Pozieres

by Scott Bennett

  Quoted in Browning, The Blue & White Diamond, p. 180.

  Corney, 2DRL/0948, AWM.

  Description of German counterattack in Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 693–96. For a description of the soldiers’ view from the ridge, see ibid., pp. 699–700; Gibbs, The Battles of the Somme, pp. 169–70; and Masefield, The Battle of the Somme, pp. 89–90. The biblical phrase ‘the promised land’ featured in each account.

  Urban, ‘Somme Anzac Digger’, p. 48.

  Intelligence, I Anzac Corps, 1/30/7, Part 1, AWM.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 700. Subsequent quotation ibid., p. 874.

  Intelligence, I Anzac Corps, 1/30/7, Part 1, AWM.

  Quoted in Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 874 and 38-3DRL/606/54/1, AWM.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 874.

  Urban, ‘Somme Anzac Digger’, p. 48.

  Browning, The Blue & White Diamond, p. 183.

  Quoted in Breed, ‘From France with Love 1916–1918’, p. 74.

  Quoted in Browning, The Blue & White Diamond, p. 185.

  Series B2455, Ernest Norgard, Frank Corney, and Edgar Morrow, NAA and Lewis Marshall, 1DRL/0428, AWM.

  Quoted in Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Simply Hell Let Loose, pp. 51–52.

  Series B2455, William Hatcher, NAA.

  Quoted in Young and Gammage, Hail and Farewell, p. 145.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 699; Haig quoted in Sheffield and Bourne, Douglas Haig, p. 215.

  Charteris, At GHQ, p. 163.

  Treloar, An ANZAC Diary, p. 271.

  Bean, 38-3DRL/606/54/1, AWM, pp. 118–19.

  Letter from Birdwood to Pearce dated 14 August 1916. See Bean, 38–3DRL/606/237/1, AWM, p. 30.

  Sheffield and Bourne, Douglas Haig, p. 216.

  Bean, 38-3DRL/606/57/1, AWM, pp. 9–15; Lloyd George, War Memoirs, p. 2042; Weist, Haig, p. 67; and Terraine, Douglas Haig, p. 178.

  Terraine, Douglas Haig, p. 179.

  0 Corrigan, Mud, Blood and Poppycock, p. 195.

  1 ibid., p. 205.

  2 Quoted in Horne, The Price of Glory, p. 22.

  3 Todman, The Great War, p. 83.

  4 Lloyd George, War Memoirs, p. 2036.

  5 For an extract of Kitchener’s instructions to Haig on 28 December 1915, see Sheffield and Bourne, Douglas Haig, appendix 2.

  6 Philpott, Bloody Victory, pp. 596–600.

  7 Charteris, At GHQ, p. 134.

  8 ibid.

  9 Transcript of German wireless dated 25 November in Bean, 38-3DRL/606/66/1, AWM, p. 72.

  0 Carthew, Voices from the Trenches, p. 169.

  1 Haig’s supposed inarticulate nature is cited in Winter, Haig’s Command, pp. 12–13; Wiest, Haig, p. 4; Gilbert, The Somme, pp. 220–22; and Todman, The Great War, p. 83.

  2 Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 464.

  3 Terraine, Douglas Haig, p. xii.

  4 Lloyd George, War Memoirs, p. 2042.

  5 Quoted in Breed, ‘From France with Love 1916–1918’, p. 88.

  6 Quoted in Urban, ‘Somme Anzac Digger’, p. 48.

  7 Masefield, The Battle of the Somme, p. 93.

  8 Quoted in Breed, ‘From France with Love 1916–1918’, p. 70.

  9 Intelligence, I Anzac Corps, 1/30/7, Part 1, AWM.

  0 Quoted in Derham, The Silent Ruse, p. 50.

  1 Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 701, 705.

  2 Intelligence, I Anzac Corps, 1/30/7, Part 1, AWM.

  Chapter 11: Folly

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 724.

  Quoted in Sadler, The Paladin, p. 99.

  Reference to shaking like aspen leaves in Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 724.

  Quoted in Willmington, ‘Diaries of an Unsung Hero’, pp. 133–37. Subsequent quotations ibid.

  Quoted in Young and Gammage, Hail and Farewell, pp. 153–54.

  Quoted in Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, AWM.

  Carne, In Good Company, p. 86.

  Treloar, An ANZAC Diary, p. 273.

  Quoted in Breed, ‘From France with Love 1916–1918’, pp. 74–75.

  Bean, 38-3DRL/606/54/1, AWM.

  Quoted in Duffy, Through German Eyes, p. 190.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 706.

  Barwick, MLMSS 1493/Box 1, Mitchell Library and Freeman, Hurcombe’s Hungry Half Hundred, p. 4.

  General Staff, 4th Division, 1/48/4, Part 2, AWM; Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 706–07; and Devine, The Story of a Battalion, p. 30.

  Rule, Jacka’s Mob, p. 57.

  Browning, Fix Bayonets, p. 27.

  General Staff, 4th Australian Division, 1/48/4, Part 2, AWM.

  Haig’s comments to Cox contained in Sheffield and Bourne, Douglas Haig, p. 211; march discipline in General Staff, 4th Division, 1/48/4, Part 2, AWM and discussed in Devine, The Story of a Battalion, p. 31.

  Palmer, PR03407, AWM.

  Devine, The Story of a Battalion, pp. 31–32.

  Longmore, The Old Sixteenth AIF, p. 114 and Devine, The Story of a Battalion, p. 31.

  Bean cited conversations with British staff officers who criticised the Australians’ ‘dirty and untidy’ presentation. See Bean, 38-3DRL/606/50/1, pp. 17–21 (subsequent quotation ibid. p. 22) and 38-3DRL/606/40/1, pp. 13–21, both AWM. John Treloar explained in his diary the Anzacs’ reluctance to wear English uniforms in An ANZAC Diary, p. 273.

  Denny, A Digger at Home and Abroad, p. 31. Eric Andrews suggests that harsher discipline perhaps prevented British soldiers from showing the independence of spirit the Anzacs sometimes displayed in battle. See Andrews, The Anzac Illusion, p. 151.

  Andrews, The Anzac Illusion, pp. 149–51. Alec Raws provided an interesting account of the social differences between British and Australian officers. See Raws, ‘Records of an Australian Lieutenant’, pp. 42, 54–56.

  Bean, 38-3DRL/606/50/1, AWM, p. 19 and The AIF in France, 1916, p. 53.

  Wren, Randwick to Hargicourt, p. 154.

  Perry, Monash, pp. 246–47.

  Quoted in Browning, Fix Bayonets, p. 30.

  Frequently, when interviewing German prisoners, Bean eagerly questioned them on the fighting qualities of Australians. See example in Bean, 38-3DRL/606/66/1, AWM, pp. 36–38. Graham Seal asserts that the Anzacs’ supposed traditions of irreverence and anti-authoritarianism were propagated after the war by veteran organisations and official institutions in Inventing Anzac, pp. 4–6. Jane Ross outlines the unique tenets of the Digger myth that flourished after the war in The Myth of the Digger, p. 12.

  Andrews, The Anzac Illusion, p. 151.

  Leane in a letter to Bean in 1923. See Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, AWM, pp. 54–56.

  For a colourful sketch of Leane, see Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 708.

  White, The Fighting Thirteenth, p. 64.

  Rule, Jacka’s Mob, p. 59. Subsequent quotation ibid., p. 63.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 709.

  Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, AWM, pp. 54–56.

  Leane’s letter to Bean in 1923. See Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, AWM, pp. 54–56.

  Devine, The Story of a Battalion, p. 40.

  Rule, Jacka’s Mob, p. 65. Subsequent quotations ibid., pp. 65, 67.

  Events of the afternoon described in Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 712–15.

  Foxcroft, MS 9613, SLV.

  McSparron, 1DRL/0463, AWM. Subsequent quotations ibid.

  Von Below’s orders incorrectly referred to the plateau as Hill 60 rather than its correct name, Hill 160.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 699.

  Intelligence, I Anzac Corps, 1/30/7, Part 1.

 
Rule, Jacka’s Mob, p. 69.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 716 (quotation), 722, and Bean, 38-3DRL/606/54/1, AWM, p. 128.

  Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, AWM, pp. 54–56.

  Duffy, Through German Eyes, p. 189.

  Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, AWM, pp. 54–56.

  Quoted in Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 720.

  Rule, Jacka’s Mob, pp. 75–78.

  Duffy, Through German Eyes, p. 190.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 723.

  Chapter 12: La Ferme Du Mouquet

  Masefield, The Battle of the Somme, p. 91.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 728.

  Stedman, Thiepval, pp. 35–39.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 732–33.

  Leane, 1DRL/0411, AWM.

  The challenges confronting the advancing Australians are drawn from Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 728–33.

  Butler, Special Problems and Services, pp. 60–61.

  For a description of a typical soldier’s routine in the trenches, see Green, The Fortieth, pp. 15–16.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 735 and 38-3DRL/606/50/1, AWM, p. 151.

  According to Bean, one officer and 80 men were responsible for supplying rations to each battalion twice daily. See Bean, 38-3DRL/606/54/1, AWM.

  Leane, 1 DRL/0411, AWM; description of a shell falling among troops crowded around a cooker in Devine, The Story of a Battalion, p. 42.

  Butler, The Western Front, pp. 62–63.

  Edey, MS 10511, SLV.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 730.

  Barker, Signals, p. 73.

  Kearney, Silent Voices, p. 187.

  For description of communication using pigeons, see Barker, Signals, p. 68.

  Chapman, Iven G. Mackay, p. 75 and Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 537.

  White, The Fighting Thirteenth, p. 64.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 663.

  Gary Sheffield notes that narrow-front, ‘battering ram’ attacks were also conducted by Gough’s II British Corps, and the 12th, 48th, and 49th British divisions. Sheffield, The Somme, p. 101.

  Quoted in Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 871.

  Prior and Wilson, The Somme, pp. 273–75.

  Sheffield, The Somme, p. 99.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 726–27.

  McLeod, 1DRL/0455, AWM.

  4th Infantry Brigade, 23/4/11, AWM.

  Bean, 38-3DRL/606/54/1, AWM, pp. 168–69.

  Bean’s and Simkins’s opinions from Sheffield, The Somme, p. 98 and McCarthy, The Somme, p. 10.

  General Staff, 4th Division, 1/48/5, Part 1, AWM. Subsequent quotation, from Birdie ibid.

  Sheffield, ‘An Army Commander on the Somme’, in Sheffield and Todman, Command and Control on the Western Front, p. 87.

  See White’s opinions in Bean, 38-3DRL/606/50/1, AWM. Butler also commented that the Mouquet Farm operations were marked by a more sombre and futile approach. See Butler, The Western Front, p. 61.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 731.

  ibid., p. 701.

  Quoted in Farrar-Hockley, Goughie, p. 190.

  Gough, Soldiering On, p. 131.

  Farrar-Hockley, Goughie, p. 190.

  Sheffield, ‘An Army Commander on the Somme’, in Sheffield and Todman, Command and Control on the Western Front, p. 81.

  Sheffield and Bourne, Douglas Haig, p. 214.

  Gilbert, The Somme, p. 147.

  The Herald, 3 July 1916, p. 7.

  ibid., 3 July 1916, p. 7 and 25 July 1916, p. 12.

  The Sydney Morning Herald, 16 August 1916, p. 11.

  The Herald, 13 July 1916, p. 8.

  ibid., 7 August 1916, p. 5.

  ibid., 26 July 1916, p. 5.

  The Mercury, 26 July 1916, p. 5.

  The Herald, 27 July 1916, p. 7.

  ibid., 26 July 1916, p. 5.

  ibid., 3 August 1916, p. 7.

  ibid., 7 August, 1916, p. 1.

  Beaumont, Australia’s War 1914–18, pp. 162–63 and Williams, Anzacs, the Media and the Great War, p. 145.

  Clark, The Old Dead Tree and the Young Tree Green, p. 21 and Inglis, Observing Australia 1959–1999, ch. 3.

  Scott, Australia During the War, p. 64.

  Bean, Letters from France, pp. 19–20.

  Scott, Australia During the War, pp. 64–65.

  Bean, 38-3DRL/606/54/1, AWM, p. 36.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 470.

  Charteris, At GHQ, pp. 149, 155.

  Information on the censor’s role and quotations drawn from Bean, 38-3DRL/606/55/1, AWM, pp. 81–86.

  The Herald, 16 August 1916, p. 5.

  Quoted in Brown, The Imperial War Museum Book of the Somme, p. 162.

  Treloar, An ANZAC Diary, p. 283.

  See The Herald, 25 July, p. 12; 27 July, p. 7; 28 July, p. 7; 7 August, p. 5; and 8 August, p. 12, all 1916; The Mercury, 26 July 1916, p. 5; and Brisbane Courier, 26 July 1916, p. 7.

  The Age, 12 August 1916, p. 12 and The Herald, 29 August 1916, p. 12.

  Quoted in Lewis, Our War, p. 216.

  Sister Cunningham’s letter is contained in Smith, PR88/058, AWM.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 618.

  Smith, PR88/058, AWM.

  Series B2455, Stephen Allen, AWM.

  Quoted in Williams, Anzacs, the Media and the Great War, p. 121.

  Charteris, At GHQ, p. 144.

  Farrer, News from the Front, p. 220.

  ibid., p. 121.

  See The Mercury, 26 July, p. 5; The Mercury, 28 July 1916, p. 5; and The Advertiser, 26 July 1916, p. 7.

  Quoted in McKernan, The Australian People and the Great War, p. 122.

  Gherardin, Against the Odds, p. 30.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 470.

  Quoted in Ferguson, The Pity of War, p. 213.

  The Herald, 8 August 1916, p. 1.

  Clayton, MS 10434, SLV.

  Cocking, MS 10167, SLV.

  Transcript of German wireless dated 25 November in Bean, 38-3DRL/606/66/1, AWM, p. 72.

  Quoted in Ferguson, The Pity of War, p. 246.

  Andrews, The Anzac Illusion, p. 134.

  The Argus, 1 June 1917, p. 9.

  Chapter 13: Kicking in the Back Door

  Morris, MS 1565, SLV.

  White, The Fighting Thirteenth, pp. 65, 66.

  Gibbs, The Battles of the Somme, pp. 175–76.

  Armitage, 1DRL/0053, AWM.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 757.

  Heavy shelling and Ross’s note in Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, pp. 760–61, 763.

  Armitage, 1DRL/0053, AWM.

  White, The Fighting Thirteenth, p. 67.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 770.

  General Staff, 4th Division, 1/48/5, Part 3, AWM.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 763.

  Barton, 1DRL/0428, AWM.

  White, The Fighting Thirteenth, p. 66.

  Barton, 1DRL/0428, AWM.

  Series B2455, Francis Maxwell Barton, NAA.

  Quoted in Freeman, Hurcombe’s Hungry Half Hundred, p. 239.

  Armitage, 1DRL/0053, AWM.

  Freeman, Hurcombe’s Hungry Half Hundred, p. 65.

  Bean, 38-3DRL/606/55/1, AWM, p. 145.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 762.

  Quoted in Souter, Lion and Kangaroo, p. 301.

  Charteris, At GHQ, p. 162.

  Robbins, British Generalship on the Western Front 1914–
1918, pp. 68–73 and Sheffield and Todman, Command and Control on the Western Front, p. 52.

  Treloar, An ANZAC Diary, p. 279. Subsequent quotations ibid., pp. 280, 282.

  The scene behind the lines is described in Wren, Randwick to Hargicourt, p. 175 and Belford, Legs-eleven, pp. 299, 302.

  Coates, MS 10345, SLV.

  Treloar, An ANZAC Diary, p. 275.

  Belford, Legs-eleven, p. 304.

  Graham, MS 9640, SLV.

  Coates, MS10345, SLV.

  Carne, In Good Company, p. 79.

  Belford, Legs-eleven, pp. 294, 296 and Taylor and Cusack, Nulli Secundus, p. 193. According to Bean, Birdie casually assumed that the Australians wanted to get back at the Germans. See Bean, 38-3DRL/606/60/1, AWM, p. 5.

  Court of enquiry transcripts contained in Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, AWM.

  Quoted in Young and Gammage, Hail and Farewell, p. 152.

  The Herald, 22 August 1916, p. 1.

  ibid., 10 August 1916, p. 6.

  Scott, Australia During the War, p. 338. Bean believed that Hughes colluded with Lloyd George to threaten the break-up of the 3rd Division in order to use this as a lever for conscription. See Bean, 38-3DRL/606/59/1, AWM, pp. 11–15.

  Scott indicated that a reinforcement of 32,500 would be required immediately, and 16,500 for each of the three months following. See Scott, Australia During the War, p. 338.

  ibid., pp. 338, 871.

  Smith, PR8858, AWM. Subsequent quotation ibid.

  Quoted in Goodman, Our War Nurses, p. 54.

  Quoted in Bassett, Guns and Brooches, p. 71.

  Quoted in Goodman, Our War Nurses, p. 54. See Avenell, PR85/111, AWM.

  Griffith, British Fighting Methods in the Great War, p. 91.

  Quoted in Breed, ‘From France with Love 1916–1918’, p. 87. Subsequent quotation ibid.

  Smith, PR88/058, AWM.

  Gibbs, The Battles of the Somme, p. 176.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 770.

  Freeman, Hurcombe’s Hungry Half Hundred, p. 65.

  Champion, 2DRL/0512, AWM. Subsequent quotations ibid.

  Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, p. 771.

  The Official History provides a breakdown of losses for all divisions on the Somme. The losses of the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Australian Divisions were marginally higher than those of the British divisions. See ibid., p. 862.

  See Bean, 38-3DRL/606/40/1, AWM.

  Chapman, Iven G. Mackay, p. 77.