Read Online Our Darkest Day by Patrick Lindsay - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Patrick Lindsay
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outbreak of World War I, Fromelles was a rural township of around 1000 people in a little over 200 houses. The railway had arrived in 1902 and the rich, well-irrigated soil of the surrounding 60 farms supplied the town with meat, vegetables and grains like wheat and maize. Just before war broke out in 1914, electricity reached the town’s main street and a weaving mill was opened to join the brewery, distillery, laundry, taverns, butchery, bakery, school, the tailors, the doctor, the tobacconist, the blacksmith, the grocer and a dozen other shops. The Fromelles church and its tower dominated the skyline, just as it had done from the late fourteenth century.
The overwhelming impression of Fromelles and the surrounding countryside is its flatness. At its highest, Fromelles is just 25 metres above sea level. The village of Aubers, about 3 kilometres south-west, is only 11 metres higher. Yet such is the bowling-green terrain of the region that these meagre vantage points became vital strategic positions.
The Germans regarded Lille, an industrial centre with almost a million inhabitants, as a crucial asset from the beginning. That made the surrounding countryside strategically important territory because, in order to attack Lille, the Allies would need to win the high ground at Aubers Ridge and Fromelles. The Germans supported their front lines with a covering network of artillery placed well behind the high ground and with reserves housed in underground bunkers.
In the early stages of the war, some positions changed hands a number of times as the two sides sparred to establish their dominance and to lay claim to positions of strategic value. Neuve Chapelle was one of them. A small town on an important crossroads, a few kilometres south-west of Fromelles, between La Bassée and Béthune and the road to the city of Armentières, it was taken by the Germans in early October 1914, won back by the British on 16 October and then reclaimed by the Germans on 27 October.
By March 1915, British plans were well advanced to retake Neuve Chapelle and then advance on Lille. Two British and two Indian divisions would attack Lille through Neuve Chapelle while another British force would recapture the town of La Bassée.
Germans bury their dead somewhere on the Western Front. Germany mobilised 11 million men during World War I. Of these, 7 million, or 65 per cent, were either killed, wounded, missing or taken prisoner.
The chief members of the Armistice Commission which sat in Spa, Belgium, in November 1918. The first three members in uniform are: General R.C.B. Haking (British), General Nudan (French) and General Dellobe (Belgian). ( AWM PHOTO H09449 )
In what would be a preview of the disastrous Battle of Fromelles a year later, the attack was a deadly amalgam of miscalculations, mismanagement and mistakes. Poor coordination of the infantry charge and its artillery support saw the attackers charging into their own bombardment. In some areas, communication breakdowns saw them being thrown against undamaged defences instead of being sent to the battered parts of the enemy’s front line. At one stage the commanders believed that the Middlesex Regiment had broken through successfully, ‘for not a man came back to report otherwise’. Later they found out none came back because they were all dead.
Despite all these difficulties, the British troops burst through the German defences and took Neuve Chapelle on 10 March. But their observers did not see the German support lines on the higher ground behind the town and, while the British High Command dithered over the next step, the Germans rushed in reinforcements and then began a massive artillery barrage from behind Aubers Ridge which shattered the British lines. The first German counter-attack was beaten back on the outskirts of Neuve Chapelle. Then the British Commander Sir Douglas Haig tried to gain the upper hand by attacking Aubers Ridge with an infantry charge. By the time he called
The overwhelming impression of Fromelles and the surrounding countryside is its flatness. At its highest, Fromelles is just 25 metres above sea level. The village of Aubers, about 3 kilometres south-west, is only 11 metres higher. Yet such is the bowling-green terrain of the region that these meagre vantage points became vital strategic positions.
The Germans regarded Lille, an industrial centre with almost a million inhabitants, as a crucial asset from the beginning. That made the surrounding countryside strategically important territory because, in order to attack Lille, the Allies would need to win the high ground at Aubers Ridge and Fromelles. The Germans supported their front lines with a covering network of artillery placed well behind the high ground and with reserves housed in underground bunkers.
In the early stages of the war, some positions changed hands a number of times as the two sides sparred to establish their dominance and to lay claim to positions of strategic value. Neuve Chapelle was one of them. A small town on an important crossroads, a few kilometres south-west of Fromelles, between La Bassée and Béthune and the road to the city of Armentières, it was taken by the Germans in early October 1914, won back by the British on 16 October and then reclaimed by the Germans on 27 October.
By March 1915, British plans were well advanced to retake Neuve Chapelle and then advance on Lille. Two British and two Indian divisions would attack Lille through Neuve Chapelle while another British force would recapture the town of La Bassée.
Germans bury their dead somewhere on the Western Front. Germany mobilised 11 million men during World War I. Of these, 7 million, or 65 per cent, were either killed, wounded, missing or taken prisoner.
The chief members of the Armistice Commission which sat in Spa, Belgium, in November 1918. The first three members in uniform are: General R.C.B. Haking (British), General Nudan (French) and General Dellobe (Belgian). ( AWM PHOTO H09449 )
In what would be a preview of the disastrous Battle of Fromelles a year later, the attack was a deadly amalgam of miscalculations, mismanagement and mistakes. Poor coordination of the infantry charge and its artillery support saw the attackers charging into their own bombardment. In some areas, communication breakdowns saw them being thrown against undamaged defences instead of being sent to the battered parts of the enemy’s front line. At one stage the commanders believed that the Middlesex Regiment had broken through successfully, ‘for not a man came back to report otherwise’. Later they found out none came back because they were all dead.
Despite all these difficulties, the British troops burst through the German defences and took Neuve Chapelle on 10 March. But their observers did not see the German support lines on the higher ground behind the town and, while the British High Command dithered over the next step, the Germans rushed in reinforcements and then began a massive artillery barrage from behind Aubers Ridge which shattered the British lines. The first German counter-attack was beaten back on the outskirts of Neuve Chapelle. Then the British Commander Sir Douglas Haig tried to gain the upper hand by attacking Aubers Ridge with an infantry charge. By the time he called
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