Thanks to the wonders of technology I have just watched live, the dawn service at the Australian National Memorial at Villler Bretonneux in Northern France.
I understand that this is only the second such service to have been held at the memorial, which is on a hill overlooking what had once been World War I battlefields.
Until recently Australians have been raised to understand that our biggest sacrifice of human life in war happened at Gallipoli. But the reality is, over 40,000 Australian soldiers are buried in war graves throughout the Western Front. More Australians died there than anywhere else.
Just recently I discovered that one of the sons of my French ancestor served in the Australian forces at the Western Front. How strange it must have been go back to the land of his father's birth, to be fighting under another flag, but as an ally to his father's homeland. I know he would have spoken French, as I am reliably informed that right until two generations back, that the Australian descendants of the man I call the 'first Frenchman' were forbidden from speaking English at home.
I don't know much else, other than he was injured in France and released from service as a result. When I have time I intend to search the war archives and see what more I can discover.
More on Australians in France for Anzac Day, here.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
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12 comments:
Australian soldiers stopped the Germans in Villers-Bretonneux in April 1918 indeed. It happened long time ago, but it is still remembered. There is a Franco-Australian museum in the town, an Australian Memorial, the Adelaide Cemetery... I have been there several years ago.
Every war is dreadful, but there is no word to describe what WWI battlegrounds were. In that respect, you might be interested in reading Birdsong, a novel bySebastian Faulks. I wrote a blog about it a few months ago.
("I went there", I meant)
Ah, thank you for those links Billy. I didn't make that very clear when I said it was only the second service.
I was aware that Australia had always been remembered, thanks to their part in the war and also the follow up efforts to help rebuild. I just read this week that school children are fundraising to help children whose school burnt down in Victoria, in much the same way school children did post WW1.
I meant really, that is was only recent that the dawn service had been held in this way, and had become 'popular' for Australians to visit. Thousands go to Gallipoli, each year and it is, or was, ingrained in our culture that this was where the greatest sacrifices of Australian young men happened.
Until recently I was under the impression that our role on the Western Front was relatively minor, largely in part, I think, to the whole nation-building and mateship 'thing' that has built up around Gallipoli.
I have read that book. It was one of those books that someone recommended and I read with reluctance. But I was glad I did for I discovered a lot about how that awful part of the war played out.
I think when I next come to France I will try to go there too. I've always been curious about the north, for it seems less popular. This gives me more reason to have a look.
Thanks again, for those links and info. I appreciate it.
That's interesting. Anzac day is celebrated on April 25, essentially as a commemoration of the 1915 Anzac landing during the Gallipoli campaign. Yet in France it commemorates the liberation of Villers-Bretonneux by Australians troops on April 25, 1918, as a symbol of the thousands soldiers from the antipodes who died in the Somme battlegrounds during WWI.
There are many beautiful places in the northern parts of France. I think you will be quite moved when you visit the Australian Memorial that Billy is talking about. I know I wasn't expecting to be as emotionally moved as I was when I visited the American Memorial at Omaha Beach. To see all the thousands of young lives that were taken....sorry, different World War, but the results were the same.
Yes, great thanks to everybody of all nationalities who participated!!
thanks for your lovely post on Anzac day. i had the fortune to go it was so moving. Carla
Billy, I only became aware of that myself this year too.
Lynn, I am sure it will be very moving.
Peter, it was moving to see so many countries represented.
Carla, your post was very moving.
How strange to think I may have seen you in the crowd.
I never knew that. I thought it was Gallipoli too. I would love to go there one day and see all the war memorials. I have no direct connection to it, but feel, as an American, I do in a way.
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