World War I Chronology, July 1918: Allied Cooperation in Amiens Sector

JULY 4

AMIENS-SECTOR

First instance of U.S. (33rd Infantry Division)- British (Australian) close cooperation.

They captured Hamel and repulse three counterattacks.

First real use of British tanks and machine guns as close infantry-support weapons.

Strength of the two sides:  Germany:  5,600  Allies:  7,000
Casualties'  Germany:  2,000 killed,   1,600 captured    Allies:  1,400 killed or wounded

--Cooter

Britain Insists Australia and New Zealand Represented in World War I Centenary Plans

From the January 1, 2014,  Global Post.

Prime Minister David Cameron said it is "completely wrong" to suggest ANZAC troops were being airbrushed out of the centenary events in favour of troops from other parts of the former empire.

Reports from Australia suggest otherwise.

From 1914 to 1918 62,000 Australian and 18,000 New Zealand troops died.

These ANZAC troops will be fully honoured next year on the centenary of the Gallipoli landings in Turkey.

British Spellings.  --Cooter

Japanese Battlecruiser Ibuki

From Wikipedia.  While researching Herbert Leach's transportation to war, the HMAT Hororata, I came across a photo of that ship with this ship in the background.  Had this been World War II, the two ships would have been engaged in battle, but being the previous war, japan was an ally.

The Ibuki was commissioned in 1907 and mounted four 12-inch guns and eight 8-inch ones.

During World War I, it escorted Commonwealth convoys to the front.  It participated in the hunt for the German light cruiser raider SMS Emden.

It escorted a convoy of ten troopships carrying the main body of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force to Australia and then met up with the HMS Pyramus and Minotaur.  They then left Western Australia with ANZACs in a 36-ship convoy carrying 20,000 men and 7,500 horses across the Indian Ocean.  Perhaps this was Herbert Leach's convoy to war?

The ship fell victim to the Washington Naval Treaty after the war and was sold for scrap.

Allies Back Then.  --DaCoot

ANZACs: Australian and New Zealand Army Corps

From Wikipedia.

For those of you unfamiliar with what an ANZAC is.

Herbert Leach was an ANZAC.

This was the first World War Army Corps of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, formed in Egypt in 1915 of units from Australia and New Zealand.  They operated during the Gallipoli Campaign.

Disbanded in 1916 after withdrawal from Gallipoli. Reformed as the I and II ANZAC Corps.

Also fought in Second World War.

--Cooter

Herbert Leach's Embarkation to the War

Yesterday, I mentioned this Australian from Sydney who left his name at Naours Cave near Flers, France, and the fact that he was killed a month later.  Doing further research on him, I came across his Embarkation Roll from Australia to the war.

From the Australian War memorial site.

HERBERT JOHN LEACH:  Service number 1975/  Tank: Private /  Roll Title: 10th Infantry Battalion--  1-8 Reinforcements (December 1914-September 1915.  //  Date of Embarkation: 20 April 1915  //  Place of Embarkation:  Adelaide  //  Ship Embarked On:  HMAT Hororata A20.

Just Some More Information.  --DaCoot

Australian Cemetery in Flers, France-- Part 2: Where Tanks Used for First Time

Flers was captured during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, where tanks were used in combat for the first time.  The village was later recaptured by the Germans in March 1918 and recaptured by the Allies in August.

The cemetery was begun by Australian medical units posted in neighboring caves from Nov. 1915 to Feb. 1917.  The original graves are in Plot 1, Rows A and B.The great majority of the graves date from the autumn of 1916, but there is one from 1914.

Other bodies were moved here after the war.  Currently there are graves for 3,475 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War either buried or commemorated.  Some 2,263 are unidentified.  In addition, 170 French military and even there Germans are buried here.

--Cooter

Names of 731 Anzacs Found at Naours Cave in France: "Merely a Private"

From the April 6, 2015, AuWorld "Rge Names of 731 Anzacs found in cave under World War I battlefield in France' by Greg Keller.

ANZACs were soldiers from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

Allied soldiers left similar inscriptions in the tunnels of Arras and Vimy, but Naours, well back from the front lines in World War I, were not used as shelters and hospitals like other Western Front quarries.

Naours is just a few miles from Vignacourt, a town used as a staging area for troops moving up to and back from the Somme battlefield to the east.  Young soldiers would take a break for some sightseeing and these were nearby.

The diary of Wilfred Joseph Allan Allsop, 23, private from Sydney noted on Jan. 2, 1917, "At 1 pm 10 of us went to the famous caves near Naours where refugees used to hide during time of Invasion."

Herbert John Leach, 25, from Adelaide wrote his name, a message and the date, "H.J. Leach.  Merely a private.  13/7/16.  SA Australia."  Sadly, he was killed August 23, 1916, at the Battle of Pozieres barely a month after he left his message.

On his grave at the Australian Cemetery in nearby Flers, his father inscribed this on his marker "Duty Nobly Done."

--Cooter