The Hindenburg Line (Siegfriedstellung) was a German defensive position built during the winter of 1916-1917 from Arras to Laffaux.
The last and the strongest of the German Army’s defence lines, it consisted of three well-defended trench systems.
The First battle of Bullecourt came after the German army withdrew to the Hindenburg Line in March 1917.
Australia’s 4th Division and the 62nd British division launched an attack on Bullecourt on April 11, 1917.
British and Australian troops captured Bullecourt from the Germans in May 1917 during the Battle of Arras. Stereoscopic card detail. Pictured above, German soldiers surrendering in Bullecourt
The attack resulted in disaster, as troops were quickly destroyed by German forces.
May 1917 saw the second Battle of Bullecourt, a continuation of the British spring offensive north and south of Arras that aimed to support a major French attack further south.
The French attacked on 15 April 1917 but when the attack failed, the British and French leaders agreed to continue the operation, which was a joint British and Australian attack on the Hindenburg Line around Bullecourt.
The attack began in the early hours of 3 May 1917, and the Australians in particular suffered heavy casualties as a result of machine gun fire over the next few days.
On 6 May, the Germans launched their sixth counter-attack, but an astonishing display of bravery in which Corporal George Julian Howell ran along the top of the trenches bombarding the enemy with hand grenades pushed the Germans back. (Cpl Howell later received the Victoria Cross in person from King George V for his bravery).
The following day, the British seized part of Bullecourt, and on 15 May the Germans launched a final counter-attack, in which the British soldiers buried yesterday are believed to have died.
The Australians fought the counter-attack off, and by 17 May, all the ruins of Bullecourt were in Allied hands
But the victory came at great cost, particularly to the Australians who were said to have lost more than 10,000 men between two battles for a ‘small, tactically useless, village’.
Returning Bullecourt villagers said there was no way of knowing where their houses had once been after the battles. Such devastation was par for the course during the years of stalemate.