Villers Bretonneux, The Australian National Memorial - Part IV

Photographs of the Australian National Memorial.

The Entrance

The Memorial in the distance.




Towards the Cross of Sacrifice.



The Cross of Sacrifice.



The Australian National Memorial





The Inscription reads :

"To the Glory of God and in memory of the Australian Imperial Force in France and Flanders 1916-1918
And of eleven thousand who fell in France and have no know grave. "




Inside the Memorial, with a map of the Austrialian Divisional Memorials.




Looking down from the Top of the Memorial.

The side of the Memorial.

A Bronze Plaque explaining the Australian involvement in France and Flanders.


It reads:

"Australia erected its national war memorial here to commemorate the nations feat of arms in France and Belgium during the war. The memorial also records and honours 10,982 Australian dead who have no known grave and died in France (other than at Fromelles). The national memorial with its 32 metre tower. Overlooks many of the battlefields in which Australians fought including those to the north around Dernancourt and south beyond Villers Bretonneux.

The memorial is located on a hill from which the Australians and British repulsed German advances on Villers Bretonneux on 24 April 1918.The memorial was built by the commonwealth war graves commission and unveiled in 1938 by King George VI - during 1940 French forces briefly held the advancing Germans in this area, signs of the damage done by German artillery can still be seen today. Separate from the memorial is the cemetery, which was made after the 1918 armistice. Graves from other burial sites and the battlefield were concentrated here. Men from many nations lie here in peace.

Their sacrifice is not forgotten."