November 1917.
The penultimate episode of Anzacs is a dramatic one, commencing as Mother Nature helps save the German army once again, with the British offensive at Ypres stalling in the mud and bog. Another war-ending opportunity fallen by the wayside. As the platoon struggle against the weather in the front lines, Martin Barrington, recovered from the wound that nearly killed him near the end of last episode, is supposed to be heading home to Australia, his service at an end - but he seems none too pleased by the idea of leaving his mates behind. He ends up finding a way to remain in France and a part of the action. Never too far from the action, as it turns out.
Another old face turns up when Flanagan is at officer training, resolving a plot thread from the previous episode.
Then, in March, the Germans - with fresh divisions from the Eastern Front - launch their Spring Offensive, a last-ditch gamble to win the war employing new and unique tactics before the balance of power is shifted firmly in the Allies' favour with the arrival of thousands and thousands of American troops to France. Against demoralised British and French forces, they nearly triumph. It is basically the Australians between the Kaiser's rampaging forces and the English Channel, with a few scattered British units, including the Guards and the Lancashire Fusiliers, both of which fight alongside the platoon at the Nieppe Forest, one of the key actions to stall what had seemed, at times, a war-winning assault by German forces. It was, to borrow a line from the Duke of Wellington, a very close-run thing. The dramatic events of 1918 meant there was no need for Anzac's writers to build any drama in any other way. They just had to tell the story.
The Nieppe sequence is one of the best of the entire series, and Jon Blake really shines as Flanagan, who is company commander now, a far cry from the cocky Gallipoli reinforcement of the first episode. (It's not hard to see why so many thought Blake was going to be a bigger star than Mel Gibson.)
At the same time, Martin continues the adjustment - kind-of - of being on Monash's staff, with Sir John in charge of all the Australian forces, finally grouped together under independent command for the first time in the war. Martin;s appointment there is a good one as it allows Anzacs to shine a well-deserved light on what Monash did tactically in the war's waning months, and how he desired to attack in locations where he was fairly confident his men could be victorious, and his desire to attack in a way that did not sacrifice men's lives needlessly. No wonder he was so popular with his men.
Fresh off helping to stave off the German counter-attack, the platoon march on.
The penultimate episode of Anzacs is a dramatic one, commencing as Mother Nature helps save the German army once again, with the British offensive at Ypres stalling in the mud and bog. Another war-ending opportunity fallen by the wayside. As the platoon struggle against the weather in the front lines, Martin Barrington, recovered from the wound that nearly killed him near the end of last episode, is supposed to be heading home to Australia, his service at an end - but he seems none too pleased by the idea of leaving his mates behind. He ends up finding a way to remain in France and a part of the action. Never too far from the action, as it turns out.
Another old face turns up when Flanagan is at officer training, resolving a plot thread from the previous episode.
Then, in March, the Germans - with fresh divisions from the Eastern Front - launch their Spring Offensive, a last-ditch gamble to win the war employing new and unique tactics before the balance of power is shifted firmly in the Allies' favour with the arrival of thousands and thousands of American troops to France. Against demoralised British and French forces, they nearly triumph. It is basically the Australians between the Kaiser's rampaging forces and the English Channel, with a few scattered British units, including the Guards and the Lancashire Fusiliers, both of which fight alongside the platoon at the Nieppe Forest, one of the key actions to stall what had seemed, at times, a war-winning assault by German forces. It was, to borrow a line from the Duke of Wellington, a very close-run thing. The dramatic events of 1918 meant there was no need for Anzac's writers to build any drama in any other way. They just had to tell the story.
The Nieppe sequence is one of the best of the entire series, and Jon Blake really shines as Flanagan, who is company commander now, a far cry from the cocky Gallipoli reinforcement of the first episode. (It's not hard to see why so many thought Blake was going to be a bigger star than Mel Gibson.)
At the same time, Martin continues the adjustment - kind-of - of being on Monash's staff, with Sir John in charge of all the Australian forces, finally grouped together under independent command for the first time in the war. Martin;s appointment there is a good one as it allows Anzacs to shine a well-deserved light on what Monash did tactically in the war's waning months, and how he desired to attack in locations where he was fairly confident his men could be victorious, and his desire to attack in a way that did not sacrifice men's lives needlessly. No wonder he was so popular with his men.
Fresh off helping to stave off the German counter-attack, the platoon march on.
