Battlefields

Today we started our ANZAC Day Battlefields tour.

We were collected from Lille this morning where we boarded our luxury tour coach full of Australians! I've never seen a bus like it - it has leather seats, chairs in groups of four with tables in the middle and a kitchenette complete with microwave and espresso machine. Flash. There are Australians on our tour from all over the country - even Narre Warren!

Our first stop was VC Corner just outside of Fromelles - the only war cemetery in the area dedicated solely to Australians. It's amazing how well cared for these sites are. Approximately 410 Australian soldiers have their final resting place here in two massive unmarked graves - their names, along with 800 other soldiers whose final resting place is unknown, are listed on the wall of the memorial.

Next we moved closer to the town of Fromelles where we visited a fairly new cemetery that was established after a mass grave was located at Pheasant Wood - many of those who were found in this grave have since been identified and reburied at this new memorial. They are also in the process of building a museum at this site.

The Battle of Fromelles took place on 19-20 July 1916 and was a disaster for Australian and British forces with over 5000 Australian casualties in just one day. Their objective of reaching the "Sugarloaf" was not realised.

From Fromelles we headed towards Pozieres where we visited the Thiepval Memorial, dedicated to British soldiers near the site where almost 20 000 died in one day of fighting, past Mouquet Farm to the Windmill site and the Gibraltar bunker.

The Thiepval Memorial

Windmill Site

The Gibraltar Bunker

The Victoria School at Villers Bretonneux was our final stop for the day. As we drove into the town we were amazed by the preparations at the memorial for tomorrow's dawn service as well as the streets and landmarks with obvious Australian references (Le Victoria restaurant, Rue Melbourne and Robinvale Square - Robinvale is Villers Bretonneux sister town). The school is home to a museum dedicated to Australian troops and contains uniforms, letters and various other items collected over the years or donated by the families of Australian soldiers. The school has a large sign over their shelter shed that reads "DO NOT FORGET AUSTRALIA".

We've learnt so much today that our brains hurt and the number of men and women who died as a direct result of this war is overwhelming. We even learnt about women who died in England as a result of the poisons they came into contact with in the munitions factories. Plus the impact on the families of those men who didn't come home, as well as those who did survive but went home shell shocked and traumatised, must have been devastating. Yet the locals continue to honour the memories of those soldiers who gave their lives to defend their homes and their presence has left it's mark on the whole area.

 

Posted with Blogsy