THE Simpson PRIZE...and Percy Black, crucified on the wire at Bullecourt, was not.” - Historian Les Carlyon, 2006, ‘The Great War’ In June of 2014, Australian Prime Minister

A COMPETITION FOR YEAR 9 AND 10 STUDENTS

SimpsonPRIZE

THE

Elizabeth Spollard

2017 WinnerAustralian Capital Territory

Burgmann Anglican School

“In public war memory, Simpson, the man with the donkey, was lionised

and Percy Black, crucified on the wire at Bullecourt, was not.”

- Historian Les Carlyon, 2006, ‘The Great War’

In June of 2014, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott visited Villers-Bretonneux to unveil a

new interpretative centre, aimed towards educating future visitors to the Western Front.1

Declaring his aspiration to eliminate the “historical amnesia” surrounding Australian

contributions within First World War, he stated: “In the past we have not given sufficient

attention to our role on the Western Front, where Australian forces made a disproportionate

contribution to what proved to be, in the end, a great victory”.2 However, whilst Villers-

Bretonneux stands markedly commemorated, the initial efforts of the Australian Imperial

Force (AIF) during 1916 and beyond in the Western Front campaign remain largely overlooked

within the context of public memory.3 The early contributions of the AIF in battles such as

Fromelles and Pozieres prevail as decisive moments within Australian military history: where

a young nation experienced a new scale of warfare, and cemented a national identity as a

capable fighting force.4 Furthermore, as a lack of legendary appeal - and focus upon later

triumphs - has created a moderately neglectful remembrance culture of the period, the

importance of comprehensive public wartime memory has developed as an increasingly

crucial matter within our nation’s role as a beacon of history.5

1 ABC News, 2016, Fromelles and Pozieres: 100 years on, viewed 17 October 2016

< http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-19/the-battles-of-fromelles-and-pozieres-100-years-on/7627170 > 2 ibid. 3 Australian Government, 2016, Australians on the Western Front, viewed 13 October 2016

< http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/australians-on-the-western-front > 4 ABC News, 2016, Why must a war define us?, viewed 12 October, 2016

< http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-24/green-why-must-a-war-define-us/58046 > 5 The Australian, 2016, Fromelles: Australia’s forgotten sacrifice on the Western Front, viewed 19 October 2016

< http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/paul-kelly/fromelles-australias-forgotten-sacrifice-on-the-western-front/news-story/4b7dde761da9cd1e267 48a10f3ac8e89 >

“Don’t Forget Me, Cobber”: Commemorating the European debut of the Australian Imperial Force

during the First World War

2

Elizabeth Spollard Burgmann Anglican School Simpson Prize 2017

It is essential to primarily recognise that the Western Front offensive introduced the AIF to a

heightened scale of warfare and devastation never before encountered by the young nation.6

Described by official war correspondent Charles Bean as “one of the bravest and most

hopeless assaults ever undertaken”7, the Battle of Fromelles was an ill-prepared subsidiary

attack by the Australian 5th Division and the British 61st Division on the 19th of July 1916,

designed to utilise any subsequent diversional impairments.8 Both divisions lacked experience

in European trench warfare: escalating the existing disadvantageous factors, including the

increased scale and sophistication of the trench system compared to the Gallipoli campaign,

and the German opposition who held superior skill and artillery capability.9 Outnumbered two

to one, the troops gained no ground and inflicted 1,800 German casualties, contrasting the

5,533 observed by the Australian 5th Division alone: equal to all the Australian casualties

observed in the Boer War, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War combined.10 The debut was

a brutal introduction to large-scale combat, described by historical writer Les Carlyon as “The

worst 24 hours in Australia’s history… on the most tragic battlefield in Australia’s history”.11

In the following weeks from July to September of 1916, the Australian Divisions launched 19

attacks within the Battle for Pozières, swiftly achieving the strategic point. However, the

ensuing German bombardment resulted in the loss of 6,800 lives from the 24,139 Australian

casualties by early September - nearing the 8,159 killed in the entire Gallipoli campaign.12 As

Australian military historian Peter Pedersen stated: “The Pozières sector was the only one in

which the front forged steadily ahead… but the gains made were disproportionate to the

unprecedented cost”.13 Whilst the desecrated town of Pozières marked the Australian victory

which granted the gains of Thiepval and Mouquet Farm, Australian Brigadier General Charles

Brand commented, “Gallipoli was a picnic compared to this”.14 A ruthless awakening into

mechanised warfare, the early European efforts of AIF saw the introduction of a new scale of

6 Great War, 2016, The Heritage of the Great War: First World War 1914 – 1918, viewed 16 October 2016 7 ABC, 2016, The Battles of Fromelles and Pozières, viewed 17 October 2016

< http://www.abc.net.au/fromelles-pozieres/campaign-overview/ > 8 Ibid. 9 Anzac Centenary Victorian Government, 2016, Australia’s Contribution to WWI, viewed 11 October 2016

< http://anzaccentenary.vic.gov.au/history/australias-contribution-wwi/ > 10 Ross McMullin, Pompey Elliott, Scribe, Melbourne, 2002, p. 222-23 11 Australian War Memorial, 2016, Wartime Issue 36 - Disaster at Fromelles, viewed 13 October 2016

< https://www.awm.gov.au/wartime/36/article/ > 12 A. G Butler, Official History of the Australian Medical Services in the Great War, Melbourne, 3 Vols, 1930-43, vol II, p.864

< https://www.awm.gov.au/images/collection/pdf/RCDIG1070025--1-.pdf. > 13 The Australian, 2016, Fromelles: Australia’s forgotten sacrifice on the Western Front, viewed 19 October 2016


14 ABC News, 2016, Australian soldiers lost in Battle of Pozieres 'deserve better', viewed 14 October 2016 < http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-21/australian-soldiers-lost-in-battle-of-pozieres-deserve-better/7184498 >

3


devastation: far greater than that of the Gallipoli campaign, the widely-accepted primary

exemplar of Australia’s contribution to the First World War.

The experiences of the AIF within the Western Front additionally marked a significant turning

point regarding the evolution of Australia’s national identity. The man primarily responsible

at Fromelles was British Commander Richard Haking, notably disdained amongst the

Australian forces as a “butcher of troops”.15 Australian Brigadier-General Harold Edward

“Pompey” Elliott was alarmed at Haking’s confidence towards Fromelles, a view also not

reciprocated by the Australian troops who, since Gallipoli, had requested to be officered by

Australian men. Major Henry Howard examined the prospective battlefield and affirmed

Elliott’s views, stating: “It will be a bloody holocaust”.16 However, British Field Marshal Sir

Douglas Haig was anxious to prevent the Germans from achieving defensive flexibility, and

approved the operation.17 Elliott wept upon observing the slaughter inflicted on his men, and

blamed Haking, as the British command proceeded to lie about the incident in the operation

communique.

“The ANZAC men who helped build up my Brigade are dead. I presume there was

some plan at the back of the attack but it is difficult to know what it was.”

- Brigadier General Elliott (5th Australian Division), 1916, Australian War Memorial18

Initially considered undisciplined, the reputation of the Australian troops as more than men

bound by colonial duty soon emerged: steeped in the values of courage, endurance and

initiative.19 Here ensued a new hostility between the Australian soldier and the British

command, directed at Australia’s lunge for significance as an independent national self. As

Lieutenant Cyril Lawrence described in a letter to his mother, “You will never know, you people

in Australia, what the boys have done - even the people of England do not know because they

call us British troops”.20 Upon these battlefields, a turning point was marked for the entirely

voluntary force, developing the legacy initiated by the ANZAC troops on the shores of

15 ABC, 2016, The Battles of Fromelles and Pozières, viewed 17 October 2016

< http://www.abc.net.au/fromelles-pozieres/campaign-overview/ > 16 First World War Online, 2016, First World War Online - Pompey Elliott, viewed 11 October 2016

< http://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/elliott.htm > 17 ibid. 18 Australian War Memorial, 2016, 1916: Australians in France, viewed 16 October 2016

< https://www.awm.gov.au/ww1/1916/essay/ > 19 Australian War Memorial, 2016, Tommy: Australian soliders' relations with the British, viewed 19 October 2016

< https://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/1918/soldier/tommy.asp > 20 Carlyon. L, 2006, The Great War, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, pp.56-57.

4


Gallipoli.21 In The Great War, Carlyon describes the troops: “They were good at war… in a way

that offended the keepers of the orthodoxies: lots of dash, not much discipline away from the

battlefield”.22 The initial operations of the AIF on the Western Front defined the coming-of-

age of the young Australian Divisions, securing their identity as adept soldiers.23

Although indeed somewhat overlooked within public remembrance due to sheer devastation

and lack of legendary appeal, the initial efforts on the Western Front by the AIF developed as

a disproportionate contribution to an immense victory. Gallipoli and Villers-Bretonneux

became conspicuous with the Australian story, overshadowing the mid-war devastation of

Fromelles and Pozières which held no apparent effect upon the final triumph.24

“There was no logic... Gallipoli, the foundation story, had an aura and Fromelles did

not. Gallipoli was a defeat, and yet Mont St Quentin an unlikely victory, but Mont St

Quentin never lodged in the nation’s consciousness.”

- Les Carlyon, 2006, ‘The Great War’25

Historian Joan Beaumont notes that Villers-Bretonneux ended the war on one section of the

front, and paved the way for the British advances of 1918, securing Armistice.26 Whilst

debating the location of the Australian National Monument, General Sir John Monash stated:

“There is no spot more associated with Australian history and the triumph of Australian

soldiers than Villers-Bretonneux”, neglecting the early European experiences of the AIF.27 Yet

the words of Bean in his book, Anzac to Amiens, summarise the true difference between the

early and late operations: “At Bullecourt, Messines, Ypres and elsewhere Australian infantry

suffered… but never anything comparable with Pozières. The Windmill site marks a ridge more

densely sown with Australian sacrifice than any other place on earth.”28 By 1918, Australia

counted within the advances of a victorious multinational force, and as former defence

21 The Courier Mail, 2016, Deadly fields of the Western Front, viewed 26 October 2016

< http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/australias-death-toll-on-the-western-front-a-century-ago-was-five-times-higher-than-gallipoli/news-story/680edd255279129f2c8d5d83e5e00f57 >

22 Carlyon, Op. cit, pp. 23-24 23 Australian War Memorial, 2016, Pompey Elliott, viewed 18 october 2016

< https://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/fiftyaustralians/18.asp > 24 ABC News, 2016, Australian soldiers lost in Battle of Pozieres 'deserve better', viewed 14 October 2016

< http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-21/australian-soldiers-lost-in-battle-of-pozieres-deserve-better/7184498 > 25 Carlyon. L, 2006, The Great War, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, pp.56-57. 26 The Australian, 2016, Fromelles: Australia’s forgotten sacrifice on the Western Front, viewed 19 October 2016


27 Ibid. 28 C.E.W. Bean, Anzac to Amiens, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1983, p 264

< https://www.awm.gov.au/images/collection/pdf/RCDIG1069627--1-.pdf >

5


minister Kim Beazley stated: “It was the only time in our history when Australians were

involved… in the main offensive that ended a war of global significance”.29 However, Barry

Gracey from the Pozières Remembrance Association notes that whilst the early operations

inflicted utter devastation, Pozieres itself was a rare victory: “Every soldier deserves

recognition… these men would have been better off dying at Gallipoli, at least Australia would

have commemorated them”.30 In her book Broken Nation, Beaumont notes that the AIF made

up less than 5% of the British Imperial forces, yet suffered 6.9% of all empire deaths.31 Whilst

the early efforts of the AIF saw unparalleled devastation and a lack of legendary appeal, it is

imperative that their contributions should be recognised as an example of disproportionate

service, in the primary phase of an eventual victory.

Ultimately, the early contribution of the AIF on the Western Front stands as a decisive period

within Australian military history: a time where a young nation experienced a new scale of

devastation and warfare, and reached a turning point regarding national identity as a

formidable fighting force. However, as an absence of legendary appeal - and lack of direct

effect to the end of the war - has instigated a neglectful recognition of the period, unexclusive

public wartime memory becomes increasingly important. In 1998, a sculpture entitled

Cobbers was unveiled on the site of Fromelles, recalling the plea of one wounded soldier to

Australian stretcher bearer Sergeant Simon Fraser: "Don't forget me, cobber".32 It is a plea

which rings true today, and in the final words of his works documenting the journey of the

AIF, Bean appealed a similar call:

“The greatness and smallness of their story will stand… It will rise above the mists of

ages, a monument to great-hearted men and, for their nation, a possession forever.”33

Their words outline one modest request: to never forget.

29 Forces War Records, 2016, WW1: Australia's Role in the Great War, viewed 14 October 2016 < https://au.forces-war-records.com/ww1-

australias-role-in-the-great-war/ > 30 ABC News, 2016, Australian soldiers lost in Battle of Pozieres 'deserve better', viewed 14 October 2016

< http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-21/australian-soldiers-lost-in-battle-of-pozieres-deserve-better/7184498 > 31 Beaumont, J. (2013). Broken Nation. Crows Nest, A: Allen & Unwin, pp.12-13. 32 National Library of Australia, 2016, Writing about Pompey Elliott and the Battle of Fromelles, viewed 24 October 2016

< https://www.nla.gov.au/harold-white-fellows/writing-about-pompey-elliott > 33 The Australian, 2016, Fromelles: Australia’s forgotten sacrifice on the Western Front, viewed 19 October 2016


6


REFERENCES

SIMPSON PRIZE SOURCES – AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL (SOURCES 1, 3 AND 8)

A. G Butler, Official History of the Australian Medical Services in the Great War, Melbourne,

3 Vols, 1930-43, vol II, p.864

< https://www.awm.gov.au/images/collection/pdf/RCDIG1070025--1-.pdf. >

Ross McMullin, Pompey Elliott, Scribe, Melbourne, 2002, p. 222-23

C.E.W. Bean, Anzac to Amiens, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1983, p 264

< https://www.awm.gov.au/images/collection/pdf/RCDIG1069627--1-.pdf >

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ABC, 2016, The Battles of Fromelles and Pozières, viewed 17 October 2016 < http://www.abc.net.au/fromelles-pozieres/campaign-overview/ >

ABC, 2016, The 7.30 Report: Australia’s most significant national public holiday, viewed 18 October 2016 < http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2002/s540368.htm >

ABC News, 2016, ANZACs in the front line trenches during WWI, viewed 16 October 2016 < http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-24/anzacs-in-the-front-line-trenches-during-wwi/5408086 >

ABC News, 2016, Australian military leaders in World War I, viewed 13 October 2016 < http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-26/australian-military-leaders-in-world-war-1/5642316 >

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ABC News, 2016, Fromelles and Pozieres: 100 years on, viewed 17 October 2016 < http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-19/the-battles-of-fromelles-and-pozieres-100-years-on/7627170 >

ABC News, 2016, Why must a war define us?, viewed 12 October, 2016 < http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-24/green-why-must-a-war-define-us/58046 >

Anzac Centenary Victorian Government, 2016, Australia’s Contribution to WWI, viewed 11

October 2016 < http://anzaccentenary.vic.gov.au/history/australias-contribution-wwi/ >

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Australian Government, 2016, Australians on the Western Front, viewed 13 October 2016

< http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/australians-on-the-western-front >

Australian War Memorial, 2016, 1916: Australians in France, viewed 16 October 2016 < https://www.awm.gov.au/ww1/1916/essay/ >

Australian War Memorial, 2016, Photograph: 19 July 1916 - Remains of Sugar Loaf Salient and its concrete shelters, viewed 13 October 2016 < https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/E03964/ >

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Beaumont, J. (2013). Broken Nation. Crows Nest, A: Allen & Unwin, pp.12-13. Carlyon. L, 2006, The Great War, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, pp.56-57. First World War Online, 2016, First World War Online - Pompey Elliott, viewed 11 October

2016 < http://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/elliott.htm >

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The Courier Mail, 2016, Deadly fields of the Western Front, viewed 26 October 2016 < http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/australias-death-toll-on-the-western-front-a-century-ago-was-five-times-higher-than-gallipoli/news-story/680edd255279129f2c8d5d83e5e00f57 >

WWI Western Front, 2016, The Australian Remembrance Trail - Australians on the Western Front 1914-1918, viewed 21 October 2016 < http://www.ww1westernfront.gov.au/australian-remembrance-trail/where-australians-fought.php >

KayeTypewritten Text

Max ClaessensMax Claessens - ACT Winner

Documents

THE Simpson PRIZE...and Percy Black, crucified on the wire at Bullecourt, was not.” - Historian Les Carlyon, 2006, ‘The Great War’ In June of 2014, Australian Prime Minister