Robert East

Robert East is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE

Articles by Robert East:

The Battle of Le Hamel: When Australian & US Troops Fought Side by Side

The Battle of Hamel was an offensive against German troops strategically holed up, in and around the high ground near the French town of Le…

Australian Forces at the First & Second Battles of Villers-Bretonneux

Then Germans bombarded the Australian troops with mustard gas. This had a devastating effect causing over 1,000 casualties with varying degrees of “blindness.” Villers-Bretonneux is…

The Australians & The Battle of Broodseinde Ridge

Briefly put, the Battle of Broodseinde Ridge was one of many operations in the broader Ypres offensives. There were five Ypres offensives during World War…

The Australians at Pozieres: Battle of the Somme 1916

This success came at a huge cost. The Australian 1st Division suffered 5,285 casualties — an inordinate number given a division normally consists of around…

No Artillery Support and a Casualty Rate of 75%: The Australians at Bullecourt WWI

Gough ordered 12 British tanks to precede the Australian advance, but many of them were either hit by German artillery of simply broke down. In…

FROMELLES: Considered The Worst 24 Hours of Australia’s Military History

Nothing in Australian military history before or since has matched this murderous advance at the battle of Fromelles. Today, Fromelles in northern France is a…

ANZACS: The Australians & New Zealanders at Gallipoli, 1915

By the time the Australians left the Gallipoli theater, they had suffered 26,111 casualties, including 8,141 killed in action or dying of their wounds. Australia…

The Battle of Messines 1917: Australian & New Zealand Troops Together

On June 7, 1917, Australian and New Zealand Forces (ANZAC) combined to form an attack on a German defensive position near the Belgium town of…

Fighting for Mother England: The Australian Infantry in WW1

The Australians were ordered to attack German trenches across an exposed strip of land in broad daylight. When the United Kingdom declared war on Germany…