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The attack captured little ground but cost the brigade almost a third of its strength. The Victorian battalions forming the 2nd Brigade returned to ANZAC to help defend the beachhead, and in August the 2nd Brigade fought at the battle of Lone Pine. The battalion served at ANZAC until the evacuation in December. having served throughout the campaign. Following extraction to Egypt, it was split along with all of the Battalions in the 1st-4th Brigades to create cadres of experienced o ffi cers NCO and soldiers to form the basis of the new Battalions of the 4th and 5th Divisions. The 8th Battalions 'pup' Battalion became the 60th Battalion in the 15th Brigade in the 5th Division. In March 1916, the newly 'doubled' AIF began sailing for France and the Western Front. From then until 1918 the battalion was heavily involved in operations against the German Army. The battalion's first major action in France was at Pozieres in the Somme valley in July 1916, where the AIF Divisions engaged (1st 2nd and 4th) formed the right flank of the British front. The 1st Division was committed to the attack on Pozieres village from 23 July, involving the reduction of the ‘Gibraltar’ blockhouse among other tasks. The enemy shelling was relentless and casualties mounted at a horrifying rate. Once the ‘Windmill’ was captured by the 2nd Division on 4th August and consolidated by the 4th Division, the direction of the Australian assault switched to Mouquet Farm, with the 1st Division leading once again. The aim was to outflank Thiepval, the main impediment and key objective of the British advance. The AIF Divisions had fought themselves to a standstill over five weeks; 23,000 casualties of whom 5,0000 were killed.After Pozieres the battalion fought at Ypres in Flanders then returning to the Somme for winter.
Page 17 of 72 Heliopolis 20.2.16
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