{"id":4614,"date":"2009-07-01T03:01:03","date_gmt":"2009-06-30T16:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fffaif.wordpress.com\/?p=4614"},"modified":"2009-07-01T03:01:03","modified_gmt":"2009-06-30T16:01:03","slug":"battle-of-hamel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/?p=4614","title":{"rendered":"*Battle of Hamel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><span style=\"color:#0000ff;\"><strong>Battle of Hamel<\/strong><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color:#0000ff;\">4<sup>th<\/sup> July 1918<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-4627\" href=\"http:\/\/fffaif.wordpress.com\/2009\/07\/01\/battle-of-hamel\/le-hamel_yves-children\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4627\" title=\"Le Hamel_Yves children\" src=\"http:\/\/fffaif.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/06\/le-hamel_yves-children.jpg\" alt=\"Le Hamel_Yves children\" width=\"448\" height=\"336\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">Photo: A new\u00a0generation of French children acknowledge the service and sacrifice of the First AIF at the Battle of Hamel [Yves Fohlen]<\/p>\n<p>The 4<sup>th<\/sup>July is the 91<sup>st<\/sup> anniversary of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ww1westernfront.gov.au\/battlefields\/hamel-1918.html\" target=\"_blank\">Battle of Hamel<\/a>.\u00a0The Australian 4<sup>th<\/sup> Division under the command of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.awm.gov.au\/people\/8442.asp\" target=\"_blank\">Lieutenant General (later Sir) John Monash\u00a0<\/a> executed a decisive battle plan which had reached its objectives within 93 minutes of the commencement of the battle. Charles Bean, in his book <em>ANZACS to Amiens<\/em> stated: <em>The main result of Hamel was that Monash\u2019s careful arrangements furnished the model for almost every attack afterwards made by British infantry with tanks during the remainder of that war.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Interesting facts about the Battle of Hamel:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This was the first time that American troops were engaged in fighting on the Western Front with the AIF;<\/li>\n<li>The first time the 5 Australian divisions fought under the command of an Australian officer, Lieutenant General John Monash;<\/li>\n<li>Tanks were successfully used in the battle to supply the troops and provide creeping protection from enemy machine gunners;<\/li>\n<li>1600 German prisoners were taken during the battle; and<\/li>\n<li>Ammunition was dropped to AIF troops by parachute from planes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"center\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-1567\" href=\"http:\/\/fffaif.wordpress.com\/2008\/10\/21\/preview-new-memorial\/le-hamel-memorial_original_sml\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1567\" title=\"le-hamel-memorial_original_sml\" src=\"http:\/\/fffaif.files.wordpress.com\/2008\/10\/le-hamel-memorial_original_sml.jpg\" alt=\"le-hamel-memorial_original_sml\" width=\"448\" height=\"323\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">Photo: Original Australian Corps Memorial at Le Hamel [Laffin Collection]<\/p>\n<p>FFFAIF founder and Australian military historian <a href=\"http:\/\/fffaif.wordpress.com\/about\/history\/\" target=\"_blank\">John Laffin\u00a0<\/a> conceptualised and campaigned for the construction of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ww1westernfront.gov.au\/le-hamel\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">Australian Corps Memorial Park at Le Hamel <\/a>. The original memorial was opened on July 4 1998.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-1707\" href=\"http:\/\/fffaif.wordpress.com\/2008\/11\/12\/le-hamel-re-dedication\/lehamel-rededication_sml\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1707\" title=\"lehamel-rededication_sml\" src=\"http:\/\/fffaif.files.wordpress.com\/2008\/11\/lehamel-rededication_sml.jpg\" alt=\"lehamel-rededication_sml\" width=\"448\" height=\"302\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">Photo: Australian Corps Memorial July 2008 [www.gg.gov.au]<\/p>\n<p>As a result of\u00a0the original memorial\u00a0not being suited to the extreme weather conditions of the Western Front, it was replaced in 2008 by a new memorial. The new memorial was dedicated by the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia and FFFAIF patron, Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce AC. See NEWS Item<em> <a href=\"http:\/\/fffaif.wordpress.com\/2008\/11\/12\/le-hamel-re-dedication\/\" target=\"_blank\">Le Hamel Re-dedicated<\/a><\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/fffaif.wordpress.com\/2008\/11\/12\/le-hamel-re-dedication\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0<\/a> for photos and details of the service.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">*****<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#008000;\">The<em><strong> Families and Friends of the First AIF<\/strong><\/em> thanks the Australian, UK and French governments for affording Australian and British soldiers\u00a0buried in mass graves at Pheasant Wood by\u00a0German soldiers following the Battle of Fromelles\u00a0on 19\/20 July 1916\u00a0dignified individual reburials in a new CWGC cemetery at Fromelles, and applauds\u00a0the joint decision to DNA test the remains at exhumation and use every reasonable method to attempt identification of each soldier.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Battle of Hamel 4th July 1918 Photo: A new\u00a0generation of French children acknowledge the service and sacrifice of the First AIF at the Battle of Hamel [Yves Fohlen] The 4thJuly is the 91st anniversary of the Battle of Hamel.\u00a0The Australian &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/?p=4614\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-le-hamel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}