SOMME 1918 - Australian Corps - Villers-Bretonneux - 1st Tank vs. Tank Battle - Australian Memorial - Le Hamel

First a short visit to the spot of the 1st Tank vs. Tank Battle, to follow next the traces of the Australian Corps from 4 July 1918, from Villers-Bretonneux, via le Hamel, Proyart, to the Mont St. Quentin near Péronne.

Before we follow the traces of the Australian soldiers, we start at the location of the 1st Tank to Tank Battle ever in history, along the D 168 south-west of Villers-Bretonneux, and north of Cachy.

The First Tank to Tank Battle

On 24 April 1918 one German A7V-tank, out of a group of 4 tanks, approached from a slope, just outside the village of Villers Bretonneux, to the British lines and the position of 3 British Mark IV-Tanks; 2 " Females", and 1 "Male".

The "Male" tank fired once, and one of the " Female" Mark IV tanks fired once at the A7V. The A7V replied and made 2 succesful hits at the 2 "Females". Then, for still unclear reasons, the A7V retreated uphill again. The " Male" Mark IV followed the A7V for about 1500 yards, fired some shots, and knew to destroy it.

Panorama of the slope, from which the German A7V-Tank approached the British tanks.

This video, shared by the Australian War Memorial, is an excerpt, which shows the British Mark IV tank in action. This film was made by the Royal Armoured Corps School of Tank Technology with assistance from the Imperial War Museum.

This fascinating five minute French video shows the German A7V tank, Elfriede, captured during the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux on 24 April 1918, undergoing tests and evaluation.

Dutch Readers , see for more details about this tank versus tank battle my concise article " Het Eerste Tank-tegen-Tank Gevecht ".

The Kaiser's Battle

On 21 March 1918 The Germans launched a series of offensives, known as "The Kaiserschlacht". During the German Operation Michael General Von Der Marwitz' 2nd Army reconquered the former Somme battlefield on General Gough's 5th Army. The 5th Army was forced to withdraw at Amiens. The "new" front line was only some kilometres east of Villers Bretonneux.

Mainly a bad economical situation at home, long supply lines, bad quality supplies, and a low moral with the German lower rank soldier caused the Germans to stop fighting and to start looting the rich supplies, the British left behind during their hasty retreat. The momentum of the at first succesful German offensive was killed. The battle in the Somme area petered out around the end of April .

The last operation, "Marneschutz", of the Kaiser's Battle petered out at Chalons sur Marne on 15 July 1918.

Allied Offensives

Awaiting the soon arrival of the American Troops, the British and French resupplied and reorganised their Armies under the highest secrecy. On 18 July Foch' 6th Army launched the 2nd Battle of the Marne with good results.

On 8 August, at 4.20 AM, the Allied forces, the French 1st Army , the British III Corps of the 4th Army with the Australian Corps, Canadian Corps , and the Cavalry Corps, launched the Battle of Amiens. The troops were fortified with 2000 artillery guns, 534 tanks, and 800 aircrafts.

This was the first of a series of succesful offensives, also later reinforced with the mass of American Divisions.

The Battle of Amiens

Before 8 August, on 4 July 1918, under the command of Lieutenant General Monash, the Australian 2nd Division, with the addition of machine gun battalions of the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th Divisions, and the American 33rd Division, prepared an opening action for the later attacks in the Somme area. On 4 July, they wiped out the German 1st line Salient near le Hamel, northeast of Villers Bretonneux.

Later, on 8 August, during the launch of the Battle of Amiens, the British III Corps attacked in the Somme area on the northern bank, in the zone around Albert. On the banks of the river and south of the Somme the Australian Corps attacked from the lines at le Hamel. The Canadian Corps attacked the area south of the straight Roman Road, the nowadays D1029 or N29. By 31 July 1918 the Australians would continue from the banks of the Somme to reach the Mont St. Quentin and Péronne. The French 1st Army , under British command, attacked at the right flank of the Canadian Corps.

North of the town of Villers Bretonneux, along the D 23, we visited the Australian National Memorial and Military Cemetery of Villers Bretonneux.

Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery

Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery was made after the Armistice when graves were brought in from other burial grounds in the area and from the battlefields. Plots I to XX were completed by 1920 and contain mostly Australian graves, almost all from the period March to August 1918. Plots IIIA, VIA, XIIIA and XVIA, and Rows in other Plots lettered AA, were completed by 1925, and contain a much larger proportion of unidentified graves brought from a wider area. Later, 444 graves were brought in from Dury Hospital Military Cemetery. (....)
There are now more than 2,100 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 608 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to five casualties known or believed to be buried among them, and to 15 buried in other cemeteries whose graves could not be found on concentration. The cemetery also contains the graves of two New Zealand airmen of the Second World War.

SOURCE: Commonwealth War Graves Commission

The Cemetery in front of the Memorial contains the graves of 1.085 UK , 770 Australian, 263 Canadian, 4 South African, and 2 New Zealand officers, NCO's, and soldiers.

All these men were killed in the period from March 1918 and later.

Australian National Memorial

Within the cemetery stands the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, the Australian National Memorial erected to commemorate all Australian soldiers who fought in France and Belgium during the First World War, to their dead, and especially to name more than 10,000 of those of the dead whose graves are not known. The Australian servicemen named on the memorial died in the battlefields of the Somme, Arras, the German advance of 1918 and the Advance to Victory. The memorial was unveiled by King George VI on 22 July 1938. The cemetery and the memorial were both designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

SOURCE: Commonwealth War Graves Commission

With some effort we climbed the 100 feet high Memorial tower for some views over the landscape.

View from the tower southward in the direction of Villers Bretonneux.

View eastward over the Cemetery. On a clear day one can see Amiens left at the horizon.

We cross the Somme at Corbie to the northern bank. We pass along the D1 the Crash Site of the German flying Ace, the Red Baron, Manfred Von Richthofen.

(Somewhere else on this site there is more to read about this event and this site; click HERE ).

After some 2500 meter, still before the junction to le Sec Sailly and Méricourt, we discovered on the left side of the road this obelisque, the Memorial to commemorate the 3rd Australian Division, but also the other Australian Divisions, the 2nd, 4th, and 5th, who advanced past this location, along the banks and south of the Somme.

We cross the meandering Somme again to the southern bank, to continue to the former trenches near le Hamel.

Nowadays on top of the former German trenches stands the le Hamel Australian National Memorial , which was that day alas covered with a net for maintenance.

Southeast of the village of le Hamel, the 1st German line passed a hill, which the Germans called the Wolfsberg . Around the Wolfsberg the Germans formed a small salient. The Germans fortified the hill with an observation post, overseeiing the valleys around, and an artillery base.

The 4th Australian Division offensive at the Wolfsberg Salient

On 4 July 1918, under the command of Lieutenant General Monash, the 4th Australian Division, launched a succesfull offensive at the 1st line German Salient of the Wolfsberg, southeast of the village of le Hamel.
Besides the Australian 2nd Division also other auxiliary troops attacked; machine gun battalions of the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th Australian Divisions, 60 Mark V tanks, 600 artillery guns, and a great number of aircraft. Though after much discussion with the American Commander in Chief, General Pershing, the General consented on the last moment in the deployment of 1000 men of the American 33rd Division during the attack at le Hamel. It would be also one of the first times (besides battles around Château Thierry on 1 June) , that American troops were fighting along the Western Front.

Monash used some new tactics: no huge preliminary bombardment anymore, but a creeping artillery barrage, followed by tanks as a part of infantry units in the front, followed by machine gunners taking positions for counter attacks, and infantry. It was also for the first time in history, that an army used parachutes for droppings of ammunition supplies above their troops. The Royal Air Force dropped 100.000 rounds with a precision of 100 meter above Australian machine gun posts, marked with a large V on the ground!

Around the Wolfsberg were 3 lines of defensive trenches, with machine gun posts and trench mortars.

Through the rather odd reconstructed trenches, we arrive at the location of the Observation Post. A view southeastward, which gives an impression of the powerful overview the Germans had.

The first line of this sytem, the "Pear Trench", as the Australians called it, lied in the valley. A view southward from the tip of the O.P. in the direction of the Pear Trench, and the slopes of the parachute ammunition droppings.

View north-westward to Vaire Wood.

After the capture of the hill the Australians installed themselves in the trenches and in the Observation Post.

On a remembrance stone a poem by C.E.W. Bean:

8 August 1918 - Australian jump off lines

On 8 August, at the start of the Battle of Amiens, these lines formed the Australian jump off lines for their new offensive in the direction of Proyart. The 2nd and 3rd Divisions reached the first out of three rather badly organised German defensive lines around 07:00 AM. The Australian 4th and 5th Divisions took over the assault and conquered the 2nd defensive line around 14:00 Hrs. A group of tanks surprised the soldiers, eating in the houses of the village of Proyart, along the third defensive line. Later in the afternoon of 8 August 1918, the Australian 4th and 5th Divisions reached Chuignolles and Proyart. Although the fighting would go on until 12 August, there was no important gain anymore, at least for the time being.

An inscription on the wall of the Memorial quotes Generalquartiermeister Ludendorff about the events of 8 August 1918:

We continue to Proyart .

Nowadays, there is no trace of the Australians to be found in the village of Proyart. But we had to visit 2 locations, on the northern side of the village. We detected this beautiful modest "Arc de Triomphe", and it's statue of a Poilu.

On it's pedestal are bronze bas reliefs with heroic presentations, in an art style so typical for the 1920's in France, but also witnessing of the heroic actions of the French Armies.

Just outside the village lies the "Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof Proyart".

The majority of the soldiers buried here were killed during the period of March-September 1918.

We continue to the Mont St. Quentin near Péronne.

Mont St. Quentin, Péronne, 31 August 1918

On 31 August 600 men of the Australian 2nd Division reached the hill of Mont. St. Quentin, overlooking the Somme. The Germans had fortified the Mont with a network of trenches and machine gun posts.
It took the Australians 8 hours to capture the hill,and 2 days to definitely gain control over the area around it on 2 September 1918.

Along the D 1017, north of Péronne, stands on the summit of the Mont St. Quentin the Memorial for the 2nd Australian Division.

To end this photo impression; some interesting 1918 footage of General John Monash being knighted by King George V at Bertangles and his visit afterwards to captured Péronne.

Continue to the next Special Photo Impression: " The Red Baron´s Crash Site at Vaux-sur-Somme "