Today Phil took the excursion from our dock in Rouen to the
World War One battlefields around the village of Villers Bretonneaux. On 24 and
25 April 1918 the Australians fought a gruesome battle to recapture the town at
the cost of 1200 soldiers’ lives.
Our first visit was to the Victoria School in Villers Bretonneaux
which was built using funds raised by Victorian schoolchildren in the 1920s who
donated two pennies each to the fund. The original school, along with most of
the town, was destroyed during the battle. The school contains the
Franco-Australian Museum which was donated by Australia in 1975 and contains a
lot of memorabilia from the battle.
The second visit was a very moving experience. The
Australian War Memorial outside Villers Bretonneaux now includes the Sir John
Monash Centre opened on 24 April this year – the 100th anniversary
of the battle. The Centre contains displays of many and varied items including
uniforms, helmets and weapons and so on. But its key feature is numerous
screens showing both still photos and films of battle scenes and their
aftermath. There is a theatre with five wraparound screens which runs a VERY
graphic movie of the battle which shows the carnage that took place in horrendous
detail. You have to wonder how such horror can be allowed to happen.
In front of the memorial is a cemetery for Australian and
Canadian troops killed at the Somme. See the photos below to get something of
the feel of being there.
Next we visited the so called Newfoundland site. This is the
site of a significant part of the first battle of the Somme in July 1916 in
which troops from Newfoundland fought with the British. In total they lost
58,000 dead in a single day of action! The British commanders thought that
their bombardment of the German trenches with 1.5 million shells would destroy
the enemy trenches so they instructed the troops to move out of their trenches
and walk in line to the German trenches to occupy them. However the bombardment
was inaccurate and one-third of the shells failed to explode, so the German
positions were largely intact and they were able to mow down the British with
machine gun fire. Sickening!
Lastly we visited the Lochnagar Crater. It was created by
the detonation of an English underground mine made of 27 tons of explosive dug
under the German trenches. Unfortunately when it was set off most of the
Germans had retreated. Worse, the debris was blown about 1200 metres into the
air and a lot fell on the British trenches causing many casualties. What can
you say?
Photo 1: Victoria School. Note the flags which have been on
display since ANZAC Day.
Photo 2: Speaks for itself. The bond between the town and
Australia is very strong.
Photo 3: Uniforms
Photo 4: View towards the memorial with the Cross of
Sacrifice in the foreground and cemetery on either side.
Photo 5: Australian graves with Villers Bretonneaux in the
distance.
Photo 6: A tapestry woven by four Australian women who each
took about 1000 hours to complete their parts. It depicts the soldiers’
thoughts of home.
Photos 7 and 8: Video screens in the Centre.
Photo 9: Trenches preserved by the locals.
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