page_title: 5th Division (Australia)
section_title: Fromelles, 1916
hierarchical_section_title: 5th Division (Australia) / First World War / Fromelles, 1916
caption_attribution_description: English: Soldiers of the 53rd Battalion, Australian 5th Division, waiting to attack during the Battle of Fromelles, July 19, 1916. Only three of the men shown survived the attack and those three were wounded.
context_page_description: The 5th Division was an infantry division of the Australian Army which served during the First and Second World Wars. The division was formed in February 1916 as part of the expansion of the Australian Imperial Force infantry brigades. In addition to the existing 8th Brigade were added the new 14th and 15th Brigades, which had been raised from the battalions of the 1st and 2nd Brigades respectively. From Egypt the division was sent to France and then Belgium, where they served in the trenches along the Western Front until the end of the war in November 1918. After the war ended, the division was demobilised in 1919.
  The division was re-raised as a Militia formation during the Second World War, and was mobilised for the defence of North Queensland in 1942, when it was believed that the area was a prime site for an invasion by Japanese forces. Most of the division was concentrated in the Townsville area, although the 11th Brigade was detached for the defence of Cairns and Cape York. In 1943, the division took part in the final stages of the Salamaua–Lae campaign, in New Guinea, and then later in 1944 captured Madang during the Huon Peninsula campaign.
context_section_description: The 5th Division began arriving in France in late June 1916, landing in Marseilles, the last of the four Australian divisions from Egypt to do so (although the 3rd Division, which sailed from Australia, arrived last in February 1917).  At this time the Battle of the Somme was underway and going badly for the British.  The divisions of I Anzac Corps, which had been acclimatising in the quiet sector near Armentières since April 1916, had been dispatched to the Somme as reinforcements, and so the 4th and 5th Divisions, which formed part of II Anzac Corps under Lieutenant General Alexander Godley,  took their place at Armentières. The 4th Division subsequently occupied the front, while the 5th Division remained in reserve, completing training around Blaringhem, until 8 July, when it was called to take over from the 4th Division around Bois-Grenier, which also began preparations to move south. The 8th and 15th Brigades arrived on the night of 10/11 July, while the 14th moved into position on 12 July.
  The result of this move was that the 5th Division, the most inexperienced of the Australian divisions in France, would be the first to see major action, doing so in the Battle of Fromelles, a week after going into the trenches.  As the Germans had been reinforcing their Somme front with troops from the north, the British planned a demonstration, or feint, to try to pin these troops to the front.
  The attack was planned by Lieutenant-General Richard Haking, commander of the British XI Corps,   which adjoined II Anzac Corps to the south.  The aim was to reduce the slight German salient known as the "Sugar Loaf", north-west of the German-held town of Fromelles, and was primarily intended, according to historian Chris Coulthard-Clark, "to assist the main offensive which British forces had launched along the Somme River 80 kilometres to the south on 1 July".
  Planning for the attack had been hasty and, as a result, the objectives were poorly defined. By the time the attack was ready to be launched, its purpose as a preliminary diversion to the main action at the Somme had passed, yet Haking and his army commander, General Sir Charles Monro, were keen to go ahead. Due to the pre-registration of supporting artillery, the Germans were warned about the attack. Nevertheless, at 6 pm on 19 July 1916, after seven hours of preliminary bombardment, the 5th Division and British 61st Division (on the right of the Australians) attacked.  The Australian 8th and 14th Brigades, attacking north of the salient, occupied the German trenches, capturing around 1,000 metres (3,300 ft), but became isolated as the 15th Brigade's effort was checked, and began taking fire to its flank from Sugar Loaf. The 15th Brigade and the British 184th Brigade had taken heavy casualties while attempting to cross no man's land, as the supporting artillery had failed to suppress the German machine guns. The 8th and 14th Brigades were forced to withdraw, through German enfilade fire, the following morning.  The failure was compounded when the British 61st Division asked the Australian 15th Brigade to join in a renewed attempt at 9 pm, but cancelled without informing the Australians with enough time to allow them to cancel their own attack. Consequently, half of the Australian 58th Battalion made another futile, solo effort to capture the salient, which resulted in further casualties.
  The battle resulted in the greatest loss of Australian lives in a single 24-hour period. The 5,533 Australian casualties, including 400 prisoners, were equivalent to the total Australian losses in the Boer, Korean and Vietnam Wars combined. The 5th Division was effectively incapacitated for many months afterwards. Two battalions, the 60th and the 32nd, each suffered more than 700 casualties, or more than 90 per cent of their fighting strength and had to be rebuilt: out of 887 personnel from the 60th Battalion, only one officer and 106 other ranks survived; the 32nd Battalion sustained 718 casualties. The attack had completely failed as a diversion when its limited nature became obvious to the Germ
caption: Members of the 53rd Battalion, shortly before the Battle of Fromelles, July 1916.
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