Bombardment of Pozieres, July 1916

Depicts soldiers standing in the right foreground, watching the artillery bombardment of Pozieres, France. The war damaged landscape contains barbed wire, shell holes and debris while shell bursts and explosions can be seen on the horizon. Of this work the original accompanying text noted; 'The village of Pozieres held up the left flank of the Anglo-French offensive in the first battle of the Somme in July 1916. After being attacked several times without success it became a major objective. The subsequent fighting, in which the 1st and 2nd Divisions were involved, was notable for massive artillery bombardments from both sides, the ferocity of which had never before been experienced by Australians. On no part of the front in France were German bombardments more severe than at Pozieres. The village quickly disappeared into rubble; the surrounding ground was churned and tortured until it resembled a choppy sea; men, weapons, equipment and defence positions were literally buried; approach routes were lined with dead'. Frank Crozier (1883-1948) worked as a decorator and clerk and attended the National Gallery of Victoria School in Melbourne from 1905 to 1907. In March 1915 he enlisted with the 22nd Battalion AIF, serving in Egypt and at Gallipoli. In France he served under Brigadier- General Gellibrand who asked Crozier to make sketches of the Battle of Pozieres. He was trained in camouflage work in London in 1918 and in September the same year was appointed Official War Artist. Following the First World War he worked for the Australian War Records Section in London. He returned to Australia in 1919 and his commission was terminated in 1920. In 1936 he was appointed to the Australian War Memorial for 6 months and during the Second World War he worked in a munitions factory at Maribyrnong in Victoria.