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thousand pieces and stewn it about it would give to you a faint conception
of the shambles those trenches were”.
While British leadership could not be blamed for all our poor leadership
decisions during the war,in this particular case, British General Sir
Richard Haking, was given the task of developing a plan to ensure that no
German troops were allowed to be released to the Somme where Britain
were struggling with massive losses of men themselves.
Haking, by many accounts, was a poor communicator, and was unaware
of facts like the low number of shells available to an inexperienced
Australian artillery unit who had just replaced an experienced British
unit. He was also unaware that an inexperienced AIF contingent were
unprepared for the type of warfare they were to face having just arrived at
the Front and half of whom had to “go over the top” without metal
helmets but in their slouch hats.
What a disaster as the Germans even knew, due to the ineffective artillery
fire, that our troops were coming.
Unfortunately, many soldiers bodies were never recovered from no man’s
land. In his book
Lost Legions of Fromelles
, Peter Barton wrote “those
lives were wasted on a military operation that was totally pointless.”
Australian Brigadier General H.E. “Pompey” Elliott, a popular general
and leader said “ I presume there was some plan ……………….but it is
difficult to know what it was”. The aim seems to have been simply to
relieve pressure on the British who had suffered their worst day in their
military history losing 20,000 dead on the first day of the battle of the
Somme.
Pompey Elliott had a long and distinguished career. He had won a DCM
in the Boer War and lead the 7
th
Battalion ashore at Gallipoli where he
was wounded on the first day.
Later he was put in command of the 15
th
Brigade at the war’s end and he
defended stoutly his troops making him very popular. His troops had
given him his nickname “Pompey” which was apparently the name of a
popular Carlton footballer of the time. Elliott seemed very aware of the
disaster that was going to occur and apparently when he heard the news of
the losses he went inside his billet and sobbed.
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