The Western Front was epitomised by the brute force of men against machine and each other. Tens of thousands were lost in the maelstrom of war. In the horror, friendships were forged that endured even through death. This is the story of one such friendship…

Wally Brown was a grocer. He did not necessarily want to be a grocer but neither did he want to follow in the footsteps of his father as a miller. The small Tasmanian community of New Norfolk, into which he was born in 1885, was a progressive ‘postal, telegraphic and money order township’. The town boasted the New Norfolk Literary Institution complete with a library of some 1200 volumes and a ‘very fine and well built lunatic asylum’. Progressive it might have been, but at 26 years of age Brown had itchy feet. In 1911 he left New Norfolk for the bustling lifestyle of Petersham in Sydney.

Walter 'Wally' Brown ART09490

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Phoebe Chapple (1879-1967) Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia. B 25677/34

Phoebe Chapple was always going to be someone special. She grew up in a family of high achievers. Apart from her father, Frederic Chapple, who was headmaster at Prince Alfred College Adelaide, five of her seven siblings held university degrees: Alfred a lecturer in engineering at St John’s University Cambridge; Ernest, another Cambridge graduate at Jesus University and president of the Fresher Debating Society before taking up a position in Rangoon, Burma; Harold a surgeon at Guy’s Hospital in London; Marian an arts graduate from the University of Adelaide; and Fred, another doctor. However, Phoebe stood apart even in such accomplished company.

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And the last post for the Battlefield Tour Blog 2008!

Ypres & Passchendaele

Three major battles of the First World War were fought around the medieval town of Ypres. The first battle was a three week attack on British positions on the 18 October 1914. Here the British and French forces halted the German advance a few kilometres before the town. The town became a salient and the Germans continued to shell the town. The cloth hall at Ypres, one of the largest civil buildings in the Gothic style in Europe went up in flames on the 22 November 1914. The 22 April 1915 marks the second battle of Ypres. This date is infamous for the German use of gas as a weapon for the first time. All civilians were evacuated from the town by May 1915 and the town was reduced to rubble from shelling. read on

Villers-Bretonneux and Bullecourt are two towns on the Western Front that continue to have an ongoing connection with Australia. Due to the warmth and hospitality of the locals in receiving us, the battlefield tour will also not easily forget these towns.

The tiny town of Bullecourt includes a pub called Le Canberra and one of the finest private museums in Northern France. The Bullecourt Musée contains a jumble of rare and interesting collection items found in the local fields. It was started by the Mayor of Bullecourt, Jean Letaille in the 1980’s and was greatly expanded following his retirement. The tour joined Jean and some of the locals of Bullecourt for a lunch at the town hall. read on

Dawn and Geoff Harwood were surprised to find that they had a relative buried at Vignacourt British Cemetery. They recognised him as family by his home town and his unusual surname. Geoff and I sat together after dinner last night and using the memorial’s website and databases we were able to uncover a little bit more about George Radnell.

Pte. George Duncan Radnell died of wounds 1st June, 1918 and is buried at Vignacourt British Cemetery

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When walking the battlefields of the Somme it is evident that most of the visible signs of destruction caused by the First World War have disappeared. The enormous Lochnagar Crater is one of the few surviving scars left on the terrain in this region. A monument to the devastation of war, this crater was caused by a 60,000 lbs mine and is 100 metres in diameter and 30 metres deep. It is hard to capture its sheer size in a photograph.

The land containing the crater was purchased privately in 1978 for preservation as a Memorial to those whose lives that were lost in the crater as well as on the Somme.

Lochnagar Crater

The major battles of 1916 took place on the Somme. The offensive began on the 1st July 1916 and would become one of the most costly episodes of the war. Between July and mid November the losses reached a total of 1,300,000 men.

On the 23 July, not long after the Battle of the Somme commenced, the Australians took over and captured the main German line at Pozieres. The Australian 1st Division Memorial at Pozieres stands over this line. At the cost of 23,000 casualties the Australians captured most of the main ridge. The tour viewed the German blockhouse ‘Gibraltar’ which became one of the only features on the razed landscape of Pozieres. From this point the Anzacs (and the tour) moved towards the windmill site and then advanced to Mouquet Farm.

Australian 1st Division Memorial, Site of the windmill and the new town of Pozieres

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The battle field tour, following a strategic withdrawal from Gallipoli, is now touring the battlefields of France. Reinforced with fresh recruits from Australia we travelled to Normandy and viewed the Bayeux Tapestry and then on to the site of the Second World War D Day landings.

Scarred terrain at Pointe Du Hoc and cliffs

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The Memorial’s annual battlefield tour commences this Sunday with several members of the Memorial preparing to set off for the trip. Ashley Ekins, Head of the Military History Section will lead our Gallipoli tour and Nick Fletcher, Senior Curator in Heraldry and Technology will lead the Western Front tour. We will be walking many of the historic battle sites and commemorating Anzac Day with the Dawn Service at Gallipoli and the Australian National Ceremony at Lone Pine. This year is the 90th anniversary of many major battles fought in 1918. The tour will visit Villers-Bretonneux for example, where on the 25 April 1918, a major battle was fought. This year is also the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day.

Ninety years on these battlefield sites still live on in our hearts and memories and those Australians who lost their lives there are not forgotten. I have two poppies to place on this tour one on behalf of an elderly relative the other for a friend.

Throughout the tour I hope to make regular posts about our progress. This is my first battlefield tour but not my first venture into blogging for the Memorial. As the assistant curator of the exhibition Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, I regularly posted articles and biographies for the exhibition blog. I will be taking my laptop and camera to Gallipoli and the Western Front and hope to post regular updates, photographs and stories from the tour. I am also hoping to post some small biographies for those on the tour who have a family history connection to the First World War.