Each year on Anzac Day, a small ceremony is held at the memorial to mark the sacrifice of the diggers. In recent years, a dawn service has also been held. After WWI money donated by school children in Victoria was used to build a new school in Villers-Bretonneux, named the Victoria school.
A plaque at the school says it is "proof of their love and goodwill towards France". And in the Victoria School's playground and above the blackboards is written: "Do not forget Australia".
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Japan's former princess leaves for US with commoner husband. The Australians were fortunate in that they were spared much of the fighting during this period.
They were rushed south from Belgium to prevent the Germans from advancing on Amiens, not as the Australian Corps, then under the command of British general Sir William Birdwood, but as separate brigades attached to a variety of British formations. Villers-Bretonneux holds a central place in the Australian memory of the First World War and is today a major site of commemoration for those who visit the Australian battlefields in France and Belgium — the Australian National Memorial and the newly-unveiled Sir John Monash Centre are situated on Hill from which Amiens can be seen in the distance.
What the Australians achieved there in was a remarkable feat of arms, but we must be careful not to overstate the importance of the Australians during this phase of the war. Popular authors like Peter Fitzsimons exaggerate the Australian cause in stating "the entire war effort of the Allies hung in the balance — and the Australians were instrumental in saving the day". Doing so fails to recognise the Germans were an exhausted force by the time the Australians outside Villers-Bretonneux were ordered to fix bayonets.
Despite initial gains in their offensive, the Germans suffered enormous casualties against British troops who proved much more resilient than popular accounts suggest. Inadequate logistical support, a lack of mobility and an insistence of senior German commanders to splinter attacking forces and shift objectives denied the German offensive any chance of success.
As Charles Bean wrote in his Official History of Australia in the War of "the great German offensive was nowhere literally brought to a stop by Australian troops.
On practically the whole front taken up by them the stoppage had already occurred". The German failure to achieve a decisive breakthrough before vast numbers of US troops in France were combat-ready resulted in a clear defensive victory for the allies who were now in a better position than ever to carry out their counter-offensive.
The British and other Commonwealth Memorials had been completed well in advance of the Australian Memorial. The Memorial consists of a large central tower with spectacular views of the surrounding countryside, flanked by two wing walls carrying the commemorative panels listing the missing.
It is approached from the entrance through a cemetery containing the graves of casualties from around the Commonwealth and of both World Wars. During the Second World War, the Memorial was used as an Observation Post by the French and was extensively damaged by German aircraft and ground fire.
Although repairs were carried out, some scarring can still be seen on parts of the memorial. Not all of those lost in France with no known grave are memorialised here.
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