Blog
Commemoration – Latest news articles
13 July 2007 by Craig Tibbitts.
1 Comment
To Flanders Fields, 1917, Commemoration
Pilgrimage to Passchendaele: a killing field haunted by family memories, Telegraph (UK), 30 July 2007
Diggers remembered in Passchendaele ceremonies, ABC News (Australia), 13 July 2007 (includes online audio feature)
Last Post sounds again at Passchendaele, but no old comrades are there to hear it. The Times, 12 July 2007.
Hell on Earth: The never before seen colour photographs of the bloody battle of Passchendaele, The Daily Mail, 12 July 2007.
Queen honours fallen soldiers 90 years after Passchendaele. CBC News (Canada), 12 July 1917.
90th Anniversary of the Battle of Arras
26 June 2007 by Peter Burness.
3 Comments
To Flanders Fields, 1917, Battles, Commemoration
While 11 April 1917 saw the launch of the first action at Bullecourt, on 9 April the larger Arras Offensive commenced. The Arras Offensive of 1917 is often referred to as the Battle of Arras and is a significant battle honour more identified with the British Army. This offensive does however also incorporate the smaller ‘battles’ and ‘actions’ of the Scarpe, of Vimy Ridge which the Canadians commemorate, and Bullecourt which Australians identify with. (See post on battle honours – Bullecourt)
On 9 April 2007, the 90th Anniversary of Arras 1917 was commemorated on the old battlefield itself. During that evening people made a line of torches over twenty kilometres long marking the old front line from Bullecourt through Arras to Vimy. These photos of the occasion were sent to me by my friends Claude and Colette Durand. They were taken around 8.50pm on 9 April 2007 looking towards Fontaine-les-Croisilles, just a few kilometres north of Bullecourt.
A website to commemorate the 90th Anniversary of Arras was also created http://battlefields1418.50megs.com/arras_2007.htm
Roll of Honour
12 April 2007 by Craig Tibbitts.
No comments
To Flanders Fields, 1917, Cemeteries, Commemoration, Memorials, Roll of Honour
Roll of Honour bronze panel at the Australian War MemorialTens of thousands of British and Empire troops remain ‘missing’ in France and Belgium. The bodies of many of them were located after the war and placed in war cemeteries where they lie in nameless graves. The remains of others have never been found. The Menin Gate at Ypres records the names of 55,000 of those killed in Belgium who have no known grave and a similar number are recorded elsewhere; for example an additional 35,000 of the names are on the Tyne Cot Memorial, which forms the northeastern boundary wall surrounding the Tyne Cot Cemetery.
Australia’s 6,000 missing in Belgium are recorded on the Menin Gate.
Australia’s war dead from all conflicts are recorded on the Australian War Memorial’s Roll of Honour. This takes the form of bronze panels in the cloisters surrounding the Memorial’s Commemorative Area and the online Roll of Honour database, which is accessible via the Memorial’s website.
The Menin Gate Memorial
04 April 2007 by Craig Tibbitts.
3 Comments
To Flanders Fields, 1917, Commemoration, Memorials, Research material
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 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
More information on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing www.greatwar.co.uk/westfront/ypsalient/meningate/meningate.htm
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
Detailed original map of planned objectives for First Bullecourt
Download planned objectives for First Bullecourt map (PDF file)
Detailed original map of situation at Bullecourt, 12 May
Download situation at Bullecourt map (PDF file)
‘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.
