How Australian Diggers Stopped the Strongest German Attack of the Entire War
Aussie War Archives
21,431 views
#Dernancourt #WesternFront #AustralianArmy
On the fifth of April 1918, three German divisions - around 25,000 men - came out of the fog and threw themselves at a railway embankment held by roughly 4,000 exhausted Australians. It was the single largest attack German forces ever launched against Australian troops in the entire First World War. Those tired men stopped it in one afternoon.
This documentary tells the untold story of the Battle of Dernancourt, the forgotten Australian stand that saved the vital rail hub of Amiens during Germany's massive 1918 Spring Offensive. Outnumbered five to one, the 12th and 13th Brigades of the 4th Australian Division held a two-storey railway embankment with Lewis guns and rifles. When the enemy finally broke through in the fog and gutted the 47th Battalion, the Australians did the near-impossible - they counter-attacked in broad daylight, across a bare open slope, straight into a wall of machine-gun fire.
Discover why the Germans code-named the assault Operation Sunshine, how a handful of worn-down diggers behind a wall of packed earth held the door in front of Amiens, and why the Australian War Memorial still records this as the strongest attack ever met by Australian troops in the whole war.
🔥 In this video:
The Embankment: why a two-storey railway wall became the most important slope on the Western Front.
Operation Michael: how the German 1918 offensive brought the enemy within 20 kilometres of Amiens.
Outnumbered Five to One: 4,000 tired Australians against three German divisions in the fog.
Seventeen Past Five: the daylight counter-attack Charles Bean called one of the finest ever made by Australian troops.
Stanley McDougall VC: the Tasmanian blacksmith who broke a German assault almost single-handed on the same line.
Sources of Where I get my facts:
Bean, C.E.W. (1937) The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918, Volume V: The Australian Imperial Force in France during the Main German Offensive, 1918. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.
Lynch, E.P.F. (2006) Somme Mud: The War Experiences of an Infantryman in France, 1916-1919. Sydney: Random House.
Coulthard-Clark, C. (1998) Where Australians Fought: The Encyclopaedia of Australia's Battles. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Pedersen, P. (2007) The Anzacs: Gallipoli to the Western Front. Camberwell: Viking.
Grey, J. (2008) A Military History of Australia. 3rd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Disclaimer: This video is a historical documentary intended for educational purposes.
#Dernancourt #WW1 #AustralianDiggers #WesternFront #MilitaryHistory #History #Amiens #FirstWorldWar
8 Comments
Listening from Western Australia
❤ Australia 🇦🇺
How Australian Diggers Stopped the Strongest German Attack of the Entire War
Aussie War Archives
21,431 views
#Dernancourt #WesternFront #AustralianArmy
On the fifth of April 1918, three German divisions - around 25,000 men - came out of the fog and threw themselves at a railway embankment held by roughly 4,000 exhausted Australians. It was the single largest attack German forces ever launched against Australian troops in the entire First World War. Those tired men stopped it in one afternoon.
This documentary tells the untold story of the Battle of Dernancourt, the forgotten Australian stand that saved the vital rail hub of Amiens during Germany's massive 1918 Spring Offensive. Outnumbered five to one, the 12th and 13th Brigades of the 4th Australian Division held a two-storey railway embankment with Lewis guns and rifles. When the enemy finally broke through in the fog and gutted the 47th Battalion, the Australians did the near-impossible - they counter-attacked in broad daylight, across a bare open slope, straight into a wall of machine-gun fire.
Discover why the Germans code-named the assault Operation Sunshine, how a handful of worn-down diggers behind a wall of packed earth held the door in front of Amiens, and why the Australian War Memorial still records this as the strongest attack ever met by Australian troops in the whole war.
🔥 In this video:
The Embankment: why a two-storey railway wall became the most important slope on the Western Front.
Operation Michael: how the German 1918 offensive brought the enemy within 20 kilometres of Amiens.
Outnumbered Five to One: 4,000 tired Australians against three German divisions in the fog.
Seventeen Past Five: the daylight counter-attack Charles Bean called one of the finest ever made by Australian troops.
Stanley McDougall VC: the Tasmanian blacksmith who broke a German assault almost single-handed on the same line.
Sources of Where I get my facts:
Bean, C.E.W. (1937) The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918, Volume V: The Australian Imperial Force in France during the Main German Offensive, 1918. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.
Lynch, E.P.F. (2006) Somme Mud: The War Experiences of an Infantryman in France, 1916-1919. Sydney: Random House.
Coulthard-Clark, C. (1998) Where Australians Fought: The Encyclopaedia of Australia's Battles. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Pedersen, P. (2007) The Anzacs: Gallipoli to the Western Front. Camberwell: Viking.
Grey, J. (2008) A Military History of Australia. 3rd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Disclaimer: This video is a historical documentary intended for educational purposes.
#Dernancourt #WW1 #AustralianDiggers #WesternFront #MilitaryHistory #History #Amiens #FirstWorldWar