Just more work from the Iron Europe Forum:
OK, I found some photos of a WWI Telescopic site.
I don't think it is an X4 site
The standard Gewehr 98 had to be modified.
They had to cut a piece out and turn the bolt down.
This is what I've found so far (in French language, but the English Wikipedia in the "Gewehr 98" entry explains the Sniper version of the Gewehr 98, and looks like it translated the French description word for word; just go to Wikipedia):
http://tirmilitairefabrice.ifrance.com/site%20mauser1/Mauser.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gewehr_98
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Description of Gheluvelt Chateau, October 1914
Recollection of Chaplain Major Edmund Kennedy:
From the neighbourhood of Zandvoorde my unit was hurriedly moved to
Gheluvelt, which was then threatened by a German force approaching from
the direction of Bercelaire.
Here the whole population was in a state of indescribable anxiety and
fear, which it was impossible to remove, for the shells were more
convincing than any arguments we could bring to bear.
Our Head-quarters were established at a Xaverian Brotherhood; the
superior of which--a dear old gentleman--did his utmost to ensure our
comfort. It was weary work hanging about all day awaiting results.
Towards evening I thought it wise to get a sleep, and so turned in about
five o'clock. During these days of constant anxiety, owing to the
proximity of the enemy, we seldom or never removed our clothes,--I had
not had mine off for over a week at that time--thus we were ready for
any emergency, at any time.
From the village of Gheluvelt we moved on a mile nearer to Ypres, where
we billeted in the Chateau de Gheluvelt, from which the owner (Monsieur
Peerebone) and his family had evidently departed in great haste. Finely
situated in a well wooded park, the house was most splendidly equipped
in every respect. The pictures, statuary and furniture were in keeping
with the outward appearance of the place. It was interesting to notice
the different manner of dealing with other people's property in vogue
with the British, in contrast with the German method; so rigid was our
O.C. that not even a vegetable was allowed to be taken from the
well-stocked walled garden, close by the mansion; a sentry being placed
to prevent any hungry 'Tommy' gratifying his desire in that quarter.
Towards evening a general engagement took place, and there was very
heavy shelling. Several shells struck the house, but none of us were
injured. On the following morning I was called to an advanced outpost of
the Scots Guards, to bury Sergeant Wilson, of Lord Esme Gordon's
Company. On reaching the line I found the Battalion about to advance
into action in extended order, and the man had been hurriedly buried. On
my way back I joined Captain Hamilton Wedderburn, Adjutant, who had been
ordered to the rear suffering from appendicitis. I had met this
officer's father, Colonel Hamilton, who resided in my neighbourhood at
home.
During the night several wounded men came in, and the large salon
presented a weird appearance as the doctors attended the suffering men.
No cooking was allowed, and all windows were carefully curtained, in
order not to draw the fire of the enemy, who were in very unpleasant
proximity to the house. I well remember next morning, because the
Germans had got the range to a nicety, and the otherwise enjoyable place
was rendered unbearable by the crash of shells. So unhealthy grew the
position, that the transport was moved a mile away; but we who composed
the tent section remained to deal with any men who were brought in. It
is astonishing how quickly one grows accustomed to 'fire,' and a very
short experience enabled us to go about our work, under risky
circumstances, in the most ordinary manner.
The nights at this time were very dark, and at several points we could
see burning farm homesteads and villages, which to the thoughtful mind
denoted the awful destruction and suffering envolved by the ghastly
outrage upon humanity, being perpetrated by the enemy.
We left the chateau very suddenly, owing to heavy shelling. Some of our
men were hit, and two of our 'mess' had horses killed under them, but
otherwise we managed to get clear from a decidedly dangerous position.
That night it was pitch dark, and we halted on the roadside, some two or
three miles west of Gheluvelt. It was pouring with rain as we ate our
meal of cold rations; we could not even enjoy a comforting smoke, as the
lighting of a match would have been certain to draw the fire of our
vigilant foe. Mr. Jaffray and I both agreed that a night's lodging in a
damp ditch was hardly consonant with our wishes, and therefore we set
out for the hamlet of Halte, where the railway crosses the road, in
hopes that we might find cover of some sort.
Leading our horses very cautiously along the road, for sentinels were
posted in every direction, and at such 'nervy' times men frequently fire
before they challenge, we made our way to a small estaminet which we
found crammed with French soldiers. I pleaded hard for even a chair, but
the proprietor assured me of the impossibility of offering even this
very slender hospitality. I was fortunate to meet MacKenzie, the
Transport officer of the Scots Guards, who introduced me to a French
officer, who in turn interested the landlady's daughter in our forlorn
condition. This kind angel of mercy informed me that her married sister
lived at a farm near by, and she thought that there was a bedroom that
Mr. Jaffray and I might make use of. Accordingly, holding my reins in
one hand and my fair guide's hand in the other, I was led through pitch
darkness for some distance, and presently found myself in a huge Belgian
farm kitchen, crammed with French soldiers and smelling horribly of
garlic. Yes! the farmer could let us have his bedroom for the night, at
a small remuneration, as he and his wife had decided to stay up;
accordingly, we were shown into an exceedingly small room, some eight
feet square, in which was a bed the covering of which made one shudder
to look at; but any port in a storm; and we accordingly doubled up the
best way we could on a bed some two feet too short for us. As we vainly
tried to fall asleep, my batman suddenly turned up,--how he found our
quarters will always be a mystery to me--with the news that the column
had moved off to some place which he could not pronounce. I showed him
my map and asked him if he recognized any name in the locality, but
finding that he was as much at sea as to the destination of the unit as
I was, I determined that it was useless to attempt to explore that part
of Belgium in the darkness of a soaking night; so stowing my servant
away in the corner of the kitchen, we did our best to get a few hours'
sleep. In the first grey of the dawn we arose and ate a little black
bread and very salt bacon, washed down with some execrable coffee, then
leading our horses out of the cowhouse in which we had installed them
the night before, and from which we had had to turn out a couple of very
evil-smelling beasts, we sallied forth to the apparently hopeless task
of discovering the direction in which the column had moved. One's
deductive faculty had to be drawn upon largely. Presently we found
ourselves at Zillebeke, where we were held up by the Northumberland
Hussars, who came by in splendid order on their way to entering action.
Standing by my side was a Staff officer who had dismounted from his car,
awaiting the passage of the cavalry. I explained to him our difficulty,
and he said that he rather thought our unit was with the 10th Hussars
at Zandvoorde, some four miles away, and very kindly offered me a lift.
My horse had contracted a terrible cold and was hardly fit to ride, so
placing him in charge of my batman, I arranged to drive on in the car,
leaving Mr. Jaffray and my servant to follow. The friendly officer
turned out to be Lord Nairne, who was, unfortunately, killed a few days
afterwards.
On reaching the village of Zandvoorde, I encountered a terrible sight.
The enemy was approaching from two sides, and shelling hard. The place
was a slaughter-house; never have I seen so ghastly a sight. The
doctors, with their coats off and shirt sleeves rolled up, looked more
like butchers than medical men, and for an hour or two I found my hands
full in the saddest of all work, dealing with dying men.
As I was eating a hasty breakfast--for in campaigning one learns the
value of sleeping and eating whenever a chance presents itself--the
O.C. came to me saying that some one must get through to Ypres, to stop
the transport that was about to come out, and also to warn the major of
the serious condition of affairs at Zandvoorde. Would I go? Such an
opportunity of doing 'a real bit' only comes now and again, therefore it
was not difficult to decide.
I had a foretaste of what I was presently to pass through, as, sitting
on the doorstep of a cottage, I was changing into riding boots, out of
the heavy Swiss climbing boots that I had been wearing, and which
threatened to be awkward in the stirrups, if by any chance I was thrown,
a not unlikely event under fire, when a shrapnel burst some twenty feet
from me, with an explosion which almost lifted me from the ground. The
door before which I sat, and the front of the cottage, were liberally
studded with bullets and pieces of the casing, but in a most
providential manner I was untouched. Very quickly I completed my change
of boots, and got my kit-bag once more stowed away in a transport wagon.
Strictest orders had been given that no kits were to be removed from the
wagon, and I hope that the O.C., if ever he discovers my delinquency,
will take into consideration the urgency of my desire to fulfil
instructions in the carrying of his orders into Ypres.
For three miles, right over 'Hill 60,' I had the ride of my life. Shells
were bursting in every direction, but my good horse struggled on gamely.
By this time he had come to know the import of the shrieking whistle
which betokens the approach of a shell, but he displayed no more concern
than a momentary quiver as it burst. As for me I could only place myself
in God's hands, and well remember how, as each shell approached, I
repeated that comforting word from Isaiah xxvi. 3, 'Thou wilt keep him
in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in
thee.' Over and over again I repeated 'because he trusteth in thee.' And
then bang! bang! and once more the danger was past.
The road was crowded with terrified people, literally fleeing for their
lives, and as I got out of the range of fire, I tried to comfort them in
the best way I could.
Reaching Ypres I delivered my message, and then sank down and fell into
a deep sleep for four hours. I suppose it was a kind of reaction from
the nervous strain.
I found Ypres crammed with wounded men, and worked hard there for the
next day or two. Many were the distressing cases that came under my
attention.
It was on October 23 that I received my first batch of letters from
home, and the first opportunity I stole away into a quiet corner and
enjoyed myself to my heart's content.
Useful WWI Information
I really just use this blog site as a workspace for the Iron Europe Red Orchestra PC Modification game.
Here are some interesting websites I found about the Great War:
1) The Great War Society:
http://www.worldwar1.com/tripwire/smtw.htm
http://www.worldwar1.com/tgws/
2)Books on the French Army:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://jeanluc.dron.free.fr/th/Bibliographie2.htm&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=7&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3D160e%2BRegiment%2Bd%2527infanterie,%2BFrance%26start%3D10%26hl%3Den%26rls%3DGGLF,GGLF:2006-39,GGLF:en%26sa%3DN
Personal account of First Ypres:
http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/9/3/3/19339/19339.htm
Here are some interesting websites I found about the Great War:
1) The Great War Society:
http://www.worldwar1.com/tripwire/smtw.htm
http://www.worldwar1.com/tgws/
2)Books on the French Army:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://jeanluc.dron.free.fr/th/Bibliographie2.htm&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=7&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3D160e%2BRegiment%2Bd%2527infanterie,%2BFrance%26start%3D10%26hl%3Den%26rls%3DGGLF,GGLF:2006-39,GGLF:en%26sa%3DN
Personal account of First Ypres:
http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/9/3/3/19339/19339.htm
Friday, September 19, 2008
Iron Europe Forum And Website
Here is the link to our Iron Europe: 1914-1918 Forum and Website:
http://z15.invisionfree.com/Iron_Europe/index.php
We welcome people to register; that shows us that people are interested in this computer modification of Tripwire International's first person shooter: "Red Orchestra: OstFront 1941-1945".
And if you perchance would like to help out on making this modification, we welcome everyone. We just communicate at the Forum and using emails from time to time.
We need researchers and writers (which is what I do, and no computer skills are required).
We also need people who are willing to learn computer modeling, map making, coding, and who are knowledgeable about sound.
We will be using Unreal Technology 3.0 in the "beta" edition of the Mod (short for computer modification), but are using Unreal Tech(UT)2.5 right now to make everything and the character player models.
You don't need any experience in these skills, so our Mod is a good place for beginners; of course, people with prior modding skills using other game engines, or who are experienced in UT are always welcome.
If you are interested, please either live a message here, with contact information, or you can Privat Message me at the Iron Europe Forum after you register.
Gamburd
http://z15.invisionfree.com/Iron_Europe/index.php
We welcome people to register; that shows us that people are interested in this computer modification of Tripwire International's first person shooter: "Red Orchestra: OstFront 1941-1945".
And if you perchance would like to help out on making this modification, we welcome everyone. We just communicate at the Forum and using emails from time to time.
We need researchers and writers (which is what I do, and no computer skills are required).
We also need people who are willing to learn computer modeling, map making, coding, and who are knowledgeable about sound.
We will be using Unreal Technology 3.0 in the "beta" edition of the Mod (short for computer modification), but are using Unreal Tech(UT)2.5 right now to make everything and the character player models.
You don't need any experience in these skills, so our Mod is a good place for beginners; of course, people with prior modding skills using other game engines, or who are experienced in UT are always welcome.
If you are interested, please either live a message here, with contact information, or you can Privat Message me at the Iron Europe Forum after you register.
Gamburd
Monday, September 1, 2008
Mouquet Farm: Second Draft
I still need to change some things, make corrections, fact check, and stuff like that, but hopefully I can get this done soon.
Mouquet Farm: Australian Introduction
The time is 0445 hrs., 26 August, 1916
"My bottle's dry as a dead dingo's donger!"
The Australian 2nd Division is in the frontlines near Mouquet Farm, about five miles north of the River Somme and about one and a half miles east of the Somme's tributary, the River Ancre, in Picardy, France.
The advance from the summit of Pozieres Ridge to Mouquet Farm has lasted for almost three weeks now and has been painfully slow.
The landscape looks like something from the planet Mars: a sea of blown up reddish chesnut colored earth pierced by thousands of red shell craters.
The only signs of human civilization are an overturned abandoned wagon on the horizon, and several piles of white rubble with some beams of wood protruding from them: Mouquet Farm.
When the 2nd Division came over the slope to the frontlines facing Mouquet Farm during the early evening of August 22, just eighty-two hours ago, an intense barrage from the German lines of shrapnel and high-explosive shells immediately descended on the whole area from Mouquet Farm to Pozieres, lasting from 6:00PM until midnight, and Lieutenant W.A. Coward of the 24th Battalion was killed.
The Germans have an advantageous position; Mouquet Farm and their trench lines are on the top of a gentle rising slope, and thus they can see any movement along Poziers Ridge and the Australian frontlines by day.
The German artillery shells fall for hours at a time like a deadly cosmic storm, killing, maiming, and burying the men in your battalion.
Because of the heavy German barrages, communications is severely impaired and telephone lines cannot be maintained.
Instead, foot messengers are used to send messages; it takes them several hours from the frontlines to reach Brigade Headquarters which is a little less than 1,000 yards away from Pozieres Cemetery.
You have heard stories from the men being relieved that our own artillery has killed scores of our own men through friendly fire, and continued to shell our frontlines, even after messengers were sent, because things are not being coordinated properly.
Yesterday, ninety-six men in a single company of the 21st Battalion were killed or wounded during a German barrage.
Just about half the supplies of grenades, small arms ammunition, flares, and water are able to get through to the front. The two days of line rations that you brought with you ran out over a day ago.
On August 16, Field Marshal Douglas Haig, Commander of the BEF, informed General Gough, the Commander of the Reserve Army, that heavy armoured "caterpillar" cars which, for secrecy, had been referred to as "water tanks," would shortly reach France, and that a new major offensive with fresh reinforcements will probably take place in the middle of September.
It is hoped that this planned September offensive with the tanks might at last break through the German front and enable the British to "roll it up".
But before the September offensive can be effectively launched, the Thiepval-Pozieres Ridge must be seized.
General Gough originally defined the purpose of capturing Mouquet Farm as "cutting off Thiepval and getting observation over Coucelette and Grandcourt."
Gough has amplified the order: the object of Anzac operations is to cut off the heavily defended German position at the village of Thiepval and the nearby Schwaben Redoubt from the Germans' resupply depot at Courcelette to the east, and to capture of Thiepval itself by converging attacks by the Anzacs from the north-east and by the newly arrived British II Corps to the south-west.
The date for this assault on Thiepval is set for 28th of August, and will coincide with the British 4th Army's assault on Ginchy and Guillemont to the east.
Objectives:
In preparation for the planned September offensive on Thiepval, Mouquet Farm must be taken; the Anzac line west of Mouquet Farm must be straightened to the Courcellette Road; and the substantial German trench line called the Fabeck Graben just east of the farm must be taken and secured.
In order to reduce the horrendous level of casualties that were sustained on the opening day at the Somme and at Pozieres over a month ago, new tactics have been issued to General Headquarters by Field Marshal Haig.
In order to avoid detection from the German artillery and to lower casualties, lighter forces are to be employed in assaulting enemy positions.
Objectives will be carefully selected, and instead of attacking in overwhelming numbers, sufficient levels of troops will be used to capture and hold them; yet not using forces that are too weak.
Also a "creeping" artillery barrage will be utilized.
The creeping barrage will move ahead of the advancing infantry at a set rate of 50 yards a minute, so that the infantry will be protected by a curtain of fire and will be able to attack the enemy positions as soon as the barrage moves on to the next enemy line.
Zero hour is at 0445 hours.
At 0415 hours, Captain Sale gives the order to climb out of the front-line trench and lay down in proper order in shell craters 25 feet ahead of the trench.
As you lie in the shell crater, waiting for the artillery to open up, you think about the letter you found in the shirt pocket of one your friends who was killed by the German artillery.
It said "Dear Mother, sisters, brothers, and Auntie Lill.
As we are about to go into work that must be done, I want to ask you, if anything should happen to me, not to worry. You must think of all the mothers that lost ones as dear to them. One thing you can say-- that you lost one doing his little bit for a good cause.
I know you shall feel it if anything does happen to me, but I am willing and prepared to give my life for the cause."
Your friend's blood was on the letter.
In the summer of 1916, Mouquet Farm would reap a harvest not of wheat, but of thousands of human corpses. The total casualties incurred in attempting to take the farm from 7 August to 12 September cannot have been much short of 20,000 men, and the fallen included Britons, Canadians, Tasmanians, but the bulk of the men lost were from Australia (including a few men of mixed Aborginal ancestry).
The Australian Imperial Force's casualties (including Tasmanians and the men of mixed Aboriginal background) numbered 15,400 out of the 20,000 men killed or wounded.
Australian Imperial Force, 2nd Division, 6th Bde. (Victoria): 21st, 23rd, and 24th Battalions.
The day after Britain declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914, the Prime Minister of Australia, Joseph Cook, declared war on Germany too, stating "When the Empire is at war, so also is Australia."
Australian federal elections were held on September 5, 1914, and the succeeding Australian Labour government of Prime Minister Andrew Fisher continued to support the war; Fisher, during the 1914 election campaign, pledged that Australia would "stand beside the mother country to help and defend her to the last man and the last shilling."
An initial expeditionary force of 20,000 men (two-thirds Australian and one-third New Zealanders) was offered the same day Australia declared war to serve at any destination desired by the British Home Government; on August 6th, 1914, London cabled its acceptance of the force and asked for it to be sent as soon as possible.
Thus the Australian Imperial Force, a new military army, better known to the world by its acronym as a corps with the New Zealand forces, ANZACs, was born.
Recruitment offices opened on August 10, 1914, and men from all over Australia and from all walks of life rushed to them to sign up. By the end of 1914, 52,561 volunteers had been accepted.
The 21st, 23rd, and 24th Battalions of the Australian Imperial Force ("A.I.F.") were raised as part of the 6th Brigade at Broadmeadows Camp in the state of Victoria between February and May, 1915.
These recruits were from all over Victoria. The average age of these men was 29, and their later enlistment would seem to indicate a more considered decision to enlist that set them apart from those men who enlisted during the great enthusiasm of late 1914.
These three Battalions sailed from the city of Melbourne between March and early May, and arrived in Egypt in June 1915; there they trained during the months of July and August.
In late August, the 21st, 23rd, and 24th Battalions were sent to Gallipoli, landing at Anzac Cove on September 7, 1915.
While stationed at Gallipoli for 16 weeks, both the 23rd and 24th Battalions manned at various times one of the most trying parts of the ANZAC frontline: Lone Pine.
The fighting at Lone Pine was so dangerous and exhausting that battalions were relieved every day.
The 21st Battalion had a relatively quiet time at Gallipoli.
After evacuation from Gallipoli in December, 1915, the three Battalions arrived in the Armetieres sector of northern France in March, 1916.
In mid-July 1916, with the British offensive on the Somme dragging on, I ANZAC Corps was sent to join the British Reserve Army of Lieutenant-General Hubert (de la Poer) Gough who used the ANZAC forces to drive a wedge between the heavily fortified and defended German position at the small village of Thiepval and the German supply and reinforcement base at the town of Courcelette nearby a few miles to the east. Thus cut off and encircled by the I ANZAC Corps, the fortified positions of Thiepval and the Schwaben Redoubt would surely fall into Allied hands.
The Australian 1st Division attacked Pozieres on July 23, 1916. Due to heavy casualties, Australian 1st Division was relieved by the 2nd Division on July 27.
The 2nd Division attacked on July 29 and again on August 4th, capturing the German OG 2 trench line and part of the crest of Pozieres Ridge.
The Germans retaliated with a heavy, sustained artillery bombardment of the Ridge.
After 12 days on the frontline, the 2nd Division was relieved by the Australian 4th Division on the 6th of August, 1916.
The 2nd Division had sustained a total of 6,846 casualties at Pozieres.
After a brief 15 day rest, during which the Division was built up to two-thirds strength, the 2nd Division again relieved the 1st Division to continue the drive northwest to encircle Thiepval, at the Australian frontline just about 300 yards south of Mouquet Farm.
Copyright 2008, USA
Mouquet Farm: Australian Introduction
The time is 0445 hrs., 26 August, 1916
"My bottle's dry as a dead dingo's donger!"
The Australian 2nd Division is in the frontlines near Mouquet Farm, about five miles north of the River Somme and about one and a half miles east of the Somme's tributary, the River Ancre, in Picardy, France.
The advance from the summit of Pozieres Ridge to Mouquet Farm has lasted for almost three weeks now and has been painfully slow.
The landscape looks like something from the planet Mars: a sea of blown up reddish chesnut colored earth pierced by thousands of red shell craters.
The only signs of human civilization are an overturned abandoned wagon on the horizon, and several piles of white rubble with some beams of wood protruding from them: Mouquet Farm.
When the 2nd Division came over the slope to the frontlines facing Mouquet Farm during the early evening of August 22, just eighty-two hours ago, an intense barrage from the German lines of shrapnel and high-explosive shells immediately descended on the whole area from Mouquet Farm to Pozieres, lasting from 6:00PM until midnight, and Lieutenant W.A. Coward of the 24th Battalion was killed.
The Germans have an advantageous position; Mouquet Farm and their trench lines are on the top of a gentle rising slope, and thus they can see any movement along Poziers Ridge and the Australian frontlines by day.
The German artillery shells fall for hours at a time like a deadly cosmic storm, killing, maiming, and burying the men in your battalion.
Because of the heavy German barrages, communications is severely impaired and telephone lines cannot be maintained.
Instead, foot messengers are used to send messages; it takes them several hours from the frontlines to reach Brigade Headquarters which is a little less than 1,000 yards away from Pozieres Cemetery.
You have heard stories from the men being relieved that our own artillery has killed scores of our own men through friendly fire, and continued to shell our frontlines, even after messengers were sent, because things are not being coordinated properly.
Yesterday, ninety-six men in a single company of the 21st Battalion were killed or wounded during a German barrage.
Just about half the supplies of grenades, small arms ammunition, flares, and water are able to get through to the front. The two days of line rations that you brought with you ran out over a day ago.
On August 16, Field Marshal Douglas Haig, Commander of the BEF, informed General Gough, the Commander of the Reserve Army, that heavy armoured "caterpillar" cars which, for secrecy, had been referred to as "water tanks," would shortly reach France, and that a new major offensive with fresh reinforcements will probably take place in the middle of September.
It is hoped that this planned September offensive with the tanks might at last break through the German front and enable the British to "roll it up".
But before the September offensive can be effectively launched, the Thiepval-Pozieres Ridge must be seized.
General Gough originally defined the purpose of capturing Mouquet Farm as "cutting off Thiepval and getting observation over Coucelette and Grandcourt."
Gough has amplified the order: the object of Anzac operations is to cut off the heavily defended German position at the village of Thiepval and the nearby Schwaben Redoubt from the Germans' resupply depot at Courcelette to the east, and to capture of Thiepval itself by converging attacks by the Anzacs from the north-east and by the newly arrived British II Corps to the south-west.
The date for this assault on Thiepval is set for 28th of August, and will coincide with the British 4th Army's assault on Ginchy and Guillemont to the east.
Objectives:
In preparation for the planned September offensive on Thiepval, Mouquet Farm must be taken; the Anzac line west of Mouquet Farm must be straightened to the Courcellette Road; and the substantial German trench line called the Fabeck Graben just east of the farm must be taken and secured.
In order to reduce the horrendous level of casualties that were sustained on the opening day at the Somme and at Pozieres over a month ago, new tactics have been issued to General Headquarters by Field Marshal Haig.
In order to avoid detection from the German artillery and to lower casualties, lighter forces are to be employed in assaulting enemy positions.
Objectives will be carefully selected, and instead of attacking in overwhelming numbers, sufficient levels of troops will be used to capture and hold them; yet not using forces that are too weak.
Also a "creeping" artillery barrage will be utilized.
The creeping barrage will move ahead of the advancing infantry at a set rate of 50 yards a minute, so that the infantry will be protected by a curtain of fire and will be able to attack the enemy positions as soon as the barrage moves on to the next enemy line.
Zero hour is at 0445 hours.
At 0415 hours, Captain Sale gives the order to climb out of the front-line trench and lay down in proper order in shell craters 25 feet ahead of the trench.
As you lie in the shell crater, waiting for the artillery to open up, you think about the letter you found in the shirt pocket of one your friends who was killed by the German artillery.
It said "Dear Mother, sisters, brothers, and Auntie Lill.
As we are about to go into work that must be done, I want to ask you, if anything should happen to me, not to worry. You must think of all the mothers that lost ones as dear to them. One thing you can say-- that you lost one doing his little bit for a good cause.
I know you shall feel it if anything does happen to me, but I am willing and prepared to give my life for the cause."
Your friend's blood was on the letter.
In the summer of 1916, Mouquet Farm would reap a harvest not of wheat, but of thousands of human corpses. The total casualties incurred in attempting to take the farm from 7 August to 12 September cannot have been much short of 20,000 men, and the fallen included Britons, Canadians, Tasmanians, but the bulk of the men lost were from Australia (including a few men of mixed Aborginal ancestry).
The Australian Imperial Force's casualties (including Tasmanians and the men of mixed Aboriginal background) numbered 15,400 out of the 20,000 men killed or wounded.
Australian Imperial Force, 2nd Division, 6th Bde. (Victoria): 21st, 23rd, and 24th Battalions.
The day after Britain declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914, the Prime Minister of Australia, Joseph Cook, declared war on Germany too, stating "When the Empire is at war, so also is Australia."
Australian federal elections were held on September 5, 1914, and the succeeding Australian Labour government of Prime Minister Andrew Fisher continued to support the war; Fisher, during the 1914 election campaign, pledged that Australia would "stand beside the mother country to help and defend her to the last man and the last shilling."
An initial expeditionary force of 20,000 men (two-thirds Australian and one-third New Zealanders) was offered the same day Australia declared war to serve at any destination desired by the British Home Government; on August 6th, 1914, London cabled its acceptance of the force and asked for it to be sent as soon as possible.
Thus the Australian Imperial Force, a new military army, better known to the world by its acronym as a corps with the New Zealand forces, ANZACs, was born.
Recruitment offices opened on August 10, 1914, and men from all over Australia and from all walks of life rushed to them to sign up. By the end of 1914, 52,561 volunteers had been accepted.
The 21st, 23rd, and 24th Battalions of the Australian Imperial Force ("A.I.F.") were raised as part of the 6th Brigade at Broadmeadows Camp in the state of Victoria between February and May, 1915.
These recruits were from all over Victoria. The average age of these men was 29, and their later enlistment would seem to indicate a more considered decision to enlist that set them apart from those men who enlisted during the great enthusiasm of late 1914.
These three Battalions sailed from the city of Melbourne between March and early May, and arrived in Egypt in June 1915; there they trained during the months of July and August.
In late August, the 21st, 23rd, and 24th Battalions were sent to Gallipoli, landing at Anzac Cove on September 7, 1915.
While stationed at Gallipoli for 16 weeks, both the 23rd and 24th Battalions manned at various times one of the most trying parts of the ANZAC frontline: Lone Pine.
The fighting at Lone Pine was so dangerous and exhausting that battalions were relieved every day.
The 21st Battalion had a relatively quiet time at Gallipoli.
After evacuation from Gallipoli in December, 1915, the three Battalions arrived in the Armetieres sector of northern France in March, 1916.
In mid-July 1916, with the British offensive on the Somme dragging on, I ANZAC Corps was sent to join the British Reserve Army of Lieutenant-General Hubert (de la Poer) Gough who used the ANZAC forces to drive a wedge between the heavily fortified and defended German position at the small village of Thiepval and the German supply and reinforcement base at the town of Courcelette nearby a few miles to the east. Thus cut off and encircled by the I ANZAC Corps, the fortified positions of Thiepval and the Schwaben Redoubt would surely fall into Allied hands.
The Australian 1st Division attacked Pozieres on July 23, 1916. Due to heavy casualties, Australian 1st Division was relieved by the 2nd Division on July 27.
The 2nd Division attacked on July 29 and again on August 4th, capturing the German OG 2 trench line and part of the crest of Pozieres Ridge.
The Germans retaliated with a heavy, sustained artillery bombardment of the Ridge.
After 12 days on the frontline, the 2nd Division was relieved by the Australian 4th Division on the 6th of August, 1916.
The 2nd Division had sustained a total of 6,846 casualties at Pozieres.
After a brief 15 day rest, during which the Division was built up to two-thirds strength, the 2nd Division again relieved the 1st Division to continue the drive northwest to encircle Thiepval, at the Australian frontline just about 300 yards south of Mouquet Farm.
Copyright 2008, USA
Mouquet Farm, 26 August, 1916
My rough draft introduction for the Mouquet Farm Map:
Australian Introduction:
The time is 04:45 hours, 26 August, 1916
"My tinnie is as dry as a dead dingo's donger!"
The Australian 2nd Division is in the frontlines near Mouquet Farm, about five miles north of the River Somme and about one and a half miles east of the Somme's tributary, the River Ancre, in Picardy, France.
The advance from the summit of Pozieres Ridge to Mouquet Farm has lasted for almost three weeks now and has been painfully slow.
The landscape looks like something from the planet Mars: a sea of blown up reddish chesnut colored earth pierced by thousands of red shell craters.
The only signs of human civilization are an overturned abandoned wagon on the horizon, and several piles of white rubble with some beams of wood protruding from them: Mouquet Farm.
When the 2nd Division came over the slope to the frontlines facing Mouquet Farm just eighty-two hours ago during the early evening of August 22, an intense barrage from the German lines of shrapnel and high-explosive shells immediately descended on the whole area from Mouquet Farm to Pozieres, lasting from 6:00PM until midnight, and Lieutenant W.A. Coward of the 24th Battalion was killed.
The Germans have an advantageous position; Mouquet Farm and their trench lines are on the top of a gentle rising slope, and thus they can see any movement along Poziers Ridge by day.
The German artillery shells fall for hours at a time like a deadly cosmic storm, killing, maiming, and burying the men in your battalion.
Because of the heavy German barrages, communications is severely impaired and telephone lines cannot be maintained.
Instead, foot messangers are used to send messages; it takes them several hours to reach Brigade Headquarters which is a little less than 1,000 yards away near Pozieres Cemetery.
You have heard stories men being relieved that our own artillery has killed scores of our own men through friendly fire, and continued to shell our frontlines, even after messangers were sent, because things are not being coordinated properly.
Yesterday, ninety-six men in a single company of the 21st Battalion were killed or wounded during a German barrage.
Because of the heavy German barrages, communications is severely impaired and telephone lines cannot be maintained.
Just about half the supplies of grenades, small arms ammunition, flares, and water are able to get through to the front. The two days of line rations that you brought with you ran out over a day ago.
In order to reduce the horrendous level of casualties that were sustained on the opening day at the Somme and at Pozieres over a month ago, new tactics have been issued to General Headquarters by Field Marshal Douglas Haig, Commander of the BEF.
In order to avoid detection from the German artillery and to lower casualties, lighter forces are to be employed in assaulting enemy positions.
Objectives will be carefully selected, and instead of attacking in overwhelming numbers, sufficient levels of troops will be used to capture and hold them; yet not using forces that are too weak.
Also a "creeping" artillery barrage will be utilized.
The creeping barrage will move ahead of the advancing infantry at a set rate of 50 yards a minute, so that the infantry will be protected by a curtain of fire and will attack the enemy positions as soon as the barrage moves on to the next enemy line.
On August 16, Haig informed General Gough, the Commander of the Reserve Army, that heavy armoured "caterpillar" cars which, for secrecy, had been referred to as "water tanks," would shortly reach France, and that a new major offensive with fresh reinforcements will probably take place in the middle of September.
It is hoped that this planned September offensive with the tanks might at last break through the German front and enable the British to "roll it up".
But before the September offensive can be effectively launched, the Thiepval-Pozieres Ridge must be seized.
General Gough originally defined the purpose of capturing Mouquet Farm as "cutting off Thiepval and getting observation over Coucelette and Grandcourt."
Gough has amplified the order: the object of Anzac operations is to cut off the heavily defended German position at the village of Thiepval and the nearby Schwaben Redoubt from the Germans' resupply depot at Courcelette to the east, and to capture of Thiepval itself by converging attacks by the Anzacs from the north-east and by the newly arrived British II Corps to the south-west.
The date for this assault on Theipval is set for 28th of August, and will coincide with the British 4th Army's assault on Ginchy and Guillemont to the east.
In preparation for the offensive on Thiepval, tha Anzac line west of Mouquet Farm must be straightened to the Courcellette Road and the substantial German trench line called the Fabeck Graben to the east must be taken and secured.
Zero hour is at 0445 hours.
At 0415 hours, Captain Sale gives the order to climb out of the front-line trench and lay down in proper order in shell craters 25 feet ahead of the trench.
As you lie in the shell crater, waiting for the artillery to open up, you think about the letter you found in the shirt pocket of one your friends who was killed by the German artillery.
It said "Dear Mother, sisters, brothers, and Auntie Lill.
As we are about to go into work that must be done, I want to ask you, if anything should happen to me, not to worry. You must think of all the mothers that lost ones as dear to them. One thing you can say-- that you lost one doing his little bit for a good cause.
I know you shall feel it if anything does happen to me, but I am willing and prepared to give my life for the cause."
In the summer of 1916, Mouquet Farm would reap a harvest not of wheat, but of thousands of corpses. The total casualties incurred in attempting to take the farm from 7 August to 12 September cannot have been much short of 20,000 men, including Britons, Canadians, Tasmanians, and men of Aborginal ancestry, but the bulk of the men lost were from Australia.
The Australian Imperial Force's casualties(including Tasmanians and Aboriginal peoples) numbered 15,400 out of the 20,000 men killed or wounded.
Copyright 2008, USA
Australian Introduction:
The time is 04:45 hours, 26 August, 1916
"My tinnie is as dry as a dead dingo's donger!"
The Australian 2nd Division is in the frontlines near Mouquet Farm, about five miles north of the River Somme and about one and a half miles east of the Somme's tributary, the River Ancre, in Picardy, France.
The advance from the summit of Pozieres Ridge to Mouquet Farm has lasted for almost three weeks now and has been painfully slow.
The landscape looks like something from the planet Mars: a sea of blown up reddish chesnut colored earth pierced by thousands of red shell craters.
The only signs of human civilization are an overturned abandoned wagon on the horizon, and several piles of white rubble with some beams of wood protruding from them: Mouquet Farm.
When the 2nd Division came over the slope to the frontlines facing Mouquet Farm just eighty-two hours ago during the early evening of August 22, an intense barrage from the German lines of shrapnel and high-explosive shells immediately descended on the whole area from Mouquet Farm to Pozieres, lasting from 6:00PM until midnight, and Lieutenant W.A. Coward of the 24th Battalion was killed.
The Germans have an advantageous position; Mouquet Farm and their trench lines are on the top of a gentle rising slope, and thus they can see any movement along Poziers Ridge by day.
The German artillery shells fall for hours at a time like a deadly cosmic storm, killing, maiming, and burying the men in your battalion.
Because of the heavy German barrages, communications is severely impaired and telephone lines cannot be maintained.
Instead, foot messangers are used to send messages; it takes them several hours to reach Brigade Headquarters which is a little less than 1,000 yards away near Pozieres Cemetery.
You have heard stories men being relieved that our own artillery has killed scores of our own men through friendly fire, and continued to shell our frontlines, even after messangers were sent, because things are not being coordinated properly.
Yesterday, ninety-six men in a single company of the 21st Battalion were killed or wounded during a German barrage.
Because of the heavy German barrages, communications is severely impaired and telephone lines cannot be maintained.
Just about half the supplies of grenades, small arms ammunition, flares, and water are able to get through to the front. The two days of line rations that you brought with you ran out over a day ago.
In order to reduce the horrendous level of casualties that were sustained on the opening day at the Somme and at Pozieres over a month ago, new tactics have been issued to General Headquarters by Field Marshal Douglas Haig, Commander of the BEF.
In order to avoid detection from the German artillery and to lower casualties, lighter forces are to be employed in assaulting enemy positions.
Objectives will be carefully selected, and instead of attacking in overwhelming numbers, sufficient levels of troops will be used to capture and hold them; yet not using forces that are too weak.
Also a "creeping" artillery barrage will be utilized.
The creeping barrage will move ahead of the advancing infantry at a set rate of 50 yards a minute, so that the infantry will be protected by a curtain of fire and will attack the enemy positions as soon as the barrage moves on to the next enemy line.
On August 16, Haig informed General Gough, the Commander of the Reserve Army, that heavy armoured "caterpillar" cars which, for secrecy, had been referred to as "water tanks," would shortly reach France, and that a new major offensive with fresh reinforcements will probably take place in the middle of September.
It is hoped that this planned September offensive with the tanks might at last break through the German front and enable the British to "roll it up".
But before the September offensive can be effectively launched, the Thiepval-Pozieres Ridge must be seized.
General Gough originally defined the purpose of capturing Mouquet Farm as "cutting off Thiepval and getting observation over Coucelette and Grandcourt."
Gough has amplified the order: the object of Anzac operations is to cut off the heavily defended German position at the village of Thiepval and the nearby Schwaben Redoubt from the Germans' resupply depot at Courcelette to the east, and to capture of Thiepval itself by converging attacks by the Anzacs from the north-east and by the newly arrived British II Corps to the south-west.
The date for this assault on Theipval is set for 28th of August, and will coincide with the British 4th Army's assault on Ginchy and Guillemont to the east.
In preparation for the offensive on Thiepval, tha Anzac line west of Mouquet Farm must be straightened to the Courcellette Road and the substantial German trench line called the Fabeck Graben to the east must be taken and secured.
Zero hour is at 0445 hours.
At 0415 hours, Captain Sale gives the order to climb out of the front-line trench and lay down in proper order in shell craters 25 feet ahead of the trench.
As you lie in the shell crater, waiting for the artillery to open up, you think about the letter you found in the shirt pocket of one your friends who was killed by the German artillery.
It said "Dear Mother, sisters, brothers, and Auntie Lill.
As we are about to go into work that must be done, I want to ask you, if anything should happen to me, not to worry. You must think of all the mothers that lost ones as dear to them. One thing you can say-- that you lost one doing his little bit for a good cause.
I know you shall feel it if anything does happen to me, but I am willing and prepared to give my life for the cause."
In the summer of 1916, Mouquet Farm would reap a harvest not of wheat, but of thousands of corpses. The total casualties incurred in attempting to take the farm from 7 August to 12 September cannot have been much short of 20,000 men, including Britons, Canadians, Tasmanians, and men of Aborginal ancestry, but the bulk of the men lost were from Australia.
The Australian Imperial Force's casualties(including Tasmanians and Aboriginal peoples) numbered 15,400 out of the 20,000 men killed or wounded.
Copyright 2008, USA
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