page_title: Military history of Australia during World War I
section_title: Battle of the Somme, 1916
hierarchical_section_title: Military history of Australia during World War I / Western Front / Battle of the Somme, 1916
caption_attribution_description: A fatigue party from the Australian 7th Brigade (Australian 2nd Division) pass the former German bunker known as "Gibraltar" at the western end of Pozières, 28 August 1916, during the Battle of the Somme. The infantry are laden with empty sandbags, heading towards the fighting around Mouquet Farm, north of Pozières.
context_page_description: In Australia, the outbreak of World War I was greeted with considerable enthusiasm. Even before Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914, the nation pledged its support alongside other states of the British Empire and almost immediately began preparations to send forces overseas to engage in the conflict. The first campaign that Australians were involved in was in German New Guinea after a hastily raised force known as the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force was dispatched from Australia to seize German possessions in the Pacific in September 1914. At the same time another expeditionary force, initially consisting of 20,000 men and known as the First Australian Imperial Force, was raised for service overseas.
  The AIF departed Australia in November 1914 and, after several delays due to the presence of German naval vessels in the Indian Ocean, arrived in Egypt, where they were initially used to defend the Suez Canal. In early 1915, however, it was decided to carry out an amphibious landing on the Gallipoli peninsula with the goal of opening up a second front and securing the passage of the Dardanelles.
context_section_description: On 7 April 1916, I Anzac Corps took up positions in a quiet sector south of Armentières, known as the "Nursery". The Australians were spared from participating in the disastrous first day on the Somme, nevertheless within three weeks of the beginning of the Allied offensive, four divisions of the AIF had been committed to the battle. Only the 3rd Division did not take part, having only just recently arrived in England from Australia. The 5th Division, positioned on the left flank of the salient, was the first to see action during the Battle of Fromelles on 19 July 1916, suffering a staggering 5,533 casualties in a single day.
  The 1st Division entered the line on 23 July 1916, taking part in the assault on Pozières. Initially they succeeded in carrying the German positions with relatively small losses, however, once the Germans had recovered they directed an intense artillery barrage upon the town which resulted in heavy losses. By the time that they were relieved by the 2nd Division on 27 July, they had suffered 5,286 casualties. Two days after taking over the line, the 2nd Division was thrown into a hastily planned attack that resulted in further casualties when the Germans spotted the Australians forming up and once again subjected them to the weight of their artillery and machine guns. Another attack was launched on 4 August which, although it met with success, resulted again in such heavy casualties—almost 7,000—that the division was relieved the next day.
  Following the attack on Pozières the Australians were called upon to attack Mouquet Farm in August. All three divisions of I Anzac Corps were committed in an effort to force a breach in the German lines behind Thiepval, to the north of Pozières. The task of the initial advance fell to the 4th Division on 10 August, which had already suffered 1,000 casualties resisting the final German counter-attack, but in the ensuing battle it would lose a further three times that number as the Australians once again suffered at the hands of the German artillery, finding themselves squeezed into a frontage of less than 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) against which the Germans were able to concentrate the weight of their defence. Three more attacks were made over the course of the next three weeks as the Australians fought their way across the shell-pocked countryside to the farm, only to be forced out again shortly after by the concentration of German artillery. The other two divisions of I Anzac fared only slightly better in these attacks and at the end of the engagement, Australian casualties at Mouquet Farm totalled 6,300 men.
  As that battle on the Somme dragged on, the Canadian Corps was brought up and the AIF was withdrawn from the line to re-organise and reform, having suffered almost 23,000 casualties over the course of the 45 days that they had been involved. The 5th Division had been so badly mauled, having been incapacitated by the losses they had suffered at Fromelles, that it was not until October that the 5th Division finally returned to the line and joined the 1st, 2nd and 4th Divisions on the Somme near Flers.
caption: The "Gibraltar" pillbox, Pozières, in late August. A fatigue party laden with sandbags heads for the fighting at Mouquet Farm.
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