OZIÈRES POZIÈRES: 100 YEARS ON THE Australian struggle for Pozières began on the evening of July 22, 1916, with a mighty bombardment. After dark, men of the 1st Division began moving to their jumping-off positions in the fields to the south and across the Albert- Bapaume road from the First Division Memorial. Minutes before the attack, Lieutenant Lawrence Thurnhill, 6th Battery, Australian Field Artillery, and his men dragged their field gun along the road to within 360 metres, a position not far from where the Pozières British Cemetery is today. From there they fired 115 rounds at point-blank range down the main street. At 12.30am, July 23, 1916, the leading battalions of the First Division rushed forward and seized the German position around the southern part of the village known as the Pozières Trench. Not far from the memorial a gallant German machine-gun crew set up their weapon and got away a few rounds before the Australian advance reached them and they were killed. Australians were soon digging in behind the ruins of houses in the main street of Pozières. 38 EDITION 03 2016 RSLQLD.ORG
POZIÈRES: 100 YEARS ON Impressed itself on the minds of the members of the 1st Division that phrase suggests that there was something about what happened to Australian soldiers at Pozières in 1916 that would forever live vividly in their memories of the war. Department of Veterans Affairs YEARS ON At noon, a British reconnaissance aircraft reported that the remainder of the village north of the main street was deserted. On the ground, however, enemy sniper fire was still coming from the ruins, and the Australians advanced cautiously. Gibraltar, like the Rock of Gibraltar, stuck out above the landscape a landscape that by the end of July 1916 was a wilderness of craters. Lance Corporal Roger Morgan, 2nd Australian Infantry Battalion, described the scene: A land of desolation... villages are mere heaps of brick dust... every yard of earth has been torn about by shells... the whole place looks like a badly ploughed field. This ploughing was done by thousands of British, Australian and German shells as the village and its surroundings were fought over, again and again, during July and August 1916. Gibraltar itself was seized by men of the 2nd Australian Infantry Battalion just after daybreak on July 23. A large white structure, some three metres tall and some 137 metres beyond the western end of Pozières, it was made of reinforced concrete and was used by EDITION 03 2016 RSLQLD.ORG 39
POZIÈRES: 100 YEARS ON ABOVE (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: A group of Australian soldiers standing in front of the 1st Division Memorial in Pozières the German stronghold known as Gibraltar can be seen on the right (AWM: E05748); Australian Official Correspondent CW Bean, with John Masefield, Australian official artist Lieutenant Will Dyson and Alexis Aladin going over the old battlefield at Pozieres (AWM: E00509); Informal group portrait of Australian soldiers sporting helmets (Pickelhauben) and caps captured from the Germans in the battle of Pozieres (AWM: EZ0135); Men and officers at the unveiling of the memorial to fallen members of the 1st Australian Division (AWM: EZ0126). the Germans as an observation post. The concrete covered the entrance to a large cellar and a stairway led down to an even deeper room. Realising this was a significant strongpoint, Captain Ernest Herrod rushed it with a small party from the front, while others, led by Lieutenant Walter Waterhouse, attacked from the rear. Inside were 26 Germans, one of whom had his thumb on the button of a machine gun as the Australians burst in upon him. By the evening of the 23rd, the 2nd Battalion was in full possession of Gibraltar, and throughout the coming days the Australians extended their hold over Pozières. German counter-attacks failed to retake the village, so the enemy decided on a different approach. For three days their artillery poured shells on the Australian positions at Pozières. The area around Gibraltar was hard hit, as it lay close to one of the main supply routes into the village along Dead Man s Road. That road is still there: it runs out into the far side of the main road across the small park beside the blockhouse ruins. The 2nd Battalion s War Diary recorded: subject to very heavy shelling by the enemy, a continuous bombardment was maintained all day, bombardment continued throughout the night... many men were buried, bombardment so intense it was impossible for A and D Companies to remain in their trenches, men were thoroughly worn out. All told, the battalion lost 510 men killed, wounded and missing during three days at Pozières; nearly 55 per cent of those who had attacked the village on July 23. This had been the 1st Division s 40 EDITION 03 2016 RSLQLD.ORG
POZIÈRES: 100 YEARS ON At noon, a British reconnaissance aircraft reported that the remainder of the village north of the main street was deserted. On the ground, however, enemy sniper fire was still coming from the ruins, and the Australians advanced cautiously. THE DEAD RUNNER Pozières, July 23, 1916 This extract, from a letter written by Sir Nevill Smyth, Commander of the First Australian Infantry Brigade at Pozières in 1916, describes the fate of a runner (messenger) of the 2nd Australian Infantry Battalion during the battle on July 23, 1916. At daylight on 23rd July 1916 Pozières was in the hands of the 1st Australian Infantry Brigade. The other Brigades of the 1st Australian Division were echeloned to its right and rear, and units detailed to attack on its right under Brigadier General Sinclair MacLagan (I think) had been held up by heavy fire into their flank from the German Main Trench Line. During the morning the 1st Brigade Commander, who was 400 yards from the village of Poziéres, sent an order in duplicate by runners attached to Brigade Headquarters to the front line, which was occupying houses and the church ruins north of the Bapaume Road, ordering a further advance at a given moment in co-operation with a bombardment. There was a continuous enemy barrage of shell fire on the Bapaume Road... [and] it was necessary (pending the digging of a trench) for our reinforcements to run the gauntlet across the road. Near this point, about 30 men (Australians and Germans) had been killed. One of the two runners fell on his way to the road. The second one, who belonged to the 2nd Battalion, seeing the great peril that he must face, and realising that if he fell the fact of his being a runner bearing a message might be overlooked by those who passed him among so many fallen soldiers, he must have deliberately taken the message from his breast pocket and as he was struck dead he held it up in the air so that a small party of men making their way forward with ammunition within about 20 minutes saw that he held a paper in his hand, and taking it from his fingers carried it on to the officer it was addressed to, thus enabling the further advance to be successfully carried out. Note: The man was fair and muscular, wore the 2nd Battalion badges on sleeve and a red band to denote that he was a runner. The bands were made very raggedly by the men themselves of red calico bought in the villages. Sleeves were rolled up above the elbow (as a recognition mark in the night and afterwards). The man s name and number is not known. Sir Nevill Smyth, letter, 2nd Australian Infantry Battalion, War Diary, July 1916, 23/19/15, AWM4 EDITION 03 2016 RSLQLD.ORG 41
POZIÈRES: 100 YEARS ON Before After Captain Margetts was an early casualty of the German shell fire which, in the wake of the Australian capture of Pozières, commenced falling on the village on the morning of July 24, 1916. ABOVE: The main street of Pozieres before and after the battle. (AWM: G01534I and AWM: A05776) INSET: Captain Ivor Stephen Margetts. (AWM: H15808) first operation since its withdrawal from Gallipoli in December 1915. Although its infantry battalions and support units had been reinforced in Egypt, many of those who fought at Pozières were Gallipoli veterans, and among them was Captain Ivor Margetts, 12th Battalion (Tasmania and Western Australia), age 24, of Wynard, Tasmania, who at dawn on April 25, 1915 had led his men up the cliffs at the Sphinx behind North Beach on ANZAC. At 8pm on July 23, Margetts prepared to take out a patrol across the main street to begin clearing the north-eastern end of Pozières: Margetts did not return and the news soon spread that he who had fought with his battalion unwounded from the Landing until it left Gallipoli had been killed by a chance shell [After he was hit] Margetts asked to be pulled down into shelter from shell fire and, knowing his hurt was mortal, told his helpers to look after the boys. (Charles Bean, The Australian Imperial Force in France, 1916, Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918, Volume III, pp. 541-542 and footnote p. 542) Captain Margetts was an early casualty of the German shell fire, which, in the wake of the Australian capture of Pozières, commenced falling on the village on the morning of July 24, 1916. Pozières was the key to controlling the heights to the east along the road, and having failed to retake this important position, the Germans determined to destroy the Australians by bombardment and turned all their available guns on Pozières. Published with permission from the Department of Veterans Affairs: www. ww1westernfront.gov.au/pozieresaustralian-memorial/visiting-pozieres/ capture-of-pozieres-23-july-1916.php; www.ww1westernfront.gov.au/pozieresaustralian-memorial/on-this-spotgibraltar-blockhouse-pozieres.php 42 EDITION 03 2016 RSLQLD.ORG