Australian infantry attack in Polygon Wood

Place Europe: Belgium, Flanders, West-Vlaanderen, Ypres, Zonnebeke, Polygon Wood
Accession Number ART02927
Collection type Art
Measurement unframed: 122.5 cm x 245 cm; framed: 152.3 cm x 274 cm x 12.8 cm
Object type Painting
Physical description oil on canvas
Maker Leist, Fred
Place made United Kingdom: England
Date made 1919
Conflict Period 1910-1919
First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

In the third battle of Ypres the Australians encountered reinforced concrete blockhouses, known as 'pillboxes', that were largely resistant to shell-fire; some had machine-guns firing from loopholes. Leist depicts one under attack at the fateful moment when Lieutenant John Turnour, of the 59th Battalion, drew fatal enemy fire while his men attacked from the flanks, on 26 September 1917.