Almanac History: VFL Footballers at the Battle of Fromelles July 19 1916

 

 

 

On July 19, we reach the 104^th anniversary of the Battle at Fromelles in which so many Australians were casualties. VFL Footballers played a significant role.  Allan Grant presents a new article he has completed to mark this occasion for publishing in the Footy Almanac on the anniversary. He has been researching this battle for over 20 years and is proud to have worked with Lambis Englesos more recently on significant projects in relation to recovering our war dead at Krithia in Gallipoli. Lambis of course played a significant role in identifying the resting place of the lost Australians at Pheasant Wood Fromelles and they are still being identified and re interred in a new military cemetery in the village of Fromelles.

 

 

VFL Footballers – Fromelles July 19 1916

 

 

On the 19 July 1916 7000 Australian soldiers attacked entrenched German positions at Fromelles in France. This was the first major action of the AIF on the Western Front.

 

The Australian 5^th Division took part in the battle at Fromelles. It was made up of the following Battalions.

 

: 29^th, 30^th, 31^st and 32^nd Battalions . 8^th Brigade

 

: 53^rd, 54^th, 55^th and 56^th Battalions. 14^th Brigade

 

: 57^th, 58^th, 59^th and 60^th Battalions. 15^th Brigade

 

 

On 19 July 1916 in Flanders in the North of France Australia suffered its worst ever Military defeat when our diggers were ordered to go over the top and attack the German lines.

 

The Australian 5^th and British 61^st Division tried to seize 3.7kms of German front lines. The German position centred on the “Sugar loaf” a heavily fortified strongpoint bristling with machine guns with clear fields of fire over most of the ground.

 

The assault began at 5.30pm so there were several hours of daylight available while the battle raged.

 

In overall command of Australian forces were Generals White and Birdwood. General McCay was to play a prominent if not controversial part.

 

Lt General Richard Haking Commander of the 11^th British Corps had put a plan in place to attack the German trenches at Fromelles. Despite failing with a similar plan at the same location resulting in great loss of British lives some months before he had convinced the higher echelon to try again using Australian forces in support.

 

 

Australian General “Pompey” Elliott in charge of the 15^th Brigade believed the attack was at grave risk of disaster and although Generals White and Birdwood shared his view, they were unable to countermand the British General. They were not supported by Australian General McCay who seemed eager to support Haking’s plan. Despite those misgivings the attack was to go ahead.

 

After two days of delay the Australians and British attacked the Salient at Fromelles manned by the well- entrenched and heavily armed 6^th Bavarian reserve.

 

Eight hours later more than 5500 Australians lay dead or wounded (1917 were killed in action) the equivalent of all Australian casualties from the Boer, Korean and Vietnam wars combined. Additionally, over 400 were taken prisoner.

 

In the 5^th Division 35 officers were hit, half mortally. The British losses were significant but not to the extent of Australian losses.

 

 

Of the Australians lost at Fromelles several were VFL footballers.

 

Hugh Mc Donald Plowman. Captain 60^th Battalion AIF

26 Games for St Kilda 1910-1912.

 

Hugh died in no-mans land. He has no known grave like so many of his comrades.

He is remembered at VC Corner Australian Cemetery Memorial just outside the village of Fromelles.

 

 

Thornton Gainsborough “Tom” Clarke. Corporal 60^th Battalion AIF

4 games with Fitzroy and was playing with Essendon in the VFA just prior to enlistment.

 

He was reported to have been shot through the head while attacking a German trench.

Of the 887 in Tom and Hugh’s battalion only 106 survived the slaughter of 19 July 1916.

Tom is remembered at VC Corner Australian Military Cemetery Fromelles France.

 

 

Richard Horace Maconochie Gibbs (MC). Lieutenant 59^th Battalion AIF

35 Games with University Football Club.

 

A medical student prior to war he was second in command of ‘A’ Company 59^th battalion.

Red Cross reports say he was hit about 80 metres from German trenches and not seen again. Two months later he was awarded the Military Cross posthumously.

Like the others he has no known grave and is remembered at the VC Corner Australian Military cemetery at Fromelles.

 

 

William Joseph (Plugger) Landy. Private 58^th Battalion AIF

2 Games Geelong 1915

 

Red Cross records assert he was part of the ‘Geelong company’ which was completely wiped out in a trench by German bombs.

He has no known Grave and is remembered at VC Corner Fromelles.

 

 

William ‘Bill’ Nolan. Sergeant 58^th Battalion AIF

30 Games Richmond. 1914-1915.

 

Bill died of wounds on 23 July 1916 after being wounded at Fromelles.

He is buried at Boulogne Eastern Cemetery, Pas de Calais France.

 

 

Sergeant George Challis. 58^th Battalion AIF

70 Games Carlton. 1912-1915

 

George was killed in action a few days prior to the major attack at Fromelles on 15 July 1916. While preparing for the coming battle a German shell landed in his trench. He is buried at Rue -Pettilon Military Cemetery Fleurbaix France.

 

 

While the war raged at Fromelles at the same time the South Africans were involved in heavy fighting in the same theatre.

 

W.Arthur McKenzie Private 1^st Regiment Sth African Infantry.

4 Games with Geelong in 1898.

 

Arthur as he preferred to be known was killed in action on 18 July 1916 at Delville Wood.

He had given up his football career to fight in the Boer War and remained in Sth Africa after the war.

Arthur is remembered at the Thiepval Memorial between Bapaume and Albert.

Following the battle at Fromelles the Australians moved forward to fight at Pozieres. Just 5 days after Fromelles more Australians were to die in huge numbers. One of those was:

 

Lewis Blackmore 2^nd Lieutenant 1^st Battalion AIF

7 games with Essendon 1905-1907.

 

Lewis was killed in action by machine gun fire at Pozieres on 23 July 1916.

He has no known grave and is remembered at the Villers Bretonneux memorial.

 

 

Aftermath

 

The battle at Fromelles was a monumental blunder. So many Australians died in a futile attempt to gain ground from a well- entrenched well- prepared German army. Many books have dwelt on the failures at Fromelles but interestingly it is only in more recent times that it has become well known to Australians. I remember researching a WW1 soldier for a family in the late 1990s. In the War Memorial honour roll looking at those killed in action on 19 July 1916 I kept coming across names of young men killed at Fleurbaix. By the time I had looked through the rolls I realised there were many hundreds of names so I investigated a little further and discovered the name Fromelles. Many eminent Australian historians were to write about the debacle at Fromelles in future years.

 

 

 

Cobbers is a prominent 1998 sculpture by Peter Corlett of Sergeant Simon Fraser rescuing a wounded compatriot from No Man’s Land after the battle. A replica of the sculpture is at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Victoria.

 

 

This statue of Simon Fraser is at VC Corner at Fromelles where the Australians are remembered. Following the battle the Germans had offered a ceasefire to allow the recovery of wounded and the dead but Australian General McCay did not allow this to happen. This was not British approved policy so the offer was refused much to the disgust of many Australian officers and other ranks.

 

When the battle was over, Fraser and others began the dangerous and difficult task of retrieving the wounded from no man’s land. “I must say Fritz treated us very fairly, though a few were shot at the work,” he wrote. “Some of these wounded were game as lions and got rather roughly handled, but haste was more necessary than gentle handling and we must have brought in over 250 men by our company alone…It was no light work getting in with a heavy weight on your back especially if he had a broken leg or arm and no stretcher bearer was handy. You had to lie down and get him on your back then rise and duck for your life with the chance of getting a bullet in you before you were safe.”

 

Over three days the men made these missions to no man’s land, looking and listening for those still alive. “One foggy morning in particular I remember, we could hear someone, over towards the German entanglements calling for a stretcher bearer; it was an appeal no man could stand against so some of us rushed out and had a hunt,” Fraser wrote.

 

“We found a fine haul of wounded and brought them in, but it was not where I heard this fellow calling so I had another shot for it and came across a splendid specimen of humanity trying to wiggle into a trench with a big wound in his thigh: he was about 14 stone weight [90 kilograms] and I could not lift him on my back, but I managed to get him into an old trench and told him to lie quiet while I got a stretcher. Then another man about 30 yards [27 metres] out sang out ‘Don’t forget me cobber’. I went in and got four volunteers with stretchers and we got both men in safely.”

 

Fraser was not decorated for his great courage in retrieving the wounded from the battlefield; his efforts were just part of what had to be done. However, his heroism has since been recognised in a sculpture of him by artist Peter Corlett that stands in the Australian Memorial Park at Fromelles. More recently a copy of the sculpture was unveiled on Melbourne’s St Kilda Road.

 

The Victorian farmer never returned home: he was killed at the second battle of Bullecourt on 12 May 1917, aged 40. His body was not found.

 

References.

 

Australian War Memorial.

 

Fromelles and Poziers –    Peter Fitzsimmons–  Random House

 

Don’t forget me Cobber: The battle of Fromelles – Robin S Corfield

 

DVA 2019. Battle of Fromelles. DVA Anzac Portal

 

Pompey Elliott – Ross McMullin. Scribe Publications

 

Fallen: The Ultimate Heroes. Footballers who never returned from war – Jim Main and David Allen. Crown Content

 

The Great War – Les Carlyon.  Picador

 

Charles Bean – Ross Coulthart Harper Collins

 

Harder than Football – Barbara Cullen. Slattery Media Group

 

 

 

Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.

 

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