| Pozières was the
key obstacle which had to be overcome in order to capture
first Mouquet Farm and then Thiepval hill. This encircling
plan was largely assigned to Australian troops (Monument
to the 1st Australian Division), the majority of whom
had come to the Somme from Gallipoli. |
 |
The village, lying along a ridge, was crossed by a double network
of trenches that made up the 2nd German line, and flanked by
two blockhouse/observation posts dominating the entire battlefield
- at the Albert end, "Gibraltar" and at the Bapaume
end, "The Windmill".
Now the property of the Conseil Général of
the Somme, "Gibraltar" has been adapted to give
a better understanding of the fighting here (orientation table
at the top with a look-out tower ; parking space ; information
panels, picnic area, etc.). Free open access at all times.
The Australians arrived on 23 July 1916 and captured Pozières
then, exhausted by incessant artillery counter-attacks, were
relieved by the Canadians at Mouquet Farm on 5 September.
Three of their divisions serving in the Pozières sector
had lost more than a third of their men, and the village itself
was completely annihilated. The name of Pozières resounds
so strongly in Australian memory that after the war it was
adopted by a village in Queensland. On 15 September 1916,
tanks appeared for the first time on the battlefield (the
tank memorial). Of the 32 British Mark I tanks which were
deployed along the line from Courcelette to Longueval, only
9 reached their objective. Nonetheless, this date marks the
beginning of a more balanced British advance on the Somme.
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