All Aussies from a very early age are taught of the legend of the ANZAC and the battle of Gallipoli. While the Gallipoli landings were a massive boost in the stock of the Australian troops, and forged a legend that will never be forgotten, in retrospect the Gallipoli campaign was a massive cock up by the British high command.
On April 24-25 1918 the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux took place as part of the German Spring Offensive. For many months leading up to this pivotal battle, the allied and German troops had been bogged down in brutal trench warfare and barely moved the line forward an inch.
This battle was the first in history to include a large scale tank attack, where the Germans deployed 14 of their 20 tanks in the hopes of destroying the British and Australian lines. Those of you that are familiar with the Queensland Muesem in Southbank would remember seeing "Mephisto" proudly displayed outside. This is the only remaining German A7V Tank, and was knocked on its side during this battle.
After the main attack by the Germans, the Australian 13th Battalion under the leadership of General Glasgow and the 15th Battalion under General Elliot launched the counter-offensive that would eventually lead to the end of the First World War.
The counter attack by the Australians and British troops began at 10pm on April 24. Using the cover of darkness, the attacking party choose not to begin with an artillery barrage as this would put the Germans on high alert. Instead they attacked by sweeping in from the north and south, while the Aussies mopped up the centre of the town to clear out the remaining Germans. The Allied forces were vastly outnumbered and took heavy casualties from the clinical German Machine Gun posts. Notably, 1 Victoria Cross was awarded to Lt Saddlier for his personal assault on German machine gun nest with hand grenades.
By the morning of April 25, the Australian Troops were engaged in hand to hand combat with the remaining Germans. The majority of the German troops fled the town along the railways, and were eventually captured by the advancing Australian troops.
After this battle, the town of Villers-Bretonneux was held by the Allied forces for the remainder of the war. But the defeat caused the German troops to retreat and change tact on the Western Front. This caused a lull in the Battle of the Somme, which the Australian troops took full advantage of and peacefully penetrated the German lines and began moving the front eastwards.
The entire battle of Villers-Bretonneux resulted in 2,473 Australian casualties, 9,529 British Casualties and approximately 10,000 German casualties.