A CLASSIC & HIGHLY DESIRABLE
1st DAY, BATTLE of BULLECOURT,
“16th Bn AUSTRALIAN IMPERIAL FORCE”
Casualty Pair.


To:
6483. Pte A. BRUNTON. 16th Bn A.I.F.
KILLED-in-ACTION. 11th APRIL 1917.

[BIOGRAPHY] 1892-1917
Andrew Brunton, was born in Balloleys, Inchture, Perthshire, Scotland, the son of John Brunton in 1892. A Church of England lad, he emigrated to Perth, Western Australia in about 1912 and settled in GERALDTON, where he was employed as a stockman in the sheep trade. Geraldton is to the north of Perth.

He enlisted into the Australian Army at Perth on 15th April 1916 age 24 and after a period of six months of military training he embarked for France at FREMANTLE on H.M.A.T. A39 PORT MACQUARIE on 13th October 1916 with an arrival in Plymouth on 12th December 1916.

He embarked on SS PRINCESS VICTORIA at Folkestone on 8th February 1917 and arrived at Etaples, France, the next day. He was in the field with 16th Bn on 13th February and was killed in action just eight weeks later on 11th April 1917.

He was part of the 21st Reinforcement, 16th Bn, 4th Brigade.

Very unusually, the full details of his sad death were witnessed and recorded by a fellow Scot & soldier, 6520, Pte DUNCAN GRANT. After himself becoming a Prisoner of War of the German forces at Bullecourt, (Reincourt) Grant officially reported Andrew Brunton’s loss to the British Red Cross while a prisoner at Saltau, Hannover.

The two men had been in full assault of the 2nd line of German trenches at Bullecourt when Andrew Brunton was hit in the chest by a German Stick grenade which exploded and killed him instantly. Pte Grant was also wounded by a gunshot in the left arm. A copy of his report, which is held by the Australian War Memorial Archive is included with this pair.

[BATTLE OF BULLECOURT, 11th APRIL 1917]
(The Australian Battle from Hell)
Bullecourt, a village in northern France, was one of several villages to be heavily fortified incorporated by the Germans into the defences of the Hindenburg Line in 1917.

In March 1917, the German army had withdrawn to the Hindenburg Line in order to shorten their front and thus make their positions easier to defend. This move was rapidly followed up by the British and empire forces, and they launched an offensive around Arras in early April 1917.

To assist the Arras operations, an attack was launched on Bullecourt on 11th April 1917 by the 4th Australian and 62nd British Divisions.

The attack was hastily planned and mounted and resulted in disaster. Tanks which were supposed to support the attacking Australian infantry either broke down or were quickly destroyed. Nevertheless, the Australian infantry managed to break into the German defences. Due to uncertainty as to how far they had advanced, supporting artillery fire was withheld, and eventually the Australians were hemmed in and forced to retreat.

Let down by tanks and artillery, the infantry soldiers captured some of their objectives before they were repelled by a strong German counter attack. Over a thousand men were cut off from their fellows, and after most of them had run out of ammunition, they had little option but to surrender and many men were captured near Reincourt.

Initially they received very harsh treatment from rear echelon German troops, especially in Lille where they spent several days imprisoned with out food and in appallingly cramped cells. After being used to carry out labour tasks near the front lines, most were sent off to camps in Germany or Prussia with many men interned at Limburg camp north west of Frankfurt, Germany.

This is a greatly desirable Australian Casualty Pair to a man who lost his life during one of the most famous Australian actions of The Great War. The 4th & 12th Brigades paid a terrible price during this badly bungled action with 3,300 men being killed & 1,170 taken prisoner which was the largest number captured in a single engagement during the war.




This 11th April 1st Day Bullecourt pair is as important to an Australian collector as would be a 1st July 1916 ‘First Day of The Somme’ pair to we Brits.
£795