Chapter Xv 1916-Pozi&Res, and Mcuquet Farm
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CHAPTER XV 1916-POZI&RES, AND MCUQUET FARM THEfight at Fronielles was a short, sharp incident- G.H.Q., most unwisely, reported it as “some important raids” (140 Germans had been captured), and thereby, as often happened in that war, deceived its own people, not the Germans; and shook the faith of its soldiers in the British communiqub-faith which might have been of great value. The battle put out of offensive action for many months the 5th Australian Division. But of all the great battles of the next two and a half years, the fight that now lay a few days ahead of the ist, 2nd and 4th Divisions, then just marching up to the Somme Battle, was in several ways the hardest experienced by the First A.I.F. This narrative left the British and French armies of the Somme at the stage at which the great first and second blows, struck on July 1st and 14th, though driving fairly deep into the German line, had still not led to the break- through for which General Haig hoped, and the small intermediate attacks, to round off the positions first gained, had achieved slow progress at great cost. A closely similar result was occurring in the small attacks following the 4th Army’s second stroke, of July 14th; it was being followed by difficult operations in which the qth (Scot- tish) Division, including the South .African Infantry Brigade, had taken-and was fighting to hold-Delville Wood, on the 4th Army’s centre, xhile that army’s left had tried to seize Pozikres village which protected the Germans’ still unbroken flank at Thiepval farther north. Pozitres hemmed in the 4th Army’s flank. But south ANZAC TO AMIENS [igth-i7thJuly 1916 of that place the army had thrust over the ridge on which the German second line lay. Pozitres village could there- fore be attacked from two sides-frontally from the west, and in flank from the south; its capture would greatly improve the 4th Army’s chance of pushing eastwards. But the British ammunition supply did not allow Haig to strike continuously along his whole front. He was still determined to thrust farther where the 4th Army had already succeeded-Pozitres and Thiepval would then, he believed, automatically fall. Accordingly he ordered the 4th Army to continue striking eastwards to the ruined villages of Ginchy and Guillemont, while the left flank made “a steady, methodical, step-by-step advance as already ordered”. Actually the “steady, methodical advance” as practised was no more than a succession of piecemeal attacks on narrow fronts, which were proving neither successful nor inexpensive. Between July 13th and July 17th four at- tacks were made by British infantry against Pozihres, first by patrols, later after heavy bombardment which reduced the village to heaps of rubble standing out behind a fringe of broken, shredded tree-stumps. But though the loop trench around the village was twice entered, there was little to show for the effort except the crumpled bodies of British soldiers left hanging in the German wire entanglement. Efforts had been made to help the attack by bombing up the second German defence line, an immensely strong system comprising two parallel trenches (and many long approaches), which ran along the actual crest 500 yards behind the village. South-east of Pozieres this line lay on ground seized by 4th Army on July 14th, and from that foothold the bombing squads attacked north-westwards. At that time. however, the Germans were generally better at bombing than any of their opponents4specially in the range of their grenades and the support of their bombers by machine-guns-and these attacks also had been held up. 238 i8th-igA July 19161 POZIeRES Meanwhile Haig had decided to withdraw the 4th Army’s most forward troops from the most advanced positions beyond the crest, at High Wood, preparatory to delivering a third great blow. The main object in this offensivewas to seize Guillemont; but on the extreme left Pozihres also would be attacked.’ This part in the coming attack, however, was now transferred from 4th Army to Reserve Army (afterwards renamed 5th Army) under General Gough. On July lath, when the is1 Divisioii of I XnLac was marching through Picardy to the Albert area, close behind the battlefield, its commander, h1aj.-General Walker, was sent for by Gough, whose first words were: “I want you to go into the line and attack Pozieres to- morrow nightl” Probably Gough believed that great results were still within reach if Haig could strike again soon, although the Germans, fully aware of their danger, were now steadily bringing down reserves to avert it. The Anzac leaders, however, felt that such haste meant the scamping of preparation; and they succeeded in having the attack postponed for several days. The 2nd and 4th Divisions were to remain at present in support and reserve. On the night of July 19th the leading brigades of the 1st Division filed through the cobbled streets of Albert past the half-ruined cathedral, from whose tower the gilded statue of the Virgin hung precariously above the town square; and thence over the grassy nearer slopes, and rounded spurs of the battlefield, pocked with craters in the gleaming chalk; up a shallow valley (Sausage Gully) crowded with guns and with reserves living in old German trenches and shelters; through shallow trenches in chalk and clay, to the newly dug, narrow front line- most like a ditch just prepared for drain-pipes-from which the British were to have made their next attack. 1 Previously it had been intended to make jet another isolated effort against this village. 239 ANZAC TO AMIENS [igth-20th July 1916 As the battalions filed up in the dark there fell around them some small shells which exploded with a mere “pat”; they were thought to be “duds”, until a few men were gassed by the phosgene fumes. With morning the orchards, hedges and ruins of Pozitres could be seen, close ahead. The village was THE PLAN OF ATTACK ON POZIERES, 13rd ]ULY 1916 strung out along a main road (the old Roman highway from Amiens to Bapaume), and served as an outlier in front of the second German defence system along the crest, 500 yards beyond the village. The extreme right of the Australians took over the nearest captured section of that second line. From there leftwards the line ran in a loop round the south of the village. the Australian left resting on the Roman road west of the place. The 240 ~'oih-~ydJuly 1 g 1 (i] POZIBRES Germans held an inner loop ("K" and Pozii.1-es trenches) 300-800 yards away, behind which were the shattered orchards and other hedged enclosures. The 1 st Australian Division was to attack from the south and advance in three stages to the road through the centre of Pozieres. On the left the 48th British Di1,ision would attack some coinmimication trenches still held by the Germans west of the village. .A preliminary attempt by the 9th Battalion in the early hours of July 2md to get closer to Po7itres by another bomb-attack along the two trenches of the German second line failed. The British command was determined to make a cer- tainty of Poziitres this time, if thorough bombardment could do it. The village and the old German second line (known as the "O.G. Lines") were pounded methodically tor several days, the few broken pink and lvhite xcalls that still stood in the village becoming more visible as their screen of trees was stripped. Barely once or twice a day the sight of some figure moving in that tortured area gave evidence that a garrison was still there. At dusk on July 22nd the guns of 4th Army began the final bombard- ment for the attack farther to the east, and three hours later those of Reserve Army increased their fire on and around Pozikres. Three miles awav, men of the 2nd Division, just arrii.ed near -4lbert. watched from the hills there the glare and flash of that famous bombardment The Germans answered with all kinds of shell. including phosgene and tear gas. Half an hour after midnight. at I 2.30 am. on Sunday, J~ly23rd, the 3rd and 1st Brigades of the 1st Australian Division attacked. The field artillery had fired for two minutes as fast as it could Inad, and thelinfantrv, who had crept as near as powble to the front German position, seized it as soon as the artillerl. lengthened range. The advance was renewed, at half-hour intervals, over two succeeding stages, the second bringing the troops to the back hedges of Pozieres, and the third to the main road IY-". 24 1 ANZAC TO AMIENS [qrd July 1916 through the village. Many of the German garrison (I I 7th Division) were killed or captured; others fled or with- drew to the northern end of the village or to communica- tion trenches beyond it, and niany more were chased by a number of Australians to the strong O.G. Lines on the crest. A counter-attack by a German battalion at dawn was shot to pieces by Lewis and machine-gun fire. The only part of the objective not taken was in the O.G. Lines. These were to have been seized on the right, by bombing, as far as the main road; but here the Aus- tralians met a condition new to them, these trenches and the area surrounding them having been so cratered by shellfire that it was very difficult for troops to be sure where was their objective or what point they had reached.