Okay, a new club name to incorporate the new concepts fully - The ANZAC Club.
New Concepts - Battle Honours, progressive years, and Main Battle Areas. Outlined below to explain them, but still willing to make any changes necessary. Welcome advice and input as this will be 'the set'.
The ANZACs were created as a Corps in 1915 and fought their first engagement that year. They then went to France in 1916 and fought there and in Belgium (Flanders) until the Armistice in November 1918.
Main Battle Areas; Gallipoli, Turkey (1915)
The Somme, France (1916)
Flanders, Belgium/France (1917)
The Somme, France (1918)
Each Battle Area had several key battles involving my boys, and I have selected three for the rear of each chip to honour them. For some, it was their last battle.
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The ANZACs first fought at
Gallipoli, after landing there on the morning of 25 April 1915.
'The Landing' was essentially the first 4 days where the boys hung on and fought almost to a standstill. My boy,
Frank, fought with little sleep for those first 4 days. He lost a lot of good mates in that time and out of the 1,000 blokes who went ashore, only 400 answered the roll call on 30 April.
The Defence of ANZAC was the holding off the counter-attacks of a brave and determined enemy, which left the ANZACs clinging to a precarious foothold on cliffs and ravines.
Snipers Ridge was a very sad day with Frank losing his four best mates, killed beside him. It was a suicidal broad daylight stunt that saw them under heavy machine-gun fire and shell fire. Frank was hit in the back by shrapnel, which paralysed the right-hand side of his body. Somehow, by sheer guts and determination, he crawled and rolled over 250 yards back to his trench and was sent to hospital. He left hospital in pain after 7 days as he wanted to be back with his mates who needed him.
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After evacuating ANZAC in December 1915, the Aussies and New Zealanders were sent to the 'Western Front' in France. An insatiable maw that had ground hundreds of thousands of young men into the earth. The greatest battle of 1916 was astride the River Somme. Simply known as
The Somme, this battleground was chosen for the breakthrough that had eluded the Allies since war broke out in August 1914. 1 July 1916 was chosen for an advance across a 25 mile front, preceded by a 7-day barrage. The British were cut down and suffered 20,000 dead and 40,000 wounded on the first day. The front line was barely moved.
The Aussies were brought up to the Somme for their 'baptism of fire' at Fromelles on 19 July. They were cut to pieces and suffered 5,000 casualties in a matter of hours. Such was warfare on The Somme.
The village of
Pozieres (a name on a map only as it had ceased to exist) sat atop a small ridge that nonetheless commanded a grand view of the Allied lines. The 1st Australian Division was brought up to take it after three failed attempts by exhausted Tommies. On 23 July, my Great-grandfather Ernest went 'Over the Top with fixed bayonets' and the village was captured. He was wounded after being blown up by a shell that tossed him like a rag-doll. He survived, but was sore and sorry for many months.
His brother, my Great-grand Uncle
Henry came up next, and was tasked with taking an old farm that had been turned into a veritable fortress to the north of Pozieres -
La Ferme du Mouquet (Mouquet Farm). Through August, September and into October, Australians, British and Canadians were thrown at this pile of rubble, suffering enormous casualties. IN just over 6 weeks, the ANZACS had suffered 22,000 casualties. The brave and tough Canadians, finally took the Farm with the ANZACS beside them.
The terrible battle of the Somme was drawing to a close in November 1916, but HQ were not satisfied and ordered one last battle north of a village called Flers. The trench network they had to take was a quagmire of mud and blood, barbed wire and machine-guns -
The Maze. Inevitably, our first boy fell during this battle and his body was lost forever. I have had the honour to walk this ground and visit with him. My father is named after him - Hilton.
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Early 1917 saw further awful battles around The Maze, during which my GG was finally blown to bits and sent home - lucky not to be killed really. Still in France, my uncles and cousins fought in two battles near the village of
Bullecourt in April and May. Terrible, costly battles.
Action shifted north to Belgium around Ypres/Flanders in June with the battle of 7 June at
Messines. 19 huge mines were detonated prior to the attack and were felt in London. With this battle, we lost Edwin killed and Ernie horribly wounded - a sad day for the family. In October, Edwin's brother Alfred got vengeance during the battle for
Broodseinde Ridge.
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1918 started with the German Spring Offensive that saw things looking grim for a few months. on 4 July the battle of
Hamel took place, whereby the ANZACs took the town in 90 minutes. Three of the boys were there. Some American soldiers joined our boys for the first time on such an auspicious day.
In August 1918, the Allies began their major offensive through
The Somme which heralded the last 100 days to victory. On 25 August we lost poor Alf at
Bray-sur-Somme, blown up by a shell. He was lovingly buried by his best mate who wrote his mother and sent home his watch.
These men are the reason I am writing a book. I wanted to design something else to honour them. This will be a tournament set to signify the long game they played, and in some cases, busted out. We had 6 at the final table when the Armistice was signed.
I am in the process of designing seating chips and bounties and will update soon.
We welcome your comments
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