Mucky Farm 1916

If you approach Thiepval from the village of Pozières you will come past Mouquet Farm on a rise to your right. The farm has been rebuilt since 1916 when it was completely destroyed in fierce fighting which raged for months.

At the entrance to the lane leading up to the farm you will see one of the Bronze Plaques commemorating the fact that this was the scene of fierce fighting by the Australians. There are a number of these throughout the world wherever Australia's servicemen have served with distinction.

Known to the British soldiers as Mucky Farm and to the Australians as Moo-Cow Farm, this was a heavily fortified position on the German's second line of defence in July 1916. This line ran from Pozières to Grandcourt around the rear of the Schwaben Redoubt in a system of strong points, the Goat and Stuff redoubts.

Mouquet Farm was connected through to the Schwaben Redoubt via a system of trenches known as The Mouquet Switch.

The original plan for Fourth Army called for this second line of defences being taken within hours of the initial attack at 07:30 hours.

At one point on 1 July 1916 a party of men from 13 Bn Royal Irish Rifles managed to get within half a kilometre of Mouquet Farm. The inability of their own Division (The 36th Ulster) to reinforce them and the failure of 32nd Division to capture Thiepval village, rendered their position untenable. They were forced to retire.

By the last weeks of August 1916 any possible advantage that had been gained by the French and British to the east of Pozières was being severely hampered by the fact that Thiepval continued to hold out.

The key to Thiepval was Mouquet Farm. If the allies could take it then Thiepval would become increasingly isolated.

Before Mouquet Farm could be taken it would be necessary to capture the village of Pozières on the main road to its right.

4th Australian Division

Once Pozières had fallen a renewed attempt could be made to capture Mouquet Farm. The attack was set for the evening of 8 August with the British 12th Division attacking on the left and the 15th Battalion from 4th Australian Division on the right.

The Australians made good progress but 12th Division faltered. Things got worse when 12th Division realised that they had actually missed one of the German emplacements in their advance and were now being attacked on all sides. By daylight they had withdrawn leaving the Australians in a captured forward line. In the confusion the Australians found themselves being shelled by the allied guns and were forced to retire.

The following night at 00:05 hours the 16th Battalion AIF advanced up past the trenches taken the night before (which the 15th Battalion promptly reoccupied). Over the next couple of days there was a period of consolidating the ground they had taken, before the attack could be pressed on towards Mouquet Farm.

On the morning of 11 August the Germans began a bombardment of the Australian's front line which went on into the afternoon. The farm garrison made a sortie which was broken up by a mixture of machine gun fire from the 13th and 16th Battalions AIF and an artillery bombardment. Unfortunately the 16th was paying a heavy price in casualties of its own and had to be removed from the line on the 12 August - still being hit by shellfire.

The Australians had by now managed to push up towards the farm and taken the points that had eluded the 12th Division earlier in the week. Their next objective was to get up into the quarry which would necessitate an attack over 300 metres of open territory directly in front of the farm.

The edge of the quarry was reached by 50th Battalion and further preparations were made with a view to capturing the farm. As a frontal assault was likely to prove impossible given the strength of the fortifications, the Australians would push on past the right of the farm into a trench system called the Fabeck Graben. This was named after the local German commander: Major von Fabeck, who had been responsible for fortifying the entire area around Thiepval.

To the left of the Australians ran a trench named the Constance Trench which ran down the lane from the farm. Standing at the AIF Plaque looking towards today's farm the Australians were attacking from your right.

The attack was launched on the 14 August with mixed results. In the centre the 13th Battalion managed to make progress but either side of them the attacks were turned back by machine gun fire, and by the end of the day they had been forced to retire.

The 4th Division had suffered over 4 600 casualties in the space of ten days and were now relieved by the men from 1st Australian Division who had taken an important part in the capture of Pozières in the preceding weeks.

1st and 2nd Divisions AIF

The commanders immediately set about trying to sort out just where the front line was and getting proper coordinates for the positions of their men. Despite this update, on the 18 August as the Australians were about to begin another attack their forward line was hit by allied shellfire.

3 Brigade AIF pushed forward again three days later and managed to get into the ruins of the farm before being forced to withdraw. Looking at the farm today it is difficult to think of a pile of rubble and shell holes, but it is just as important to realise that the cellars and dug outs underneath it provided the German defenders with plenty of protection.

By the time they were relieved by 2nd Division AIF on the 22nd 1st Division had taken another 2 600 casualties on top of those they had suffered at Pozières.

On 26 August 6 Brigade tried to outflank the farm on the left but the attack was not a success. The only high point was that a German counter attack was also beaten back. Australian casualties were very high and two days later the 4th Division was brought back into the firing line.

Rain

Then it began to rain. The moonscape became a quagmire. Passchendael in the summer of 1917 has made an impact in history as the battle of mud, but many commentators have stated that the Somme was worse.

At 23:00 hours on 29 August a night attack was launched across the mud resulting in units getting lost in the shell holes and battered trench systems. The attack was a complete failure. Almost 500 more casualties were suffered by the two battalions that had made the attack.

On 3 September 1916 the Australian troops were given their final chance to take the farm. 4th Division AIF had been reinforced by 1 Canadian Brigade, but it was to be the Australian's own 13 Brigade that would make their attack on the farm.

At 05:10 hours 49th Battalion began their assault on the trench systems to the far right of the farm whilst the 51st Battalion assaulted the farm itself with 52nd battalion between them covering the Fabeck Graben.

The 49th made good progress in the face of stiff opposition linking up with the 52nd who had managed to get up past the farm as the 51st clawed their way into the pile of rubble that Mouquet Farm had become.

Unfortunately a counter attack by the Germans at 08:00 hours was pressed home under the cover of a heavy barrage and the Australians were forced out of the farm and many of the captured trenches. The leading units of the 51st Battalion were never seen again.

The Canadians were pushed into the line to halt the Germans and the Allied front line was secured on the right to include part of the gains made by the 49th Battalion.

The Canadians take over

In the midst of all this the Australians were replaced by the Canadian Corps, and at the end of the days fighting, men from 1st Canadian Division relieved the very weary men of the 4th Australian Division. The last few days of fighting had cost the 4th Division another 1 300 casualties.

The first few days in the trenches were those of almost constant bombardment for the Canadians who had also to deal with a number of German counterattacks trying to dislodge them from the ground captured by the Australians.

Almost a fortnight after they had arrived in the area, on 15 September 1916 Tanks made their first appearance on the battlefield during the fighting for Flers and Courcelette. This battle was on a wide front which incorporated yet another attempt to take Mouquet Farm.

The 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles were given the task of taking the farm and a German strong point in the Fabeck Graben. The attack on the farm was beaten off by the defenders and the attack on the strong point came under bombardment from Allied guns whilst they were waiting out in no mans land. To add insult to injury the German machine gunners were then able to fire with impunity until the Canadians own machine gunners were able to retaliate. Having taken almost fifty per cent casualties the Canadians were forced to withdraw to their own trenches.

Further advances over the next twenty four hours resulted in the Canadians announcing that the remains of the farm were finally taken and that the front line had been pushed beyond it. This was nearly true but what they didn't realise was that the German's had tunnels running under the ruins that came up behind the Allied front line.

Finally in Allied Hands

On 16 September the Canadians were replaced by 34 Brigade from the British 11th Division. Ten days later a mixture of units and a tank finally managed to drive the German defenders from their last remaining dug out. Photographs from the time show that Mouquet Farm had been totally levelled. A few piles of rubble were all that remained of a once sizable group of buildings.

Thiepval