Bullecourt: Arras (Battleground Europe)

Pen and Sword Military, 1999-03-16. Paperback. Like New. 5x0x8. Softcover. Good binding and cover. Light edge wear. Clean, unmarked pages. 160 pages : illustrations, maps ; 22 cm. <br> In early 1917 the Germans carried out a withdrawal from the Somme, scene of a major Allied offensive the previous year, to a series of heavily fortified positions to the east, known by the Allies as the Hindenburg Line. The German withdrawal disrupted Allied planning for a 1917 offensive, but in April the British began operations around the town of Arras in support of a French offensive in the Champagne region. The strategy for the Arras offensive included British and Australian infantry breaching the Hindenburg Line to the east and west of Bullecourt and seizing the town. The attack on Bullecourt was scheduled for 10 April 1917. In a hastily planned operation, and for the first time on the Western Front, the assault was to proceed without a supporting artillery bombardment. Instead tanks, being used for the first time by the British 5th Army, including the 4th Australian Division, would lead the attack. Two of the 4th Division's brigades, the 4th and 12th, were to advance to the right of Bullecourt, turn left along the Hindenburg trench system and advance until they linked up with men of the British 62nd Division attacking from the other side of the town. Both formations were then to push through to the rear of the German defenses. When the tanks failed to reach their start line on the morning of 10 April the attack was postponed, leaving the infantry lying in the snow covered no-man's-land ready for the advance to hurry back to their own lines. Dawn was breaking as they retreated under the eyes of the enemy. One soldier said "going back through the snow was like telling the Germans what we were going to do tomorrow." The attack did go ahead the following morning, 11 April. Again some of the tanks failed to arrive. Those that did either broke down or were destroyed, just one reached the enemy's first trench. Without armored support, the Australian infantry achieved what was until then considered an impossible feat; breaking into the German trenches without a protective artillery barrage. Within hours though, they faced annihilation. Exposed on both flanks, cut off from reinforcements by German artillery fire and at risk of being trapped by Germans working their way to the Australians' rear, the survivors made a break for their own lines. Less than ten hours after it began, the assault had ended in failure. Some 3,000 Australians had been killed or wounded and more than 1,100 were taken prisoner. Despite the failure at Bullecourt, senior British officers were determined to make another attempt, this time on 3 May 1917. Units of the 2nd Australian Division were to attack Bullecourt from the right while the British 62nd Division attacked from the left, this time with the support of an artillery barrage. Expecting a second assault, the Germans had strengthened their already imposing defenses. Once again Allied infantry made it into the German line and began bombing their way through the maze of trenches. By mid-May the Australians had repelled dozens of counter attacks and seven major attacks, gaining almost a kilometer of trenches and slowly closing on Bullecourt where British troops were preparing to launch a final assault against the remaining pockets of Germans. Early on the morning of 17 May, British patrols reported that 'everything was very quiet'. The following day Australians reported a similar lack of activity on their front. The Germans had withdrawn. By then each of the Australian Imperial Force's (AIF) 1st, 2nd and 5th Divisions had been involved in the battle in which more than 7,400 Australians were killed or wounded. One observer described the Second Battle of Bullecourt as the most intense trench fighting of the war. It continued even as the Arras offensive, in whose support the attacks on Bullecourt were launched, lost momentum and wound down. For a time the Bullecourt fighting assumed an importance out of all proportion to its value as an objective. All four AIF divisions then on the Western Front fought in the battles of Bullecourt and each emerged in serious need of rest and recovery. After Bullecourt, plans to continue expanding the AIF were put aside.