150 The Lost Soldiers of Fromelles.pdf

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FROMELLES
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No. 150
£4.25
NUMBER 150
© Copyright
After the Battle
2010
Editor: Karel Margry
Editor-in-Chief: Winston G. Ramsey
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CONTENTS
THE LOST SOLDIERS
OF FROMELLES
3
WAR FILM
The War Lover
22
WAR CRIME
Return to Cefalonia
28
READERS’ INVESTIGATION
Tank Fight at Sinalunga
38
UNITED KINGDOM
Coventry Blitz — November 1940
41
REMEMBRANCE
The Civilian War Dead
Roll of Honour
44
FROM THE EDITOR
48
Front Cover:
The dedication of the new
military cemetery at Fromelles, France
on July 19, 2010. (Gail Parker)
Back Cover:
The Memorial to Londoners
killed in The Blitz now to be seen at
Hermitage Wharf, Wapping. (Gail Parker)
Acknowledgements:
The Editor is very
grateful for the assistance given by
Lambis Englezos, Dr Tony Pollard, Jean
Paul Pallud and Tim Whitfield during
research for the Fromelles article. Alan
Tomkins provided background material
for
The War Lover
and Sergio Andrea-
nelli and Dionissies Arvanitakis gave
help with the article on Cephalonia.
Photo Credits:
AWM — Australian War
Memorial; CWGC — Commonwealth War
Graves Commission; GUARD — Glasgow
University
Archaeological
Research
Division; IWM — Imperial War Museum;
USNA — US National Archives.
2
With this 150th issue over 37 years have passed since I ventured to Normandy
with my Jeep to see if it was possible to match up wartime photos. Since the 1970s
the exploration of battlefields has become big business for many tour companies
although many locations have since been commercialised or have changed out of all
recognition. While the internet has vastly aided research, at the same time many of
the official bodies that we relied on to help us with information have closed their
doors, hiding behind the wretched Data Protection Act.
And that attitude is different depending on the country concerned. Getting
simple grave references for French servicemen is well-nigh impossible; likewise the
location of the graves of US servicemen repatriated to the States. On the other
hand the Americans are willing to provide copies of complete files, including court-
martials. It is now impossible to get servicemen’s records in Britain but the
Australians have no problem in making the same information freely available on
the web. German personnel records now have redactions added but the Belgian
authorities will provide them in the fullest detail.
My mind often goes back over all the stories and events we have covered these
past years and which were the most significant. Readers will have their own opinions
but for me I think it has to be finding General Eisenhower’s pre-D-Day HQ at
Portsmouth
(above),
described in issue 84. No book, document, historian or museum
knew where it had been located . . . the place where he must have agonised over the
decision to send a million men on the largest amphibious operation in adverse
weather, and where he penned in advance an admission of failure should it be neces-
sary. It surely has to be one of the most important places we have discovered.
I am grateful that so many readers have supported us from our very first issue.
Since then many of our authors and contributors have passed away, in some cases
like Bart Vanderveen (2001), the fountain head of all knowledge on military vehi-
cles; Roger Freeman (2005), the foremost Eighth Air Force historian; Peter Cham-
berlain (2006), the German armour expert, and Alan Hall (2008) who founded
Aviation News
with me, leave a void very difficult to fill. One of our journalists on
that publication was Jerry Scutts and back in the 1970s he wrote me a piece on the
making of
The War Lover.
For some reason it never got used so I have included it
in this issue in memory of Jerry who died in December 2008.
More recently we lost Connie Richards who was steeped in the Glenn Miller
era as she lived on the edge of Twinwood Farm aerodrome from where he departed
on his fatal flight. She was such a charismatic lady — readers will have met her on
page 53 of issue 117 and page 53 of issue 138 in her role with her husband Gordon
as UK representatives of the Eighth Air Force Historical Society.
WINSTON G. RAMSEY, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Connie Richards being interviewed with a Glenn Miller fan at Twinwood Farm.
ATB
ATB
THE LOST SOLDIERS OF FROMELLES
Following the assassination of their Arch-
duke Franz Ferdinand, Austria-Hungary
declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914. Ger-
many and Russia joined in on August 1 and
France followed on the 3rd. Great Britain
entered the war the following day although
the honour of firing the first shots was
claimed by the commander of Fort Nepean
on Port Philip Bay, Melbourne. News of the
declaration of war by Great Britain was
received by the Governor-General in Aus-
tralia at 12.30 p.m. (Eastern Australian
Time) on August 5. Consequently, a German
vessel attempting to leave the bay received a
shot across the bows (see
After the Battle
No.
90).
Top:
This is the little French village of
Fromelles some 12 kilometres west of
Lille, before the ravages of war reduced it
to a ruin. On March 10, 1915, the British
First Army launched an attack against
nearby Neuve-Chapelle, capturing the vil-
lage within an hour. In that case the pre-
assault bombardment had lasted just 35
minutes giving the Germans no lengthy
advance warning. Two months later the
British Expeditionary Force followed up
with a more-extensive assault on a five-
mile front between Festubert and
Fromelles, the latter village being held by
the 6. Reserve-Infanterie-Division. How-
ever, by now German pioneers had
worked to create an impregnable front
line. The attack which followed on May 9
devastated the village. It was called the
Battle of Aubers Ridge by the British but
Gefecht (fight) von Fromelles by the Ger-
mans: ‘The ruins of the shelled church
tower loom in the dim light of the moon-
lit night. Prussian subalterns await the
transport and conduct [the men] into the
new positions. The light of dawn
removes tension and curiosity: a level
field with water channels, willow trees
and willow stalks, in the distance
towards the enemy lines lies an insignifi-
cant wood with barbed-wire entangle-
ments. A veritable no man’s land.’
By 1918 over 330.000 Australians had
served and more than 60,000 had lost their
lives of whom 23,000 were recorded as miss-
ing. Although the Australian Imperial Force
(AIF) had fought long and hard at Gallipoli,
what has been described as ‘the worst 24
hours in Australia’s entire history’ occurred
near the little French village of Fromelles on
July 19/20, 1916.
The Australian 5th Division, under Major
General James McCay, had only arrived in
France the previous month. It had been
formed in Egypt in February and, apart from
a few trench raids, this was to be the first
occasion that the Australians would fight a
major battle on the Western Front. Although
By Gail Parker
untried, General McCay wanted
his
5th Divi-
sion to have that honour.
Designed partly to be a diversion for the
main battle of the Somme that had been
launched on July 1, it was hoped that the oper-
ation would also eliminate a bulge or salient,
which included a heavily fortified position
called the ‘Sugarloaf’, in the German lines
north of Fromelles village. The Australian
force comprised the 8th Brigade (Brigadier-
General Edwin Tivey); the 14th Brigade
(Colonel Harold Pope), and the 15th Brigade
(Brigadier-General Harold ‘Pompey’ Elliott).
The Germans even changed the name of the village to Petzstadt and also the street
names — this was Linke Hochbahnstrasse.
3
ATB
By the end of the war Fromelles was a total ruin, the mound of rubble being all that was left of the church.
FROMELLES
Major-General Colin MacKenzie’s British
61st (South Midland) Division would be on
their right flank. However over the previous
year this territorial unit had been denuded of
many of its most-experienced officers and
men to reinforce other divisions. For the
coming battle, its three brigades were the
182nd (Brigadier-General Alistair Gordon);
the 183rd (Brigadier-General Cosmo Stew-
art), and the 184th (Brigadier-General
Charles Carter).
This sector of the German line was held by
the 6. Bayerische Reserve-Infanterie-Division
commanded by Generalleutnant Gustav Scan-
zoni von Lichtenfels. As part of the Royal
Bavarian Army, it had been formed in Sep-
tember 1914 mainly by calling up reservists
(one notable being Gefreiter Adolf Hitler, a
message runner with Reserve-Infanterie-Regi-
ment 16 ‘List’). Having been in action for two
years, the division was battle-hardened com-
pared to the Australians even though some of
the latter were veterans of Gallipoli.
ATB
Right:
To the Germans this was Braun
Strasse. The church was rebuilt by 1927.
4
AWM E O3962
AWM H 01890
Major-General James McCay, the com-
mander of the newly arrived 5th Aus-
tralian Division.
The operation had been formulated by
Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Haking of
the British XI Corps. He had first proposed
an assault using three divisions by including
the 31st Division, but when he was
informed that the only artillery support
available would be provided by the Aus-
tralians, he had to scale his plan back to just
two divisions. His orders stated that: ‘Each
division will attack with three brigades in
line, each brigade with two assaulting bat-
talions and each battalion on a front of
about 350 yards.’
In command of the British 61st (South
Midland) Division was Major-General
Colin MacKenzie.
Most of Haking’s subordinate comman-
ders were unhappy with the plan and went
over his head to General Sir Charles Monro
of First Army but Field-Marshal Sir Douglas
Haig confirmed the operation on the 15th.
The artillery shelling, designed to prepare
the way forward by destroying the wire
entanglements, began at 11 a.m. even though
the infantry were not attacking until 6 p.m.
Such bombardments often failed in their pur-
pose and instead served as a warning that an
assault would follow. The German guns
immediately replied, battering the British
Generalleutnant Gustav Scanzoni von
Lichtenfels commanding the 6. Bay-
erische Reserve-Infanterie-Division.
front line and obscuring observation posts so
that a later British report admitted that ‘no
effective destructive or neutralising of the
Hun infantry, artillery or MGs took place.
The total effect of our artillery preparation
on the Hun resistance was nil.’
At 5.45 p.m. the infantry climbed out of
their trenches to be immediately greeted by
heavy machine-gun fire causing many casual-
ties. Advancing a quarter of a mile to capture
what they had been told was the German
front line, in fact the ‘trenches’ turned out to
be pulverised water-filled drainage ditches.
July 19, 1916. Down in the trenches, Charles Lorking pho-
tographed the men of the Australian 53rd Battalion, 15 min-
utes before the signal was given for the attack to commence.
All these men would become casualties, only three surviving
wounded including Private Frederick Turvey, the soldier
smoking a last cigarette
(left)
before going over the top.
5
AWM H 16396
AWM A 03042
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