Blog category - Exhibitions

In Flanders Fields (the poem)

04 April 2007 by Craig Tibbitts. No comments
To Flanders Fields, 1917, Research material

A poem by a Canadian medical officer, Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, was first published in the British Punch magazine in December 1915. McCrae later became a casualty of the war, dying in January 1918. However his poem has endured as a symbol of the sacrifice of those who fought during the First World War and is particularly identified with the losses around the Ypres salient.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch, be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

More information on the poem and McCrae at Wikipedia

The Ypres lions

04 April 2007 by Craig Tibbitts. 3 Comments
To Flanders Fields, 1917, Memorials

In medieval times two stone lions bearing the coat-of-arms of Ypres stood at the entrance to the Cloth Hall, the town’s civic and commercial centre. Centuries passed and the town’s glory faded. The lions were moved to the Menin Gate and stood there during the war while Ypres was reduced to ruins by German artillery fire. The lions, broken and scarred, were later recovered from the war rubble and in 1936 the Burgomaster of Ypres presented them to the Australian Government as a token of friendship and an acknowledgement of Australia’s sacrifice. Today they once again stand as sentinels seen by everyone entering the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. read on

The battles for Bullecourt

03 April 2007 by Craig Tibbitts. 29 Comments
To Flanders Fields, 1917, Battles, Bullecourt, Commemoration

Overview

Four experienced Australian divisions of I ANZAC Corps were part of the British 5th Army under Sir Hubert Gough. The general wanted to attack at Bullecourt to support an important offensive by the adjoining British 3rd Army to the north and the French Army further to the south. Relatively young, Gough was an energetic commander. However his aggressive spirit coupled with poor planning resulted in heavy losses. His attack launched at Bullecourt on 11 April 1917 was a disaster. Despite this a further attack across the same ground was ordered for 3 May. The Australians broke into and took part of the Hindenburg Line but no important strategic advantage was ever gained; in the two battles the AIF lost 10,000 men.

Basic Map: Bullecourt from the Official History Vol IV, p 310

‘The death of Major Black’ by Charles Wheeler (1923) (AWM ART03558).

‘Such success as the (Australians) achieved had been won by troops persisting through the sheer quality of their mettle, in the face of errors’.

Charles Bean, official historianFirst Bullecourt (April)

First Bullecourt (April)
General Gough planned to use the 4th Australian Division and the 62nd British Division to attack the Hindenburg Line near the village of Bullecourt. Rather than wait until he had sufficient artillery resources he decided to employ a dozen tanks to lead the troops through the enemy’s barbed-wire. An attack set for 10 April was suddenly abandoned when the tanks did not arrive. It went ahead the next morning with disastrous results. Exposed to murderous machine-gun and artillery fire the Australians were forced back to their own lines while tanks stood burning on the battlefield. The Australians had 3,000 men killed or wounded; many survivors remained bitter about such a futile waste.

‘Bullecourt, more than any other battle, shook the confidence of Australian soldiers in the capacity of the British command; the errors, especially on April 10th and 11th, were obvious to almost everyone’.

Charles Bean, Official Historian.

Second Bullecourt (May)
Despite the failure of the first attack on 11 April 1917, a few weeks later General Gough once again tried to break the Hindenburg Line at Bullecourt. On 3 May 1917 the 2nd Australian Division attacked with the British alongside. Although the brigade on the right faltered under deadly machine-gun fire, the 6th Brigade got into the enemy’s trenches and, despite heavy shellfire and counter attacks, bravely held on. The 1st Division relieved the 2nd, and soon the 5th Division took its turn. Finally, after more than a week, the Germans gave up these blood-soaked fields. Then the depleted Australian battalions were withdrawn to recover. The furious fighting, which in the end only advanced the line a kilometre or so, had been at the heavy cost of another 7,000 Australian casualties.

‘The Second Bullecourt (battle) was, in some ways, the stoutest achievement of the Australian soldier in France’.

Charles Bean, official historian.

German officers with a British Mark II female tank captured near Bullecourt on 11 April 1917 (AWM G01534J).

The tanks
The British had introduced tanks into battle during the previous year on the Somme where they had only limited success. Those available were primitive and unreliable Mark I and II types. When a dozen were provided to General Gough’s Fifth Army he immediately thought to use them to overcome his lack of artillery at Bullecourt. In the battle of 11 April the large and slow-moving tanks were soon hit or broke down leaving the Australian attackers exposed and vulnerable. Many later blamed the tanks for their heavy losses. The Australians maintained a strong mistrust of tanks that was not finally overcome until their success in the Battle of Hamel more than a year later.

Read more about the battles of Bullecourt:

The battles for Bullecourt – a 6 page article by Peter Burness, originally published in Wartime: the official magazine of the Australian War Memorial, Issue 18, 2002, pp 24-29.

Anzac to Amiens by C. E. W. Bean, Chapter 19 (30 pages)

Official History by C. E. W. Bean, Vol IV, Chapters 8-13

Bapaume to Bullecourt: the fighting in France, 1917

03 April 2007 by Craig Tibbitts. 1 Comment
To Flanders Fields, 1917, Bapaume, Battles

At the beginning of 1917 victory seemed nowhere in sight. However for a while, from late February, hopes were lifted. Along the Somme front line and elsewhere, the Germans began to withdraw several kilometres to their newly-developed defensive zone which the British dubbed “the Hindenburg Line”. This apparent retreat was a tonic for the allies who advanced in pursuit. But it was an illusion; the Germans were just staging a voluntary withdrawal to stronger and better prepared positions. It was against these solid defences at a point near the village of Bullecourt that four Australian divisions, one after the other, were thrown during April and May 1917.

Basic Map: Bapaume to Bullecourt from the Official History Vol IV, p 156

The capture of Bapaume

Bapaume was a large German-held town almost within sight of the Australians’ trench lines throughout the winter months on the Somme. Suddenly, from 24 February 1917 it became evident that the enemy was retiring. The British advanced after them, and by the morning of 17 March Australian troops reached the outskirts of Bapaume. The soldiers’ heightened spirits were exemplified by the band of the 5th Australian Brigade playing amid the burning ruins as they marched into the old town square on the 19th. However booby traps and time bombs had been left behind; one exploded in the town hall a week later burying men and killing twenty-five.

‘Rarely did Australian soldiers experience such exhilaration as on that morning when, with the Somme morass finally behind them, they skirmished across green fields.’ C.E.W. Bean, ANZAC to Amiens

 

Fighting up to Bullecourt

From February 1917 the German forces facing the Australians began withdrawing to the Hindenburg Line. The Australians pursued them and there was heavy fighting around a network of small villages. Vaulx-Vraucourt, Morchies and Beaumetz were among those captured. But there was stiffer resistance during the attempts to take Lagnicourt, Noreuil and Hermies; the initial hasty attempt to take Noreuil was repulsed. In some of these sharp actions over three weeks five Australians won the Victoria Cross. Finally, by 9 April the vital string of villages leading up to the Hindenburg Line was in British hands. Before the Australians, and within the broad German line of entrenchments and barbed-wire, stood the fortified village of Bullecourt.

Read more about Bapaume to Bullecourt:

Anzac to Amiens by C. E. W. Bean, Chapter 19 (30 pages)

Official History by C. E. W. Bean, Vol IV, Chapters 4-7

Open at last

30 March 2007 by Janda Gooding. 1 Comment
George Lambert: Gallipoli and Palestine Landscapes, Exhibition

At last, after several years of research and preparation the George Lambert: Gallipoli and Palestine landscapes exhibition has opened at the Australian War Memorial. The last few weeks have been pretty intense with the building of the exhibition space, the final design elements being resolved and the installation and lighting of all the works of art, labels and exhibition panels.

No exhibition can open without a team of people all working together to bring it to fruition. But now it is completed, it is a great feeling to able to present the exhibition to our visitors. A longer post will follow soon, but here are a few photos of the exhibition.

Photo caption competition – winner!

26 March 2007 by Robyn Van-Dyk. 1 Comment
Exhibitions,Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse

After much time and deliberation the caption competition has finally come to a close! All captions entered were put to the vote of Research Centre staff. By popular vote the winning caption was awarded to Craig Tibbitts. Craig will be recommended for a significant honour for highlighting the main problem inherent in this method of transport.

B01618 photograph by Frank Hurley 1918

Winning caption:

‘An experimental unit, the 1st Australian Light Donkey Squadron proved an abject failure at Beersheba when the animals stubbornly refused to budge.  Here, Major Cedric Bigglesworth ruefully gazes upon the gallant charge taking place in the distance.’

Recommended for other (less significant) honours and awards:

‘Fine, I’ll just get off my ass and walk!’
‘Donkey to soldier: in case you haven’t worked it out yet, it’s too late to ask the three Wise Men.’
‘Donkey:  You want me to go there and do what?!?!!’
‘Coo-ee march they said. I’ll give them coo-ee!’

Special mention goes to Bob Meade who was our most dedicated entrant. My favourite of Bob’s entries was ‘They didn’t tell me about this at the recruitment depot’. Bob was also Mentioned in Despatches for ‘Where is everybody?’ and ‘The donkey’s refusing to move Frank, so you can take as many photos as you like’. (The last was Mal’s pick of the bunch.)

Most unmentionable: ‘No smart ass comments from me I am afraid (boom boom!).’

Robyn

Childhood memories

26 March 2007 by Janda Gooding. No comments
George Lambert: Gallipoli and Palestine Landscapes, Exhibition

We are grateful to David Cox, a grand nephew of George Lambert’s who has contributed the following post. David’s grandmother was Sarah (“Sadie”) Anne Cox, nee Lambert, George’s elder sister.     

Although often thought of as a quintessentially Australian artist, in his pre-teen years George Lambert had experienced only the cultures and languages of Russia, Germany and Britain. George Lambert was the youngest child and only boy in a family of four children. His American father (George Washington Lambert) died before George was born in 1873 in St Petersburg, Russia. George’s English grandfather Thomas Firth, who was at the time chief of the Alexandrovsky Railway Workshops in St Petersburg, assumed the role of breadwinner and helped his widowed daughter Annie care for the young Lambert family. In 1876 they moved from Russia to Esslingen, Germany, where Thomas Firth superintended the construction of locomotives and carriages for the Russian railways.

George’s sister “Sadie” talked about their childhood to her daughter Ida Cox who made notes in the 1940s:

“The Germans in those days were the greatest toy makers in the World, and beautiful toys the little Lamberts had in Esslingen.

Mrs. Lambert was a wonderful Mother and companion to her children. She sewed beautiful dolls’ clothes for the girls’ dolls by hand, the neatness and minuteness of the stitching being marvellous to see. She told them stories, just as she did in later years to her grandchildren – most wonderful stories, which it was a delight to hear. She taught them to read and write in English as well as German, though at that time they spoke German naturally, and English was a foreign language to them. She taught them Music and other lessons too.

The family travelled to Munich and to Cologne; at Munich they visited the Art Gallery. George was then a small boy of four or five, and little did his mother dream that one day a picture painted by him would hang in similar galleries all over the world !”

Hence young George spent much of his formative childhood in Germany, living there for the next five years. Then in 1881 the family moved to Yeovil, Somerset, England, where grandfather Thomas Firth’s second wife had relatives. Sadie recalled:

“When first the young Lamberts went to school in England they were laughed at for their foreign accent and for the German words they occasionally substituted for English, but they soon exhibited much brilliance. George won the [Science and Art Department] (South Kensington) Prize for drawing at the age of [thirteen], and it was not long before Sadie was top of her class.

The accompanying photos of George and Sadie were taken at William Mayer’s studio in Esslingen in about 1878, when George was five and Sadie eight years old.

 David Cox

Ion Idriess and the legend of the Light Horse

16 March 2007 by Robyn Van-Dyk. 9 Comments
Exhibitions,Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, Chauvel, The Light Horse

One of the more significant contributions to the legend of the Light Horse comes from the literature of Ion Idriess. A prolific and well loved author, whose books sold in the millions, Idriess is perhaps most famous for his stories set in the outback and Northern Australia. The Desert Column is based on the diaries that he kept throughout the war. Published in 1932, it is one of Idriess’ earliest works. Harry Chauvel noted in the foreword that it was the only book of the campaign that to his knowledge was “viewed entirely from the private soldier’s point of view”.

Idriess served as a sniper with the 5th Australian Light Horse. Enlisting in 1914, he began his diary “as we crowded the decks off Gallipoli” and he continued writing until returning to Australia unfit for further active service in March 1918. He mentions in his introduction to The Desert Column that “I would whip out the little book and note, immediately, anything exciting that was happening. As the years dragged on, my haversack became full of little note books.” The diaries cover his experience of some of the war’s major events from life in the trenches at Gallipoli to the battles at Romani and Beersheba.  read on

Recovering from loss

09 March 2007 by soplew. No comments
George Lambert: Gallipoli and Palestine Landscapes, Conservation, Exhibition

When Gajendra Rawat and I (Sophie) surveyed the Lambert artworks on paper for the exhibition we identified a couple of works that required some repairs prior to being displayed.

This drawing Train station, Semakh by George Lambert (left) had areas of loss due to an insect attack (which happened before we purchased the drawing in 1930). Lambert described Semakh as “a railway station of picturesque conglomeration of not more than usually dirty Arab huts, and a few tents and horses of the occupation people on the shore, southern end, of the Sea of Galilee. It is really beautiful here.” ¹ The drawing was made in June 1919 as Lambert toured Palestine after his visit to Gallipoli with the Australian Historical Mission.

We decided to infill these losses with western style papers. Western papers are made from short fibres such as cotton linter or wood pulp. The paper was chosen based on its weight and texture being similar to Lambert’s. It is a medium weight western paper with no papermaking marks (chain or laid lines). As the paper was not the right colour it was toned with high quality watercolour paints. The shape of the loss area was traced to enable the most accurate reproduction of the paper shape required.

The western paper used for the repair was adhered to the drawing with dilute wheat starch paste with a Japanese tissue repair strip on the back for support. Japanese tissue paper is made from long ‘bast’ or plant fibres like Kozo, Mitsumata, or Gampi, which are all light and strong. We are guided by conservation ethics so we only use materials of the highest quality and most stable nature, for example starch paste and Japanese tissue, and the repairs must be completely reversible to allow for removal if it is necessary in the future. Once repaired the drawing was left under weights for a couple of days to make sure it was nice and flat. As you can see in the picture below, the end result was that the loss was disguised yet the modern repairs are still visible to the trained eye.

1. Amy Lambert Thirty Years of an Artist’s Life, Sydney 1938, p. 125.

Sophie Lewincamp, Conservator-Paper

With the 7th Light Horse at Nalin

02 March 2007 by Janda Gooding. No comments
George Lambert: Gallipoli and Palestine Landscapes, Exhibition

The war diaries for the Light Horse have gone online and I have been madly scanning the pages for references to Lambert’s travels during 1918 and 1919. Lambert was accompanied by experienced Light Horse officers and fortunately there are a couple of references to him in the diaries. Lambert stayed with the 7th Light Horse Regiment for 5 days from 18 to 22 February when they were stationed along the front line at Nalin. Most interesting for me is that the diary for the regiment records Lambert’s arrival and provides an insight into the activities the artist would have witnessed.

The regiment had moved up to Nalin from its rest camp at Wady Hanein on 4 February and relieved the Canterbury Mounted Rifles. On 18 February just before Lambert arrived they were visited by the Brigadier General (Sir Granville de laune Ryrie) commanding the 2nd Australian Light Horse Brigade who arrived by motor car: “They inspected the position and work which had been done here and were well satisfied with the work carried out.” (war diary 18 February 1918) Shortly after, Lambert and three other men from headquarters arrived and over the next few days the artist made sketches of what was going on around him.

The 7th Light Horse’s position was close to the small village of Nalin and, although the local residents were told to stay away, Arabs often wandered through the lines as they tried to go about their regular business. On 20 February Lambert made a drawing of a party of Arabs taken in for questioning. The incident report stated: “They said the Turks had ordered them to go to Nablus, but they decided to come back through the lines.” Two men were taken on to Ramleh for further questioning while the others were allowed to proceed on their donkeys.

Although this was considered the front line the 7th only saw sporadic action; during the day the regiment observed any movement by the Turkish troops and at night patrolled the line. Patrols went out to reconnoitre the ground and locate water supplies and occasionally those in the line shot at passing Turkish planes. The daily routine also included rifle range and target practice. Most of the men were engaged in constructing and improving roads, digging trenches and reinforcing the sangars – fortified positions built from rock that served as observation posts and sniper positions. Material to reinforce the sangars was in short supply so they quarried and blasted stone. Travelling around the site on horseback, Lambert made sketches of the quarrying activities and two oil studies of the troops in the sangars.

Jebel Saba, near Nalin was painted on 21 February – a rainy day according to the unit diary. It shows troops in an observation post. Set amongst boulders and weathered limestone outcrops, Lambert has included the smaller details of the landscape – the cacti, an ancient tree and a spot of red, perhaps indicating a flower – to convey the essence of the landscape the troops inhabited. His other oil sketch Front line sangar, with the 7th Light Horse gives us a close up view of how the sangar was constructed and its prominent position in the landscape. The war diary notes that the walls of the sangars were about 8 feet thick at the bottom tapering to 4 feet at the top and inside there was a trench which was blasted out of the rocks.

On 20 February Colonel John Arnott, commander of the training centre at Moascar, visited the regiment. Lambert made a quick pencil sketch of Arnott meeting with officers in their mess – basically a makeshift table set up in a small cave or tomb. Lambert also made more detailed studies of the commander of the 7th, Lieutenant-Colonel George Macarthur-Onslow and Lieutenant Clive Holland the officer who compiled the diary entries.

On 22 February – another rainy day – George Lambert is noted as leaving the 7th Light Horse at Nalin to report to divisional headquarters at Jerusalem. The 7th Australian Light Horse Regiment was relieved just over a week later on 7 March 1918.

Janda