The Aussies at Pozieres

The Aussies suffered during the third phase of the Somme offensive - the time after the July attacks. The great thinking behind this was...to grind the defenders down. The only mitigating factor I can see for this 'plan' is that the French were under tremendous pressure themselves at Verdun from a German offensive and this continuation of the Somme offensive forced the Germans to fight two major actions at the same time. You can judge if this is a valid enough reason for the slaughter.

 

This is the Windmill memorial. The remains of it are the little mound behind the flagpoles. It took the Aussies 45 days, 19 attacks and 23,000 men to achieve their objective.

 

This link should show a photo of a location just down the road from here known as the 'Gibraltar Bunker' after it was taken in 1916

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gibraltar_bunker_Pozieres_(AWM_EZ0098).jpg

 

 

This is the same sight today

 



You might be able to make out in the distance the outline of the Thiepval monument. This may help to give a sense of the smallness of the area that this whole debacle unfolded over.

Between these two sites is Mouquet Farm - or Moo Cow farm to the Aussies. The German front line ran to the right of this line between the monuments. On top of a ridge that dominates the landscape and gives the defender the advantage.