- Reaction score
- 63
- Points
- 530
Anzac Day vs Western Front. The author I think made a great point that while Anzac Day is remembered it is the far greater Australian contribution on the Western Front that really is amazing.Some 53 VC's were awarded to Australians for their heroism on the Western Front. Sadly 46000 Australians fell on the Western Front far more than were lost at Gallipolli.The fighting skill and elan of the Australian soldier is legendary. It seems that every war that threatens the west Aussies answer the call. One modern anecdote sums up the Aussie spirit. In Afghanistan an Australian SAS unit when facing a numerically superior force and proceded to attack routing the Taliban force. 
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/the-bloodiest-sacrifice/2007/04/24/1177180648465.html
Defeat had flattened their spirits and they had just endured one of the coldest European winters on record. Two weeks earlier, 3400 of them had perished in one of the Western Front's bloodiest battles. A minute's silence was observed and, for some, a tot of rum consumed.
This was Anzac Day, 90 years ago today, at Bullecourt, in France.
It was two years since the Gallipoli landing and the Australians, many of them veterans of that battle, had again been let down by their British command, this time with "new-fangled" tanks that did not perform. Now, licking their wounds and awaiting orders to attack again, they were unaware that one of their great victories was just a couple of weeks away. That victory would cost them dearly, leaving a total of more than 10,000 casualties from both Bullecourt battles, including about 3500 killed in action. This sacrifice would "live in history as long as history exists", wrote the celebrated war correspondent Charles Bean.
In total, 46,000 Australians died on the Western Front, but for some reason it would not be taken up and consumed into the Australian identity in the way of Gallipoli, where 8709 lives were lost.
The approach of the 90th anniversary of the battles of the Western Front has seen an increase in the recognition of the magnitude of the Australian loss.
Peter Burness, a senior curator at the Australian War Memorial, says it is difficult to understand why people know so little about the Western Front.
"These were . . . the biggest battles Australians ever fought and the biggest Australian presence in any theatre up to that time. It was the first time all five divisions of the Australian Army fought together with the New Zealand division alongside," says Burness, who is organising an exhibition of military artefacts called To Flanders Fields, 1917. It will open in August to mark the 90th anniversary of the series of battles to save Ypres. "The generation that were most aware of it are now all gone."
In the villages of France and Belgium, the bravery of the Australians is still commemorated. Anzac Day services are held each year in Villers-Bretonneux, Bullecourt, Ypres and Passchendaele.
Villers-Bretonneux was captured back from the Germans on Anzac Day, 1918, by Australian and Allied forces. Its hall sports a painting of two kangaroos on the facade and flies the Australian flag every day.
The lion statues, which guard the entrance to the Australian War Memorial, were donated in the 1930s by the townspeople of Ypres, where the names of Australians who died in battle are remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial.
Most of the villagers liberated by the Australians on Anzac Day 1918 have long gone, although Margie Duval, 96, has childhood memories of the Australians as tall, good-looking, good-humoured and generous.
"The Australians were so good to our family. They gave us fresh meat and vegetables, which they delivered to our starving village," she says.
Burness says in 1917, 20,000 Australian soldiers in the army were killed in action as opposed to 9000 Australian army soldiers killed in action in WWII. "Most Australians who fought in World War I fought on the Western Front, most Australians killed or wounded in World War I were killed or wounded on the Western Front and it is where Australians had the biggest impact."
The statistics say much. Australia's worst one-day death toll was on the Western Front at Fromelles, where there were more than 5000 casualties, including nearly 2000 killed in action in less than 24 hours. Australians also suffered the highest casualty rate in any single battle at Pozieres, with 23,000 casualties in seven weeks, and Australians suffered their worst cumulative losses during the Third Battle of Ypres with 38,000 casualties.
"But despite these enormous losses Australian forces actually spearheaded the attacks, which defeated the German forces on the Somme in 1918; there is nowhere else they did that," Burness says. In contrast, the Anzacs were defeated at Gallipoli and evacuated.
Australians, who won nine Victoria Crosses at Gallipoli, also won far more decorations on the Western Front, including 53 VCs. They were on the Western Front for 21/2 years compared with eight months at Gallipoli.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/the-bloodiest-sacrifice/2007/04/24/1177180648465.html
Defeat had flattened their spirits and they had just endured one of the coldest European winters on record. Two weeks earlier, 3400 of them had perished in one of the Western Front's bloodiest battles. A minute's silence was observed and, for some, a tot of rum consumed.
This was Anzac Day, 90 years ago today, at Bullecourt, in France.
It was two years since the Gallipoli landing and the Australians, many of them veterans of that battle, had again been let down by their British command, this time with "new-fangled" tanks that did not perform. Now, licking their wounds and awaiting orders to attack again, they were unaware that one of their great victories was just a couple of weeks away. That victory would cost them dearly, leaving a total of more than 10,000 casualties from both Bullecourt battles, including about 3500 killed in action. This sacrifice would "live in history as long as history exists", wrote the celebrated war correspondent Charles Bean.
In total, 46,000 Australians died on the Western Front, but for some reason it would not be taken up and consumed into the Australian identity in the way of Gallipoli, where 8709 lives were lost.
The approach of the 90th anniversary of the battles of the Western Front has seen an increase in the recognition of the magnitude of the Australian loss.
Peter Burness, a senior curator at the Australian War Memorial, says it is difficult to understand why people know so little about the Western Front.
"These were . . . the biggest battles Australians ever fought and the biggest Australian presence in any theatre up to that time. It was the first time all five divisions of the Australian Army fought together with the New Zealand division alongside," says Burness, who is organising an exhibition of military artefacts called To Flanders Fields, 1917. It will open in August to mark the 90th anniversary of the series of battles to save Ypres. "The generation that were most aware of it are now all gone."
In the villages of France and Belgium, the bravery of the Australians is still commemorated. Anzac Day services are held each year in Villers-Bretonneux, Bullecourt, Ypres and Passchendaele.
Villers-Bretonneux was captured back from the Germans on Anzac Day, 1918, by Australian and Allied forces. Its hall sports a painting of two kangaroos on the facade and flies the Australian flag every day.
The lion statues, which guard the entrance to the Australian War Memorial, were donated in the 1930s by the townspeople of Ypres, where the names of Australians who died in battle are remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial.
Most of the villagers liberated by the Australians on Anzac Day 1918 have long gone, although Margie Duval, 96, has childhood memories of the Australians as tall, good-looking, good-humoured and generous.
"The Australians were so good to our family. They gave us fresh meat and vegetables, which they delivered to our starving village," she says.
Burness says in 1917, 20,000 Australian soldiers in the army were killed in action as opposed to 9000 Australian army soldiers killed in action in WWII. "Most Australians who fought in World War I fought on the Western Front, most Australians killed or wounded in World War I were killed or wounded on the Western Front and it is where Australians had the biggest impact."
The statistics say much. Australia's worst one-day death toll was on the Western Front at Fromelles, where there were more than 5000 casualties, including nearly 2000 killed in action in less than 24 hours. Australians also suffered the highest casualty rate in any single battle at Pozieres, with 23,000 casualties in seven weeks, and Australians suffered their worst cumulative losses during the Third Battle of Ypres with 38,000 casualties.
"But despite these enormous losses Australian forces actually spearheaded the attacks, which defeated the German forces on the Somme in 1918; there is nowhere else they did that," Burness says. In contrast, the Anzacs were defeated at Gallipoli and evacuated.
Australians, who won nine Victoria Crosses at Gallipoli, also won far more decorations on the Western Front, including 53 VCs. They were on the Western Front for 21/2 years compared with eight months at Gallipoli.
