Battle of the Yser
Fromelles
19–20 July 1916
Australian soldiers on their way to the front-line trenches at Bois Grenier, 5 June 1916. [AWM EZ0048]
On 1 July 1916, the great British offensive in France, known as the Battle of the Somme, began. The British aim was to break through the German lines and send cavalry sweeping well into the German rear. The opening day, however, was a disaster. British casualties reached nearly 60,000 of whom nearly 20,000 were killed in action or died of wounds. The Battle of the Somme now settled into a series of smaller operations with much more limited objectives.
In this situation British intelligence claimed that German forces from the lines west and south of Lille were being sent from this fairly inactive sector to the Somme. A British diversionary attack towards the village of Fromelles and Aubers Ridge was proposed to make the Germans think that major operations were being planned and to help pin enemy forces in that area. The initial objective was the capture of a part of the German front line around a salient, or bulge in the line, known as the ‘Sugar Loaf’. Consolidation of this position might allow Aubers Ridge itself, the key to the German position south of Lille, to be attacked. Just days before the planned action, the local British command was told that this attack was no longer necessary but it was decided to press ahead.
Towards the evening of 19 July 1916, the Australian 5th and British 61st Divisions attempted to seize the ‘Sugar Loaf’. However, the British bombardment, which commenced on 16 July, had warned the Germans that an attack was likely. As the troops moved into position on 19 July, they were unaware that they were being watched by German observers a mile away. The Germans heavily shelled the assembly area and communications trenches, causing hundreds of Australian and British casualties before the attack even started.
The assault began at 6 pm with three and a half hours of daylight remaining. The front line to the north of the ‘Sugar Loaf’ was on average 200 metres wide and the Australians quickly crossed no-man’s-land and seized the German front line. The first wave of troops were left to consolidate the position while the second, third and fourth waves pushed on for 140 meters in search of a supposed third and last line of the German trench system. No such line existed and the Australians began forming a thin disjointed series of posts in the intended position.
Other Australians attacked opposite the ‘Sugar Loaf’ where no-man’s-land was 400 metres wide. The Germans had survived the British shelling and quickly manned their machine guns. Within 15 minutes they had decimated the attacking waves of Australians, forcing the survivors to find shelter. British troops attacking south of the ‘Sugar Loaf’ suffered a similar fate and made no progress. The British planned a second attempt to capture the ‘Sugar Loaf’ salient and asked the Australians for help. This plan was cancelled but the news arrived too late to stop the Australians mounting another attack with equally disastrous results. In short, the Australian and British attempts to take the ‘Sugar loaf’ failed completely.
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Further north the Australians who had broken into the German lines tried to consolidate their positions. After dark, German counter-attacks developed and throughout the night the pressure on the Australians mounted. As the call for reinforcements continued, reserves were authorised and almost the whole 5th Division was gradually drawn into the operation. By morning, with the enemy attacking the small Australian enclave on three sides, the situation became hopeless and the position was given up.
At Fromelles, within a day, the 5th Division sustained 5533 casualties including 400 taken prisoner. The British lost 1547 and the Germans 1500. Charles Bean, Australia’s official historian, could find little positive to say about Fromelles, the Australian Imperial Force’s first major operation on the Western Front:
The fight at Fromelles was a short, sharp incident – G.H.Q. [British headquarters] most unwisely, reported it as ‘some important raids’ (140 Germans had been captured), and thereby, as often happened in that war, deceived its own people, not the Germans; and shook the faith of its soldiers in the British communiqué – faith which might have been of great value. The battle put out of offensive action for many months the 5th Australian Division.
Charles Bean, Anzac to Amiens, Canberra, 1948, p.237
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