by Will Davies
The German counter-attack of March was the last great gamble of the German army against the British section of the front. Both sides were exhausted, having fought each other to a standstill, and if one side was to win, it would be from the last ounce of strength, perhaps 'the last man and the last shilling'1 as Andrew Fisher (the leader of the Labor Opposition in 1914) had said, that would do it. For the Germans, they now had the Eastern Front divisions, but their army was war-weary, hungry, low on men and the recruits to the front were very young and inexperienced.
German supplies of raw material were exhausted and the British naval blockade was starving the German population. The Allies too were exhausted, but the influx of American troops was a great morale booster and would quickly change the balance of the war.
While the 4th Division had been holding the Germans at Dernancourt (and also at Hébuterne, about 20 kilometres to the north), the 3rd Division had dug in on the heights at Sailly-le-Sec on the high ground above the Somme and the nearby Somme canal, about 9 kilometres southwest of Dernancourt. Here they held back the German advance in April with daring acts of 'peaceful penetration'.2 These trench raids kept the front active and enabled the Australians to secure prisoners for interrogation, collect valuable intelligence and capture enemy machine-gun posts. Peaceful penetration stunts were carried out by small groups of men and the bold, cocky strategy worked, helping to garner information about the Germans' plans while striking fear in the hearts of the German frontline troops.
One such example was an audacious daylight raid undertaken on the German trenches by the Intelligence Officer of the 17th Battalion, Lieutenant A. W. Irvine. During the struggle over the small village of Morlancourt, Irvine noticed that the warm sun had sent most of his men to sleep. Even the sentry was half asleep. Realising the Germans would also likely be drowsy, he led a raiding party on the nearby German lines, killed four of the enemy and captured another 22, returning without casualties ten minutes later.
Each of the five Australian divisions has its own battlefield memorial and, after the war, the men of the 3rd Division decided they would place theirs on the well-fought-over ground around Sailly-le-Sec instead of the heights at Messines, the site of their first major battle after they were formed in February 1916. Today, this memorial sits at the crossroads of the Bray to Corbie road and the road from Sailly-le-Sec and is easily found by travellers.
The villages along the Somme in this area are especially pretty. In spring, they are decked in flowers that spill over walls and soften the landscape. There is a dreamy, rural feel about the places where Australian soldiers once raided orchards and swam in the Somme. It is a good place for a quiet holiday, as a base for a visit to the battlefields or to reflect on Australian history along the Somme valley. Driving from Corbie to Bray, the most scenic route follows the river through the villages of Vaux-sur-Somme, Sailly-Laurette and Chipilly, but if you go along the ridgeline you will pass the 3rd Division Memorial and the crash site of the Red Baron, German flying ace Baron Manfred von Richthofen, who was shot down by the Australians on 21 April 1918.
While the 3rd Division was holding the open country between Sailly-le-Sec and Morlancourt, the Germans diverted their advance and began their attack on Villers-Bretonneux. The town, southwest of Sailly-le-Sec, was important to the Allies' defence of Paris. From the ridgeline at Villers-Bretonneux, the Germans could see the cathedral at Amiens about 18 kilometres to the west, and the city spread out, a tempting target. Amiens was a railway town, vital for Allied resupply, so the town's rail infrastructure attracted German shelling.
The Germans' first assault on Villers-Bretonneux came on 28 March 1918, but they were held back by the British 1st Cavalry Division. On 4 April, after an intense artillery barrage, 15 German divisions mounted a massive attack against the cavalry and the Australian 33rd Battalion. With the support of the Lancers (a British cavalry unit), the 33rd and 34th Australian battalions counter-attacked to the southeast of Villers-Bretonneux, through Lancer Wood and into the open fields beyond. They were halted by German machine-guns, but the 34th Battalion swept through the ragged line and attacked the Germans with bayonets. An eyewitness, Private John Hardie of the 33rd, who was a farmer from Grong Grong near Junee in New South Wales, later wrote:
The enemy screamed and howled for mercy, but all he got was the bayonet, that is, those that didn't run away. Our lads didn't fire a shot, but used the bayonet something awful ... they passed over our wounded and dying coming up and it roused their blood.3
While the frontline fighting around Villers-Bretonneux continued, Nulla and the 45th were marched out of Dernancourt to a rest area at Bussy-lès-Daours on the Somme, just outside Amiens. This was only about 7 kilometres from the fighting. After a brief rest, they moved to Cardonnette, another 7 kilometres north. Apart from the recent fighting, like most of the Australian divisions they had been out of the line for months; training, rebuilding their battalions and getting ready for their next contact with the enemy. And now feeling part of the Australian Corps, in theory under Australian control through General Monash, there was fresh pride and enthusiasm for the war ahead and a new keenness to come to grips with the enemy.
After a lull, the Germans heavily shelled Villers-Bretonneux, drenching it in gas on 17 and 18 April 1918, causing nearly 1,000 Australian casualties on those two days alone. But the big German attack came a week later, when defence of the area had been handed back to the British while the Australian battalions regrouped. At 3.45 a.m. on 24 April, they laid down a heavy bombardment along the whole front, across the village, the nearby woods and the surrounding roads and strategic strongpoints. The attack was assisted by a heavy fog, made all the worse by smoke and gas shells. Suddenly, out of the mist came German tanks, heavy lumbering monsters weighing 30 tons, bristling with machine-guns and each crewed by 18 men.
The appearance of the tanks created instant panic in the English defenders, who had no suitable anti-tank weapons to use against them. The German attack also included storm-troopers armed with light machine-guns and flamethrowers. They quickly pushed back the British, leaving many dead and wounded. For the rest of the day, the Germans continued their attack.
When news of the German assault and the capture of the town reached Allied High Command, they immediately ordered an Australian counter-attack the next day, which happened to be the third anniversary of the landing at Anzac Cove. There was very little time for the Australian command to plan the operation, brief the platoon commanders, organise the attacking battalions and get them to their start lines.
After a brief rain shower early in the night and with the full moon covered by dark clouds, the men of the 13th Brigade marched for their start line, about 3 kilometres southwest of Villers-Bretonneux, with the town of Cachy to their right and L'Abbé Wood to their left. They had been instructed to skirt the wood on their left because, they were told, it was free of the enemy, having been cleared and secured by British troops earlier in the day. Their objective was Monument Wood, named for a monument commemorating an 1870 battle during the Franco- Prussian War. There they were to meet up with the 15th Brigade, who would have skirted around the other side of the village; thus the two brigades would surround the Germans and drive them out.
The 13th Brigade formed up, ready to move off at 10 p.m. Captain Billy Harburn, a West Australian of the 51st Battalion, was quite emphatic with his men about the need to press on and reach their objective by 11 p.m.: 'The Monument is your goal and nothing is to stop your getting there. Kill every bloody German you see, we don't want any prisoners, and God Bless you.'4
As the Australians started to move forward, the Germans were quick to react. Flares lit the sky and machine-guns raked the lines of advancing men. Lieutenant Clifford Sadlier was leading a platoon of Captain Harburn's men, on the left flank, closest to L'Abbé Wood. Sadlier had reassured the men not to worry about any noises coming from the wood, as it would only be English troops cleaning up the last of the enemy. What the Allies didn't realise wa
s that enemy troops were in fact holding the southern and south-western edges of the wood. Thirty-nine of Sadlier's 42 men were hit by German fire. In response, Sadlier led a party of men, including Seargeant Stokes, who was leading the platoon next to his, into the wood to wipe out the Germans. Sadlier was soon shot in the thigh but continued to charge on through the darkness, firing wildly as he attacked the German machine-guns. Wounded again, he was taken to the rear, but Stokes led the dwindling number of uninjured men, subduing the last remaining German guns and eliminating the threat to the Australian advance. Both Sadlier and Stokes were recommended for the Victoria Cross, but it was only awarded to Sadlier as it was said he was the leader and responsible for this gallant action. Sergeant Stokes was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
On the other side of Villers-Bretonneux, Brigadier General 'Pompey' Elliott's boys – the 15th Brigade – were forming up for their attack on a line stretching from near Hill 104 to the line of the Hamel road. The men had to march 3 kilometres up from the flats near the river to the start line, but because of the darkness and gas that had settled in the hollows of the landscape, there was a delay getting all the battalions in place. Finally, at midnight, two hours after the scheduled 'zero hour', the men began their advance. When a German flare fell near a group of men, the order was given to charge. Artillery had been bombarding Villers-Bretonneux and with the flames from a large house acting as a landmark in the darkness, the men charged forward, yelling at the top of their voices. Bean later wrote that the 'men had thrown off the restraints of civilised intercourse and were what the bayonet instructors of all armies aimed at producing ... primitive, savage men'.5
It was a terrible time for the German defenders. 'With a ferocious roar and the cry of "Into the bastards, boys," we were down on them before the Boche realised what had happened ... They screamed for mercy ... and old scores were wiped out two or three times over,'6 wrote Sergeant Fynch of the 59th Battalion, a Victorian plasterer who was to die in the fighting at Le Hamel in early July 1918. Colonel Watson, Elliott's special intelligence officer, said that men later reported 'they had not had such a feast with their bayonets before',7 and the next day the ground over which the attack surged was littered with the bodies of butchered Germans. Early on in the counter-attack, few Germans survived as prisoners, but when 'the men tired of killing, prisoners came back by droves',8 Bean commented.
By 3.30 a.m. on 25 April, the Australians had nearly encircled Villers-Bretonneux and, although they had not retaken the old British frontline, they had regained in five hours the ground lost by the British the previous day. Neither the 13th nor the 14th had quite reached their objectives, which would have completely cut off the town, but they were so close that it now looked promising that the Germans could be pushed out of Villers-Bretonneux and the nearby woods.
To that end, the British mopped up Germans who were cut off in the town, taking many prisoners, while other British units attacked across almost a kilometre-wide frontage towards Hangard Wood south of Villers-Bretonneux. A German counterattack was delayed and finally cancelled when the morning fog lifted, enabling British artillery to shell their forming-up areas and the troops sent to strengthen their line.
The 45th Battalion meanwhile was at Querrieu, 10 kilometres northwest of Villers-Bretonneux. Plans were in hand for a sports meeting to celebrate the third anniversary of the landing, but according to the unit war diary of the 45th Battalion, 'In view of the uncertainty of the battalion's movements, the gathering was postponed indefinitely.'9
The following two days, 26 and 27 April, Australians of the 4th and 12th brigades of the 4th Division moved into Villers-Bretonneux and took over from the exhausted men of the 13th and 15th brigades while Nulla and his mates took over from the 50th Battalion to the south of the town. Here it became the most southerly Allied unit in the British frontline, an honour that was noted in the battalion history, with the 8th Zouave Regiment from the famous Moroccan Division of the French army on its left flank. However, the main fight was over and Villers-Bretonneux would not see Germans in town for another 22 years, when advancing Wehrmacht units would storm down the same Roman road and this time make it to Amiens.
Nulla is sent into Villers-Bretonneux after the battle, on a trip to collect war material, and it is through his eyes we see a town that was heavily damaged and continually shelled long after it was captured. It was strewn with the bodies of dead Germans and Allied troops and its cellars were often full of gas and very dangerous. However, the town had good pickings for the looters, including food and wine left by the townsfolk, plus a woollen mill where clothing of all types lay stored, ready for shipment. This was naturally made use of by the troops and included, as Nulla says:
Shelves and shelves of socks and singlets, cardigans and jerseys ... thousands of good knitted scarves too ... I get loaded up ... for the boys and even the officer has a bag of it. [p. 224]
He goes on about the good day of pilfering:
It's dusk now and we're making back to the line loaded with bags of socks and singlets, wine, timber, corrugated iron, heavy planks and iron rails.
While in Villers-Bretonneux, the Australians found 15 wounded Germans (in Somme Mud Nulla tells us there were eight but the War Diary states 15) who had been hiding for five days in a cellar in the town since its capture. This was a dangerous period for these German troops as the German shelling of the town with both high explosives and gas was relentless and buildings were being demolished everywhere. To be trapped in a cellar would have been a frightening option for these Germans, so their final release and their ultimate capture was possibly something of a godsend.
On 4 May, the men of the 45th were relieved at 1.30 a.m. by men of the Australian 51st Battalion and came out of the frontline at Villers-Bretonneux. They marched back to Blangy-Tronville, arriving at 3.30 a.m. By 6 a.m. the cookers had arrived and after breakfast the rest of the day was spent bathing and resting.
We know little of Lynch in the period he was away from his battalion, except what we can glean from his personal file. It shows that on 20 April 1918, just days before the glorious Australian attack at Villers-Bretonneux, he was getting into trouble at Codford, one of the towns near the 4th Division training area outside Salisbury in England. He was charged with 'Conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline in that he at Codford on the 14.4.18 tampered with goods and property of the public'. It is hard to know what his actual offence was, but his file states that he was to forfeit four days' pay.
On 28 April, Private Lynch travelled from Codford to Folkestone and thence to France. The next entry in his personal file notes his arrival at the British and Australian base at Étaples on 30 April. He remained there until he rejoined his battalion at Villers-Bretonneux on 17 May and soon he was back in the frontline, for by 20 May they had returned for their 'second innings' on the frontline at Villers-Bretonneux. Though the crucial battle had been won, the enemy was still active and causing Australian casualties. Although the town of Villers-Bretonneux was secured, the area in the immediate vicinity was still in German hands. This included the south-eastern side of Monument Wood, which remained a hostile front for some time.
The highly effective counter-attack at Villers-Bretonneux had added greatly to the reputation of the AIF as a supreme fighting unit. Even the British responded favourably, with Brigadier General George Grogan stating the attack was 'perhaps the greatest individual feat of the war'. Australian troops were praised as 'about the finest in the world' and described as displaying 'such magnificent moral [sic].'10 The Australian staff, from Monash down, showed great pride in their men, even crediting the success to the troops rather than to the staff 's organisation and foresight. Brigadier 'Pompey' Elliot, whose men had undertaken the gallant charge on 25 April, called it 'a soldier's fight, pure and simple'.11
Villers-Bretonneux is now much like any other small French town, except for all the reminders of Australia. After the war, the town took on a very special significance to
Australians, especially to Victorians, as it was that state's battalions that made up the 15th Brigade. With money collected by schoolchildren in Victoria, a new school was built, known to this day as the 'Victoria School'. Its top floor houses a sizeable and well-endowed museum of Australian military equipment and photographs. Some of the town's streets, shops and cafés have Australian names and there is an Australian flag flying from the town hall. In 1984, Villers-Bretonneux became a sister town to Robinvale, a small Victorian town on the banks of the Murray River.
On the road north, on what was the strategic Hill 104, stands the Australian National Memorial. This was built in the mid- 1930s and dedicated by King George VI in July 1938. It contains the names of nearly 11,000 Australians killed in France with no known grave. On Anzac Day 2008, the first full official Dawn Service was held there and it is hoped that this will become an annual service in years to come. The memorial overlooks a large cemetery containing more than 2,100 graves, beautifully maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Buried in the cemetery are 779 Australians, many of whom fell during the fighting for the town, but also others who were re-interred here from temporary burial sites in the Somme area.
Villers-Bretonneux is the starting and ending point for Australian visitors to the Somme battlefields and the focus of Australian commemorations in France. One of the stops on many Australians' visits used to be the Red Chateau, the ruins of the big house that had been on fire in the early hours of 25 April, which the 15th Brigade had used as a landmark. Following the capture of Villers-Bretonneux, the chateau was the headquarters for the 45th Battalion and after the war this wonderful building was used by the Australian Graves Registration Unit. The beautiful shell of the Red Chateau was demolished in 2004 – to make way for a supermarket. Its senseless destruction has been roundly condemned and there was widespread disappointment within Australia that the building was not protected by the local council or offered to Australia as an important site of historical interest.