Overview

The Battle of Pozieres Ridge lasted precisely six weeks. In that time the 1st Anzac Corps, in whose sector most of the fighting took place, advanced the British line just over a mile and a half in a northwesterly direction. During this period of time the three divisions of 1st Anzac Corps rotated in and out of the line twice, each time conducting one or more offensive operations against heavily defended German positions. At its conclusion, the fighting around Pozières and Mouquet Farm had yielded very modest territorial gains at an enormous casualty rate. Although a study of 1st Anzac Corps, Attack on the Somme is not history of Australian endeavor. The Australian Divisions slotted into the British Expeditionary Force on arrival to the Western Front, and fought under General Gough at Reserve Army. There was nothing particularly remarkable about the corps – some members had had some experience at Gallipoli, but the majority were new recruits. The events at Pozieres in July and August 1916, too, were absolutely representative of the 'average day on the Somme' for the British. Unlike the ill-fated first day of the campaign, or big days like the night attacks of 14-15 July, most days on the Somme involved only a small percentage of the line engaged in fighting the enemy in a limited, set-piece attack – just like any day on Pozieres Ridge. The one notable difference about the 1st Anzac Corps of 1916 is the sheer volume of records left of its time on Pozieres Ridge. The Australian Official Historian, C.E.W. Bean, ensured as much documentation as possible was saved for posterity. Orders and messages survive which are, in almost all other cases, simply not available for other contemporary British or Dominion troops. What they reveal is a wide range of operational approaches at all levels of command, even down to company level. On some occasions they enable the identification of individuals critical in the maintenance of a precarious position. These documents also reveal the point at which diversity and innovation could not flourish with the influence of high command. The Australian memorial at the Windmill carries the words of Charles Bean, who said 'Australian troops... fell more thickly on this ridge than on any other battlefield of the war'. This study of the battle reveals that more often than not, this was an unnecessary waste of lives and resources for the most negligible of gains, if any gains were made at all. 37 maps, 25 photos

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9781912174645

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... Dr. Hampton is able present the Australians' successes and failures in context and at the brigade and division level. This approach makes the eminently readable book a valuable piece of scholarship that is well supported by her sources ... [This is] a well-written counterpoint to narrowly-focused histories that place the Australian contribution to the BEF as a uniquely Australian venture divorced from a larger British, or even Coalition, effort during the Somme Campaign. Furthermore, her analysis avoids drawing unnecessary and limiting categorizations of senior leaders as either butchers or bunglers. Attack on the Somme is an important close campaign analysis of one part of the larger Somme Offensive that sheds light on the months the Anzacs fought an increasingly futile sideshow. -- Western Front Association Digital Newsletter This is a quality 'must read' from Wolverhampton Military Studies. -- Stand To! The Journal of the Western Front Association

... Dr. Hampton is able present the Australians' successes and failures in context and at the brigade and division level. This approach makes the eminently readable book a valuable piece of scholarship that is well supported by her sources ... [This is] a well-written counterpoint to narrowly-focused histories that place the Australian contribution to the BEF as a uniquely Australian venture divorced from a larger British, or even Coalition, effort during the Somme Campaign. Furthermore, her analysis avoids drawing unnecessary and limiting categorizations of senior leaders as either butchers or bunglers. Attack on the Somme is an important close campaign analysis of one part of the larger Somme Offensive that sheds light on the months the Anzacs fought an increasingly futile sideshow. --Western Front Association Digital Newsletter This is a quality 'must read' from Wolverhampton Military Studies. --Stand To! The Journal of the Western Front Association

Author Information

Dr. Meleah Hampton is an historian in the Military History Section of the Australian War Memorial. Her primary interest is in the operational conduct of the Great War on the Western Front, with a particular interest in the process of learning, applying and transmitting lessons learned in the field of battle. She is a graduate of the University of Adelaide and completed her PhD with a thesis on the 1916 battles for Pozières and Mouquet Farm under the guidance of Professors Robin Prior and Gary Sheffield. In 2009 Meleah Hampton was a Summer Scholar at the Australian War Memorial, completing a research paper on the relationship between Australians and Americans during the First World War. Following on from this she was a speaker at the 2008 International Conference on 1918 at the Australian Memorial. She has published a chapter on Americans in the First World War in its proceedings, 1918: Year of Victory (2010: Ashley Ekins, ed.) Meleah Hampton is a member of the editorial staff of the Australian War Memorial’s magazine, Wartime, and continues to research and write biographies for the Last Post Ceremony project. She is a keen ‘battlefield sniffer’, having visited the Western Front many times. She currently lives in Canberra with her husband and son.

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