The First Australian Division Memorial,
a stone obelisk, stands on the edge of the town of Pozieres. It replaces a
wooden cross originally unveiled in what is now the Pozieres British Cemetery
nearby. A plaque on the front of the memorial reads;
TO THE OFFICERS NON-COMMISSIONED/
OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE/ FIRST AUSTRALIAN DIVISION/ WHO FOUGHT IN/ FRANCE AND
BELGIUM/1916 1917 1918
It then lists battles the 1st Division
participated in;
POZIERES - MOUQUET FARM - LE BARQUE -
THILLOY - BOURSIES DEMICOURT - HERMIES - LAGNICOURT - BULLECOURT - 3rd
BATTLE OF YPRES - MENIN ROAD - BROODSEINDE RIDGE - PASSCHENDALE - BATTLE OF THE
LYS - 2nd BATTLE OF THE SOMME - LIHONS - CHUIGNOLLES - HINDENBURG LINE.
Between 13 and 17 July, the British Fourth Army under Lieutenant-General Sir
Henry Rawlinson, made four, small-scale attacks against Pozieres with no success
and some 24,000 casualties. In this period the village was subjected to a heavy
bombardment and reduced to rubble. On two occasions the attacking infantry got
into the trench that looped around the south and western edge of the village,
known as "Pozieres trench", but both times were driven out.
The Australian First Division had only
arrived in France from Gallipoli shortly before being moved to the town of
Albert on the 18th July 1916 under the command of Lieutenant-General Herbert
Gough. He told the 1st Divisions commander, Major General Harold Walker, to
attack the village of Pozieres the following night. Walker, a tough and
experienced English officer who had led the Division since Gallipoli, would have
none of it and insisted that he would only make the attack once his Division had
made adequate preparation. As a result, the Division went into action with the
main attack by the British Fourth Army on night of the 22nd- 23rd July 1916. The
Australians succeeded in capturing the village inside an hour, and continued to
fight their way across the main road at the western edge of the village towards
a German bunker they had named 'Gibraltar'. Only 200 yards separated the
Australians from the attacks main objective, Pozieres Ridge itself.
Meanwhile the attack of the 48th Division on the
German trenches west of Pozieres achieved some success. However, the main attack
by the Fourth Army between Pozieres and Guillemot was a complete and costly
failure.
As
a consequence of being the sole British gain on 23 July, Pozieres became a focus
of attention for the German artillery. The Division clung to it's gains despite
almost continues enemy artillery fire and counter attacks. When the
exhausted men of the Australian 1st Division were relieved, they had suffered
5,285 casualties, so it is no wonder that the first engagement of Australian
troops on the Somme became imprinted in their memories, with some veterans of
the Gallipoli campaign stating "that" (Gallipoli) was a walk in the park
compared to Pozieres. As can be seen from the Divisions involvement in many of
the great battles of the Great War, the explanation as to why they erected their
memorial here at Pozieres can be found in their records;
As the scene of the first operation on a large scale undertaken by the 1st
Division in France, because of its strategical importance in the Battle of the
Somme, 1916, and on account of the intensity of the fighting and gallantry shown
by both sides in its capture and retention, Pozieres so impressed itself on the
minds of the members of the 1st Australian Division that its selection as the
site of the memorial to be erected to the fallen of the Division was unanimously
endorsed.