Now but then: Battle of Fromelles

This was the first battle outing on the Western Front of the Australian Imperial Force and was planned to distract German forces away from the Somme. In these 24 hours the Allies gained no ground and around 7,000 men were killed, wounded or captured, more than 5,000 of them Australian. The Allied plan was the same as many others at that time - bombard the Germans with artillery fire then rush their line with infantry. The main problem in this instance was that there were no trenches in the German second line so men remained exposed and were cut down by machine gun fire. In a truly magnificent cock up orders for a second attempt were given then retracted without telling all the Australian forces and they went over the top alone. Not able to hold the trench-less positions, more men fell to the heavy machine gun fire during the retreat. Australian losses on that day were more than they had sustained in a 24 hour period, ever.