The battle of Messines fought on 7 June 1917 was the first large-scale action involving Australian troops in Belgium and it also marked the entry of the 3rd Division into a major battle. Messines was an important success for the British Army leading up to the beginning of the Third Battle of Ypres several weeks later.

At 3.10 am on 7 June 1917 nineteen powerful mines exploded under the German trenches along the Wytschaete – Messines ridge. Heavily supported by great volumes of artillery fire the British troops, commanded by General Sir Herbert Plumer, surged forward to capture the enemy positions. The 3rd Australian Division under Major-General John Monash, entering battle for the first time, was anxious to prove itself worthy of the reputation of the other veteran Australian divisions. It made a very successful attack alongside the New Zealand Division just south of the Messines village. The other Australian division involved, the 4th, under Major-General William Holmes, made a follow-up attack later in the day. Although some fighting continued, the result was virtually decided by the end of the first evening with the ridge being taken and enemy counter-attacks repulsed.

Read more on Messines (48 pages) – The Official History

Basic Map: Messines from the Official History Vol IV, p 610

The Battle of Messines. Charles Wheeler (1923). Men of the 3rd Australian Division leaving their trenches as the sky is lit by explosions.

The Battle of Messines / Charles Wheeler (1923).

The itinerary for the exhibition tour is developing and the following venues have been confirmed:

Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne, VIC                            12 August – 28 October 2007

Gosford Regional Art Gallery, Gosford, NSW                           9 February – 30 March 2008

Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, Toowoomba, QLD            12 April – 25 May 2008

Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, VIC                                             27 July – 31 August 2008

Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre, Gymea, NSW  12 October – 30 November 2008

LaTrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell, VIC                                  12 December 2008 – 15 February 2009

Port Macquarie Hasting Regional Gallery, NSW                      27 February – 26 April 2009

The Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art, S.A.                  9 October – 6 December 2009

For any further information about the tour, contact the Memorial’s Travelling Exhibition Section, 02 6243 4574.

Private Walter Henry Chibnall & son (AWM P05483.001)

Studio portrait of Private Walter Henry Chibnall, No. 1626 of 10th Light Trench Mortar Battery, with his son Billy. A miner of Beaufort Victoria, Chibnall enlisted on 15 March 1916 and embarked on HMAT Ascanius with the 1st Reinforcements on 27 May 1916. He was transferred to the 10th Light Trench Mortar Battery on 7 August 1916 where he was promoted to Corporal on 15 September 1917. He was killed in action at Passchendaele, Belgium, on 12 October 1917, aged 32, when he and a comrade were hit by a shell while taking shelter in a crater. He is commemorated on The Menin Gate Memorial.

Billy Chibnall enlisted in the second AIF during the next war, and served with the ill-fated the 2/21st Battalion. He was taken prisoner of war by the Japanese at Ambon where he died, aged 30, on 20 February 1942.

View Walter Chibnall’s personal service record online at National Archives of Australia

Private Francis Joseph Mackey & wife P05435.001

Wedding portrait of Private Francis Joseph Mackey, No. 3147, of 40th Battalion (AIF), with his bride Cecilia Agnes. A barman of Huonville Tasmania, Mackey enlisted on 30 October 1916 and sailed with the 7th Reinforcements aboard HMAT Seang Bee on 10 February 1917. He was killed in action, aged 37 on 5 October 1917 at Broodseinde and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Belgium.

View Mackey’s personal service record online at National Archives of Australia including correspondence from his wife trying to determine his fate.

Tens of thousands of British and Empire troops remain ‘missing’ in France and Belgium. Some lie in nameless graves while the remains of others have never been found. The Menin Gate at Ypres records the names of 55,000 of the missing in Belgium and a similar number are recorded elsewhere; there are 35,000 names on the Tyne Cot memorial.

The names of Australia’s 6,000 missing in Belgium are engraved on the walls of the Menin Gate.

Menin Gate at Midnight by Will Longstaff (1927) ART09807

Menin Gate Memorial
The Menin Gate was so named because here the road out of Ypres passed through the old wall defences going in the direction of Menin. During the war the two stone lions standing on each side of the Menin Gate were seen by tens of thousands of troops as they went towards the front line. The gate, beyond which these men’s fate lay, became highly symbolic. Afterwards it was decided that on this site a huge monument, designed by the architect Sir Reginald Blomfield, would commemorate those of the Empire who were killed in Belgium but have no known grave. The memorial was unveiled by Field Marshal Lord Plumer on 24 July 1927. Although it bears the names of 55,000 soldiers including 6,000 Australians, so great were the casualties that not all the names of “the missing” are here. Every evening the Last Post is sounded under the memorial’s great arch.

Acclaimed British author and poet Rudyard Kipling contributed the following words which were inscribed on both the eastern and western facades of the memorial.

TO THE ARMIES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE WHO STOOD HERE
FROM 1914 TO 1918
AND TO THOSE OF THEIR DEAD
WHO HAVE NO KNOWN GRAVE

And above the staircase arches, the following:

IN MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM
HERE ARE RECORDED NAMES
OF OFFICERS AND MEN WHO FELL
IN YPRES SALIENT, BUT TO WHOM
THE FORTUNES OF WAR DENIED
THE KNOWN AND HONOURED BURIAL
GIVEN TO THEIR COMRADES IN DEATH

- Kipling

Menin Gate Memorial unveiling ceremony, 24 July 1927 H16916

More information on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing www.greatwar.co.uk/westfront/ypsalient/meningate/meningate.htm

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, CEF

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 Menin Gate lions at the entrance of the Australian War Memorial

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

Sentries of the 8th Battalion in the Hindenburg Line (OGI Trench), captured in the fighting for Bullecourt. Identified nearest to camera is Lieutenant W. D. Joynt who would go on to win the Victoria Cross the following year back on the Somme near Peronne. E00439

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). ART03558

‘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.

Officer of the 22nd Machine Gun Company (AIF) observing artillery fire on the German wire before the Hindenburg Line at Bullecourt, 23 April 1917. E00603

Australian Field Artillery firing an 18 pounder on Bullecourt, May 1917. E00600

Australian troops in the second line of the trenches before Riencourt in May 1917,cleaning their rifles in readiness for an attack on Bullecourt. E00454

In the Hindenburg Line near Bullecourt,8 May 1917. Men of the 2nd Australian Light Trench Mortar Battery with a Stokes mortar (covered by ground sheet). E00457

8 May 1917. The railway embankment which ran parallel to the Hindenburg Line south east of Bullecourt. The tank shown in the distance broke down during the first assault on 11 April 1917. E01408

Aerial photo of trenches and roads south east of Bullecourt, after bombardment on 25 May. A02481

The remains of Bullecourt A00664

The head of the salient before Riencourt, just east of Bullecourt itself A02475

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 Army Mark II female tank captured near Bullecourt on 11 April 1917 (AWM G01534J). G01534J

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

Men of 30th Battalion AIF amonst the ruins of Bapaume, the day they entered the town (AWM E00361)

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

A group of German engineers preparing mines in a French village before withdrawing to the Hindenburg Line. C01094

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

 

Band of the 5th Australian Infantry Brigade passing through the Town Square of Bapaume on 19 March, playing the 'Victoria March'. E00426

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.

An 18 pounder of the Australian Field Artillery behind Vaulx, preparing to shell Lagnicourt. E00430

'Fletch & Dan coming back to Igaree Corner from Lagnicourt' a drawing by Will Dyson, 1917. ART02236.015

Ruins of Lagnicourt Church 1917 (AWM E04580). E04580

Two Australian soldiers among the ruins of Lagnicourt, April 1917 (AWM C00470). C00470

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

View of the entrance to the 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.

View inside the exhibition

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.