Battle of Fromelles
German bunker in Fromelles 2007
| date | July 19, 1916 to July 21, 1916 |
|---|---|
| place | near Fromelles |
| output | Victory of the German Empire |
| Territorial changes | No |
| consequences | Attrition battle without major gains in terrain |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 10,000-15,000 | 30,000+ |
| losses | |
|
1500 |
5,533 Australians and 1,500 British dead, wounded or captured |
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The Battle of Fromelles took place on the Western Front of World War I in the summer of 1916 and ended with the First Australian Imperial Force defeated by German troops .
Starting position
Fromelles is located in the Nord department , 16 km west of the French city of Lille , in the Hauts-de-France region in France . The then quiet section of the western front near Lille belonged to the area of the German 6th Army under Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria . All the staff's attention was on the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme . The enemy intelligence of the Allies had not escaped the fact that this weakly equipped front section would be suitable for a small relief attack with a possible breakthrough to the above-mentioned battles.
Course of the battle
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Compared to the troops of the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division at Fromelles, which was classified as mediocre with a motivated but poorly trained volunteer rate of 30 percent, the low-rated 61st (2nd South Midland) Division and the inexperienced 5th Australian Division, part of the Australian Imperial Force , under the joint command of General Officer Commanding (GOC) Richard Haking (XI Corps). His counterpart was Lieutenant General Gustav Scanzoni von Lichtenfels . After three days of heavy artillery fire on the sector, the British and Australians attacked the German positions on the evening of July 19, 1916. Contrary to expectations, the assault turned into a disaster. With relatively low losses, the Bavarians were able to stop the attack in their well-secured trenches, bunkers and machine-gun positions with initially minor losses of territory. The next day, hand grenade troops were able to recapture the lost terrain.
The 6th Bavarian in Reserve Infantry Regiment 16 . Reserve Division served as a reporter at the time for Adolf Hitler .
Aftermath
_Miltary_Cemetery.JPG)
Never before and since then in the history of the Australian armed forces has this army suffered such high losses in a battle. A commission of inquiry placed the blame in large part on the British General Richard Haking. The Australians later disparagingly called the general "Butcher Haking". The Australian Army suffered a total of around 5300 fallen soldiers in its campaigns in the Boer War, Korean War and Vietnam. At the Battle of Fromelles this number was reached within 24 hours.
Violations of the Geneva Convention
After the battle, both warring parties complained about violations of the Geneva Convention . The Australians claimed that Bavarian soldiers had shot some obviously wounded Australians. In another case, the Bavarians had a blind Australian run around in circles for amusement and then shot him. The Bavarians in turn claimed that they were shot at while rescuing the many dead and wounded Australian soldiers. In another confirmed case on July 20, 1916, an officer of the 14th Australian Infantry Brigade surrendered to two soldiers from the 6th Reserve Division and then ordered his men to do the same. However, the Australians ignored his order or did not understand him and shot the two Bavarian soldiers.
Memorial, cemetery and museum
In the vicinity of (or in) Fromelles are the following facilities maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission :
- VC Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial , until 2010 the only CWGC cemetery in which only Australians lie, and at the same time the only one where there are no grave stelae, because it is only the remains of unidentifiable body parts collected in 1918, about a thousand Australians Soldiers;
- the small, very beautiful cemetery on rue Pétillon ( Le Trou Aid Post Military Cemetery ), which is also home to Australians, located just a few hundred meters from 1. but across the border in the Pas de Calais department ;
- the new Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery ; and
- a museum (in Fromelles) for the fallen sons of Australia in the battle of Fromelles in World War I.
The Commonwealth Graves Commission's Pheasant Wood Military Cemetery was dedicated on July 19, 2010, the 94th anniversary of the beginning of the battle. At the same time, the remains of the last of 250 were inhumed by the Bavarian opponents in several brotherhood graves dug up in front of Pheasant Wood in the shadow of the parish church, in the presence of Charles, Prince of Wales as well as Christian clergy, a rabbi and the then Australian Governor General buried with military honors, with the heir to the throne striding behind the carriage with his head bared. As usual, the dead identified up to that point received a grave stele with the badge of the Australian armed forces and including the names, rank, dates of life and a dedication of their survivors. If you belong to a Christian denomination, the stone also bears the sign of the cross. The steles of the unidentified dead bear, as usual, the inscription "Known unto God".
literature
- Paul Cobb: Fromelles 1916 . The History Press, Stroud 2010, ISBN 978-0-7524-5601-0 .
- Thomas Weber : Hitler's First War: Adolf Hitler, the Men of the List Regiment, and the First World War. Oxford University Press, 1st edition 2010, ISBN 978-0-19-923320-5 .
- Thomas Weber: Hitler's First War. Private Hitler in World War II - Myth and Truth . List Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-548-61110-5 .
- Friedrich Wiedemann: The battle near Fromelles on July 19 and 20, 1916. In: Solleder, Fridolin (ed.): Four years of the western front. History of the List RIR regiment [= Reserve Infantry Regiment] 16. Munich: Max Schick Verlag 1932. (= memorial sheets of German regiments. Bavarian Army. Ed. Of the Bavarian War Archives. Vol. 76). Pp. 214-236.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ German translation: Hitler's First War: The Private Hitler in World War I - Myth and Truth , Propylaen Verlag, Berlin 2011, p. 198.