Slept very well, apart from the usual trip to the loo and Walter, now fully recovered turning the light on at some ungodly hour, like 6.50AM.
Today we finish our Western Front Tour with the campaigns of late 1918 so it's off to Peronne and Mont St Quentin where Australia earned 8 VC's.
To label Mont St Quentin a mountain is laughable, however it is a high point that had been heavily defended by the Germans and was classed as a Hindenburg Line Outpost.
This was now a mobile war, with movement and action rather than trench warfare.
This particular action, that involved depleted Australian Battalions was deemed by the General Staff as "presumption".
It took two attempts to take the Mont and then later the town or Peronne nearby, at the cost of 3000 Australian casualties.. The outcome was in John Monash, the Australian Commander's words due "first and chiefly to the wonderful gallantry" of tired soldiers.
It is here that the 2nd Australian Division have their memorial. The original memorial depicted an Australian Soldier, poised to bayonet a fallen eagle (symbolic of Germany). The Germans destroyed it in the WW2, however left the bas relief intact. It was one of only three memorial damaged by the Germans in WW2, on, we were told, the explicit instructions of A Hitler.
The new memorial is a reflective Digger, head bowed.
It was then on to Peronne and a new Museum in the old castle.
What a fabulous museum it is too. It started with us being greeted by a very short, very personable Frenchman, who gave us the outline of the various rooms and then let us loose.
The museum is rather understated, with a good spread of exhibits in with info in three languages, however not too much information.
Some great artwork and a new exhibition called "Missing" that gives details of one serviceman who remains missing over 100 consecutive days of the battle of the Somme. It starts with an Australian.
It's then on to Bellenglise, where the 4th Australian Division Memorial is sited., following a battle with about 5 times their number and is the place their war ended. They were relieved and sent back to the rest area. They were to return to the line on 10th November, but were saved by the Armistice.
Then on to the site of the final action undertaken by the Australians just out of Beaurevoir, where they had to take over a failed assault of the American troops, just as they were to be withdrawn to rest.
This action cost a mind blowing 900 men killed or wounded.
We were done. The Western Front is finished.
We have followed the 1st AIF from Flanders to France. We have visited all the Division Memorials and the Australian memorial at Villers Bretonneux and what's more been there for the Dawn Service.
Bring on Paris and Normandy.
Picasa Web pictures
 |
| Australian 2nd Division Memorial |
To label Mont St Quentin a mountain is laughable, however it is a high point that had been heavily defended by the Germans and was classed as a Hindenburg Line Outpost.
This was now a mobile war, with movement and action rather than trench warfare.
This particular action, that involved depleted Australian Battalions was deemed by the General Staff as "presumption".
It took two attempts to take the Mont and then later the town or Peronne nearby, at the cost of 3000 Australian casualties.. The outcome was in John Monash, the Australian Commander's words due "first and chiefly to the wonderful gallantry" of tired soldiers.
It is here that the 2nd Australian Division have their memorial. The original memorial depicted an Australian Soldier, poised to bayonet a fallen eagle (symbolic of Germany). The Germans destroyed it in the WW2, however left the bas relief intact. It was one of only three memorial damaged by the Germans in WW2, on, we were told, the explicit instructions of A Hitler.
The new memorial is a reflective Digger, head bowed.
It was then on to Peronne and a new Museum in the old castle.
What a fabulous museum it is too. It started with us being greeted by a very short, very personable Frenchman, who gave us the outline of the various rooms and then let us loose.
The museum is rather understated, with a good spread of exhibits in with info in three languages, however not too much information.
Some great artwork and a new exhibition called "Missing" that gives details of one serviceman who remains missing over 100 consecutive days of the battle of the Somme. It starts with an Australian.
It's then on to Bellenglise, where the 4th Australian Division Memorial is sited., following a battle with about 5 times their number and is the place their war ended. They were relieved and sent back to the rest area. They were to return to the line on 10th November, but were saved by the Armistice.
Then on to the site of the final action undertaken by the Australians just out of Beaurevoir, where they had to take over a failed assault of the American troops, just as they were to be withdrawn to rest.
This action cost a mind blowing 900 men killed or wounded.
We were done. The Western Front is finished.
We have followed the 1st AIF from Flanders to France. We have visited all the Division Memorials and the Australian memorial at Villers Bretonneux and what's more been there for the Dawn Service.
Bring on Paris and Normandy.
Picasa Web pictures
No comments:
Post a Comment