Victory at Villers-Bretonneux: Anzac Day Breakfast Address 2018

Private Walter Downing of the 57th Battalion wrote one of the most vivid accounts of the fighting at Villers-Bretonneux in France, 100 years ago today during the First World War. The 24 year old Melbourne law student was among thousands of Australian soldiers from the 15th Brigade who formed up in skirmish order in a small valley to the northwest of Villers-Bretonneux and assaulted the German positions in the early hours of 25 April 1918. Downing described how ‘German flares of all kinds shot into the air – reds, whites, greens, bunches of golden rain. A storm of machine-gun fire came from the right and the front [but] remarkably few were hit’. Then came a wild, terrifying roar as waves of Australian infantry from the 15th Brigade emerged from the night and rushed the German positions, knowing that men from the 13th Brigade were doing the same on the other side of town. Downing described ‘a howling as of demons’ as the Australians surged forward with rifle and bayonet, their ‘fierce, low growl [as] of tigers scenting blood’. Ordered to take no prisoners, they ‘killed and killed … there was no quarter on either side’.

Such was the bloody calculus of this celebrated action that succeeded in reclaiming the town of Villers-Bretonneux after several hours of German occupation. The two Australian commanders involved, Harold ‘Pompey’ Elliott and William ‘Tom’ Glasgow, were well-aware of the risks: with just a few hours preparation, their battle planning involved long marches to the form up area, little time for reconnaissance and their brigades attacking at night with minimal artillery support. But the gamble paid off and their troops succeeded in recapturing the town in a pincer-like manoeuvre on the third anniversary of the Gallipoli landings.

This second battle of Villers-Bretonneux, fought 100 years ago this morning, marked the end of a series of defensive actions involving the Australians throughout March and April 1918. It occurred within the context of a major German offensive that began on 21 March and fell on British troops between Arras and the old Somme battlefields. The British were divided and forced to withdraw, allowing German forces to advance 60 kilometres towards the strategically important city of Amiens. If Amiens fell, the British and French would be split along the Somme River, a position from which they might never recover. In five days German forces succeeded in ending the stalemate of trench warfare and recapturing all ground lost on the Somme in 1916-17, including Bullecourt, Bapaume and Pozières.

The Australians were fortunate in that they were spared much of the fighting during this time of crisis. They were rushed south from their positions at Messines and Ploegsteert in Belgium to prevent the Germans from advancing on Amiens – not as the Australian Corps, then under the command of British general Sir William Birdwood, but as separate brigades attached to a variety of British formations. Over the following weeks, Australian infantry from 3rd, 4th and 5th Australian Divisions fought multiple engagements at Hébuterne, Dernancourt, Morlancourt and in the woods and valleys around Villers-Bretonneux, while the 1st Australian Division remained in the north to repel German attacks on the rail-hub at Hazebrouck on the Franco-Belgian border.

Villers-Bretonneux holds a central place in the Australian memory of the First World War and is today a major site of commemoration for those who visit the battlefields in France and Belgium. Cemeteries and museums tell the Australian story there, including the Australian National Memorial and the Sir John Monash Centre both situated on Hill 104 where the German objective of Amiens can be seen.

What the Australians achieved there 100 years ago today was a remarkable feat of arms, but we must be careful not to overstate its importance in the broader outcome of the war. Popular authors have often exaggerated the Australian cause, in one instance stating ‘the entire war effort of the Allies hung in the balance – and the Australians were instrumental in saving the day’. Doing so fails to recognise that the Germans were an exhausted force by the time the Australians were ordered to fix bayonets ahead of their counter-attack at Villers-Bretonneux. Despite initial gains in their offensive, the Germans had suffered enormous casualties against British troops who proved much more resilient than most popular accounts suggest. Inadequate logistical support, a lack of mobility and an insistence of senior German commanders to splinter attacking forces and shift objectives denied their offensive any chance of success. As Charles Bean wrote in his Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18: ‘the great German offensive was nowhere literally brought to a stop by Australian troops. On practically the whole front taken up by them the stoppage had already occurred’. Neither at Villers-Bretonneux nor anywhere else had the Australians ‘saved the day’, but this does not mean they played a minor role in the fighting in the final months of the Great War.

To the men on the ground in April 1918, German forces seemed unstoppable. Their advancing columns had penetrated 60 kilometres into British territory and were almost within striking distance of Amiens. Although its outer suburbs were on fire from long-range German guns shelling the city, in reality, the German drive on Amiens had already begun to lose momentum. Their rapid advance across the devastated Somme battlefields strained logistical infrastructure, with bottlenecks caused by a shortage of horses and lack of motorised transport making it difficult to bring up stores and supplies. Casualties among assaulting German units were exceptionally heavy, especially among the skilled and experienced junior officers and NCOs who had led the offensive from the front. The long-term effects of the war had also affected the morale of German troops who plundered British supply depots after years of material shortages, strict wartime rationing and ersatz foodstuffs. By April, German attacks were nowhere near as formidable or successful had they had previously been.

German commanders were able to muster one final thrust on Amiens on 4 April with fifteen divisions attacking the city’s outermost defences 25 kilometres to the east. Much of the fighting occurred in the woods and valleys around the town of Villers-Bretonneux – from Hill 104 just outside of town, observers would have a direct line of sight on Amiens and could shell it with impunity, hampering the logistical and support centre that played such an important role in supplying allied forces in northern France.

Arriving on the Somme on 28 March as German forces spearheaded towards Amiens, Australian troops of the 9th Brigade took up positions east of Villers-Bretonneux to bolster defences held by the British. They carried out a successful but costly bayonet assault on German troops at Hangard Wood and were again in the thick of fighting when German troops hit the 35th Battalion’s positions on 4 April, bombarding Villers-Bretonneux with gas and high explosive. Lieutenant Colonel Henry Goddard, commanding officer of the 35th Battalion, described ‘masses of German infantry’ moving out of the mist and towards their positions:

Faced with overwhelming odds, British troops of the neighbouring brigade buckled under the might of the German attack, creating a gap that stretched all the way to the village of le Hamel and the Somme River three kilometres away. With their left flank fully exposed, the Australians were forced to withdraw to a support line on the outskirts of Villers-Bretonneux. There, along with troops from the 33rd Battalion, the Australians held ground against repeated German attacks until British cavalry filled the gap, supported by Australian field guns on Morlancourt Ridge that impeded any further German attempt to achieve a breakthrough. Thus ended what became known as the First Battle of Villers-Bretonneux.

Fighting continued in other parts of the Somme, but the line settled after the German attacks of 4-5 April. The Australian brigades that had helped defend Amiens were returned to the Australian Corps and given responsibility of a portion of the front that sat astride the Somme River. The 5th Australian Division moved south of the Somme on 20 April, with Pompey Elliott’s 15th Brigade billeted at Blangy-Tronville to the west of Villers-Bretonneux and the 14th Brigade on the ever-important Hill 104; men of the 13th Brigade under Tom Glasgow were held in reserve with the rest of the 4th Australian Division north of the Somme River. The town of Villers-Bretonneux was defended by the British 8th Division under Major-General William Heneker whose battalions had suffered heavily in the fighting in March and had been replenished with conscript reinforcements rushed across the Channel with very little training.

Unable to make a decisive breakthrough to Amiens, three German divisions assaulted Villers-Bretonneux and Hill 104 on the foggy morning of 24 April after deluging both positions with gas and high explosive. Spearheading the German attack were thirteen heavily armoured A7V tanks which clashed with British armour on the outskirts of town in what was the first tank battle in history. German troops making for Hill 104 were checked by Australian troops of the 14th Brigade at Vaire Wood near le Hamel, but the weight of the attack fell on Villers-Bretonneux. It overwhelmed the inexperienced British troops of the 8th Division who were forced to withdraw if they had not yet already been killed or captured. By mid-morning, vital positions such as Monument Farm, Hangard Wood and the town of Villers-Bretonneux were all in German hands.

Pompey Elliott, the fiery, tempestuous commander of the Australian 15th Brigade, had earlier doubted the ability of Heneker’s men to hold the town and was straining at the leash to launch his brigade in a counter-attack. Highly critical about the British, Elliott issued orders to his 59th and 60th Battalions that included the following statement: ‘All British troops to be rallied and re-formed, as our troops march through them… and on any hesitation to be shot’. Fortunately for the British, Pompey’s instructions were countermanded and his brigade told to remain in position.

Heneker and the commander of British III Corps, Lieutenant General Richard Butler, insisted the German incursion into Villers-Bretonneux was under control. But orders for a counter-attack were already making their way down the chain of command — not from the desk of an Australian commander, but the supreme commander of Allied forces, French general Ferdinand Foch, whose instructions to retake Villers-Bretonneux were passed down to General Sir Henry Rawlinson, the commander of British Fourth Army. At 9.30am, Rawlinson instructed both the Australians and the British to recapture the town. Tom Glasgow’s 13th Brigade billeted north of the Somme were instructed to march 13 kilometres south to join the remnants of the 8th Division in a counter-attack later that day, with preparatory orders arriving at Pompey’s headquarters not long afterwards.

The plan was for the complete envelopment of Villers-Bretonneux at night, under the cover of darkness, with Elliott’s 15th Brigade assaulting the town from the north while Glasgow’s 13th Brigade attacked in the south from Bois l’Abbe towards Monument Farm; British troops from the 54th Brigade would assault on Glasgow’s right. Taking the town in a pincer-like manoeuvre, the two Australian brigades were to link up on the eastern side and clear German troops from the pocket in between. With the benefit of hindsight the plan looks decidedly simple, but it involved great risks to the units involved. Glasgow’s men had been hit hard in earlier fighting at Dernancourt and were not at full strength; they were also tired and hungry after a long day’s march that robbed commanders previous time to survey the ground. There was no vast quantity of artillery to support the attacking infantry, nor was there any indication of the strength and disposition of the German defenders. Moreover, details of the attack were still being sorted out between Elliott and Glasgow at late as 8pm— a mere two hours before the Australian infantry were to form up in skirmish order on either side of town. Charles Bean wrote in his diary feeling ‘thoroughly depressed’ and ‘certain this horrid attack would fail hopelessly’.

Instead, the attack was a resounding success and became a defining moment in the Australian battle experience on the Western Front. The 13th Brigade’s assaulting units, the 51st and 52nd Battalions, set off shortly after 10pm with orders to head towards the shattered remnants of Monument Wood. Captain Roy Harburn of the 51st Battalion left little to the imagination when he told his company that ‘the Monument is your goal and nothing is to stop you’re getting there. Kill every bloody German you see, we don’t want prisoners, and God bless you’. The men had also been told British troops had cleared the nearby Aquenne Wood earlier that day, so they could ignore any noise coming from within and press on to their objectives.

German flares went up from the wood as soon as the attack started, and machine-guns opened up on the attackers. Many of Harburn’s men were hit, the rest going to ground; the flares died out and the advance continued, only to be stopped by another volley of flares and machine-gun fire. In an effort to keep momentum going, Lieutenant Clifford Sadlier and Sergeant Charles Stokes of the 51st Battalion led an immediate assault on the German guns –Lewis gunners and rifle grenadiers suppressing the German positions while the rest of the company charged in with bayonets and grenades. Amid fierce, ferocious, close-quarters fighting encapsulated in a vivid painting by William Longstaff in 1919, the Australians silenced the German position which then allowed the brigade’s attack to press on towards Monument Wood. For their actions Sadlier and Stokes were both recommended for the Victoria Cross. Sadlier received his, and Stokes the Distinguished Conduct Medal.

Pompey’s men north of Villers-Bretonneux had been delayed by German artillery fire and one of the assaulting companies having to detour around ground drenched with gas. Their attack didn’t get underway until around midnight. Walter Downing recalled a sense of nervous excitement as the men of the 15th Brigade formed up to attack: ‘The moon sank behind the clouds. There were houses burning in the town, throwing a sinister light on the scene. It was past midnight. Men muttered “Its Anzac Day,” smiling to each other, enlivened by the omen’. Then came the ferocious roar from thousands of Australian infantrymen who charged the German positions with rifle and bayonet beneath a mystifying display of coloured flares. As Charles Bean put it in the official history ‘the restrains of civilised intercourse’ were thrown off, with the Australians engaging German troops in ferocious close-quarters fighting like ‘primitive, savage men’. Lewis gunners advanced firing from the hip as riflemen rushed machine-gun positions not bothering to take them in the flank. The Germans were both surprised and terrified – clearly not expecting the wild Australian charge. Pompey’s intelligence officer described how ‘with a ferocious roar and cry of “Into the bastards boys!” we were down on them before the Bosche realised what had happened. The Bosche was at our mercy.’ A survivor of the brigade’s costly attack at Fromelles in July 1916 wrote of ‘old scores being wiped out two or three times’.

By morning, Australian and British troops began clearing Villers-Bretonneux of German troops trapped within the town. Despite desultory bombardment from German guns and fighting throughout the following day, the two Australian brigades linked up as planned on the eastern side of the town in the early hours of 26 April. Demoralised Germans surrendered in their droves, exhausted from their clash against the inexperienced British troops before falling prey to the Australian counter-attack. That morning, three German prisoners were delivered to Tom Glasgow’s headquarters, one of whom carried a note from his commander demanding the surrender of his counterpart. Glasgow was a formidable leader whose reply was typically curt and to the point: ‘Tell them to go to Hell’.

The fighting at Villers-Bretonneux was a clear, decisive victory for the British formations involved, including the Australian 13th and 15th Brigades that had played a pivotal role in the recapture of the town. The British suffered over 9,500 casualties in the fighting, the Australians some 2,500 in its recapture and the Germans over 7,000. Villers-Bretonneux was secured and never again fell into German hands, nor were German forces able to achieve a decisive breakthrough through to Amiens. It did not, however, stop the German Spring offensive.

Like many successes, Villers-Bretonneux had many fathers. Both Pompey Elliott and the 5th Australian Division commander felt they had been the principle architects. To their chagrin, General Headquarters attributed credit to the British III Corps responsible for the area’s defence, with the Australians ‘deserving of the highest praise’. But there was no doubt about the fighting capabilities of the Australians who had participated in the fighting at Villers-Bretonneux. Those who had seen the them in action heaped praise on the Australian Imperial Force, including General Foch, who spoke of their ‘altogether astonishing valiance’. A British officer at General Headquarters said that ‘even if the Australians achieved nothing else in this war, they would have won the right to be considered among the greatest fighting races of the world’. Accolades such as these from both the British and the French helped to cement Villers-Bretonneux in the public consciousness of the Australian combat experience on the Western Front. After the war, locals who set about rebuilding their lives were forever grateful for what the Australians achieved and vowed never to forget Australia – and still do to this day.

The dominant site of commemoration for Australians in France and Belgium is the Australian National Memorial atop of Hill 104 at Villers-Bretonneux. There, more than 10,730 Australian who died in France and have no known grave are inscribed in white Portland stone of a monument that overlooks the battlefield at Villers-Bretonneux. Among the names listed is Lance Corporal Herbert Morphett of the 51st Battalion, a farmer and son of Albert and Edith Morphett of Bruce Rock in Western Australia. A Gallipoli veteran who had endured some of the worst fighting on the Western Front, Morphett was killed in the attack led by Sadlier and Stokes in Aquenne Wood. Aged 21 when he died, he is among several hundred Australians who died at Villers-Bretonneux who had no known grave. His grieving family inserted a small tribute in the local newspaper after learning of his death: “With armour buckled on and flag unfurled, the heights of death he trod. Translated from the warfare of the world into the peace of God”.  There were also untold numbers of psychological casualties from the fighting at Villers-Bretonneux, among men who carried the scars of the fighting for the rest of their lives. Lieutenant John Christian of the 59th Battalion noted a marked reaction among the men of his platoon a few days after the fighting had ended. Several came to him with the same remark: “I can’t help thinking of that chap I bayoneted”. In later life, Charlie Stokes confided in his children he had wept the morning after the recapture of Villers-Bretonneux upon seeing what he had done to other human beings.

Not long before he was made commander of the Australian Corps, General Sir John Monash wrote home in May 1918 describing Villers-Bretonneux as ‘the finest thing yet done in the war by Australians or any other troops’. Although Monash played no role in the recapture of Villers-Bretonneux, he recognised that it was a remarkable feat of arms that foreshadowed the victories the Australians would achieve in the months ahead. Monash led the Australians in their most successful actions of the war at Hamel, the battle of Amiens, Mont St Quentin, Péronne and the breaking of the Hindenburg Line. In these actions, and the remarkable victory fought by the Australians at Villers-Bretonneux, Australian troops played a pivotal role in defeating the main antagonist in the main theatre of fighting.

As we approach the end of the First World War centenary, it is important that we remember the victories achieved by the Australians as well as its defeats over the course of the war. Moreover, it is important we remember those who fought and died in the First World War – men like Herbert Morphett who gave their lives 100 years ago day in the remarkable Australian victory at Villers-Bretonneux.

Dr Aaron Pegram
Senior Historian, Military History Section
Australian War Memorial