Map by MAPgraphics
Set in 11.5/18 pt Sabon Pro by Midland Typesetters, Australia
Printed and bound in Australia by Griffin Press
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Mapxi
In the beginning xiii
Acknowledgements241
Notes243
Select bibliography 255
Index259
as the Allies and all anyone could do was hope that the effort
on the Fromelles front would make a difference—that those
men who would lose their lives in the coming battle would not
lose them in vain. The thought that their taking part might
help the Allies break though the enemy lines was a consolation
to the soldiers.
What the Allies did not know was that the Germans knew they
were coming and were ready and waiting for them. On 9 July,
the British launched a diversionary operation in the direction of
Fromelles and the Bare Ridge with the intention of destabilising
the German front. On 16 July, an English bombardment had
alerted the Germans that a massive attack might be launched
within days. The 6th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Division,
consisting mainly of recalled German reservists, gathered its
troops together near Fromelles and placed them on maximum
alert. The Allied attack had initially been planned for 17 July
but was postponed until 19 July due to weather conditions.
It had rained almost continuously since the soldiers had left
the train and a low mist hung in the shallow valleys surround
ing the area. Without a visual there could be no attack. That
evening McCay informed his men that their mobilisation to the
front was postponed. A day later the weather improved and
the fog that had shrouded the lowlands lifted and disappeared.
The 5th Division finally received orders to head towards the
front in the early morning hours of 19 July.
Walking through the French countryside, the men’s laughter
suddenly stopped as they entered a small village. It looked
abandoned and the silence seemed to enhance the muted sounds
deep battlefront slit trench where they had sheltered and crossed
the parapet, sprinting into no-man’s-land without any cover.
At first the sheer number of men running and screaming as
they made their way across appeared to intimidate the enemy,
and hardly a shot was fired. The soldiers running out into the
open field did not know that the enemy had waited patiently
for this moment. The Allies would have to cross 450 yards of
open ground before they reached the German front line at a
spot they called Sugar Loaf.
When the Germans opened fire, many men in Robert’s
battalion were cut down by enemy bullets before they were even
halfway across no-man’s-land. Robert himself had no time to
stop and help as men fell to the ground around him. Trying
to get his bearings, he jumped into a shell hole filled with murky
water, hoping it might protect him for a moment; he only just
managed to keep his machine gun from being soaked. Peeking
above the lip of his makeshift trench, he caught a glimpse of
the ruins of Fromelles village standing beyond the German
forward lines.
The soldiers hiding in shallow trenches realised they had no
alternative but to continue to descend upon the enemy lines,
just as they had been ordered to do. Their orders were to gain
and hold the trench on the German edge of no-man’s-land. This
appeared to be an almost impossible mission; even though the
shelling was now becoming less ferocious, the men had still not
managed to make it all the way to the designated trench.
A line of them fumbled with their machine guns as they
dropped into a deep ditch, setting them up to face the enemy’s
10
11
to maim the enemy. This went on for five hours. By dawn the
Australians were surrounded by the enemy on all sides and had
lost hope. The order to retreat reached what was left of the
troops around 6am, but they were encircled by the Germans
and there was nowhere left to retreat to.
As the sun poked through the clouds, a young soldier who
dared take a peek over the edge of the large ditch where a group
of men sheltered got hit in the neck by a machine-gun bullet.
A choking sound escaped from the boy’s lips as Robert rushed
down to him, taking a handkerchief from his pocket to bandage
the wound. No one could do anything for him and the boy lay
there for half an hour before he finally died. Afterwards Robert
searched the body for the boy’s identity disc and put it in his
pocket, realising that some mother would want to know if and
where her son had died. If he got out of this alive he would give
the disc to the Red Cross and it would send it on to his parents.
By now the ditch was full of wounded and dying men
groaning, crying and shrieking. ‘Like a bloody butcher’s shop,’
someone whispered. Men were shouting to make themselves
heard above the din and young frightened boys hugged whatever
they could find, awaiting their fate. As soon as any of the men
raised themselves above the ditches, they were shot back into
it by German snipers. Most of the boys had stopped making
any noise by now, shell-shocked into silence as their mates died
around them. Robert realised they were trapped.
The enemy’s relentless counterattacks pushed the Allied forces
back, surrounding some groups and forcing others to fight their
way back to their own lines, leaving their dead and wounded
12
13