Pozieres, Villers Bretonneux, Le Hamel and more - by Travis

Our excellent teacher chaperones at Thiepval

Today we were awoken at 7:30 by that reoccurring nonsense... the hotel phone.

We started the day off by hopping on the bus at 9 am sharp (besides Bruce). When he did 'end up on the bus' he asked us all to read a few sentences or a paragraph each at Adelaide Cemetery of the Eulogy for the Unknown Soldier written by Don Watson for P.J Keating (the Prime Minister of Australia at the time)  as it was read at the Australian War Memorial,  Canberra, on 11 November 1993. At Adelaide Cemetery, Bruce explained how the unknown soldier was exhumed and moved but the headstone remained and how many men became unknown soldiers due to the mortality of war.      

In lieu of Otis's
Adopt-a-Digger photo
(apologies - technical problem to be
resolved tomorrow)

We soon headed (not too far down the road) to Ville-Bretonneux Memorial where Otis was to commemorate his, not one, not two but three diggers (all brothers). Ralph Noden was killed in action. Wesley Noden vanished not too soon after in training. One of those family tragedies in war time. We then made our way to the Ville-Bretonneux Primary School which in fact was funded by us good ol' Victorians. There also was a small museum where there was plenty of information about the Great War to feed our needy eyes, along with some souvenirs to buy!

Bruce then took us to the Australian Corps Memorial Park (Le Hamel) where he interpreted John Monash's view on war (via John Monash's letter) as him having hate towards war, along with the horror and destruction. Bruce being Bruce of course uses the opportunity to advertise how good Monash University is as he has done through out the whole trip by handing out a John Monash bookmark to everyone.

Stephanie commemorates her family's digger

As our bellys' start to rumble so does the bus' engine as we soon find ourselves eating baguettes and drinking a can of soft drink at 'The Better 'Ole Le Tommy Restaurant & Museum 1916' in Pozieres. After our bellys were full we  make a short stop at Pozieres British Cemetery for a small look. We now drive  parallel to Sausage Valley and go to a small cemetery known as Gordons Dump (named after an Irish man) where Steph emotionally commemorated her great great uncle James Scouler Coles.

After a emotional commemoration we are found hearing a few accounts (from diggers) about shellings and the mutilation on the battlefront from Sam, Otis and Carl at the Windmill Site of Pozieres. We soon crossed the road to a place that was close to where the first tanks were used in war which has gone into action on the 15th September 1916.   

Thiepval reading by David

Readings at the Windmill site, Pozieres

The Thiepval Memorial to the missing of the Somme and Anglo-French Cemetery was next, where (by name) 72, 000 soldiers who fell in the Somme sector up to the 20th March 1918 and who had no known grave were listed respectively. It is the largest Commonwealth memorial and it was definitely one of the best sites to see! David also read a deeply moving passage, under the large monument, from Sebastian Faulks' book 'Birdsong'.

There was also a small museum and souvenir shop (much to Amandas' excitement) where most of us bought items to remember the memorial! We make our second last stop of the day at the NewFoundland War Memorial Park where we had a small stop for some proffessional photographs.  

At the Newfoundland memorial at Beaumont-Hamel

And last but not least, we make our final stop at the biggest cemetery on the Somme, Serre Road Cemetery No.2 where Patricia commemorated her uncle,  Private Tom Pollard with pride by singing, 'In Flanders Fields', in which I know hit a soft spot in all of our hearts.

We then drove back to Mecure Hotel for dinner and for our last night in Amiens as we get ready to head to Paris!

Cheers,