Well folks, that’s it for another of the Memorial’s special exhibitions, To Flanders Fields, 1917.  Today we started dismantling the show in readiness for the next special exhibition, Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, due to open in the same space on 7 December.

To Flanders Fields has been a very successful and popular exhibition over the past few months, confirming that the memories of Passchendaele are still deep within the community’s psyche.  As we said from the start, 1917 was the worst year of the war for Australian casualties, and Passchendaele was by far the most costly battle of that year.  With the entire AIF involved, these losses touched so many families, and as you have seen, many more than once.

We on the exhibition team and at the Memorial in general, hope that all visitors to the exhibition and to this blog have found them interesting, informative and thought provoking.

On a personal note, I’ve must say I’ve enjoyed immensely running the blog for this exhibition.  I’ve learned a great deal more about the campaign and battles of 1917 and about the troops of our AIF.  It’s all been a very rewarding experience.

Last but not least, I would like to sincerely thank all those that visited the exhibition and this blog, especially those that took the time to post a comment.  The quality of the comments has been exceptionally good and have added a great deal to the blog itself.

While the exhibition is now closed, this blog will remain on the Australian War Memorial’s website.  It’s no longer featured on the home page, but if you look down the left side of the home page you’ll see it listed under ‘Blogs’.  If at a later date it moves, just use the site search to find it. 

I’ll probably leave the comment function on for a little while, but I haven’t yet decided if or when this will cease.

‘Bye for now…

Craig Tibbitts.

I found this article last night in an old Reveille journal from June 1930.  Apart from the photos which I’ve added, the text remains as published.  The author was Joe Maxwell, the very same who won a DCM as a warrant officer near Westhoek, just a few days after the action described below.  The following year he would win the Military Cross twice, and just before the end of the war, the Victoria Cross at the Hindenburg Line. 

‘Anzac House’ was a large German Pillbox captured by Maxwell’s battalion (18th) during the Battle of Menin Road (on 20 Sept).  It lay on Anzac Ridge between Zonnebeke and Polygon Wood, but much nearer the latter.

The Flag: Anzac House by Joe Maxwell
The Reveille, June 1930, p 11.’A few minutes after we had captured our objective on September 20, 1917, Corps Headquarters was informed: “Objective reached.  Australian flag flying on Anzac House.”

The Australian papers featured this episode, and months later we received glowing accounts of a Digger rushing forward holding aloft an outsize in Australian flags.  Illustrated papers devoted a full page to feature the deed in colour – a deed which stirred the imagination of every patriotic Australian.  The French and English papers also elaborated on the initiative and bravery of this lone Australian soldier.

It may interest readers of “Reveille” to know the facts: Anzac House was the objective of B. Coy (18th Battalion), of which I at the time was company sergeant-major.  It was an exceptionally strong pill box, and our O.C. (Captain Jack O’Donnell) decided it would make an ideal company headquarters.  It contained a goodly supply of German schnapps, whisky and field dressings.

When a man was wounded he was promptly carried to Anzac House for attention.  I particularly remember one fellow, whose arm was blown to a pulp by a whiz-bang [shell from a German 77 mm artillery piece].  He was carried in on a stretcher, and, in addition to the wound, was suffering terribly from shock.  Between groans he prayed to be allowed to die.  We dressed his wound and poured about a pint of schnapps down his throat.  A few minutes later he jumped off the stretcher, helped himself to another “spot,” and remarked, “This’ll do me for a Blighty,” and headed it in that direction.

Everyone in “B” Coy. will remember little Teddie Bell (“Ding-Dong,” as he was affectionately called), who was 17 years of age.  His people had sent him a parcel in which was an Australian flag about 4 inches by 3 inches.

Teddie was a company runner, and during a break in his message carrying, stuck the flag in a tin of bully beef and placed it on the corner of Anzac House, from where it fluttered until blown to pieces by a shell later in the day.

In April, 1918, I stood by a stretcher, in the Fifth Field Dressing Station, on which little “Ding-Dong” lay.  My mind travelled back to the incident at Anzac House.  But “Ding-Dong’s” shattered arm did not auger Blighty for him.  As the evening shadows lengthened he died.  In the distance the rhythmic rumble of artillery seemed to sound a requiem to the spirit of one of the bravest little soldiers ever.’

With the continual heavy battles and the entire AIF involved, 1917 was the worst year of the war for Australian casualties.  It is not surprising therefore to find numerous relatives or even sets of brothers all killed in a relatively short period.  A few come quickly to mind; the Howell-Price brothers, the Hobbs brothers, the Seabrooks and the Single family boys.

As I’ve been trawling through The Reveille, a New South Wales veterans’ journal that began in 1927, I’m always drawn to the sections titled ‘Family Quotas’ where they list families that lost several members during the war.  It never ceases to amaze me how many families suffered multiple and compounding bereavements.

In the July 1930 edition I came across another case, the Bartram family of Richmond Victoria.  Four brothers served in the AIF and three were killed, all in 1917.

• Private Arnold Roy Bartram (60th Infantry Battalion)
• Sergeant Raymond Everard Bartram (46th Infantry Battalion)
• Lance Corporal Reginald Percy Bartram (37th Infantry Battlion)

The sons of George and Isabella Bartram, Arnold was just 22 when he died of wounds at Second Bullecourt on 13 May 1917.  Raymond was 23 when he was killed in action at Messines Ridge on 7 June 1917.  Reginald, by far the eldest was almost 37 years old when he was killed on the Broodseinde Ridge between Ypres and Passchendaele on 4 October 1917.

There was however a fourth brother, Cyril the second eldest, who served with 58th Battalion.  Due to chronic illness including influenza, Cyril was sent home in mid 1917 as medically unfit.

The Battle of Polygon Wood was one of the most successful engagements Australian troops participated in during the Passchendaele campaign. On 26 September 1917, the 5th Australian Division successfully captured the German-held positions surrounding the Butte de Polygone, an earth mound that before the war had been the butt-stop of a rifle range.  By 1917 with the Germans on the defensive in the Ypres Salient, the Butte was a strategically important position dominating the immediate area, and blocking any further advance towards the Passchendaele ridge. It was the 5th Division’s first major engagement since the costly assault at Fromelles in July 1916.  The successful taking of Polygon Wood and the Butte was a proud moment in the division’s history. Success, however, came at a price.  Overall the the Australians suffered 5478 casualties in the battle, the majority being in the 5th Division (3723) and the 4th Division (1729) which was attacking immediately alongside the 5th, just north of Polygon Wood. 

One soldier in the 5th Division was Private Albert George Pegram (No. 3204) of 55th Battalion.  Polygon Wood was to be his first and only battle. A laborer from Bredbo in New South Wales, he pressured his father to sign his enlistment papers as soon as he turned 18, and joined the AIF on the 21 August 1916. Most of Albert’s cousins and friends had enlisted during the Men from Snowy River recruitment march as it passed through the Monaro region on the way to the training camp at Goulburn just months before. After training at Goulburn, Albert left Sydney on the 11 November 1916 as part of the 8th Reinforcements for the 55th Battalion.

He joined the battalion just in time for the Polygon Wood operation. The 55th Battalion was allocated the task of clearing the German pillboxes on the left flank of the wood whilst the 56th Battalion concentrated its efforts in taking the Butte. Under a barrage which raged in front of the infantry ‘like a Gippsland bushfire’, the infantry advanced and secured the wood within a matter of hours.

The 55th was frantically digging new positions in preparation for a German counter-attack when Albert was seriously wounded. A cousin was with him at the time, and wrote to the Pegram family to tell them that he had been shot in the stomach by a sniper whilst jumping across an exposed trench with the rest of his section. He was evacuated to the 17th Casualty Clearance Station near Poperinge, and succumbed to his wounds two days later.

Albert’s loss was painful for the Pegram family, who never had the means to visit his grave at Lijssenthoeck Military Cemetery, just west of Ypres. His nephew was born the day he died, and was consequently named after him.  Albert’s father would never forgive himself for signing his son’s enlistment papers, and his mother would take to her grave his war medals and his memorial plaque. Perhaps the most poignant is a small inscription dedicated to Albert in a Pegram family bible which reads:

‘In his lonely grave he lyes far from all he loved so dear’.

by Aaron Pegram

See also Albert Pegram’s personal service dossier online via the National Archives of Australia.

As haunting as any image of the ghosts of Passchendaele is this studio portrait photo of the Seabrook brothers, the sons of William and Fanny Seabrook of Five Dock in Sydney NSW.

Theo (age 25) and George (age 24) were both privates, while their younger brother William (age 20), with his previous military experience, soon made it to Second Lieutenant.  William had in fact joined the AIF back in August 1915, but this had somehow fallen through as he was discharged two months later.  At any rate, he joined up again with his two elder brothers in August 1916 and they left Sydney together as part of the 17th Reinforcements for the 17th Infantry Battalion. 

By the time they got over to Belgium to actually join their unit it was already June 1917 and preparations were well underway for the great offensive at Ypres.  The Battle of Menin Road that began on 20 September 1917 was the first engagement of Australian infantry in this offensive and proved a stunning success.

But despite this success, for the Seabrook boys it was their first, last and only battle.  All three were mortally wounded in action, and died in the days immediately afterwards.  For some the war was very short, but the sacrifice was nevertheless the full measure. 

One can scarcely begin to imagine what went through the minds of William and Fanny Seabrook, and how they might come to terms with this perhaps baffling and seemingly pointless loss of their three cherished sons.

William is buried at the Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, just west of Ypres.  George and Theo’s remains were either never identified or never found, so they  are commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial.

A bronze slouch hat must be a unique commemorative device.

A Bullecourt school teacher, Claude Durand, began to translate Charles Bean’s account of the battles, partly for his own interest, partly for the benefit of his students. He was struck by the scale of the British and Australian casualties and realised that they had no local memorial. He and the mayor Jean Letaille started a campaign to build one. The funds were raised locally and the memorial was unveiled outside the village church on 24 May 1981. The ceremony was attended by the Australian ambassador John Rowland.

An Australian contribution was arranged by the AWM from a donation by the RSL and the Department of Foreign Affairs. As the cairn already displayed the Rising Sun badge, the slouch hat was agreed to be a distinctively Australian emblem. A bronze hat, weighing 7 kg, was made by Victorian sculptor Roy McPherson. The AWM director Noel Flanagan presented it to the village of Bullecourt on 17 September 1981.

The belief that the sculpture is an original digger’s hat covered in bronze is without foundation.

In 1982 a stone cross was erected outside Bullecourt in memory of the Australian soldiers who died there but with no known grave. A bronze statue of a digger was erected in the village’s memorial park in 1993.

See more images on the DVA website, Australians on the Western Front – Bullecourt

Read more on Bullecourt:

Blog articles on Bullecourt

Concise account of Bullecourt

Detailed account of Bullecourt

A key feature of the battlefield between Ypres and Passchendaele in 1917 was the pillbox.  Along with the dreadful conditions and intense artillery bombardments, pillboxes forced a particularly grim situation upon the combatants that led to very bitter and costly fighting.

The Germans had begun a program of building concrete field fortifications in the latter stages of 1916 and early 1917, particularly in their new defensive position along the Hindenburg Line.  With the increasing weight of British artillery superiority, these constructions offered the Germans a way for their front line troops to survive the massive bombardments, and to fight from them as well.  By mid 1917, they had acquired the nickname ‘pillbox’ among the British and Commonwealth troops.

Constructed of concrete reinforced with steel, with walls and roofs several feet thick, they were able to withstand even direct hits from all but the heaviest calibre shells.  The Germans called them Mannschafts Eisenbeton Unterstände (reinforced concrete shelters for troops) and as this name suggests, their primary role was to protect troops from artillery bombardments.  Indeed many of them performed just that role, lacking firing ports (embrasures).  Pillboxes in the proper meaning of the word, were those that both sheltered the troops and were designed to fight from as well.  Low and squat, they were built in many different sizes, some designed to house only half a dozen men, while others, the size of a single-car garage, might house 10-20 men.  Still others were even bigger (with some having two storeys) and might house up to 40.  Often, debris were stacked on the roofs and against the wall to break up the pillbox’s silhouette.  Another cunning design in the pillboxes was discovered later; the rear-facing walls were made much thinner and weaker, so if the Germans were forced to retreat from a pillbox, the new owners would find the wall facing the Germans was of little protection.

The terrain conditions in the Ypres salient, more than any other place, meant that pillboxes would play an important role there.  With a high water table and high rainfall, trenches proved largely impractical.  Coupled with the need for protection from the heavy artillery bombardments, pillboxes were the only practical solution for the German defenders.

As the ground rose gradually towards Passchendaele, the Germans built three main lines of defence to a depth of several miles, anchored on the ridges that rose gradually towards the village of Passchendaele. Hundreds of pillboxes and shelters were scattered throughout the area making it an exceptionally strong defensive system.  Well behind these pillbox lines waited the German counterattack troops and the massed German artillery in support. The defences also incorporated fortified farmyards and in some cases pillboxes were built inside existing houses.  The positions were cleverly sited to provide mutually supporting crossfire, backed up by separate concreted machine gun posts set in the open.

In the Ypres sector, many of the pillboxes were individually marked on detailed battle maps.  Like any features on the battlefield they were given names to identify them.  Pillboxes in the area had a variety of names such as Israel, Potsdam, Judah, Thames, Seine, Waterfields, Anzac, Helles, Kit, Kat, Hamburg and so on. The shelters and pillboxes were often used as first aid stations and as command and communication posts, the latter making them important tactical objectives.

The German method of front line defence was based upon the pillboxes.  From here the occupants could survive the worst of the bombardment and be ready to fight for the front line posts as soon as the British and Commonwealth infantry advanced in its wake.  Previous German defensive tactics were an ‘elastic’ style defence, where troops under heavy attack could fall back, while counterattacking forces held in reserve would then come forward in counterattack to win back the lost ground.  With the pillbox, the defensive tactics changed, the front line German infantry being ordered to stay and hold their positions.  Their presence would break up the formation of the attacking troops, and pin them down before the pillboxes so they lost touch with the advancing artillery barrage designed to protect them.  All this rendered the attackers much more vulnerable to the coming German counterattack.

Of course for the British offensive at Ypres to succeed, the ground had to be taken, and that meant the pillboxes which proved mostly impervious to artillery, had to be conquered by the infantry.  With the new German tactic of holding and fighting from the pillboxes, this inevitably meant these places became the scenes of numerous bitter struggles.

But despite their disadvantage the bravery and tenacity of the British and Commonwealth infantry eventually prevailed – albeit with tremendous loss of life.  Despite being relatively safe from the shelling inside their shelters and pillboxes, the German defenders were usually stunned and demoralised by the relentless heavy shelling, and a well-timed, spirited and determined attack would often prevail.

Moving forward in small groups in the immediate wake of a creeping barrage using fire and movement tactics, the attacking troops were able to work their way forward and put increasing pressure on the desperate German defenders.  Small parties would work their way around the sides and the rear of pillboxes, clearing the supporting machine gun posts on the flanks with bombs and bayonet.  Lewis gunners would spray the pillbox embrasures to try and suppress the firing coming from within, while Mills bombs and smoke bombs added to the pressure and confusion.  Sometimes particularly daring individuals would make it right up to the pillbox itself and try to shove bombs through the embrasures.  Once surrounded, most pillboxes were ultimately forced to surrender, although this often proved a dangerous moment to both attackers and defenders, and did not necessarily mean the fight was really over.  The Official History relates a few of these grim incidents that the Australians experienced:

‘Here, as in so many pillbox fights, confusion, fatal for the garrison, occurred through the weaker spirits being ready to surrender while some brave men continued to fire. As the first German came out with his hands up, another behind fired between his legs and wounded a sergeant of the 20th [Battalion]. “Get out of the way, sergeant,” shouted a Lewis gunner, “ I’ll see to the bastards,” and firing three or four bursts into the entrance he killed or wounded most of the crowd inside’ (Bean, Vol IV, p 766).

‘Captain Moore, a beloved officer, now ran towards the pillbox, but was immediately shot by a German who, according to the reports afterwards made, had already surrendered.  The Victorians at once killed this man and others, and only interposition by their officers stopped them from exterminating the whole garrison … Lieutenant-Colonel D. A. Luxton’s report says: “Captain F. L. Moore was mortally wounded by a man who had surrendered and who, when he saw an officer, dropped for the gun fired a burst, and put up his hands again.’ (Bean, Vol IV, p 771-772).

‘The mistakes commonly made in hot blood during this murderous pillbox fighting are illustrated by a terrible incident, which occurred that day and about that time, and which has been described by Lieutenant W. D. Joynt of the 8th Battalion himself afterwards a recipient of the Victoria Cross. He states that during this attack he came upon a wide circle of troops of his brigade surrounding a two-storied pillbox and firing at a loop hole in the upper story, from which shots were coming.  One man, coolly standing close below and firing up at it fell back killed but the Germans in the lower chamber soon afterwards surrendered. The circle of Australians at once assumed easy attitudes, and the prisoners were coming out when a shot was fired, killing an Australian. The shot came from the upper story whose inmates knew nothing of the surrender of the men below; but the surrounding troops were much too heated to realise this. To them the deed appeared to he the vilest treachery, and they forthwith bayonetted the prisoners. One Victorian, about to bayonet a German, found that his own bayonet was not on his rifle. While the wretched prisoner implored him for mercy, be grimly fixed it and then bayonetted the man. The Germans in this case were entirely innocent, but such incidents are inevitable in the heat of battle, and any blame for them lies with those who make wars, not with those who fight them’ (Bean, Vol IV, p 771-772).

Hand in hand with these ferocious little battles and momentary absences of mercy, came many deeds of great courage and bravery:

‘… a series of gallant attacks on those in pillboxes then began. From the roof of one of these a machine-gun was firing. Sergeant McGee ran forward fifty yards and shot the crew with his revolver. The next blockhouse, “Hamburg,” was charged by Lieutenant Meagher as of the mopping-up company, who had advanced in answer to a signal to fill a gap. He was killed, but Lieutenant Grant continued to lead, and the place was captured together with 25 prisoners and four machine-guns. The right was strengthened by Captain Dumaresq with part of the reserve company, and, [the 40th Bn] together with the neighbouring part of the 41st under Captain Redmond and Lieutenants Fraser and Price, it fought down pillbox after pillbox, practically every blockhouse being taken by some act of individual daring.  After the objective was reached, a group of eight German officers or N.C.O’s still fought on, in a pillbox ahead on the left, until killed.’ (Bean, Vol IV, p 865).

And so it is hardly surprising that numerous Victoria Crosses were won attacking pillboxes at Ypres throughout the British and Commonwealth armies.  And not to forget, many other high decorations for bravery such as DSOs, MCs and DCMs were similarly awarded.  Seven Australians in fact won the VC attacking pillboxes during 1917.

• Second Lieutenant Frederick Birks (Menin Road)
• Private Patrick Budgen (Polygon Wood)
• Captain Robert Grieve (Messines)
• Private Roy Inwood (Polygon Wood)
• Captain Clarence Jeffries (Passchendaele II)
• Sergeant Lewis McGee (Broodseinde)
• Lieutenant Rupert Moon (Bullecourt)

See article on Victoria Crosses of 1917.

Read more on pillbox fighting of the Australians at Messines: Official History, Vol IV, Ch 15, pp 623-627.

Sources

Pillboxes on the Western Front: a guide to the design, construction and use of concrete pill boxes 1914-1918 / Peter Oldham, (1995), Pen & Sword Books.

Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918: Volume IV – The Australian Imperial Force in France, 1917 / C. E. W. Bean (1933).

I should have done this ages ago, but as the saying goes, ‘better late than never…’

These are just a few snaps I took of the exhibition today.

The entrance to the exhibition featuring Frank Hurley’s well-known photograph

A replica cast of the ‘Big Digger’ stands guard near the exhibition’s entrance. The real statue stands atop the Bullecourt Memorial

Portraits and uniform jackets of two prominent AIF commanders at Bullecourt. Brigadier John Gellibrand of 6th Brigade (L) and Lt Colonel Raymond Leane of the 48th ‘Joan of Arc’ Battalion (R)

 

Typical battledress of a German and an Australian infantryman on the Western Front in 1917

 

Two large artworks of Polygon Wood and Messines, plus a foot bridge used to cross the Douve near Messines and a stretcher that saw action at Passchendaele

 

This part of the exhibition presents the commemorative aspects, both then and now

 

Signposts from the battlefields

 

A long view down the first corridor of the exhibition

 

Looking back from the far corner

Along with the intensity of the fighting, the horrendous conditions and the heavy losses of Passchendaele, there is another reason why this campaign universally symbolises such great loss, tragedy and futility above others of the First World War.  This is simply because such a high percentage of men experienced it.  During the three and a half months it lasted, just over fifty British and Commonwealth infantry divisions, and almost one hundred German ones were committed.  It is therefore reasonable to say that about one and a half million men witnessed this battlefield first-hand.

In such a tiny sector of the front, it is difficult to fathom how so many men could have been involved.  Across the whole frontage of the sector, only about 10 miles in width, both sides would normally have 10-15 divisions at any one time.  But behind them in reserve positions lurked many more, ready to come up in support to either exploit a breakthrough, or (in the case of the Germans), stop one.  Due to the intensity of the battle, some units would go into the front line and be decimated in a matter of days so they had to be pulled out and replaced by another division.  This went on over and over again; some divisions went in only once, while others were committed several times.  It is also worth noting that as the campaign progressed, the frontage under attack gradually narrowed until at the end, it was barely one mile in width (see map at bottom of this article)

Other arms of service supporting the infantry were also in the thick of the action, especially artillery, engineers, supplies, signals, tanks and medical services to name a few.  In the case of the Australians for example, while their infantry was committed to six of the eight phases of the campaign, their artillery was involved for its entirety.

The following illustrates the high proportion of divisions committed to Passchendaele throughout the second half of 1917:

• 88 of Germany’s 212 divisions, representing approximately 40 % of their army.  Many other German divisions spent almost the entire war on the Eastern Front, or opposing the French in the southeastern sectors of the Western Front.
• 41 of the British Army’s 66 divisions (nearly two-thirds).
• All four Canadian divisions.
• New Zealand’s one and only division.
• All five Australian divisions.

A useful comparison is the dreadful campaign at Verdun; during this ten-month ordeal in 1916 that cost at least 700,000 French and German casualties, three-quarters of the infantry divisions in the French Army went through it.  For the French, Verdun is symbolic of their great sacrifice and the main focal point of their commemoration.

Total casualties at Passchendaele are estimated at 475,000; about 275,000 British and Commonwealth and about 200,000 German.  38,000 Australians, 15,654 Canadians and 5,300 New Zealanders fell there, either killed, wounded or missing.  Especially for these smaller nations, Passchendaele was their most costly engagement of the war, indeed their entire military history.  Because of the scale of losses and the fact that the Commonwealth nations committed their entire forces to the campaign, it was sadly not uncommon for families to lose several members during it (see article on Polygon Wood battle).

With these statistics in mind it is little wonder that after the war ended, the Ypres-Passchendaele area quickly became the focal point for commemoration for all the nations involved in this terrible campaign, and remains so to this day.

The remains of five AIF soldiers will be laid to rest today with full military honours in the Buttes New British Cemetery at Polygon Wood, Belgium.  The remains were discovered by chance in September 2006 during roadwork and pipe-laying excavations near the small village of Westhoek.  This is situated in the middle of the dreaded Ypres-Passchendaele Salient where up to half a million casualties on both sides fell, of which tens of thousands were either never recovered or were unidentifiable.

The Australian Army through its History Unit headed the investigation into the identity of the five men, with the assistance of the Memorial Museum Passchendaele, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, and the Office of Australian War Graves.  The Australian War Memorial also provided some assistance early in the piece, particularly with archival maps and documents.

Subsequent DNA testing proved successful in identifying two of the five men (see news articles below).

May they all now rest in peace.

*New: A large number of photos and some You Tube clips can now be found on the Dutch/Flemish WW I Forum:
www.forumeerstewereldoorlog.nl/viewtopic.php?t=10901

New articles

History sleuth, Army News, 5 April 2007 (an earlier piece on the search for the mens’ identities)

Missing WWI soldiers identified, Army News, 4 September 2007.

Remains of diggers identified, Canberra Times, 5 September 2007.

Lost for 90 years, diggers identified by DNA, The Age, 5 September 2007.

Australian diggers honourably laid to rest, ABC News, 5 October 2007.