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The Battle of Fromelles ((:fʁɔmɛl); was a British military operation on the Western Front during World War I, subsidiary to the Battle of the Somme. General Headquarters (GHQ) of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) had ordered the First Army and Second Army to prepare attacks to support the Fourth Army on the Somme to the south, to exploit any weakening of the German defences opposite. The attack took place from Lille, between the Fauquissart–Trivelet road and Cordonnerie Farm, an area overlooked from Aubers Ridge to the south. The ground was low-lying and much of the defensive fortification of both sides consisted of breastworks, rather than trenches. The operation was conducted by XI Corps of the First Army with the 61st Division and the 5th Australian Division, Australian Imperial Force (1 stAIF) against the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division, supported by two flanking divisions of the German 6th Army. Preparations for the attack were rushed, the troops involved lacked experience in trench warfare and the power of the German defence was significantly underestimated, the attackers being . The advance took place in daylight, against defences overlooked by Aubers Ridge, on a narrow front which left German artillery on either side free to fire into the flanks of the attack. A renewal of the attack by the 61st Division early on 20 July was cancelled, after it was realised that German counter-attacks had already forced a retirement by the Australian troops to the original front line. On 19 July, General von Falkenhayn, the German Chief of the General Staff, had judged the British attack to be a long-anticipated offensive against the 6th Army. On the next day when the effect of the attack was known and a captured operation order from XI Corps revealed the limited intent of the operation, Falkenhayn ordered the Guard Reserve Corps to be withdrawn to reinforce the Somme front. The Battle of Fromelles had inflicted some losses on the German defenders but gained no ground nor deflected many German troops bound for the Somme. The attack was the début of the AIF on the Western Front and the Australian War Memorial described the battle as "the worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history". Of were incurred by the 5th Australian Division; German losses were prisoner. ==Background== The course of the Battle of the Somme November 1916) had led the British GHQ on 5 July to inform the commanders of the three other British armies, that the German defences from the Somme north to the Ancre river might soon fall. The First and Second army commanders were required to choose places to penetrate the German defences, if the attacks on the Somme continued to make progress. Any gaps made were then to be widened, to exploit the weakness and disorganisation of the German defence. The Second Army commander, General H. Plumer was occupied by preparations for an offensive at Messines Ridge but could spare one division for a joint attack with the First Army at the army boundary. On 8 July, the First Army commander General Charles Monro, ordered the IX Corps commander Lieutenant-General Richard Haking to plan a two-division attack; Haking proposed to capture Aubers Ridge, Aubers and Fromelles but next day Monro dropped Aubers Ridge from the attack, as he and Plumer had concluded that with the troops available, no great objective could be achieved. On 13 July, after receiving intelligence reports that the Germans had withdrawn approximately nine infantry battalions from the Lille area from GHQ informed the two army commanders that a local attack was to be carried out at the army boundary around 18 July, to exploit the depletion of the German units in the vicinity. Haking was ordered to begin a preliminary bombardment, intended to appear to be part of a large offensive, while limiting an infantry attack to the German front line. On 16 July discussions about the attack resumed, as the need for diversions to coincide with operations on the Somme had diminished when the big victory of Bazentin Ridge (14 July 1916) had not led to a general German collapse. Sir Douglas Haig the Commander-in-Chief of the BEF, did not want the attack to take place unless the local commanders were confident of success and Monro and Haking opposed postponement or cancellation of the attack. The weather had been dull on 15 July and rain began next day, soon after Monro and Haking made the decision to proceed with the attack. Zero hour for the main bombardment was then postponed because of the weather and at Haking delayed the attack for at least ; after considering cancellation, Monro postponed the attack to 19 July. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Fromelles」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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