THE WESTERN FRONT INFORMATION
The Western Front was the name the Germans gave to a series of trenches that ran 700 kilometres from the Belgian coast to the Swiss border. To imagine this, think of a ditch deep enough to stand in zigzagging its way alongside the Hume Highway from Melbourne to Canberra. As at Gallipoli, machine-gun fire caused terrible casualties on the Western Front. Both sides had dug trenches, sometimes only metres apart, as their only protection from the murderous gun fire. But they were never safe from the explosive artillery shells that rained down on the front line soldiers every few seconds for days at a time. The British High Command needed troops urgently. So after the Gallipoli veterans were rested in Egypt, and had been strengthened by the ‘fair dinkums’ from Australia, they were sent to France to fight Germany. But Gallipoli was not the last time the ANZACs fought the Turks. The Light Horsemen were sent to the Middle East where they took part in several battles.
Life in the trenches
When the ANZACs arrived at the Western Front, the first thing they saw were the lines of wounded soldiers being taken to the rear. As they got closer, they could feel the earth shake, and hear the constant “crump crump” of artillery shells. The sound was loud enough to make their ears ring, and became their companion for the next three years.
Casualty clearing station, Menin Road, Belgium (AWM E711)
Then they saw a series of muddy trenches littered with the waste of war. Boxes, cart wheels, wire and often the bodies of the dead and dying were strewn everywhere. These were the reserve trenches, far enough from the battle for soldiers to try to grab a little rest from all the madness in the front line.
Diggers on a duckboard track, Chateau Wood, Ypres. (AWM E1220)
These were only some of the conditions the ANZACs had to endure – day after day after day. (AWM E862)
But the ANZACs were soon to realise that the Germans were not the only enemy. Thewinter of 1916was one of the worst on record. Living in these trenches was to cause nearly as many casualties as the fighting. The ANZACs had only two blankets each and had to sleep as close as possible to one another just to survive.
Imagine a winter so cold that water was carried to the soldiers as blocks of ice. Think how cold it must have been to wake after a few hours sleep only to find your eyelids frozen shut. And imagine if you had to keep a bottle of ink in your pocket, otherwise the ink would freeze. Imagine your feet swelling to three times their normal size because you had been standing for a week in water up to your knees. And think how cold it must have been when ice formed around the rim of a boiling cup of tea after you had carried it only 20 paces.
“A place so terrible...”
A section of the Western Front called the Somme, named after the river flowing through the area, was described by one ANZAC in August 1916 as “a place so terrible that a raving lunatic could never have imagined it”. In the middle of the Somme was a township called Pozières (Pozzy-air), which was built on one of the few high points in the area.
The Australians launched seven bloody attacks on the German defences over a six-week period. They concentrated on two main strong points, Gibraltar and the Windmill.
On 4 August 1916, the ANZACs finally captured the ridge line and what little was left of the town.
All that remained of Pozières Village after the ANZACs finally captured the town. (AWM E532)
One out of every two ANZACs who fought here at the Somme became a casualty. In all they lost more than 22,000 men. Through their determination and courage, and in the most dreadful conditions, the ANZACs had proven themselves capable of doing the impossible. Unfortunately this was not the last time the British High Command would expect the impossible from the ANZACs.
The Australians who fought in the First World War never forgot the experience. The war changed their lives. But it also changed the lives of the many French and Belgian civilians who lived in the towns the ANZACs fought to save. In fact, they promised never to forget the role the ANZACs played in gaining their freedom.