On the hill beside the road now designated D23, near the town the soldiers called ‘V-B’, stands the newly-built Sir John Monash Centre,[1] with the cemetery begun after the Armistice and the monument dedicated in 1938 to commemorate all of the thousands of Australians who died on the Western Front.[2] This location was chosen because it was hereabouts, in the two battles for Villers-Bretonneux in March and April 1918, that the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) redeemed the sense of tragic defeat that Gallipoli had given them, and won the professional recognition of the senior allies alongside whom they fought the Central Powers around the world.
Villers-Bretonneux and The Spring Offensives
The Germans had identified the rising ground around ‘V-B’ as the vantage point from which to guide their artillery fire against the rail junctions of Amiens. The successes of the new German tactics of the Feuerwalze,[3] Stoßtruppen,[4] Schlachtstaffeln[5] and ‘regular ‘ infantry to hold the captured ground, in their spring offensive code-named ‘Michael’ led to the rapid re-deployment of elements of the AIF to ‘V-B’ to support their hard-pressed British and French allies. By 5 April 1918, the German advance in this sector of the Somme, although substantial and achieved at the cost of considerable casualties on all sides, was halted and ‘V-B’ remained in the hands of the British and Australians.
On 24 April, however, the Germans renewed their offensive, deploying “ten divisions on a fifteen-kilometre-wide sector, supported by 1,208 [artillery] guns, 710 aircraft, and thirteen tanks…”[6] and in fierce fighting, took the town. In a matter of hours, the British and Australian forces planned and executed a counter-attack: under cover of darkness, requiring coordination of two different assaults in a pincer around the town, against a numerically much larger opposing force, with much of the fighting at the point of bayonets. This extraordinary attack secured the town, the frontline and the status of the Australian soldiers. The desperate situation and considerable casualties of this battle were summarised in what now seems a model of understatement. George Grogan, British commander of the 23rd Brigade, 8th Division, who soon thereafter performed acts that made him the recipient of the Victoria Cross, remarked:
“So ended happily what, at one time, threatened to be a serious disaster to the British lines in France, and which was only averted by Australian valour and Australian arms.”
The Australian Imperial Force (AIF)
That the victory was achieved on the date already designated Anzac Day[7] gave these events a particular significance to Australian veterans of the battle, and to those and their families of subsequent conflicts in which Australians fought and died, usually far from home and for reasons that were not always obviously in the interests of their country. It should be noted that the AIF at this time on the Western Front was – unlike all the other major armies – made up entirely of volunteers. Conscription had been the norm in continental armies before 1914, and the terrible casualty rates had led to its introduction in Britain from 1916.[8] The AIF were rarely career soldiers but their commitment meant that when the fighting stopped, their casualty rates were higher than those of the other armies on the Western Front. According to a recent re-analysis, 20.2% of the Australian army were killed in action in WW1, compared with Britain’s (horrifying enough) rate of 13%.[9]
What characterised the AIF’s efforts was recalled by a British officer who observed their actions around ‘V-B’.[10]
“Remembering that the pick of the Australians were killed at Gallipoli, I have often wondered whatever they can have been like. It is my considered opinion that the Australians, even in 1918, were better in a battle than any other troops on either side. They were not popular. They had a contempt for Britishers to begin with…. They were untidy, undisciplined, ‘cocky’, not ‘nice’ enough for the taste even of ‘Tommy Atkins’.[11] But it seems indisputable that a greater number of them were personally indomitable, in the true sense of the word, than of any other race. I’m glad they were on our side.”
Of Tanks and Delegation
‘V-B’ became noteworthy to military historians for a further reason. On 24 April 1918, occurred the first recorded battle between tank formations when three German A7V encountered three British Mk IV, subsequently supported by ‘Whippet’, tanks. The German army had built only 20 tanks in total because they were deemed to absorb too many resources relative to their tactical benefit. Fourteen were deployed for the assault on ‘V-B’ of which one broke down before the battle. Heavily manned, very slow and deployed for mobile fire support, the German vehicles contrasted with the British tanks which were ‘wire-crushers’ but less slow, and sometimes better armed.[12] The encounter was vividly recalled by the commander of the British tank that ‘knocked out’ one of the German vehicles.[13] One of the German vehicles was later recovered by AIF soldiers and shipped home, where it remains the world’s only surviving example of the A7V.[14]
Even more significantly for the military ‘arts’ was the powerful demonstration of the value of initiative given to and shown by lower ranked commanders in the heat of battle. Notwithstanding the often-considerable personal tensions between the senior officers of the AIF and the British, the commanders of the 13th and 15th Australian Brigades were listened to by their British Corps and Divisional superiors, who in turn were given a ‘free hand’ by the British High Command, to ‘get the job done’. As a modern scholar has observed, “The German offensives paradoxically allowed numerous British officers to underscore their ability to operate within a looser command system.”[15]
Rotenbaronsdämmerung
Meanwhile, the German Spring Offensives intensified the air war, as the opposing sides sought to achieve and maintain control of the skies over the battlefields: to direct the fire of their artillery, to strafe and bomb the ground in support of their own infantry, and to disrupt the transport of their enemies’ vital supplies and reinforcements. Fighting around ‘V-B’ saw the death of perhaps the most famous – or notorious – fighter pilot of WW1: Manfred, Freiherr von Richthofen. The “Red Baron” and leader of the “Flying Circus” was credited with 80 air victories, of which only 25 were opposing ‘fighter’ aircraft: most of his ‘victims’ were engaged in aerial reconnaissance and/or artillery ‘spotting’. He had become a national hero in Germany and was both feared and respected by his opposite numbers on the Allied side. On 21 April, Richthofen was wounded whilst engaged by Canadian pilot Captain Arthur “Roy” Brown, and Brown was credited by the RAF with the victory. Some controversy has surrounded the details of this, for it is also argued that his death followed from ground-fire he encountered whilst flying away from Brown, back to German lines.[16] Certainly, Richthofen crash-landed on ground held by the AIF and Australian soldiers were the first at the crash site: it is easy to believe the comment attributed to one of them, “’My God! We’ve got the bloody Baron!”[17] Richthofen had been born in what after 1918 became part of Poland; his last aerial opponent was born outside of Ottawa; his body was found by men from Queensland, in a field in France. This was indeed a world war.
The Town and its Inhabitants
But what of Villers-Bretonneux and its people? The 1911 census had recorded a population of over 4000, with a modest prosperity derived from knitwear as well as local services to surrounding agriculture. The town had not previously seen much direct action although this photograph of the town before the war is marked with the sites of bomb impacts from an air-raid in February 1917.
The town was not on the frontline before operation ‘Michael’, but defence lines were hurriedly constructed so that at the time of the Germans’ second attack there were only shallow trenches and few dugouts to provide shelter for the Allied defenders. As Greg’s aerial photograph at the head of this page shows, the devastation of the town during the two battles was almost total and there was further fierce fighting around the town for another month. Its citizens remain certain, however, that they owed their liberation to the men of the AIF. It is to honour the AIF that the town’s emblem is a (stylised) kangaroo, its streets include “Rue de Melbourne” and its schools “école Victoria”:
This primary school, inaugurated on Anzac Day, 1927, was built with the pennies and shillings donated by school-children in Victoria. Ever since then, every classroom and the village’s Community Hall have all displayed a sign which reads, “N’oublions jamais l’Australie“.[18]
Further reading
Peter FitzSimons Victory at Villers-Bretonneux: Why a French Town Will Never Forget the Anzacs (Melbourne, 2017) is a detailed account that celebrates the Australian achievements that have become a cornerstone of Anzac Day.
Peter Hart 1918. A Very British Victory (London, 2008) is richly illustrated with quotations from participants, generally on the Allied side, gathered together in the archives of the Imperial War Museum.
Although Wikipedia is very widely used (without acknowledgement) and often judged questionable by academics, on the subject of the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux I have no hesitation in commending its article, which when I reviewed it (March 2018) seemed a model of scholarly good practice and referencing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Villers-Bretonneux
Richard Ogorkiewicz Tanks: 100 Years of Evolution (Oxford and New York, 2015) provides a scholarly introduction and overview of the subject by a long-established expert.
James Hamilton-Paterson Marked for Death: the First War in the Air (London, 2015) is one of many recent accounts of the subject, which in this case does not shrink from the horrors intrinsic to flying in combat.
Header image: Oblique aerial view of Villers-Bretonneux from the northeast. Credit: Greg’s War Collection
Notes
[1] https://sjmc.gov.au/ Meanwhile, those who have visited Australia in more recent times may also recognise ‘V-B’ as short-hand for ‘Victoria Bitter’. It is very appealing to associate the ‘Digger’s’ abbreviation for Villers-Bretonneux with something familiar from home, and indeed the beer has been brewed since 1854.
[2] https://www.cwgc.org/find/find-cemeteries-and-memorials/63701/villers-bretonneux-military-cemetery/history
[3] Lit. ‘fire waltz’ but referring to the combination of munitions and fire direction developed to support assaulting troops.
[4] Lit. ‘shock troops’ but perhaps more familiarly rendered ‘stormtroopers’.
[5] Lit. ‘battle squadrons’, referring to the units of aircraft specially armoured and armed to provide close air support to advancing assault troops.
[6] David Stevenson ‘With our backs to the wall.’ Victory and Defeat in 1918 (London, 2012) p.76
[7] First publicly observed in 1916.
[8] But not in Ireland, where it was deemed too politically sensitive.
[9] https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/war_losses_australia but note an oft-repeated statistic that of the nearly 332,000 Australians who served overseas, nearly 65% of them became casualties.
[10] Capt. Philip Ledward, HQ 28th Brigade, 8th Division, quoted in P. Hart 1918. A Very British Victory (London, 2008) pp.257-8.
[11] The common, long-standing term for the ordinary British soldier, often shortened to ‘Tommy’, possibly in use from as early as the mid-18th century.
[12] Several examples of WW1 British tanks are on display at Bovington Tank Museum, including some in running order. A few examples may be viewed elsewhere, for which see http://the.shadock.free.fr/Surviving_WW1_Tanks.pdf
[13] Lt Frank Mitchell’s account, quoted at length by Hart 1918 pp.259-61.
[14] The tank, named ‘Mephisto’ by its crew, has recently returned to Brisbane from being on loan in Canberra.
[15] Peter Simkins, “‘Building Blocks’: aspects of command and control at Brigade level in the BEF’s offensive operations, 1916-1918” in (eds) G Sheffield and D Todman Command and Control on the Western Front (Stroud, 2007) p.163
[16] For a (grimly detailed) review of the evidence, see M Geoffrey Miller ‘The Death of Manfred von Richthofen: who fired the fatal shot?’ (1998) reproduced at http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/comment/richt.htm who attributes the fatal shot to ground-fire.
[17] Quoted by Ralph Barker A Brief History of the Royal Flying Corps in World War I (London, 2002) p.471.
[18] https://au.ambafrance.org/The-Somme-a-must-for-visiting