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updated: Jan 29, 2003
POZIERES
The Australians, alongside the British, were supposed to free Poziêres and advance towards the Mouquet farm and then Thiepval hill. On 23 July, the first day of the attack, they took over the trenches in the southwest of the village as well as an important blockhouse. The latter, which measured some 9 feet high and was built on two underground levels, was subsequently named "Gibraltar".
The Australians captured Poziêres then, exhausted by incessant artillery counter-attacks, were relieved by the Canadians at Mouquet Farm on 5 September. The village itself was completely annihilated.
Two memorials, the Windmill and the Tank Memorial, face each other at the edge of the village, with the vestiges of the " Gibraltar " blockhaus. An altar stone marked the traces of the Windmill, place of terrible battles.
On 15 September 1916, tanks apparead for the first time on the battlefield. Of the 32 British Mark I which were deployed along the line from Courcelette to Longueval, only 9 reached their objective. Nonetheless, this date marks the beginning of a more balanced British advance on the Somme.