Battle of Fromelles - Battle

Battle

For seven hours, artillery prepared the ground for the infantry assault formations. The Australian force was drawn from three brigades, the 8th, the 14th and the 15th, which were arranged left to right in that order. Despite the muddy conditions, most elements of the Australian 8th and 14th Brigades quickly gained their objectives and in the process captured about 1,000 metres (1,100 yd) of the German front line trenches. Instead of consolidating these gains, though, under McCay's orders they pushed on to the secondary line, where they were confronted by a ditch full of rainwater, which provided little means of defending their gains. The 32nd Battalion (8 Bde), on the extreme eastern flank, suffered heavy casualties while attacking a German stronghold in the ruins of the Ferme Delangré (Delangré Farm). Some elements of the 14th Brigade reached a main road, 400 metres south of the Allied line, before withdrawing to the ditch.

But on the right flank, the artillery preparation had not been as effective as elsewhere and consequently, the Australian 15th Brigade and the British 184th Brigade were cut to pieces while attempting to cross a wider section of no man's land, closer to German machine guns. A survivor, W. H. "Jimmy" Downing, later recalled: "he air was thick with bullets, swishing in a flat, crisscrossed lattice of death. Hundreds were mown down in the flicker of an eyelid, like great rows of teeth knocked from a comb."

The unfolding disaster was compounded when the 61st Division asked the 15th Brigade to join a renewed assault at 9 pm, but quickly cancelled its attack without informing the Australians. Consequently half of the Australian 58th Battalion made another futile attempt to capture the salient.

The Germans succeeded in driving a wedge between the 14th and 15th Brigades, splitting the Australian forces. Increasingly isolated and out-flanked on the "Sugar Loaf" as the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division counterattacked, the 8th and 14th Brigades were forced to withdraw the following morning. The Germans by this time had set up machine gun enfilades, and the resulting crossfire inflicted devastating casualties on the retreating Australians.