Battle of the Yser
Sailly–le–Sec, Third Australian Division Memorial
Driven to earth and shelter – 30 March 1918
The countryside pleased the diggers and they were glad to be rid of the trenches and out in the open. Charles Bean described a ‘picnic atmosphere’ where camps were made on grassy slopes where the cows still grazed and hens could be scavenged from recently deserted houses and farms. Sailly–le–Sec in particular was ‘full of food’; one man describing how there were ‘magnificent feeds’ to be had there. Units divided up sections of the village and collected enough for three good meals a day quite apart form their army rations. Cows were milked and sheep hidden in cellars with plenty of fodder to await a unit’s next tour of duty in the area. There was wine in plenty, particularly from the mayor’s house and one man noted that there was nothing more refreshing than ‘sweet red wine, especially as our water was generally bad’.
Sailly–le–Sec. [DVA]
Sailly–le–Sec, valley of the Somme River, France, March 1918. [AWM E04667]
A Frenchman who, despite heavy German shelling, refused to leave his home, Ribemont, France, March 1918. [AWM E01947]
But the sadness of war confronted the Australians at Sailly–le–Sec:
There were only 18 [French] people in the place, all between 50 and 80; they were old folk who said they had their homes and belongings there – they did not mind dying, but they would not face the prospect of leaving their homes and going out to the world as paupers.
Unnamed diarist, 42nd Battalion AIF, quoted in Charles Bean, The Australian Imperial Force in France, 1918, Volume V, p.188
When serious fighting began all these people were evacuated except one elderly woman, aged 80, who stuck it out in the village in her own home.
On 29 March the German advance resumed. Across the Somme the Australians could see large bodies of German infantry advancing westwards towards Amiens. The next day, shortly before noon, the men of the 44th (Western Australia) Battalion saw a host of the enemy, ‘like a huge crowd just dispersing from a football match’, move out of Sailly–Laurette village and come towards them. Similar enemy movement was occurring all along the line across the uplands towards positions held by the other Australian battalions.
Church in Sailly–le–Sec. [DVA]
Ruined village, Sailly–le–Sec, Louis McCubbin. [oil on canvas on cardboard, AWM ART03122]
A British howitzer battery supporting the Australian troops, Morlancourt area, Somme, France, May 1918. [AWM E04836]
But the long lines of German infantry were making an advance of some distance across open ground without the strong support of artillery and the Australian machine gun and rifle fire shot them to pieces:
… a rattle and a roar of Lewis gun, machine gun and rifle fire. Lewis gunners, with coats off and one boot on, just roused from sleep, were using their weapons with splendid effect. Rifles became hot, but the fire never slackened. In ten minutes time the Hun attack was completely demoralised, and in less then half an hour he was driven to earth and shelter.
Captain C Longmore, Eggs a Cook! The Story of the 44th, Perth, 1921, pp.128–129
Three times that day the Germans tried to come on and get to grips with the Australian line but each time they were met with a hail of fire. By dusk the Germans were seen retiring right across the battlefield. All that night the Australians could hear the cries of the enemy wounded calling for stretcher bearers. The Germans never advanced any further on this front and the Australians, with supporting British units, had undoubtedly had a victory. A German unit historian concluded:
Narratives of the divisional infantry and artillery both state that ‘the attack was a miscarriage such as the division had never before suffered’. Spirit sank to zero … was this the end? Was the offensive beyond our strength?
Quoted in Charles Bean,The Australian Imperial Force in France 1918, Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, Volume V, p.235
Along this part of the front from the Somme River to the town of Albert Australian troops now held the line and only one further serious German attempt to break it occurred. This was further to the north–east on 5 April at Dernancourt where the Fourth Australian Division was defending positions along the railway line running from Albert south to Dernancourt and beyond.
The 37th Battalion (Victoria) occupying a sunken road in front of Marett Wood, Morlancourt area, France, April 1918. [AWM E04702]
After the war the Third Division could have chosen a number of spots at which to place the divisional memorial. Mesen (Messines) in Belgium would have been one obvious place for there on 7 June 1917 the division had fought its first large successful battle of the war. And there were later triumphs in 1918 as, between 8 August and 4 October, the Allied armies swept to victory across the Somme and east of Péronne. But they selected this magnificent site north of Sailly–le–Sec with its commanding views, a place largely devoid of shell holes, deep trenches and battlefield stench – ‘The country was really beautiful. Green fields and crops; and flocks of sheep and cattle browsed on the hills just in front of our trenches’. Behind them lay the little villages through which they had marched to take up their position and where the local people had greeted them with great faith that they would hold the Germans. In this place, perhaps, they had a very clear sense of what and who they were fighting for. A Third Division memorandum, written in 1919, summed up the choice of Sailly–le–Sec:
The Division so distinguished itself in the fighting which not only called a halt to the German offensive and eliminated any possibility of Amiens being captured but ended by driving the Germans back, that it was natural in choosing a site for a memorial it would select a position on the line which it first occupied under such historic circumstances.
Papers relating to the construction of the 3rd Division Memorial, 623/6, AWM 27
Field outside Sailly–le–Sec. [DVA]
View over the Somme River from hillside near Sailly–le–Sec. [DVA]
An Australian machine gun position commanding a section of the Somme River and Canal, near Sailly–le–Sec, France, March 1918. [AWM E04661]
An unidentified Australian soldier peers out from an improvised shelter, France, March 1918. [AWM E01848]
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© 2008 Department of Veterans' Affairs and Board of Studies NSW :: Last update - November 2008