Mouquet
Farm*, situated on Poziers Ridge, was a central bastion in the German
defence position during the battles of The Somme from July to October
1916. The shattered farmhouse was the located to the left of the farm
road on the crest before you, it's deep cellars and tunnels were
connected to complex network of German trenches in the fields.
On the 5th of August the Australians were the first to attack this
stronghold, having just incurred a devastating loss of 17,00 men in the
capture of Poziers only one kilometre away; the Australians proceeded to
claw their way up the slopes to Mouquet Farm. Each day in a nightmarish
landscape deluged ny artillery fire, both sides fought to the death over
small sections of the trench. After a month of this combat the exhausted
Australians with 6,300 casualties, were relieved on September 1st just
outside the farm ruins by the Canadians. Twenty five days later the farm
fell to the British.
The war would pass over this bridge again in 1918. Many of the men
who fought and were lost in 1916 remain beneath this land forever;
unknown, but never forgotten by their homeland, Australia.
*Known to the Australian soldiers as Moo-Cow Farm.
