The Great War 1914

At the beginning of 1914, a global conflict occurred in Europe which the people of that era simply called "The Great War". Huge armies excavated long lines of zigzag trenches in a war of attrition that stretched from the North Sea to the Swiss border which to this day is still the largest man made structure ever constructed. The British commander in chief, General (Later Field Marshall) Sir Douglas Haig, planned one the largest and bloodiest battles the world had ever seen. The "Battle of the Somme" was originally planned as an allied strategy of co-ordinated attacks on both the eastern and western fronts. During the first day of the battle the Australians were not prepared, as they had arrived from the Gallipoli campaign were they had suffered over twenty seven thousand casualties.

As a preparatory to the attack, General Haig had amassed over a thousand field artillery pieces to be used in a preliminary bombardment which lasted for seven days and was meant to dislodge the Germans from their positions. Despite all the preparation for the initial attack, all of the objectives on the first day were consequently a failure and the British forces alone suffered over sixty thousand casualties on the first day.

Pozieres village is the key to the success of the battle of the Somme as it occupied the highest ground on the Thiepval-Ginchy ridge and if it were to be taken "a breach would be exploited allowing Lt General Sir Hubert Gough's three cavalry divisions to re-enforce the break out point". Additionally it must be noted that the terrain around the Somme is only gently undulating and any slight elevation would aid in observation for artillery.

On the morning of the twenty third of July under the cover of Australian artillery the Australians lay in wait in their designated line of departure in anticipation for the two minutes of "hurricane fire". White tape and pegs were laid as the form up point on the assault line which was a tactic to get the Australians closer to the enemy trenches whilst the German troops were still sheltering or suffering from shellshock from the barrage, the Australian troops could then scurry into the front trenches. "Some men of the eleventh battalion edged as close as twenty to thirty meters from the German positions". As the barrage rained down thicker the rain and hail in a severe storm men crept together for protection and they also had to hold their own nerves for so long, that many of them could not stop urinating. As the apprehensive Australians rushed into their more herculean opponent than they had opposed during the Gallipoli campaign, they came up against German skilful machine gunners who were handpicked by their superiors. This can be seen as a moment of tremendous gallantry as it put flesh up against machine gun likes lambs to the slaughter.

They bombed these positions with the mills bomb or hand grenade, until finally inside