In an article by Martin Flanagan in today’s Age newspaper (23/4), the following statement appeared in relation to the Battle of Pozieres, “the British had been trying to advance for fifteen days without success. The Australians got there in a night…”.
The comments were attributed to a former Australian Army warrant officer, Barry Gracey, who has taken on the self appointed mission to ensure Pozieres is remembered by all Australians. He was speaking to a group of players from the Essendon Football Club.
Sadly, the inference in such a comment is that the Australians did in a night what the British could not do in 15 days. Such a statement simply perpetuates a narrative of Australian superiority that has no basis in the known facts about that horrendous battle. Whether the statement is wholly the opinion of Gracey or an amalgam of his and Flanagan’s view I could not say. Flanagan commendably captures the horror of the Australian experience in his article but the inclusion of such a statement does a gross disservice to the efforts of the British who had suffered 85,000 casualties before the Australians entered the fighting.
Since the 1 July the British had slugged their way to the outskirts of Pozieres village, a paltry blood soaked three miles over three weeks. The Australians were added to the attack and commenced their assault on the village from trenches that were dug as close to 80 yards from the German line. In the six weeks fighting around Pozieres and Mouquet Farm the Australians would launch nine separate assaults. Of these, three were successful with small advances achieved in two others while four attacks failed outright. The Australian rate of advance was no greater than the British before them.
The trouble with such a statement is that it contributes to an ongoing tradition of Anzac chauvinism that has marked a century of Australian misunderstandings of the First World War. Such statements only serve to encourage anti-British sentiment within the Australian story. It is little wonder that many British war historians bristle at the odious misinformation that continues to be pedaled to the Australian public.
Australians would do well to reflect on the words of Private F. J. Gates, an Australian machine gunner, who in response to the excessive reporting of Australian prowess, in the newspapers at the time, stated “I don’t reckon we are any better than the English Tommy for we are all British.”