Battle of Pozières

Coordinates: 50°2′42″N 2°44′10″E / 50.04500°N 2.73611°E / 50.04500; 2.73611
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Battle of Pozières
Part of the
First World War

Battle of the Somme 1 July – 18 November 1916
Date23 July – 3 September 1916
Location
Pozières, Somme, France
50°2′42″N 2°44′10″E / 50.04500°N 2.73611°E / 50.04500; 2.73611
Result British victory
Belligerents

 British Empire

 German Empire
Commanders and leaders
United Kingdom of Great Britain and IrelandDouglas Haig
United Kingdom of Great Britain and IrelandHubert Gough
United Kingdom of Great Britain and IrelandAustralia William Birdwood		 German EmpireFritz von Below
German EmpireMax von Boehn
Strength
12 divisions
Casualties and losses
I Anzac Corps c. 23,000
Pozières is located in France
Pozières
Pozières
class=notpageimage|
Pozières, a commune in the Somme department of Picardy in northern France

The Battle of Pozières (23 July – 3 September 1916) took place in northern France around the village of Pozières, during the Battle of the Somme. The costly fighting ended with the British in possession of the plateau north and east of the village, in a position to menace the German bastion of Thiepval from the rear. The Australian official historian Charles Bean wrote that Pozières ridge "is more densely sown with Australian sacrifice than any other place on earth".

Prelude

The village of Pozières, on the

Sir Henry Rawlinson. The possibility of "rolling up" the German second line by turning north now presented itself if Pozières could be captured.[3]

The British Commander-in-Chief,

Delville Wood as well as the villages of Guillemont and Ginchy. The plan was to maintain the pressure and take Pozières by a "steady, methodical, step-by-step advance".[5]
Between 13 and 17 July, the Fourth Army made four small attacks against Pozières which were costly failures. In this period the village was subjected to a heavy bombardment and was reduced to rubble. On two occasions the attacking infantry got into the trench that looped around the south and western edge of the village, known as "Pozières trench" but were driven out both times. Attempts to get east of the village by advancing up the O.G. Lines also failed.

Battle

Capture of Pozières

Mouquet Farm
.

Rawlinson planned to deliver another attack on a broad front on 18 July, involving six divisions between the Albert–Bapaume road in the north and

Gallipoli, would have none of it and insisted he would attack only after adequate preparation. Consequently, the attack on Pozières once more fell in line with the Fourth Army's attack on the night of 22–23 July.[6]

The plan called for the Australian 1st Division to attack Pozières from the south, advancing in three stages half an hour apart, while north of the Albert–Bapaume road, the

3rd Brigades. The infantry crept into no man's land, close behind the bombardment and when it lifted the German trenches were rushed. The first stage took the Pozières trench that ringed the village to the south.[7]

The second stage saw the Australians advance to the edge of the village, amongst what remained of the back gardens of the houses lining the Albert–Bapaume road. The third stage brought the line to the Albert–Bapaume road. The few survivors from the German garrison retreated to the northern edge of the village or into the O.G. Lines to the east. It was also intended that the O.G. Lines would be captured as far as the road but here the Australians failed, partly due to strong resistance from the German defenders in deep dugouts and

8th Battalion of the Australian 2nd Brigade
, which had been in reserve, moved up and secured the rest of the village. The attack of the 48th Division on the German trenches west of Pozières achieved some success but the main attack by the Fourth Army between Pozières and Guillemont was a costly failure.

Defence of Pozières

Road to Pozières: In the distance the village of Contalmaison is under German shellfire.

Success on the Somme came at a cost which at times seemed to surpass the cost of failure, and for the Australians, Pozières was such a case. As a consequence of being the sole British gain on 23 July, Pozières became a focus of attention for the Germans. As a critical element of their defensive system, the German command ordered that it be retaken at all costs. Three attempts were made on 23 July but each was broken up by the British artillery or swept away by machine gun fire. Communication was as difficult for the Germans as it was for the British, and it was not until 7:00 a.m. 24 July that they discovered that Pozières had been captured. With British activity now declining elsewhere on its front, the

Sausage Valley, received such a concentration of shellfire that it was thereafter known as "Dead Man's Road". The German bombardment intensified on 25 July, in preparation for another counter-attack.[9]

The

Australian 1st Division
suffered 5,285 casualties on its first tour of Pozières. When the survivors were relieved on 27 July, one observer said

They looked like men who had been in Hell... drawn and haggard and so dazed that they appeared to be walking in a dream and their eyes looked glassy and starey.

— E. J. Rule[10]

The O.G. Lines (Old German Lines)

On 24 July, once Pozières had been secured, General Gough pushed for immediate moves against the O.G. Lines north and east of the village. The first task was to take the lines up to the Albert–Bapaume road; the original objectives which had not been captured. Attacking in the dark, only the Australian 5th Battalion found either of the O.G. trenches and it was counter-attacked by the German 18th Reserve Division. Simultaneously on the Australian's right, the British 1st Division made an attempt to capture Munster Alley, the section of the Switch Line where it intersected the O.G. Lines. A tumultuous bomb fight developed but only a small section of trench was held.

Before it was withdrawn, the Australian 1st Division had attempted to prepare a jumping-off line for the assault on the O.G. Lines. The

Australian 7th Brigade was late in reaching its start line and its movement was detected by the German defenders; when the attack commenced, the Australians were met by a hail of machine gun
fire. South of the road the 5th Brigade remained pinned down, unable to even get started. On their left, north of the road, the 7th Brigade encountered uncut wire. On the northern flank some minor progress was made by the 6th Brigade but everywhere else the attack was a failure. Including the attack and the preceding day of preparation the 2nd Division lost over 3,500 men; the 7th Brigade had to be withdrawn to reserve, so great were its losses.

General Haig was disparaging of the division's failure, telling

Bashi-Bazouks now." General Legge and the I Anzac staff resolved to do the job properly. To avoid the confusion of a night advance, the plan was to attack at 9:15 p.m. just before dark at which time the crest of the ridge and the mound of the Pozières windmill would still be discernible. However, to attack at dusk meant assembling by day which was only possible to do in the protection of trenches. Therefore, a system of approach and assembly trenches had to be dug at night. Whenever the Germans detected digging parties, they mistook them for troops assembling to attack and called down a barrage. Originally the attack was to be made at dusk on 2 August but the trenches were as yet incomplete, the digging either being disrupted or the completed trenches demolished by shellfire. The attack was first postponed to 3 August and then to 4 August when the trenches were finally deemed ready. This careful planning and preparation delivered success and when the 2nd Division went in, both O.G. Lines were captured. South of and astride the Albert–Bapaume Road the O.G. Lines had been so thoroughly obliterated by prolonged shelling that the Australians ended up advancing beyond their objectives. From their vantage in the O.G. Lines on the eastern edge of the Pozières ridge, the Australians now looked over green countryside, the village of Courcelette close by and the woods around Bapaume 5 miles (8.0 km) distant. The German commander ordered "At any price Hill 160 Pozières ridge
must be recovered."

Final counter-attack

By 5 August the

Gallipoli, emerged from a dugout where he and seven men of his platoon
had been isolated, and charged the German line from the rear. His example inspired other Australians scattered across the plateau to join the action and a fierce, hand-to-hand fight developed. Jacka was badly wounded but as support arrived from the flanks, the Australians gained the advantage and most of the surviving Germans were captured. No more attempts to retake Pozières were made.

Aftermath

Analysis

Mouquet Farm
, August.
The hill of the windmill.

Since taking over the Pozières sector, Gough had planned to drive a wedge behind (east of) the German fortress of

salient. Initially the task fell to the 4th Australian Division, which had already suffered 1,000 casualties resisting the final German counter-attack. When the Australian ordeal on Pozières ridge was over in September, they were replaced by the Canadian Corps who held the sector for the remainder of the battle. The O.G. Lines east of the village became the Canadian start line for the Battle of Flers–Courcelette
.

After the battle it became apparent that General Birdwood had lost much of his Gallipoli popularity through his failure to oppose Gough's impetuous desire for "quick results" and his "lack of thought" at Pozières. Soon after, Australian troops rejected his appeal to vote in favour in the 1916 Australian conscription referendum largely because of their reluctance to see additional men subjected to the horrors of piecemeal attacks.[12] The Australians had suffered as many casualties in the Battle of Pozières in six weeks as they had in eight months during the Gallipoli campaign.[13] Wilfrid Miles, the official historian, praised the initiative shown by small units of men in clearing the Germans from positions in the village but attributed much of the casualties to Australian inexperience and their "reckless daring".[14]

Casualties

In the fighting around Pozières the 48th Division suffered 2,700 casualties from 16–28 July and 2,505 more from 13 August.[15] The 1st Australian Division lost 7,700 men, the 2nd Australian Division had 8,100 casualties and the 4th Australian Division lost 7,100 men.[16] From 27 July – 13 August the 12th Division had 2,717 casualties.

Victoria Cross

  • Thomas Cooke 8th Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 1st Australian Division.[17]
  • Private John Leak 9th Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 1st Australian Division.[18]
  • 10th Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 1st Australian Division.[18]
  • Sergeant Claud Castleton, 5th Machine Gun Company, 5th Brigade, 2nd Australian Division.[19]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ This high point was known to the Australians as "Hill 160" or "The Windmill". The Germans called it Die Windmühle after a seventeenth-century windmill that had existed on the site.[1] While the Somme terrain is only gently undulating, any slight elevation aids observation for artillery.[2]
  2. ^ The "Gibraltar Bunker" was known as Das Blockhaus by the German forces and was the only structure in the area remaining after the bombardment.[8]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Middlebrook 1971, p. 351.
  2. ^ Bean 1941, pp. 455, 465.
  3. ^ Bean 1941, p. 454.
  4. ^ Bean 1941, p. 486.
  5. ^ Bean 1941, p. 465.
  6. ^ a b Keegan 1998, p. 319.
  7. ^ Liddle 2001, pp. 78–79.
  8. ^ Miles 1992, p. 146.
  9. ^ Liddle 2001, p. 78.
  10. ^ Bean 1941, p. 599.
  11. ^ Bean 1941, p. 613.
  12. ^ Liddell Hart 1973, p. 327.
  13. ^ Cave & Barker 2004, p. 43.
  14. ^ Jones 2006, p. 153.
  15. ^ Miles 1992, pp. 155, 226.
  16. ^ Bean 1941, p. 862.
  17. ^ Bean 1941, p. 575.
  18. ^ a b Miles 1992, p. 143.
  19. ^ Miles 1992, p. 154.

References

Further reading

External links

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