Villers Bretonneux 2015
Centenary of the Gallipoli Landings

Australian National Memorial - Villers Bretonneux in the earlier hours

Volunteers from Villers Bretonneux and surrounds welcomed guests and assisted with seating.

We don't know why people did not recognise us!  front row of the cheap seats... how much easier could it have been!

Yes, it was cold, wet; there were thousands of us, all volunteers; we were well prepared!

 The sequence:

Early to bed (that was the plan but ... )

Out of bed at 12:30 am

Car loaded and on the road from Peronne at 1:00

Arrive Villers Bretonneux at 1:30.

Walk 1.2 km from VB to the Memorial. 10s of others doing likewise. The soft soles of sports shoes gently crunched the gravel path.  I wonder how much louder that 'crunch' would have been under hob-nailed boots.  There is only occasional chatter as peope stride deliberately to the glowing monument on the ridge.

Arrive at the Memorial just before 2:00am.  Others are there but not too many.  We proceed to claim our seats.  It is chilly but no rain.

Some time between 2 and 3 the first rain falls.  People scurry for wet weather gear.

Between 3 and 4 there is a break in the rain.  Hope looms large for finer weather.

4:30am hope of fine weather fades as rain grows more steady.

Pre-event entertainment begins. Singing of songs from 1914-18, patriotic songs and songs of hope.

Images of Diggers from the Great War are projected onto the surface of the Memorial.  The crowd looks up at these men and women who gave their lives, their limbs, their minds and their youth.  The rainfall overflows from the memorial.... it is like the tears of a nation unseen.

5:00 am-ish dignitaries start to take their seats.  Rain continues.

The VB service is to follow the Gallipoli service and is to be broadcast live to Australia.  There are some time delays.  Fortuitous because there appears to be a few technical difficulties... something about water and electricity!

Eventually the service begins.  Guards take place, bands play, choirs sings, prayers are read, speeches are given and wreaths are laid.  Yet, I am reminded of the words of Maya Angelou:

Maybe I am a tough critic.  But I just did not feel the connection and I am prone to do so!  I don't think it was the rain or cold.  The ingredients for the recipe for a moving, memorable tribute to the diggers were all there.  The ingredients were high quality but the blending of the ingredients did not create that feeling! Maybe our expectations were too high.

The service closed with additional laying of wreaths.  People dispersed quickly to buses or the walking path.  The last shreds of solemnity were crushed by efficient dispersal plans.

Having put my/our disappointment on the line: we are glad that we made the effort to be there. We have a new understanding of the enormity of loss brought through WW1 and an even more heightened respect for those Diggers of the Great War.  We have also experienced the generational gratitude of the French people.  Their respect for these soldiers of 100 years ago is simply phenomenal... Vive la France!!

The last word...

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow,
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe. 


They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.