History
Back to NewsroomThe Battle of Villers-Bretonneux
“Perhaps the greatest individual feat of the war – the successful counter-attack by night across unknown and difficult ground, at a few hours’ notice, by the Australian soldier”
Brigadier-General George Grogan, 23rd British Brigade
When a massive German offensive swept across northern France in March 1918, it seemed for a time that German troops might reach the Channel coast. The Australian Corps, most of whose infantry was concentrated in the area around Messines in Flanders, was spared the bloody fighting of the offensive’s opening days but was soon sent south to plug gaps in the disintegrating British line.
In late March and early April, soldiers of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) fought a series of difficult defensive battles, at Hébuterne, Dernancourt, Morlancourt, Villers-Bretonneux, Hangard Wood and Hazebrouck, that are largely forgotten today. Just one name in that list stands out. Villers-Bretonneux was the scene of fightings on 4 and 5 April when Australian and British troops repelled a determined German attack.
Three weeks later, British units were holding the town while the 8th and 14th brigades of the 5th Australian Division manned a line from Villers-Bretonneux northwards to the Somme. Brigadier Harold ‘Pompey’ Elliott’s 15th Brigade was in reserve. On 24 April the Germans made a second attempt on Villers-Bretonneux. With the vital British transport hub at Amiens, less than 20 kilometres away, the town was a significant prize. From there, Amiens could be brought under artillery fire, and if the German advance continued, taken by infantry.
The Germans struck at dawn with gas, artillery, infantry and tanks – the first German use of this weapon to support an attack. Facing them were, in the words of senior British officer Sir Henry Rawlinson, “young boys … under fire for the first time”, shaken by the bombardment and unnerved by the sight of tanks emerging from the morning mist. Villers-Bretonneux was soon in enemy hands.
No British counterattack succeeded in dislodging them and as the day wore on the situation grew increasingly dire. In the afternoon Rawlinson insisted ‘we must get it back whatever happens’. Elliott, as senior Australian commander in the area, resolved to counterattack as soon as possible, but hours passed as British attempts to retrieve the situation failed. All the while the Germans strengthened their newly won positions and were pushing out beyond the town.
An attempt to capture Cachy, 4 kilometres from Villers-Bretonneux led to the first ever battle between tanks. British armour prevailed, routing the German infantry who were unable to gain their objective.
With the German advance halted, Rawlinson planned his assault on Villers-Bretonneux. He decided to use Elliott’s 15th Brigade and, at very short notice, William Glasgow’s 13th Brigade from the 4th Australian Division. Glasgow’s men made a 13-kilometre march from their billets north of the Somme during the afternoon, joining the 15th Brigade outside Villers-Bretonneux as officers planned their assault. The 13th Brigade would advance from the south, the 15th from the north. They planned to link up in the vicinity of Monument Wood. Elements of the British 14th Division would follow the Australians, engaging Germans caught in the pincer.
It was a risky gambit. Infantry had to make a series of complex manoeuvres, advance and link-up in the dark. The 13th Brigade had to do this without artillery support over unfamiliar ground cut through with a belt of barbed wire. No one was sure where the German positions were. Australia’s Official Correspondent, Charles Bean, who witnessed almost every major AIF action on the Western Front, reflecting on what the 13th Brigade was trying to achieve, recorded in his diary: ‘I don’t believe they have a chance … I scarcely think it will come off.’ To the north, a 59th Battalion veteran from the 15th Brigade considered it ‘an almost impossible proposition.’ Many others shared his concern.
The 13th Brigade commenced their attack at 10:00pm and were quickly held up by heavy machine gun fire from nearby woods they believed cleared. Lieutenant Cliff Sadlier and Sergeant Charlie Stokes led a party into the trees to deal with them, an action for which Stokes received the Distinguished Conduct Medal and Sadlier the Victoria Cross. The attack continued to the town’s outskirts. Some of the Brigade were almost on their final objective but saw no sign of the 15th Brigade. The surviving officers elected to fall back and consolidate a position south of the town centre.
Elliott’s attack was delayed by two hours. As they waited, he made sure that the men destined to make the assault got a drink of hot tea, and as one soldier recalled, ‘plenty of hot stew, as much as we could stuff into us.’ Former school teacher, now 60th Battalion stretcher bearer, David Whinfield, wrote:
‘Since 10 last night we have been rigged up already to march off to support and now it is to counterattack for some ground lost by the Tommies this morning … It is a terrible time … Nerves are being shredded … it is too much for mortals.’
The 13th Brigade commenced their attack at 10:00pm and were quickly held up by heavy machine gun fire from nearby woods they believed cleared. Lieutenant Cliff Sadlier and Sergeant Charlie Stokes led a party into the trees to deal with them, an action for which Stokes received the Distinguished Conduct Medal and Sadlier the Victoria Cross. The attack continued to the town’s outskirts. Some brigades were almost on their final objective but saw no sign of the 15th Brigade. The surviving officers elected to fall back and consolidate a position south of the town centre.
Elliott’s attack was delayed by two hours. As they waited, he made sure that the men destined to make the assault got a drink of hot tea, and as one soldier recalled, ‘plenty of hot stew, as much as we could stuff into us.’ Former school teacher, now 60th Battalion stretcher bearer, David Whinfield, wrote:
The Australians had not been able to link up, but by dawn on Anzac Day it was clear that they had achieved a considerable success. As the sun rose, elements of the 57th Battalion began moving towards Villers-Bretonneux from the northeast, clearing Germans from the town and handing dozens of prisoners to British troops then beginning to come forward. Gaps between the Australian positions outside the town were closed and on 27 April the 60th Battalion fought a difficult and costly action to straighten the line. A German counterattack was broken up before it could begin, and the front grew quiet.
At Villers-Bretonneux, the Germans were denied an important objective, ending what one historian called ‘the dangerous thrust to Amiens.’ General Monash wrote a week after the battle that he considered the attack ‘the finest thing yet done in the war, by Australians or any other troops.’ It cost the 13th Brigade 1009 casualties and the 15th a further 455, and remains one of the AIF’s most well-known actions. After Villers-Bretonneux the German divisions on the Somme front went on the defensive, never to regain the initiative.