Le Hamel sketch by Drew Harrison for the Great War Diary 1919
One hundred years ago today, On 4 July 1918, Australia and the U.S. forged mateship in the trenches of the First World War at the Battle of Hamel. The offensive to retake Hamel was historic. Apart from the fact that the Australian Imperial Forces fought alongside our American allies for the first time, it was also the first time American troops fought offensively under the command of a non-American, in this case, Australian General Sir John Monash.
In honour of the Americans he was commanding, General Monash chose 4 July (American Independence Day) as the date of the offensive. The battle took just 93 minutes and the victory helped turn the tide against the Germans on the Western Front. The battle may be short but it’s heralded as one of Australia’s greatest military achievements and a masterpiece of logistics and combined arms warfare.
Some 1,200 Australians and more than 170 Americans were killed or wounded in the battle, while German casualties were more than 2,000 and some 1,600 were taken prisoner. Since then Australian and American forces have stood side by side in almost every major world conflict, and today the relationship between nations is marked by mutual respect and high regard.
When French President Georges Clemenceau visited Australian troops who had fought at Hamel, he said:
I shall go back tomorrow and say to my countrymen: "I have seen the Australians, I have looked into their eyes. I know that they, men who have fought great battles in the cause of freedom, will fight on alongside us, till the freedom for which we are all fighting is guaranteed for us and our children."
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