In mid-July, II Anzac lent the 5th Division to the British XI Corps for a diversionary operation that became known as the Battle of Fromelles.
In the 1917 Battle of Messines, prelude to the Third Battle of Ypres, II Anzac was the southernmost of three British divisions to attack the Messines ridge.
Upon the formation of the AustralianCorps in late 1917, which contained all five Australian divisions, II Anzac was renamed the British XXII Corps.
The AustralianCorps was a World War I army corps that contained all five Australian infantry divisions serving on the Western Front.
Following the hard fighting of 1917, where the Australian divisions suffered heavily at Bullecourt, Messines and the Third Battle of Ypres, the Australian Imperial Force was facing a manpower crisis.
General William Birdwood, commander of the AIF, suggested that, in forming the AustralianCorps, the weakest division could serve as a depot, providing reserves for the fighting divisions.
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