 The German front line in mid-1016 was on the high
ground over-looking the Ancre valley from interval to Pozieres. The
British stormed this line on 1 July 1916 and that day suffered 60,000
casualties. Pozieres was not captured and here on 23 July the
Australians entered the battle. From that date until 5 September, when
they were relieved by the Canadians, four Australian divisions, in
rotation fought a series of bloody, relentless frontal assaults against
well-prepared German defences. The heaviest fighting occurred around
this area.
Mouquet farm (1 km west) and the site of the 1st Australian division
memorial (1.5km south-west along the road).
A wooden windmill once stood on the mound before you but, like Pozieres
village, was completely obliterated in the fighting of July 1916.
similarly, the now tranquil landscape was devastated and became a
featureless waste land of shellholes and trenches, where men of both
sides fought, suffered and died in their thousands. The windmill site
stands as a permanent reminder of Australia's role here, and of the
agony and sacrifice of all nations in the battle of the Somme in 1916.
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