation ibid.
Londey, ‘If I Die at any Rate I Will Have Tried’, p. 30. Subsequent quotations ibid., p. 31.
Bean, The AIF in France 1916, p. 565.
ibid., pp. 568–69.
This incident recounted in Belford, Legs-eleven, p. 285.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 570.
1st Division Order Number 37 reads, in type, that the attack date was ‘on the morning of the 26th’. A faint pencil mark added sometime afterward crosses out ‘26th’, replacing it with ‘25th’. A copy of the order is in General Staff, 1st Australian Division, 1/42/18, AWM.
Chapman, Iven G. Mackay, p. 75.
de Vine, 1DRL/0240, AWM.
Smyth’s troops experiences in K Trench in Bean, The AIF in France 1916, p. 570.
Theo Barker provides an excellent account of the communication difficulties faced by the Anzacs on the Somme. See Signals, pp. 68–73.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 584.
General Staff, 1st Australian Division, 1/42/18, AWM.
Elvin, 2DRL/0209, AWM.
Foxcroft, MS 9613, SLV.
Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 579-80.
Quotations and account of Bennett’s experience taken from Legg, The Gordon Bennett Story, p. 105.
Quoted in Austin, As Rough as Bags, p. 162.
Series B2455, Henry Eggington, NAA.
Abson, 2DRL/0007, AWM.
Legg, The Gordon Bennett Story, p. 106.
A review of 3rd Battalion soldiers’ files in Series B2455 shows some attended the Church of England Grammar School in Sydney and perhaps knew of or were taught by Harris.
1st Infantry Brigade, 23/1/12, AWM.
Wren, Randwick to Hargicourt, p. 169.
Harris’s experience based on Wren, Randwick to Hargicourt, pp. 167–71 and Harris, 1DRL/0338, AWM.
Butler, Special Problems and Services, p. 103.