Read Online Our Darkest Day by Patrick Lindsay - Free Book Online
Authors: Patrick Lindsay
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momentum so that they could achieve a strategic victory.
2
AT THE CROSSROADS OF HISTORY
Stay then, village, for round you spins
On a slow axis a world as vast
And meaningful as any posed
By great Plato’s solitary mind
R.S. T HOMAS , ‘T HE V ILLAGE A NALYSIS ’, 1955
Behind the German lines, 11 million Belgian and French civilians found themselves under occupation in what was soon run as a military state. Clocks were set to German time, whole towns and cities were dragooned into labour forces, with daily dawn parades and German identification passes. Thousands of teenagers, male and female, were rounded up and sent to industrial centres as forced labour. Resistance was swiftly and violently crushed – hostages were taken and armed resisters executed. In a frightening preview of the horrors of a future war, 3000 French civilians and almost 60,000 Belgians were packed in cattle trucks and taken to concentration camps.
The Germans scoured their newly won territory for raw materials and systematically transported them back to Germany to replace the materials denied its war machine by the blockades imposed by its enemies. The invaders also took full advantage of their conquests, which already included some of the powerhouses of French industry, using forced local labour to turn their capacity to support their war effort. Lille, in French Flanders, was an excellent example. It remained in German hands for the entire war, providing substantial industrial muscle to Germany, and was a constant Allied target.
Situated around 11 kilometres from the French–Belgian border Fromelles, was one of the tiny villages nestled in the gentle western slopes of the Aubers Ridge on Lille’s outskirts. It would become the site of Australia’s first battle on the Western Front and the central focus of this book.
When Falkenhayn’s order to fall back to the higher ground came, the German forces around Lille took up positions along Aubers Ridge. Using the proven system of ‘defence in depth’, they extended their forward defences in front of the high ground along a line that ran about a kilometre west of Fromelles. The British forces opposing them dug in on the flat ground facing the German trenches with a no-man’s land between the two front lines that varied from about 100 metres to 400 metres.
Civilians flee the German advance in 1914. The invaders used systematic terror tactics against civilians to subdue Belgium. More than 6000 French and Belgian non-combatants were killed in the first month of hostilities and 180,000 fled across the Channel to Britain.
The flat Flanders farmlands on which the Battle of Fromelles was fought. This is one of a series of photos taken from near Fleurbaix in 1915 and covering the area from Bois-Grenier to Fromelles. ( AWM PHOTO H15912J )
Although the ridge only rose to a maximum of 36 metres above sea level it was the highest ground in the area and the Germans clearly held the superior position. They could observe any movement on the British side without the need for aerial observation. This was to prove a telling advantage in the battles to come.
Fromelles occupied ancient land that had seen conflicts for thousands of years, from Roman times through the Normans to the Hundred Years’ War which started in 1337. The Battle of Agincourt, where England’s Henry V defeated the French army in 1415, was fought only 60 kilometres from Fromelles. Later that century the region was controlled, first by the Holy Roman Empire, then by Spain. By 1618, it was embroiled in the Thirty Years’ War which involved most of Europe’s major powers. Twenty years after that conflict ended, in 1667, Louis XIV waged war against the Spanish Netherlands and besieged Lille, just 16 kilometres east of Fromelles. With Louis’ victory, the region became French. Fromelles enjoyed its longest period without conflict after Napoleon was defeated in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo, about 120 kilometres away.
By the
2
AT THE CROSSROADS OF HISTORY
Stay then, village, for round you spins
On a slow axis a world as vast
And meaningful as any posed
By great Plato’s solitary mind
R.S. T HOMAS , ‘T HE V ILLAGE A NALYSIS ’, 1955
Behind the German lines, 11 million Belgian and French civilians found themselves under occupation in what was soon run as a military state. Clocks were set to German time, whole towns and cities were dragooned into labour forces, with daily dawn parades and German identification passes. Thousands of teenagers, male and female, were rounded up and sent to industrial centres as forced labour. Resistance was swiftly and violently crushed – hostages were taken and armed resisters executed. In a frightening preview of the horrors of a future war, 3000 French civilians and almost 60,000 Belgians were packed in cattle trucks and taken to concentration camps.
The Germans scoured their newly won territory for raw materials and systematically transported them back to Germany to replace the materials denied its war machine by the blockades imposed by its enemies. The invaders also took full advantage of their conquests, which already included some of the powerhouses of French industry, using forced local labour to turn their capacity to support their war effort. Lille, in French Flanders, was an excellent example. It remained in German hands for the entire war, providing substantial industrial muscle to Germany, and was a constant Allied target.
Situated around 11 kilometres from the French–Belgian border Fromelles, was one of the tiny villages nestled in the gentle western slopes of the Aubers Ridge on Lille’s outskirts. It would become the site of Australia’s first battle on the Western Front and the central focus of this book.
When Falkenhayn’s order to fall back to the higher ground came, the German forces around Lille took up positions along Aubers Ridge. Using the proven system of ‘defence in depth’, they extended their forward defences in front of the high ground along a line that ran about a kilometre west of Fromelles. The British forces opposing them dug in on the flat ground facing the German trenches with a no-man’s land between the two front lines that varied from about 100 metres to 400 metres.
Civilians flee the German advance in 1914. The invaders used systematic terror tactics against civilians to subdue Belgium. More than 6000 French and Belgian non-combatants were killed in the first month of hostilities and 180,000 fled across the Channel to Britain.
The flat Flanders farmlands on which the Battle of Fromelles was fought. This is one of a series of photos taken from near Fleurbaix in 1915 and covering the area from Bois-Grenier to Fromelles. ( AWM PHOTO H15912J )
Although the ridge only rose to a maximum of 36 metres above sea level it was the highest ground in the area and the Germans clearly held the superior position. They could observe any movement on the British side without the need for aerial observation. This was to prove a telling advantage in the battles to come.
Fromelles occupied ancient land that had seen conflicts for thousands of years, from Roman times through the Normans to the Hundred Years’ War which started in 1337. The Battle of Agincourt, where England’s Henry V defeated the French army in 1415, was fought only 60 kilometres from Fromelles. Later that century the region was controlled, first by the Holy Roman Empire, then by Spain. By 1618, it was embroiled in the Thirty Years’ War which involved most of Europe’s major powers. Twenty years after that conflict ended, in 1667, Louis XIV waged war against the Spanish Netherlands and besieged Lille, just 16 kilometres east of Fromelles. With Louis’ victory, the region became French. Fromelles enjoyed its longest period without conflict after Napoleon was defeated in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo, about 120 kilometres away.
By the
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