P ozieres sits on a high ridge between the strategically important towns of Albert and Bapaume. As the highest point on the 1916 Somme battlefield the town was a vital objective, with panoramic views of large sectors of the German frontline. The British expected to capture the village on   July 1, 1916, the disastrous first day of the Battle of the Somme, but after three weeks of fighting it was still in German hands. 
The village was protected by densely barbed-wired trenches that skirted it  and two trench lines on the ridge behind the village. A windmill stood on the Bapaume road north-east of the town. 
It was destroyed early in the battle but its foundations had been turned into a formidable machinegun post.
After the failure of several British attacks, the Australian 1st Division commenced a deployment into the area on   July 14 and immediately began preparations to attack Pozieres. On   July 22, Lt John Nicol of the 11th Battalion was killed by a sniper while reconnoitring German positions near the town. He was the first of 23,000 Australians to be killed or wounded in the next six weeks in an area of just over 243ha.
The Australian 1st Division attacked Pozieres in the early hours of   July 23 and captured the village after bitter fighting. During the next few days, progress would be measured in a few yards of ground gained at the cost of thousands. The Germans launched several counterattacks in a desperate effort to wrest control from the Australians but all were repulsed with heavy casualties.
 The Germans then commenced a heavy barrage of the Australian positions. The constant and methodical pounding of the village was far worse than anything that Australian troops had previously endured and after three days the 1st Division had suffered 5285 casualties and was at the end of its endurance, with men being driven insane by the relentless bombarding. 
The 1st Division was withdrawn and replaced by the Australian 2nd Division.
The 2nd Division was ordered to attack and seize the two trench lines (OG1 and OG2) that ran along Pozieres Ridge, to the east of the village. A preparatory barrage was fired into the enemy lines but failed to destroy the barbed wire entanglements in no-man's-land. The attack was carried out on the night of   July 28 but was a complete failure with 2000 casualties.
The West Australian 28th Battalion took part in the attack and was practically destroyed, with 467 casualties in a couple of hours. The 28th was swept away in a deluge of enemy fire. 
John Stuart, from Subiaco, kept a diary in which he wrote:
 We all got out in no man's land with fixed bayonets waiting for the signal to charge. Major Welch and Lieutenant Ellis got knocked before we got out of the trenches as well as twenty-five others of our company. Fritz opened out a terrific and murderous machine gun and shrapnel fire on us and the flares that they put up made it look like daylight, but we were not disheartened, so we charged for our lives but found to our sorrow that the barbed wire had not been smashed and it was an awful sight to see our poor chaps hanging lifelessly on the wire entanglements. Men were dropping killed and wounded everywhere and it was sickening to hear the groans and moans of our chaps. 
The 2nd Division regrouped and attacked Pozieres Ridge again on   August 4 and surged into the German trenches in an irresistible assault. It was during this phase of the battle that the Australians faced the heaviest and most prolonged series of artillery barrages ever experienced by the Australian Imperial Force. Once again the German artillery relentlessly pounded the captured positions and the 2nd Division was relieved two days later, with 6848 casualties. 
John Stuart wrote:
 We spent most of our time deepening and widening the sap. It was sickening as we were digging up Australians and Germans all night and the stench was murder. There are dead lying around everywhere ... Got relieved this morning by the 46th Battalion. We got shelled all the way out. We had to go through Corpse Avenue. It was a very appropriate name, as we even had to walk over dead men lying in the bottom of the sap.  
The Australian 4th Division assumed the attack and fought to secure the areas around the Windmill and Mouquet Farm. During four days of heavy fighting Pte Martin O'Meara, a stretcher-bearer from the 16th Battalion, repeatedly went out and brought in wounded from no-man's-land despite intense artillery and machinegun fire; for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
The 4th suffered massive losses and the 1st and 2nd divisions were once more thrown into the battle and, although their numbers were severely depleted, they managed to hold the ground taken around the Windmill. Mouquet Farm, to the north of Pozieres, remained in German hands after seven desperate attacks by Australian infantry. Exhausted, the Australians were brought out of the line on   September 5 and relieved by the Canadian Corps.
The battle for Pozieres in 1916 was some of the most ferocious fighting of the war and cost the lives of more Australians in six weeks than the entire eight months of the Gallipoli campaign.
Neville Browning is collecting photographs, letters and diaries for a book on West Australians on the Western Front. Phone him on  
9490 6495 or email nbrowning1@bigpond.com