Battle of Hamel
The Battle of Hamel was a successful attack by Australian Army and US Army infantry, supported by British tanks, against German positions in and around the town of Le Hamel, in northern France, during World War I. The attack was planned and commanded by Lieutenant General John Monash, commander of the Australian Corps, and took place on 4 July 1918.
Many of the tactics employed, such as the use of combined arms, illustrated the evolution of military tactics, from the massed attacks mounted earlier in the war. All of the Allies' objectives were achieved within 93 minutes, just three minutes longer than Monash's calculated battle time.
To give the newly arrived American Expeditionary Force (AEF) combat experience, the five Australian infantry brigades involved were augmented by 10 companies from US Army battalions. However, six of these US infantry companies were withdrawn from the front line before seeing action. Hamel was the first time during World War I that elements of the AEF were commanded operationally by non-American officers.
Background[edit]
Military situation[edit]
In early 1918, as a result of the capitulation of Russia, the Germans began concentrating the bulk of their forces on the Western Front. Over the space of four months, up to 48 divisions were moved to the west.[3] Concentrating their efforts on the Somme Valley, the Germans launched a major offensive – the Spring Offensive – against the British southern flank on 21 March.[4] After pushing the Allies back towards the railhead at Amiens, the German advance in the sector was checked around Villers-Bretonneux in early April. As the German offensive exhausted itself, in June the Allies began to prepare for their own offensive, conducting a series of small-scale advances which became known as "peaceful penetrations".[5]
After the initial application of this technique around Morlancourt during the First, Second, and Third Battles of Morlancourt, the commander of the British Fourth Army, Lieutenant General Henry Rawlinson, decided that the next strike would come at the village of Le Hamel, Somme.[5] The German advance earlier in the year had created a "bulge" in the front line around the village, which had created a salient that exposed Allied troops in the sector to enfilading fire and enabled the Germans to observe Allied rear areas.[6] Capturing the village would help set an "aggressive posture" and relieve pressure in the sector. Lieutenant General John Monash, commander of the Australian Corps, was chosen to plan the attack.[5]
Geography[edit]
Located south of the River Somme, about 1.9 miles (3 km) north-east of Villers-Bretonneux on a spur between two hills, Hamel was strategically important to both the Allies and Germans. The high ground offered the Germans good observation of the sector, which they had been using to fire artillery barrages on Villers-Bretonneux,[7] and control of the village was vital if they wished to continue their offensive in the sector, and would enable them to continue to threaten Amiens, 11 miles (17 km) distant.[5] The Allied line was positioned on the reverse slope of a hill 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to the west of the village, and securing the village would enable the Allies to stiffen their defensive line. The village also acted as an obstacle to the proposed eastward advance through the Somme planned for later in the year and its capture would facilitate future offensive operations in the sector.[8]
Prelude[edit]
Planning[edit]
The Allied victory owed much to Monash's detailed planning and to the briefing of all the troops on their objectives.[9] The battle was his first as commander of the Australian Corps.[5] The Allies made novel use of a number of tactics, such as parachute drops of medical supplies and rifle ammunition in cases, and resupply by tank rather than by troops carrying supplies forward. The supply tanks and aircraft brought stores quickly to the troops as they advanced.[10] The carrying power of the tanks equated to about 1,200 troops doing the same job.[11] Signals were sent largely by cable and telephone, but new methods of signalling were also trialled, including the use of rockets which were used by some battalion headquarters to pass urgent messages to the rear, although this proved largely ineffective. Other techniques were more effective such as the use of pigeons, Lucas lamps, and for the first time, wirelesses were used by officers to send messages from captured objectives.[12][13]
There was advanced co-ordination between infantry, artillery and armour, and the latest, highly manoeuvrable Mark V tank was used after it had been demonstrated to Monash and Rawlinson.[11] Five companies (60 combat and four supply tanks) of the British 5th Tank Brigade were provided for the assault.[10] Although the Australians had worked with a small number of tanks successfully at Villers-Bretonneux, their opinion of the technology was clouded by the bad experience they had had of them in April and May 1917 around Bullecourt.[14] As such, to ensure co-ordination and overcome the problems the Australians had experienced at Bullecourt, the Australian infantry and tanks trained and lived together prior to the battle.[5] Coloured diagrams were painted on the sides of the tanks, corresponding to the battalions that they would support, so that the infantry knew which tank to follow.[15]
The battle plan called for a creeping barrage, in which the artillery barrage moves slowly in front of the advancing troops. This protected the troops by suppressing enemy activity, thereby easing their advance.[16] Over 600 British and French guns – 302 heavy and 326 field pieces[15] – were used for the barrage and counter-battery fire, including regular barrages in the days leading up to the attack. Monash was adamant that the infantry should not be sacrificed in an unprotected advance, hence his care to ensure that they were well covered.[6] Prior to the attack, the artillery spent two weeks conducting "conditioning firing" in the sector, firing gas and smoke shells at the same time every day before dawn, while strict operational security procedures were implemented.[17] In addition, 46 heavy machine-guns were placed in area support, while the number of Lewis Guns was increased to provide organic fire support.[16]
Australian Corps leadership crisis[edit]
Charles Bean, the official Australian war historian, noted that Monash was more effective the higher he rose within the Army, where he had greater capacity to use his skill for meticulous planning and organisation, and to innovate in the area of technology and tactics.[18] Bean had been no great admirer of Monash in his early career, in part due to a general prejudice against Monash's Prussian-Jewish background, but more particularly because Monash did not fit Bean's concept of the quintessential Australian character that Bean was in the process of mythologising in his monumental work Australia in the War of 1914–1918. (Both Bean and Monash, however, having seen the very worst excesses of Allied military doctrines and the waste of life on the Western Front, were determined that the role of the commander was to look after, and protect as far as possible, the troops under their command.) Bean wrote in his diary of Monash "We do not want Australia represented by men mainly because of their ability, natural and inborn in Jews, to push themselves".[19] He conspired with prominent journalist Keith Murdoch to undermine Monash and remove him from the command of the Australian Corps. They misled Prime Minister Billy Hughes into believing that senior officers of the Corps were opposed to Monash.[20] Hughes arrived at the front two days before the battle of Hamel, prepared to replace Monash. However, he first consulted with senior officers and heard their praise of their commander, and Monash also showed his superb power of planning for the upcoming battle. Hughes changed his mind and sustained Monash.[21]
Battle[edit]
Initial barrage[edit]
At 22:30 on the night of 3 July, the British Mark V and Whippet tanks began to move from Fouilloy and Hamelet to their assembly areas half a mile (0.8 km) behind the front lines. Guides from the infantry marked out tracks from there to the battalions, which had already sent parties ahead to cut paths through their own wire.[37] Early the next morning, at 03:02, the supporting artillery opened up with its usual harassing bombardment. Having been conditioned over the past two weeks to expect a gas attack, the German defenders pulled on their gas masks, this "restricted their movement, situational awareness and ability to communicate".[38] Masked by the noise of the bombardment, the 60 tanks moved the last half-mile to the front line, while No. 101 Squadron of the British Royal Air Force provided additional cover by dropping three hundred and fifty 25-pound bombs to the east of the Australian front.[39] Each pilot in the squadron flew at least three missions between dusk and dawn.[40]
Aftermath[edit]
Consolidation and German counter-attack[edit]
All the Allies' objectives were achieved in 93 minutes,[1] just three minutes more than Monash's calculated battle time of 90 minutes.[13] After taking the village, the Australians and Americans began rebuilding the shattered defences. Mopping up was completed in the Vaire and Hamel Woods by 06:00 and in Hamel by 07:00.[44] Supplies were brought up on four gun carrier tanks and at 04:45, reconnaissance aircraft from No. 3 Squadron of the Australian Flying Corps, began photographing the new front line for map making.[67][44] At 06:00, No. 9 Squadron RAF, began flying supply sorties, employing parachute drops that had been developed by a team led by Australian Captain Lawrence Wackett.[68] Air attacks behind the line by Nos. 23, 41,and 209 Squadrons maintained pressure on the Germans, although this was stopped around 09:30 when the Germans dispatched 30 fighter aircraft to Hamel to contest control of the skies.[44]
The Australians and Americans worked to consolidate the captured position. The tanks remained in support until 17:30 when they were withdrawn, taking some of the wounded with them.[68] Throughout the night, German snipers fired on the Allied line and the Allied troops advanced another 400 yards (370 m) and by the morning of 5 July, took another 700 prisoners.[68] The Germans continued to harass the Australian troops around Hamel the rest of the day, undertaking brief air attacks and firing artillery bombardments as they prepared for a counter-attack.[68]
A German counter-attack came at around 22:00 that night. Amid phosgene and mustard gas bombardments, Stosstruppen and an infantry company of about 200 men from the 201st Infantry Regiment of the 43rd Reserve Division broke into the 44th Battalion sector around Le Hurleux, a hill dubbed "Wolfsberg" by the Germans where they had established a strongpoint prior to the battle.[69][70] The Germans forced a 200-yard (180 m) gap in the line between two companies and captured a dozen Australian stretcher-bearers but were unable to bring up reinforcements as British artillery began firing in their rear. As the 44th Battalion began to rally, it was reinforced by the 43rd Battalion and the Americans attached to it.[71][68] At 02:00 on 6 July, the two battalions counter-attacked. The experienced German storm-troopers checked the drive at first, fighting behind trench blocks but they were eventually overwhelmed by an attack from the flanks, as the Australians assaulted their position with grenades and clubs.[72] The effect shocked the Germans and forced them back, restoring the Allied line and releasing the captured stretcher-bearers.[73]