The 54th Battalion was raised in Egypt on 16 February 1916 as part of the "doubling" of the AIF. Half of its recruits were Gallipoli veterans from the 2nd Battalion, and the other half, fresh reinforcements from Australia. Reflecting the composition of the 2nd, the 54th was predominantly composed of men from New South Wales. The battalion became part of the 14th Brigade of the 5th Australian Division.

Moving to France in June 1916, the 54th fought its first major battle on the Western Front at Fromelles, on 19 July. It was a disaster. The 54th was part of the initial assault and suffered casualties equivalent to 65 per cent of its fighting strength. Casualty rates among the rest of the 5th Division were similarly high, but despite these losses it continued to man the front in the Fromelles sector for a further two months.

Source: Australian War Memorial

France

The call to the Western Front came on 20 June 1916, and the 982 men of the 54th Battalion left Egypt aboard the Caledonian. After a ten-day voyage via Malta, they disembarked at Marseilles and travelled for three days by train to Hazebrouck, about 30 kilometres west of Fleurbaix. The journey north took them through the green countryside of France — a stark contrast to the sands of Egypt.

In early July, the 54th entered the trenches at Rue Petillon for their first experience of the Western Front. After a brief rest and further training at Croix Blanche, the battalion was moved into the Fleurbaix sector. By 18 July, they were in position in the forward trenches near Fromelles, ready to face battle for the first time.

In the weeks leading up to the attack, the battalion was billeted in Thiennes, sleeping in barns, stables, and private homes. Training resumed with a new focus on gas mask drills and exposure to artillery shelling. It was hoped, according to the war diary, that these exercises would “inspire the men with great confidence.”
[[Source: AWM4 23/71/6 – 54th Battalion War Diary, July 1916, p. 2]]

On 10 July, they moved to Sailly-sur-la-Lys, and the following day the 54th entered the trenches for the first time. The health and spirits of the men were reported as good.

After a few days of exposure to front-line conditions, they rotated back to billets in Bac-St-Maur. On 15 July, Major Roy Harrison — a Gallipoli veteran — wrote home with quiet foreboding:

“The men don’t know yet what is before them, but some suspect that there is something in the wind. It is a most pitiful thing to see them all, going about, happy and ignorant of the fact, that a matter of hours will see many of them dead; but as the French say, ‘C’est la guerre’.”
— Major Roy Harrison
[[Source: FFFAIF Digger 52, “The horrors of Lone Pine,” pp. 17–20]]
https://fffaif.org.au/

Battle of Fromelles

An assault was originally planned for 17 July, but heavy rain delayed the operation. Conditions improved, and by the afternoon of 19 July, the 54th Battalion had returned to the trenches, ready for their first major action on the Western Front.

Their objective was to take the German trenches to the left of the Sugar Loaf, a heavily fortified and elevated position that dominated the battlefield. Failure to capture it meant the attacking troops would be exposed to enfilading machine-gun fire. The 54th was to advance in coordination with the 31st, 32nd, and 53rd Battalions.

The men began to move out at 5.50 p.m., advancing in four waves — A and B Companies in the first two, C and D in the third and fourth. The first waves did not immediately charge but lay down in No Man’s Land, waiting for the barrage to lift. At 6.00 p.m., the rush began.

The 54th came under heavy artillery, machine-gun, and rifle fire, but advanced rapidly. The 14th Brigade War Diary later noted the effectiveness of the barrage:

“Very few living Germans were found in the first and second line trenches.”
[[Source: AWM4 23/14/4 – 14th Brigade War Diary, July 1916, p. 100]]

They pressed forward nearly 600 yards, linking with the 53rd Battalion on the right and 31st and 32nd on the left, holding a line from Rouges Bancs to near Delangre Farm. In some places, the forward positions were merely water-filled ditches, which the men hastily fortified into makeshift trenches.

But on the right flank, the situation had collapsed. The 60th Battalion had been unable to advance due to devastating machine-gun fire from the Sugar Loaf, leaving the 54th’s flank exposed. The Germans launched a powerful counterattack through this gap and penetrated the Australian lines from the rear.

Lt-Col Cass, commanding the 54th, later reported:

“The site selected for a fire trench was a drain containing from 18 inches to 2 feet of water… Sandbags came in the night and the work was made bulletproof.”
— Lt-Col H. Cass, 54th Battalion
[[Source: Appendix N:321/15, 54th Battalion War Diary, July 1916]]

By 2.20 a.m., the enemy was attacking along the road past Rouge Bancs. Cass reported that the 53rd had not managed to dig in, and around 100 men were believed to have surrendered. Cass sent a party of 54th men forward to support the line:

“They ran forward with the bayonet and drove the enemy back about 50 yards.”
— Lt-Col Cass

Despite repeated appeals for artillery support, the position became untenable. At 6.30 a.m. on 20 July, the 54th received orders to withdraw. The retreat was chaotic and exposed to fire; many wounded men were left behind.

“I saw scores of men badly wounded and no help at hand to bind them up.”
— Lt-Col Cass

By 7.30 a.m., the survivors had fallen back to Bac-St-Maur, nearly 5 km from the front. Of the 982 men who had sailed from Egypt just a month before, the first casualty returns reported 73 killed, 288 wounded, and 173 missing.

Later visits to the battlefield confirmed the scale of loss. When official war historian Charles Bean toured Fromelles two and a half years later, he noted that bones, torn uniforms, and Australian kit still lay scattered across the ground.

In total, 172 men of the 54th Battalion were killed, and 102 of those remain missing to this day.