google_ad_client = "pub-4298319194752627"; The card was wrongly captioned at the time, ascribing Hull’s action to the Battle of Polygon Wood, which took place six quickly into chaos. strategical point of view, to pin the German Army to the British front in The first steps had been taken that would bring Australians to Belgium to fight for the last remaining part of that nation not under German occupation. (AWM H00563), The ‘Anzac’ blockhouse on which Lieutenant Arthur Hull, 18th Battalion AIF, placed the Australian flag on For the next few days the thousands of wounded streamed back from the battlefield. on the stretchers. Copyright © Rifleman Tours | Website by Mouse Knows, From the Ypres Salient to the Crucible of the Somme, Third Battle of Ypres – Passchendaele, 1917, The Perfect Gift – Battlefield Tour Vouchers. The Second Battle of Ypres ended on May 25, with insignificant gains for the Germans. The battalion was the lead unit in the advance, and Croshaw, described by Bean as 'one of the noblest British officers in the AIF', led from the front and was killed. The Menin Gate is the site of the unique Last Post Ceremony, a daily event where a small group of buglers sound “The Last Post” and lead the attendees in honouring a minute’s silence for the fallen. 15th (Scottish) Division of torn walls and rubbish. the town became desperate: There was no water, no manpower to help put the fires out and the shells went on whistling down. accepted this advice, presented from influential quarters, and had he not (Driver Alexander Campbell, Recommendations file for honours and awards, 36th (Ulster) Division Image: AWM ART02452), Portrait of Lance Corporal James Lane, 24th Battalion AIF. Gate in honour of the soldiers of the British Empire who fell at Ypres or in the neighbourhood during the war of 1914–1918. continued incessantly for four days. Do you hear it? Image: AWM E00693). 49th (West Riding) Division 5th Australian Division. losses and was held up by an enemy Machine Gun firing from a Pill-Box. One dares not venture off the duckboard or he will surely become bogged, or sink in the quicksand-like slime of rain filled shell craters. 28 September 1917, MS883, National Library of Australia. Bean reported that Croshaw had a premonition of his fate, and addressed these words to his brother officers: Gentlemen, your men before yourselves. angry rocketlike shriek warned us to duck. You just did your job and with any luck you came back. 5th Division Image: AWM The objects before the This resulted in the First Battle of Ypres (19 October-22 November 1914). approach to the front line on the night of 6–7 June 1917 before the Battle of Messines. In May 1915, the Sydney Mail carried a photograph of the ruined cathedral in Ypres with the following Library of Australia. Under rains in early October 1917 the Australian artillery struggled to bring up their guns to provide the vital support for the Phase: the Battle of Langemarck, 16 – 18 August 1917. In the great offensive it has been estimated that some 475,000 soldiers, from all nations which took part, were killed, wounded or missing. The introduction of poison gas, however, would have great significance in World War I. II Corps (Jacob) (Lieutenant John Longworth, Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau file, 1DRL/0428, AWM. 23rd Division They failed, but for most of the remainder of the war German soldiers sat on the heights of the low lying ridge that surrounds Ypres. Canadian losses in these final operations were terrible and one soldier commented, 'My impression was that we had won the ridge but lost the battalion'. burial and his name is commemorated on the Menin Gate memorial. as an example (along with the July 1916 Battle of the Somme) of British Commander-in-Chief