Battle of Fromelles

Depicts a panoramic view of the Sugarloaf Salient area at Fromelles, with men of 5th Division AIF crossing No Man's Land towards the German trenches. Shell bursts and explosions can be seen above the landscape.

Charles Wheeler (1881- 1977) was a painter and teacher. Born in New Zealand, he was an apprentice lithographer before studying at the National Gallery School , 1898-1907. He was in Europe and the United Kingdom from 1912 until 1920 and served during the First World War . This work was reproduced in 'Australian Chivalry' (1933) with the following description; 'On the 19th July, 1916, in order to pin down the German forces in the neighbourhood of Lille, and so prevent them from being brought south to meet the Anglo-French strokes on the Somme, two divisions - the 5th Australian and the 61st British- were thrown against the Sugar-loaf Salient and adjoining sectors in front of the Aubers- Fromelles ridge..... During the afternoon of the 19th the German artillery, in reply to the British preparatory bombardment, shelled heavily the communication trenches and reserve and support lines of both divisions, causing serious loss...The forward battalions of the 14th Brigade were now in a desperate plight, but for another two hours they kept the Germans at bay. At 7.50, on being ordered to retire, they mostly withdrew through a communication trench which had been dug across No-Man's Land during the night. The 5th Division's casualties in this action were between five and six thousand. In the official painting Mr. Wheeler shows the Sugar -loaf Salient on the extreme right, with the first waves of the 5th Division advancing across No-Man's Land'.