18 Text : Jean-Yves Vincent Australians Known as the « Diggers » Reproduction: Office de Tourisme du Seuil l’, . HESE smiling soldiers full of swagger and with a rifle slung over their shoulders were from a country on the other Tside of the world. Australian soldiers were affectionately known as “Diggers” (the word refers to a gold miner), in the same way that the British were known as “Tommies” and the French as “Poilus”. On their heads they wore their characteristic tilted “slouch hat”, with the left side folded up to enable their rifle to be carried on their shoulders. On the turned-up side, the “Rising Sun” symbolised the sun rising on the huge , to which Australia belonged at the time.

Out of a population of four Division goes on the offensive. million inhabitants, some The land is flat, the soldiers “The Australians entering Bapaume” is a canvas by Mervyn Napier Waller (1893-1972) which is unknown to the 313,000 Australians travelled are inexperienced and many French public. The artist was seriously wounded at in , resulting in the amputation of his right thousands of miles to join in the of them are discovering the arm. During his convalescence, he learnt to write and draw with his left hand. Upon his return to Australia, he became war effort in Europe. For many of trenches – where gas, machine a renowned artist. them it was an adventure and a guns and charges across enemy trip of a lifetime, and for 60,000 lines are part of daily life – of them a journey that ended in for the very first time. On the The counter-attack starts at for the British. “Quoi ? L'Éternité” their deaths. Out of this hell, former battlefield, a stele pays around ten o’clock, preceded The numbers are astonishing: The role played by Australian Australia forged its national tribute to the soldiers killed in by a bombardment. Mortars in a single day the field troops in the strategy of the identity. Every 25 April – the this fruitless and ineffective fired from the northeast artillery fire 70,730 shells and Allied forces is therefore clear date on which the Australian diversion, which resulted in the of Bullecourt take out the the heavy artillery 19,186. to see, particularly in 1918 when and New Zealand Army Corps deaths of 5,533 men and officers trenches captured one after the The initial waves of attack are they countered the last major (Anzac) came ashore on a beach from the . other; a battery hammers the launched. The dead from the German offensive. Their combat on the Gallipoli peninsula – the parapet. Windows in Riencourt attack on 11 April can still be role in Villers-Bretonneux, where country commemorates Anzac Battle of Bullecourt are also fired at: with snow as seen caught in the barbed wire. they prevented a breach between Day so as not to forget the On 26 and 27 February a backdrop, the soldiers are Confusion soon reigns as both French and British forces, has sacrifice of its soldiers during 1917, the Germans withdraw perfect targets. The response the Germans and British use gone down in legend. Viewing the First World War, as well as to the , a of the Allied artillery is identically coloured rockets to this tranquil plain today, dotted other conflicts in its history. rearguard action code-named ineffective, firing too far and launch their barrages. Attacks with sheep and the occasional “Alberich”, which results in unaware if the Australians had and counter-attacks continue copse of trees, it is difficult to the liberation of 99 out of 189 already reached Bullecourt. until 17 May. Craters caused imagine the drama that unfolded occupied towns and villages In the captured trenches it by wave after wave of shells here, with thousands of corpses in the Pas-de-. Most are was a case of running for your and grenades compound the littering its fields. “Every dynamited, roads and railway life. “Many of the wounded situation. Von Moser lost time I pass through these lines are destroyed, trees cut who remained were taken 7,000 men in this second former battlefields, as quiet down and wells poisoned. On prisoner or finished off battle, which was considered as death on either side of 17 March, the Australians if their condition was an act of heroism by the troops the noisy motorway, in itself enter Bapaume, which had desperate…” This was how of the Würtenberg unit. On as dangerous as life, I am been occupied since 28 August the first Battle of Bullecourt the Australian side, the two reminded of the past”, wrote 1914. Cynically, a German ended: 3,000 men lost and assaults accounted for a total Marguerite Yourcenar in “Quoi? report declares: “Having 1,142 soldiers and 28 officers of ten thousand victims. L’Éternité”. been ruined, Bapaume was taken prisoner. On the German set alight in 400 different side, the losses in a single day places”. At 4.45pm on 11 totalled 749 soldiers. In the same way that resonates with Canadians, April, the Australians from Guided by air support, the Bullecourt is a name that Australians of every genera-

Photo: Alain Jacques documentary collection the 1st Anzac Battalion artillery pounds the enemy tion are familiar with, given that details of the battle are launch an attack to the east positions. This time, most of still taught at school. Down Under, a town in Queensland of Bullecourt. A bitterly cold the networks of barbed wire is called Bullecourt, and another Bapaume. Every year, wind, mixed with hail, sweeps are destroyed. Hendecourt, hundreds of Australians brave the 12,000 miles separa- Battle of Fromelles across no man's land. The Riencourt and Bullecourt are ting them from the Artois and the to pay their res- It is 1916, and the major first wave of men have 600m a pile of rubble but in their pects at the graves of their grandfathers and great-grand- battles are concentrated around to cover; the supporting troops shelters the Germans are fathers. These pilgrims paying tribute to the memory of the Verdun and in the Somme. posted behind the railway still prepared for an attack. “Diggers” regularly visit the tourist office in Bapaume. While Verdun resists and the embankment have a further To the rear, hundreds of men In 2007, a couple arrived with a photo of a painting that early battles in the Somme 500m to negotiate. Eleven are working to repair roads they own: “The Australians entering Bapaume” by claim countless lives, Haig tanks accompany the attack, to enable the transport of Mervyn Napier Waller. At the end of August 2008, another asks the Australians to prepare and become the immediate munitions, supplies and water. Australian couple came to the tourist office to show some themselves for an attack in the focus of enemy fire. Six are On the night of 20 April, extracts from the “war diary” of their grandfather. “They Fromelles sector. He wants to destroyed before they have around 3,000 gas shells are visited all the places described in the journal”, explains give the impression that a major even had the chance to reach fired by the Germans, who try Pascale Jannoty. William Gilbert MacKenzie, a “Digger” offensive on Lille is planned to the enemy wire. The British to check the Allied attack. who had fought in all the major Australian battles, was so distract the enemy’s attention artillery has not done its job Postponed several times, the marked by his experiences in the Somme and Artois during and to ensure that German troops properly: once they reach the date of the attack is finally the Great War that upon his return to Tasmania he erected are not sent as reinforcements to barbed wire, the Australians fixed for 3 May. The objectives: a sign on his house pointing towards “Vélu” (a village near the Somme. At around 6pm on are forced to run along the Bullecourt and Riencourt for Bapaume). 19 July 1916, the 5th Australian defences to find a way through. the Australians; Hendecourt