On this day in Australian history (Jul 19) July 19, 1916. : Australia begins its worst 24 hours in history, with the loss of almost 2000 men in a single night. The night of 19 - 20 July 1916 is sometimes referred to as Australia’s “worst day in history”. This is the day the nation lost almost 2000 men in a single night, during World War I. The Battle of Fromelles was the first significant battle fought by Australian troops on the Western Front. Begun 19 days after the Battle of the Somme began, the main purpose of the Fromelles was to draw German troops away from being redeployed to the Somme from areas of the Western Front where less fighting was taking place. The main battle commenced with an attack at 6:00pm by troops of the 5th Australian and 61st British Divisions. The Australian troops were to attack from the north, from a point known as the ‘Sugarloaf’ while the British were to come in from the west. The problem was that the Australian Division was inexperienced, while the British Division were under strength. Although small sections of the German trenches were captured by the 8th and 14th Australian Brigades, the attack lacked the necessary element of surprise to be effective, as it was preceded by seven hours of artillery bombardment. German machine-gunners inflicted heavy damage on the Allied troops and, by 8:00am the following morning, the Battle of Fromelles was all but over, and the troops forced to withdraw. The Battle of Fromelles was a categorical failure. Insufficient communications, together with misreading of the situation by distant headquarters and lack of local knowledge, resulted in inadequate retrieval and evacuation of the casualties. Many Australian troops who were wounded died because of the delay of several days in arranging a truce so they could be collected. The 5th Australian Division suffered a total of 5,533 casualties, including over 1900 deaths, while the 61st British Division suffered 1,547 casualties, to the Germans’ 1,000.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 08:38:32 +0000
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