France 2015 - Day 3 - Villers-Bretonneux - Australian National Memorial

Onto the Australian National Memorial near Villers-Bretonneux. For Australians visiting the Somme this should be a must visit.

The Australian servicemen named here died in the battlefields of the Somme, Arras, and the final battles in 1918.

The Cross of Sacrifice with the Australian Memorial behind.

 

 

The memorial stands within Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, which was made after the Armistice when graves were brought in from other burial grounds in the area and from the battlefields.

A looking up the centre of the cemetery from the cross toward the Australian National Memorial.

Of the 10,982 names displayed at the unveiling of the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial the burial places of many have since been identified and this continues to this day; 6 of these being among the significant discovery of 250 burials which culminated in the first new Commission cemetery in 50 years being dedicated in July 2010 as Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Cemetery.

All these discoveries are now commemorated by individual headstones in the cemeteries where their remains lie and their details recorded in the relevant cemetery registers; their names will be removed from this memorial in due course.

Time has also revealed more names not previously notified which have now been added to this memorial and register.

There are now 10,738 Australian servicemen officially commemorated by this memorial and named within the register.

The site for the memorial had been selected by Lieutenant General Sir Talbot Hobbs, commander of the Australian forces that had participated in the battle.

A competition was held in 1925 to choose a design for the memorial. The competition was won by the Australian architect William Lucas, but both Hobbs and the head of the Imperial War Graves Commission, Sir Fabian Ware, disliked Lucas's design.

Lutyens was approached after economic difficulties had led to the original memorial project being halted.

The memorial was unveiled by King George VI on 22 July 1938. It was the last of great memorials built after world War I.

One of the structures at the edges of the memorial the thing hanging from the corner is a stone Australian Flag, including stars.

 

View from the tower looking down the cemetery. You can see the terrain of the Somme in this image. No real hills, no woods/forest mainly flat, no cover.

Another couple of views from the tower top. This was the terrain many of the battles were fought over

From the top of the tower looking towards Villers Bretonneux

The chips on these column, which are in the room at the top of the tower, are the results of a strafing attacking from a German fighter aircraft from WW2. The French set up a machine gun post in the tower which was attacked by the Luftwaffe.

Whilst the memorial is an Australian memorial the cemetery contains serviceman from all commonwealth countries.

Some the graves in the cemetery. The Square Stone Cairn in the middle is a memorial for 15 soldiers who were originality buried in a communal grave elsewhere, but that grave was eventually lost in the fighting.

Although there are quite a few Australians buried here.


It is rare to find serviceman from World War II in these cemeteries. I was obviously interested to find 2 RNZAF airmen from WW2.