Are you looking for read ebook online? Search for your book and save it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Download The Battle of Pozieres 1916 PDF full book. Access full book title The Battle of Pozieres 1916 by Meleah Hampton. Download full books in PDF and EPUB format.
Author: Meleah Hampton Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1925675602 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 225
Book Description
The Battle of Pozières has reverberated throughout Australia’s military history, long regarded as a costly battle that produced little meaningful gain. Pozières was characterised by the most intense artillery bombardment the Australians had experienced in the war thus far and ‘the hell that was Pozières’ became the yardstick by which subsequent bombardments were measured. The 13th Battalion’s Frank Massey described men who became ‘blithering idiots … Crying and weeping and — absolutely useless as a fighting man.’ The object of the battle was Pozières Ridge, a low rise that offered a good view of the German positions. Heavily fortified, the ridge and the pulverised remains of the village were contested bitterly and, during its six-week campaign, 1st Anzac Corps advanced little more than two miles and suffered 23,000 casualties. Charles Bean wrote that ‘Australian troops … fell more thickly on this ridge than on any other battlefield of the war.’ However, the first phase of the campaign was very successful, securing the fortified ruins of Pozières and the German second line. But follow-up operations failed to capitalise and subsequent assaults merely nibbled away at enemy positions without making significant headway. Yet the Battle of Pozières marks a significant achievement not only for 1st Anzac Corps, but for the British Expeditionary Force. In a war in which any advance was hard won, the wresting of the high ground from the Germans was crucial. For the battered Allied forces, the capture of Pozières Ridge provided faint hope of an end to a catastrophic war.
Author: Meleah Hampton Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1925675602 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 225
Book Description
The Battle of Pozières has reverberated throughout Australia’s military history, long regarded as a costly battle that produced little meaningful gain. Pozières was characterised by the most intense artillery bombardment the Australians had experienced in the war thus far and ‘the hell that was Pozières’ became the yardstick by which subsequent bombardments were measured. The 13th Battalion’s Frank Massey described men who became ‘blithering idiots … Crying and weeping and — absolutely useless as a fighting man.’ The object of the battle was Pozières Ridge, a low rise that offered a good view of the German positions. Heavily fortified, the ridge and the pulverised remains of the village were contested bitterly and, during its six-week campaign, 1st Anzac Corps advanced little more than two miles and suffered 23,000 casualties. Charles Bean wrote that ‘Australian troops … fell more thickly on this ridge than on any other battlefield of the war.’ However, the first phase of the campaign was very successful, securing the fortified ruins of Pozières and the German second line. But follow-up operations failed to capitalise and subsequent assaults merely nibbled away at enemy positions without making significant headway. Yet the Battle of Pozières marks a significant achievement not only for 1st Anzac Corps, but for the British Expeditionary Force. In a war in which any advance was hard won, the wresting of the high ground from the Germans was crucial. For the battered Allied forces, the capture of Pozières Ridge provided faint hope of an end to a catastrophic war.
Author: Meleah Hampton Publisher: Helion ISBN: 9781912174645 Category : Languages : en Pages : 232
Book Description
The Battle of Pozi�res Ridge lasted precisely six weeks. In that time the 1st Anzac Corps, in whose sector most of the fighting took place, advanced the British line just over a mile and a half in a northwesterly direction. During this period of time the three divisions of 1st Anzac Corps rotated in and out of the line twice, each time conducting one or more offensive operations against heavily defended German positions. At its conclusion, the fighting around Pozi�res and Mouquet Farm had yielded very modest territorial gains at an enormous casualty rate. Although a study of 1st Anzac Corps, Attack on the Somme is not history of Australian endeavor. The Australian Divisions slotted into the British Expeditionary Force on arrival to the Western Front, and fought under General Gough at Reserve Army. There was nothing particularly remarkable about the corps - some members had had some experience at Gallipoli, but the majority were new recruits. The events at Pozi�res in July and August 1916, too, were absolutely representative of the 'average day on the Somme' for the British. Unlike the ill-fated first day of the campaign, or big days like the night attacks of 14-15 July, most days on the Somme involved only a small percentage of the line engaged in fighting the enemy in a limited, set-piece attack - just like any day on Pozi�res Ridge. The one notable difference about the 1st Anzac Corps of 1916 is the sheer volume of records left of its time on Pozi�res Ridge. The Australian Official Historian, C.E.W. Bean, ensured as much documentation as possible was saved for posterity. Orders and messages survive which are, in almost all other cases, simply not available for other contemporary British or Dominion troops. What they reveal is a wide range of operational approaches at all levels of command, even down to company level. On some occasions they enable the identification of individuals critical in the maintenance of a precarious position. These documents also reveal the point at which diversity and innovation could not flourish with the influence of high command. The Australian memorial at the Windmill carries the words of Charles Bean, who said 'Australian troops... fell more thickly on this ridge than on any other battlefield of the war'. This study of the battle reveals that more often than not, this was an unnecessary waste of lives and resources for the most negligible of gains, if any gains were made at all.
Author: Scott Bennett Publisher: Scribe Publications ISBN: 1921844833 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 417
Book Description
In 1916, one million men fought in the first battle of the Somme. Victory hinged on their ability to capture a small village called Pozieres. After five attempts to seize it, the British called in the Anzacs to complete this seemingly impossible task. At midnight on 23 July 1916, thousands of Australians stormed Pozieres. Forty-five days later they were relieved, having suffered 23,000 casualties to gain a few miles of barren landscape. Despite the toll, the operation was heralded as a stunning victory. Yet for the exhausted survivors, the war-weary public, and the families of the dead and maimed, victory came at a terrible cost. Drawing on the letters and diaries of the men who fought at Pozieres, this superb book reveals a battlefield drenched in chaos and fear. Bennett sheds light on the story behind the official history, re-creating the experiences of those men who fought in one of the largest and most devastating battles of the Great War and returned home, all too often, as shattered men.
Author: Peter FitzSimons Publisher: Random House Australia ISBN: 0143783300 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 817
Book Description
In the Trenches of Hell On July 19, 1916, 7000 Australian soldiers - in the first major action of the AIF on the Western Front - attacked entrenched German positions at Fromelles in northern France. By the next day, there were over 5500 casualties, including nearly 2000 dead - a bloodbath that the Australian War Memorial describes as 'the worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history. Just days later, three Australian Divisions attacked German positions at nearby Pozières, and over the next six weeks they suffered another 23,000 casualties. Of that bitter battle, the great Australian war correspondent Charles Bean would write, "The field of Pozières is more consecrated by Australian fighting and more hallowed by Australian blood than any field which has ever existed . . ." Yet the sad truth is that, nearly a century on from those battles, Australians know only a fraction of what occurred. This book brings the battles back to life and puts the reader in the moment, illustrating both the heroism displayed and the insanity of the British plan. With his extraordinary vigour and commitment to research, Peter FitzSimons shows why this is a story about which all Australians can be proud. And angry.
Author: Jonathan Walker Publisher: Pen and Sword ISBN: 1473853788 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 248
Book Description
This controversial and stirring account of one of the bloodiest battles of the Great War recounts a heroic but disastrous engagement which left a lasting rift between the British and Australians. Drawing from a wealth of unpublished sources and eyewitness accounts, Jonathan Walker's study of the Battle of Bullecourt is vital to an understanding of the difficulties that faced Great War commanders. Central to The Blood Tub is a reassessment of Sir Hubert Gough, one of the Great War's most colourful generals.In the late spring of 1917, the Allies attacked at Arras, and a combined British and Australian force under General 'Thruster' Gough assaulted the fortress village of Bullecourt. Despite using the new wonder weapon, the tank, Gough's first attack ended in disaster and bitter recriminations. He then launched a second massive attack. For the next two weeks, the Battle of Bullecourt dominated British offensive action on the Western Front. It was the excessive brutality and ferocity of the hand-to-hand fighting that earned Bullecourt the name 'Blood Tub.'
Author: Craig Deayton Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1921941251 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 373
Book Description
"The dead and wounded of the 47th lay everywhere underfoot". With these words Charles Bean, Australia's Official War Historian, described the battlefield of Dernancourt on the morning of the 5th of April, 1918, strewn with the bodies of the Australian dead. It was the final tragic chapter in the story of the 47th Australian Infantry Battalion in the First World War. One of the shortest lived and most battle hardened of the 1st Australian Imperial Force's battalions, the 47th was formed in Egypt in 1916 and disbanded two years later having suffered one of the highest casualty rates of any Australian unit. Their story is remarkable for many reasons. Dogged by command and discipline troubles and bled white by the desperate attrition battles of 1916 and 1917, they fought on against a determined and skilful enemy in battles where the fortunes of war seemed stacked against them at every turn. Not only did they have the misfortune to be called into some of the A.I.F.'s most costly campaigns, chance often found them in the worst places within those battles. Though their story is one of almost unrelieved tragedy, it is also story of remarkable courage, endurance and heroism. It is the story of the 1st A.I.F. itself - punished, beaten, sometimes reviled for their indiscipline, they fought on - fewer, leaner and harder - until final victory was won. And at its end, in an extraordinary gesture of mateship, the remnants of the 47th Battalion reunited. Having been scattered to other units after their disbandment, the survivors gathered in Belgium for one last photo together. Only 73 remained.
Author: Meleah Hampton
Author: Meleah Hampton
Author: Meleah Hampton
Author: Scott Bennett
Author: Peter FitzSimons
Author: Christopher Wray
Author: Jonathan Walker
Author: Craig Deayton
Author: Peter Hart
Author: John Masefield
Author: