Author: 22ndaif

Following the failure of the French Army at the Chemin des Dames and the Second Battle of the Aisne, General Nivelle was forced to retire and he was replaced by General Petain (pictured) as the French Commander-in-Chief. General Foch was appointed as Chief of the General Staff in Paris.

The next British attempt for the capture of Bullecourt was assisted by the AIF 15^th Brigade moving along OG2 and another party of the 58^th Battalion moving across open ground. However the 58^th had been heavily bombarded in the night leading up to the assault that they had to reinforced by a company of the 59^th. The OG2 attack was met with the customary desperate bomb fight between the two sides, with the 60^th Battalion providing additional bombing squads, rifle-grenadiers and Lewis gunners. In the attack 186 Germans, trapped in a deep dugout, were taken prisoner. Junction with the 7^th Division was made and thus the northeast of the village was secure, though the Germans remained stubbornly in the southwest of the village causing serious losses for the British 91^st Brigade. That night the 15^th Brigade handed over to the 173^rd Brigade of the British 58^th Division.

Major-General Hobbs of the AIF 5^th Division took over command of the Australian position in front of Bullecourt from the 2^nd Division which had charge of this sector since 14^th April. That day and as a consequence of the decision that the British effort would next fall in Flanders, orders were issued to the Australian Artillery supporting I Anzac Corps to prepare for the move north.

At 3.45am the 20^th Brigade of the British 7^th Division with the 2^nd Gordon Highlanders and the 9^th Devon Regiment attacked Bullecourt, supported by the AIF 9^th Battalion moving westwards and the twenty-four guns of the Australian field artillery providing enfilade fire. The Highlanders following the barrage seized the trench to the west of Bullecourt and began to bomb along it. At 3.58 the 9^th Battalion started their bomb fight along OG1 and at 5.15 linked up with the forward party of the Highlanders. By night fall the flank posts of the Highlanders and the Australians interlocked and the left flank of the Australians was at last secure.

On the night of the 7^th May the 2^nd Brigade took over the left sector from the 1^st Brigade.

Just before dawn the Germans attempted another major counter-attack from the Moulin Sans Souci road, this time supported by flame-throwers, and pushed down to the Central Road. Once the flame-throwers had been neutralised, the shaken men of the 11^th and 12^th Battalions rallied and bombed their way back down OG1 and OG2. The Germans sixth and most dangerous general counter-attack had been beaten, and the 10^th Battalion now took over the right. Given the difficulty of thrusting the right flank further eastwards orders were issued for this end of the Hindenburg Line to be finally barricaded off that night in its present position, with several bays beyond to be filled in and wire entanglements to be laid.

The 22nd Battalion was relieved at Bullecourt by the 2^nd Battalion and moved in small parties to the sunken road between Noreuil and Longatte. Owing to the severity of the losses, the Battalion was acting as a Company, and with each Company as a Platoon.

Meanwhile the captured position was now over 1,100 yards, with the 1^st Brigade on the left and 3^rd Brigade on the right, but still just connected by the one Pioneer Trench (Central Road) back to the railway embankment. By this time the trenches occupied by both sides had been largely destroyed by shell-fire. Indeed the shelling on the 5^th May was of an intensity not experienced since Pozieres, with men being buried and having to be dug out with haste by their comrades.

“The [Second] Battle of Bullecourt occupies a unique place in the Battalion’s annals. For no other struggle had the preparations been so complete, the rehearsals so thorough, or the general organisation so apparently perfect. Yet within a few minutes of its commencement, the combat developed into a pell-mell of violent hand-to-hand struggles, where the 6^th Brigade met the flower of the German Army, and beat it into quiescence.” Capt. E.Gorman, MC, ‘With the Twenty-Second’.

The casualty rates during this battle were very high, and for the 22^nd Battalion it was the worst day for fatalities in the entire war. No other battalion lost so heavily in the battle. Of the 21 officers and 618 other ranks that entered the battle, the 22^nd Battalion had lost in 24 hours sixteen officers and 422 other ranks of whom over fifty percent were killed or missing – 165 killed or died of wounds according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records. Overall the 6^th Brigade lost 58 officers and 1,422 other ranks.

Read the full accounts of the Bullecourt attack for the 22nd Battalion and the AIF 2nd Division in the Combat Areas section on this website.

Final arrangements were completed for the attack on 3^rd May, with the AIF 2^nd Division and the British 62^nd Division having three objectives: first the Hindenburg OG1 and OG2 Lines; second the Fontaine-Moulin Sans Souci road; and third the advance on Riencourt and Hendencourt. The 62^nd, which would attack the village of Bullecourt itself, would  be supported by ten tanks in the attack while the Australians elected to attack without them. The battalions would form up on tapes 500 yards from the German line, much closer than before, and the infantry would advance under the protection of a creeping barrage. The advance would also be supported unprecedented ninety-six Vickers machine guns. Also, learning lessons from the failed AIF 4^th Division attack, greater effort was made to ensure efficient ammunition and supplies went forward with the troops, and large supplies of rifle-grenades carried forward to count the longer range of the German stick and egg bombers. The weakest part of the plan, a consequence of attacking a re-entrant, was to fall on the 6^th Brigade attacking to the east of the German defences in the village of Bullecourt. Brigadier-General Gellibrand’s 6^th Brigade HQ moved forward to the railway embankment, practically on the front line.

30th April 1917: In the third week of April no less than 55 merchant ships – a total of 180,000 tons – had been sunk. In the month of April a total of 881,027 tons was lost. At this rate it was estimated by the end of the year that there would only be barely enough shipping to keep the British people fed, and far too few for the carriage of troops, munitions and supplies necessary to maintain the Allied war effort.

A second AIF 2nd Divisional attack practice on practice ground near Favreuil, and improvements were made in assembling and direction during the hours of dark. At no other time were the rehearsals as complete then as at Bullecourt.