Anzac Day

[Bruce Tuncks]

My experiences mirror you guys surprisingly well. I'm also proud of how our guys learned to fight a war of ambush, quite unlike the Americans. Apparently the Americans  would shoot off all their ammo as soon as they were well away from the base and then they could return.

[onetrack]

The Americans will never admit to the fact that the Australians taught the newly-arrived American troops at the Battle of Hamel in 1918, every basic infantry tactic that's in use today.

 

The Australian Diggers had had 4 years to define and refine infantry tactics that worked, before the American Doughboys arrived.

 

The Aussies were amazed at the gung-ho attitude of the Americans, they would just jump straight out of the trenches into MG fire, without sussing out the enemy locations and strength.

 

The Diggers often had to haul the Doughboys back down, or they'd have been wiped out to a man.

 

General Pershing was also a right PIA, he refused to allow his troops to be placed under Australian Commanders control, yet neither he nor his Doughboys had any combat experience.

 

He finally had to relent at the insistence of some of his senior officers. However, Pershing also nearly stuffed up the Battle of Hamel by withdrawing 6 companies of American troops the day before the battle, saying they were inadequately trained.

[Bruce Tuncks]

Nice post onetrack. I'm only here because the aftermath of Breaker Morant stopped the poms from killing Australians. So what you have said is obvious to me.