Anzac Day 2016
Battle of Fromelles (France) World War One
19/20th July 1916
Manilla RSL Sub Branch Oration
Researched, written and narrated
by Elaine Bastion (WRAAF 1955 -59)
It is 1pm on the 19th July 1916. We are just south of a town in France, called Fromelles…it is a small country town …, comprising of 1000 men, women and children, who work and assist the farming families in the area… growing, packing and distributing fruit, vegetables and grain that thrives on the flat plains .
Fromelles is not far from the coast where the English Coast can, on a clear day, be seen... Similarly as with the Somme 80 kilometres south… and Dunkirk to the north (famous in another war in another time)… vital positions for the enemy to hold and the allies need to neutralise
The Germans are at war with England, France, Russia and others (so therefore; we Australians and New Zealanders have volunteered (in our hundreds of thousands ) to help Britain and the Allies.
The Germans have already been here for some two years and have dug and constructed three lines of trenches above and below ground bunkers ….and communications/ supply lines of such strength and engineering, it would prove nearly impossible to breach these lines.
A major part of trench warfare includes long range artillery. They are some kilometres behind the trenches with the capabilities of firing shells …some the size of modern day car engines…these would explode on landing and leave huge craters and mangled bodies from shrapnel… where they fell and exploded with enormous impact.
In front of the trenches are tangles of barbed wire placed in such a fashion that the few areas left open are not obvious to those facing and running towards them. But clear for the Germans to go forward into No Mans Land from their positions if they need to .
It is also the time of the early machine guns. Both sides have them…but the Germans are able to position theirs on the high ground in protective thick walled bunkers, that not only fire front on at the Aussies heading towards them but from both flank positions of this small battle area .
I want you to imagine…. that we are in Fromelles… and the dimensions i am giving you are the approximate dimensions of the known battle area near that lovely country town in France…Fromelles.
At each end on higher ground…say where our bridge is, high over our two rivers are at least two German machine guns facing down Manilla street (German border of no mans land) nests of machine guns on my left at the park down on the corner of Court Street (and imagine the park as the same height as our bridge) and of course two or more nests of machine guns facing down the towards the river. And certainly6 a lot flatter than our area.
The German water cooled Maxim machine guns are capable of firing 700 rounds (bullets) per minute (12 per second) and artillery shells falling at dozens per minute continuously throughout the day and night.
So this is our battlefield… the bridge on my right, the park on my left and the length of two football fields behind me held by the Germans and similarly, two football fields in front of me down to the river. This is no man’s land with the British line across the river…we have 15 thousand mostly inexperienced Allied soldiers entering their first battle …the remainder are experienced from the Gallipoli and other campaigns, including our Major Sampson, waiting for the orders to advance in a continuous wave upon wave of mostly Australians
The orders are brutally clear “continue to send the fifteen thousand troops until the Germans surrender or are dead..” One British general assured the units” officers and men….. “with this artillery bombardment there will be few Germans waiting for you boys” …. how wrong they were
The artillery of both sides has been going for 8 hours in the hope that they will be accurate enough to breach the barbed wire defenses, and even kill the troops waiting in the trenches for the order to advance or defending. Both sides hope at least to damage the machine guns and the supply and communication areas. … the noise is horrific.
it is a hot summers day, a third of the British artillery have been “duds” …noisy. But having faulty fuses. and little damage has been inflicted on the Germans…and their position
But already at 1pm on this 19th day of July more than two hundred of our men are dead or injured without leaving their trenches. And no man’s land is no longer a flat plain. But full of craters and loose dirt impeding the advance of our troops. And because of the high water table…craters were filling with water and the ground becoming slushy; slippery; and even more dangerous to traverse
The German generals by now have determined from their own intelligence that the Britsh generals in charge of our battle are not serious in capturing this part of their front line. But wanting to maybe trick the Germans into leaving the more important positions at the Somme to the south… to fight the British and Australian troops here at Fromelles. They were right it is considered a “feint” operation not a full blown attack by the British generals .
it is now 4pm on the afternoon of the 19th of July and and in spite of the concerns of unit leaders and other senior Australian officers being sent back to British headquarters ….the order is given “ the attack will start at 6 pm”
It is 6pm….. Our officers and NCO’s who had the experience and knowledge from senior officers to determine what was about to happen …. Heroically lead the attack … encouraging their men who by now were absolutely terrified by the noise and the stench and the mud and the already dead and dying…into no man’s land and what becomes officially called and is still known to this day…as….”The most disastrous day in Australia’s history” continues overnight to run it’s inevitable ill-fated course.
with the summer sun not due to set till 9.30.pm and our troops having to run and stumble through no man’s land facing that brilliant setting sun trying to avoid thousands of bullets continuously flying around them …….and the Germans continuing to fire heavy artillery , throwing hand grenades……their snipers picking out the officers and NCO’s ….the shouted orders , the screams and cries of the wounded and whistles blowing, and bugles playing so they could be heard above the incredible noise…..the night passes..
By 8am even the units that had made inroads into enemy territory were forced and finally ordered to retreat back to where they started….the germans hardly needed to leave their well-fortified bunkers and trenches. …content to just mow down their enemy as they headed towards them.
It is officially recorded that neither side gained any advantage on that dreadful day and night …. the British lost 1547 killed or wounded while the German casualties totaled less than 1500.
It is now 10am on Thursday 20th July following Roll Call… and in this area i have described as approximately the same size of the Fromelles battlefield including both German and British lines. ……Lay… dead or dying …..five thousand five hundred and thirty three Australians …..178 officers and 5355 men of other ranks…
This is more than the combined total of all Australian losses in the Boer, Korean and Vietnam wars. This number remains “the most Australians killed in any single battle”….and all in less than 24 hours. In a few farming fields in France.
Major Sampson’s 53rd battalion lost more than 500 diggers and 20 officers……some walking wounded and uninjured were captured and ultimately sent to German prison of war camps as were some 400 others from the total 8th division during this battle. And released when war was declared over in November 1918
Let me introduce Major Sampson born in Upper Manilla in the year 1888…son of Burton and Catherine …teachers working in the Manilla district and included in this well researched and published book “Manilla’s Men in Marble” by the Manilla Historical Society
As a child , Victor Horatio Buller Sampson, would have ridden his horse over this bridge, fished in the rivers and local creeks, went to school, played with his friends and as an adult he was educated to university standard and at the time of his enlistment worked as a clerk with the AMP Society……he also had a sweetheart named Marie White of Grafton…whose letters to the War Office are heart rending reading.
The earliest military record i could find for f Victor ….is on a nominal role of the Ctizen Forces. In 1906, he was a Lance Corporal applying for an Officers Course .
He obviously had joined them at about age 18 and in 1914 when war was declared and because the charter of the early CMF stated they could not be sent overseas…he was discharged then (transferred) to the the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Forces and went to the first significant Australian action of the First World War with that unit… landing on Rabaul on 11 September 1914.
The ANMEF took possession of German New Guinea at Toma on 17 September 1914 and of the neighbouring islands of the Bismarck archipelago in October 1914.
He returned to Melbourne as a Lieutenant and from there sailed to Egypt. After serving approximately 6 months in Gallipoli …he returned to Cairo promoted to Major and transferred to the 53rd Infantry Battalion, 5th Division AIF.
Due to his service in Gallipoli , Major Sampson was earlier declared unfit to go to the Western Front and was ordered to be sent back to Australia from Cairo.… Time went by and there were no available berths to send him home in so he was re assessed as ‘fit for duty” and sent with his battalion to Fromelles in early July 1916.. How fickle is fate!
An experienced, well liked officer of just 27 years of age when he went over the parapet on July 19th just after 6pm…..and was shot a number of times just ten metres short of the 1st German trench line between 6.30 and 7 pm….
A statement by Cpl J.T James in part read….” He (the Major) was wounded very badly about the body. He said ‘help me in boys and i will try and throw a few bombs” … his body wasn’t found until the well publicised search for the “missing men from Fromelles” this century…and the finding of three German burial pits with hundreds of Australians and British soldiers buried by a German burial unit with obvious identities sent to the German Red Cross.…for later identification. Major Sampson was declared “Killed in Action”
And with the help of forensic archaeology and DNA testing, Victor’s body was finally identified and re buried in the only completely filled with Australians war cemetery in Europe… on the land he died on…donated by the farm owner “for the soldiers”
Too late for his parents and immediate family at the time to mourn and his sweetheart, Marie to console them that he had really died on the battle field …because his body had been lost for ninety years… but now lays at rest identified and finally with some dignity along side his mates (some still not identified) near Fromelles
During my research for this oration i stumbled across a warrior who has a descendant living today in Manilla… killed in action at Fromelles …Lieutenant Eric Harding Chinner - great uncle of Karel Saint who I am certain is here today in honour of more than one relative lost from her family during the 1914 - 18 “WAR TO END ALL WARS!”
And I found mentions of a Doctor from Manilla who was part of the the 8th Division. The regimental medical officer of the 57th battalion on the day and tended the wounded from this battle ………a Dr Hugh Rayson of Manilla NSW who wrote to the official medical historian.
“during the next week …wounded continued to come down as a result of the battle of the 19th/20th July: these men had been rescued from no man’s land.
As far as i can remember the last man recovered alive, reached my post 9 to 10 days after the battle…… he went on… “I found one man in the front line about two days after the battle who had the lower part of his face shot away….so badly wounded… one wondered where to put his water bottle for a drink…he was not complaining… none of them complained no matter how dreadful their wounds….…he was on his feet attempting to seek help and to help others.”
Some of the greatest heroics of the entire war were displayed by those attempting (and some being killed or wounded during their efforts) ……to rescue the wounded …. the area remains under fire for days later from the German weapons: regardless of the fact, that it was obvious the soldiers were trying to rescue the wounded.. and bury the dead.
Such is the barbarity of warfare.
Finally on this Anzac day 2016, I leave you with the comforting knowledge ….the town of Fromelles’s citizens continue to care for …and will continue to care….for our fallen in a field near their town…..
Victor Horatio Buller Sampson
(Major) AIF
5th Australian Division
14th Brigade
53rd Battalion
and all those resting with you
“LEST WE FORGET!”
bibliography: Official Australian, British and German War Records
53rd Battalion history and the ABC and Channel 9”s “Missing Men from Fromelles”
A variety of searches on Google for German. French and British Army Historical Records
And especially the amazing book by Patrick Lindsay - “Our Darkest Day”
“The tragic Battle of Fromelles and the Digger’s final Resting Place”
Manila historical Society “Men in Marble”
Battle of Fromelles (France) World War One
19/20th July 1916
Manilla RSL Sub Branch Oration
Researched, written and narrated
by Elaine Bastion (WRAAF 1955 -59)
It is 1pm on the 19th July 1916. We are just south of a town in France, called Fromelles…it is a small country town …, comprising of 1000 men, women and children, who work and assist the farming families in the area… growing, packing and distributing fruit, vegetables and grain that thrives on the flat plains .
Fromelles is not far from the coast where the English Coast can, on a clear day, be seen... Similarly as with the Somme 80 kilometres south… and Dunkirk to the north (famous in another war in another time)… vital positions for the enemy to hold and the allies need to neutralise
The Germans are at war with England, France, Russia and others (so therefore; we Australians and New Zealanders have volunteered (in our hundreds of thousands ) to help Britain and the Allies.
The Germans have already been here for some two years and have dug and constructed three lines of trenches above and below ground bunkers ….and communications/ supply lines of such strength and engineering, it would prove nearly impossible to breach these lines.
A major part of trench warfare includes long range artillery. They are some kilometres behind the trenches with the capabilities of firing shells …some the size of modern day car engines…these would explode on landing and leave huge craters and mangled bodies from shrapnel… where they fell and exploded with enormous impact.
In front of the trenches are tangles of barbed wire placed in such a fashion that the few areas left open are not obvious to those facing and running towards them. But clear for the Germans to go forward into No Mans Land from their positions if they need to .
It is also the time of the early machine guns. Both sides have them…but the Germans are able to position theirs on the high ground in protective thick walled bunkers, that not only fire front on at the Aussies heading towards them but from both flank positions of this small battle area .
I want you to imagine…. that we are in Fromelles… and the dimensions i am giving you are the approximate dimensions of the known battle area near that lovely country town in France…Fromelles.
At each end on higher ground…say where our bridge is, high over our two rivers are at least two German machine guns facing down Manilla street (German border of no mans land) nests of machine guns on my left at the park down on the corner of Court Street (and imagine the park as the same height as our bridge) and of course two or more nests of machine guns facing down the towards the river. And certainly6 a lot flatter than our area.
The German water cooled Maxim machine guns are capable of firing 700 rounds (bullets) per minute (12 per second) and artillery shells falling at dozens per minute continuously throughout the day and night.
So this is our battlefield… the bridge on my right, the park on my left and the length of two football fields behind me held by the Germans and similarly, two football fields in front of me down to the river. This is no man’s land with the British line across the river…we have 15 thousand mostly inexperienced Allied soldiers entering their first battle …the remainder are experienced from the Gallipoli and other campaigns, including our Major Sampson, waiting for the orders to advance in a continuous wave upon wave of mostly Australians
The orders are brutally clear “continue to send the fifteen thousand troops until the Germans surrender or are dead..” One British general assured the units” officers and men….. “with this artillery bombardment there will be few Germans waiting for you boys” …. how wrong they were
The artillery of both sides has been going for 8 hours in the hope that they will be accurate enough to breach the barbed wire defenses, and even kill the troops waiting in the trenches for the order to advance or defending. Both sides hope at least to damage the machine guns and the supply and communication areas. … the noise is horrific.
it is a hot summers day, a third of the British artillery have been “duds” …noisy. But having faulty fuses. and little damage has been inflicted on the Germans…and their position
But already at 1pm on this 19th day of July more than two hundred of our men are dead or injured without leaving their trenches. And no man’s land is no longer a flat plain. But full of craters and loose dirt impeding the advance of our troops. And because of the high water table…craters were filling with water and the ground becoming slushy; slippery; and even more dangerous to traverse
The German generals by now have determined from their own intelligence that the Britsh generals in charge of our battle are not serious in capturing this part of their front line. But wanting to maybe trick the Germans into leaving the more important positions at the Somme to the south… to fight the British and Australian troops here at Fromelles. They were right it is considered a “feint” operation not a full blown attack by the British generals .
it is now 4pm on the afternoon of the 19th of July and and in spite of the concerns of unit leaders and other senior Australian officers being sent back to British headquarters ….the order is given “ the attack will start at 6 pm”
It is 6pm….. Our officers and NCO’s who had the experience and knowledge from senior officers to determine what was about to happen …. Heroically lead the attack … encouraging their men who by now were absolutely terrified by the noise and the stench and the mud and the already dead and dying…into no man’s land and what becomes officially called and is still known to this day…as….”The most disastrous day in Australia’s history” continues overnight to run it’s inevitable ill-fated course.
with the summer sun not due to set till 9.30.pm and our troops having to run and stumble through no man’s land facing that brilliant setting sun trying to avoid thousands of bullets continuously flying around them …….and the Germans continuing to fire heavy artillery , throwing hand grenades……their snipers picking out the officers and NCO’s ….the shouted orders , the screams and cries of the wounded and whistles blowing, and bugles playing so they could be heard above the incredible noise…..the night passes..
By 8am even the units that had made inroads into enemy territory were forced and finally ordered to retreat back to where they started….the germans hardly needed to leave their well-fortified bunkers and trenches. …content to just mow down their enemy as they headed towards them.
It is officially recorded that neither side gained any advantage on that dreadful day and night …. the British lost 1547 killed or wounded while the German casualties totaled less than 1500.
It is now 10am on Thursday 20th July following Roll Call… and in this area i have described as approximately the same size of the Fromelles battlefield including both German and British lines. ……Lay… dead or dying …..five thousand five hundred and thirty three Australians …..178 officers and 5355 men of other ranks…
This is more than the combined total of all Australian losses in the Boer, Korean and Vietnam wars. This number remains “the most Australians killed in any single battle”….and all in less than 24 hours. In a few farming fields in France.
Major Sampson’s 53rd battalion lost more than 500 diggers and 20 officers……some walking wounded and uninjured were captured and ultimately sent to German prison of war camps as were some 400 others from the total 8th division during this battle. And released when war was declared over in November 1918
Let me introduce Major Sampson born in Upper Manilla in the year 1888…son of Burton and Catherine …teachers working in the Manilla district and included in this well researched and published book “Manilla’s Men in Marble” by the Manilla Historical Society
As a child , Victor Horatio Buller Sampson, would have ridden his horse over this bridge, fished in the rivers and local creeks, went to school, played with his friends and as an adult he was educated to university standard and at the time of his enlistment worked as a clerk with the AMP Society……he also had a sweetheart named Marie White of Grafton…whose letters to the War Office are heart rending reading.
The earliest military record i could find for f Victor ….is on a nominal role of the Ctizen Forces. In 1906, he was a Lance Corporal applying for an Officers Course .
He obviously had joined them at about age 18 and in 1914 when war was declared and because the charter of the early CMF stated they could not be sent overseas…he was discharged then (transferred) to the the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Forces and went to the first significant Australian action of the First World War with that unit… landing on Rabaul on 11 September 1914.
The ANMEF took possession of German New Guinea at Toma on 17 September 1914 and of the neighbouring islands of the Bismarck archipelago in October 1914.
He returned to Melbourne as a Lieutenant and from there sailed to Egypt. After serving approximately 6 months in Gallipoli …he returned to Cairo promoted to Major and transferred to the 53rd Infantry Battalion, 5th Division AIF.
Due to his service in Gallipoli , Major Sampson was earlier declared unfit to go to the Western Front and was ordered to be sent back to Australia from Cairo.… Time went by and there were no available berths to send him home in so he was re assessed as ‘fit for duty” and sent with his battalion to Fromelles in early July 1916.. How fickle is fate!
An experienced, well liked officer of just 27 years of age when he went over the parapet on July 19th just after 6pm…..and was shot a number of times just ten metres short of the 1st German trench line between 6.30 and 7 pm….
A statement by Cpl J.T James in part read….” He (the Major) was wounded very badly about the body. He said ‘help me in boys and i will try and throw a few bombs” … his body wasn’t found until the well publicised search for the “missing men from Fromelles” this century…and the finding of three German burial pits with hundreds of Australians and British soldiers buried by a German burial unit with obvious identities sent to the German Red Cross.…for later identification. Major Sampson was declared “Killed in Action”
And with the help of forensic archaeology and DNA testing, Victor’s body was finally identified and re buried in the only completely filled with Australians war cemetery in Europe… on the land he died on…donated by the farm owner “for the soldiers”
Too late for his parents and immediate family at the time to mourn and his sweetheart, Marie to console them that he had really died on the battle field …because his body had been lost for ninety years… but now lays at rest identified and finally with some dignity along side his mates (some still not identified) near Fromelles
During my research for this oration i stumbled across a warrior who has a descendant living today in Manilla… killed in action at Fromelles …Lieutenant Eric Harding Chinner - great uncle of Karel Saint who I am certain is here today in honour of more than one relative lost from her family during the 1914 - 18 “WAR TO END ALL WARS!”
And I found mentions of a Doctor from Manilla who was part of the the 8th Division. The regimental medical officer of the 57th battalion on the day and tended the wounded from this battle ………a Dr Hugh Rayson of Manilla NSW who wrote to the official medical historian.
“during the next week …wounded continued to come down as a result of the battle of the 19th/20th July: these men had been rescued from no man’s land.
As far as i can remember the last man recovered alive, reached my post 9 to 10 days after the battle…… he went on… “I found one man in the front line about two days after the battle who had the lower part of his face shot away….so badly wounded… one wondered where to put his water bottle for a drink…he was not complaining… none of them complained no matter how dreadful their wounds….…he was on his feet attempting to seek help and to help others.”
Some of the greatest heroics of the entire war were displayed by those attempting (and some being killed or wounded during their efforts) ……to rescue the wounded …. the area remains under fire for days later from the German weapons: regardless of the fact, that it was obvious the soldiers were trying to rescue the wounded.. and bury the dead.
Such is the barbarity of warfare.
Finally on this Anzac day 2016, I leave you with the comforting knowledge ….the town of Fromelles’s citizens continue to care for …and will continue to care….for our fallen in a field near their town…..
Victor Horatio Buller Sampson
(Major) AIF
5th Australian Division
14th Brigade
53rd Battalion
and all those resting with you
“LEST WE FORGET!”
bibliography: Official Australian, British and German War Records
53rd Battalion history and the ABC and Channel 9”s “Missing Men from Fromelles”
A variety of searches on Google for German. French and British Army Historical Records
And especially the amazing book by Patrick Lindsay - “Our Darkest Day”
“The tragic Battle of Fromelles and the Digger’s final Resting Place”
Manila historical Society “Men in Marble”
