Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This is a silent black-and-white clip depicting a battle scene on the Western Front in France during the final months of the First World War. Possibly a re-enactment, the clip opens with barbed wire in the foreground as an artillery barrage goes on behind. It then cuts to companies of Australian soldiers, with bayonets fixed to their rifles, emerging from their trenches and going into action.

Educational value points

• Whether this clip is a re-enactment or not, it portrays Australian troops on the Western Front going ‘over the top’ of the trenches to engage the enemy during the weeks and months following the successful Battle of Amiens (8 and 11 August 1918). It marks the period when Allied troops broke the deadly stalemate of trench warfare, ultimately forcing Germany to an armistice on 11 November 1918.

• Australian troops are seen moving forward to battle, possibly as part of the effort to retake Mont St Quentin on 1 September 1918. A key to the German defence of the Somme, the hill had been unexpectedly captured by the Australians early on 31 August and recaptured by the Germans later that day. The next day, Australian troops reclaimed Mont St Quentin and within two days had taken the nearby town of Péronne, pushing the Germans back to the defensive Hindenburg Line.

• The scene of men going ‘over the top’ was typical of many offensives launched along the Western Front, albeit usually in the early dawn. The main theatre of the First World War, the Western Front was a continuous line of trenches that ran through France and Belgium for about 700 km. Five Australian Imperial Force (AIF) divisions, with 20,000 men each, served on the Western Front from April 1916 until some weeks before the armistice on 11 November 1918.

• The barbed wire seen at the beginning of the clip was placed in front of the trenches in belts at least 15 metres deep in order to protect the soldiers in the trench from infantry attack. During an offensive, attack trenches (or 'saps’) were dug to allow soldiers to pass through their own wire but if an attack was to succeed, the wire in front of the enemy trenches had to be cut. The creeping artillery barrage shown in the clip was intended to clear the enemy trenches to allow this to be done.

• Hubert Wilkins (1888–1958), who shot this footage, was one of Australia’s official photographers in the last years of the War and produced some of the most compelling images of the Western Front. Whenever Australian troops were in action, he would visit the front line for part of each day. He was also known to accompany the infantry on assaults. In July 1918, Wilkins took command of No 3 (Photographic) Subsection of the Australian War Records unit.