The Australian Remembrance Trail

The Australian Imperial Force on the Western Front

Some 295,000 Australians served on the western front. Over 46,000 died there and 134,000 were wounded or captured. These numbers can be misleading as the average strength of the AIF in France and Belgium was only 120,000. As with all armies, there was a constant turnover of personnel owing to death, wounds and illness. This can be seen in the numbers who served in a typical Australian Western Front infantry battalion. The 42nd, from Queensland, left England for the front 1,027 strong in November 1916. In two years of fighting, 2,954 men served in the battalion, of whom 544 were killed in battle or died of wounds or sickness. An additional 1,450 were wounded, 320 of them more than once—13 men were wounded four times. Two 42nd Battalion men were captured by the enemy. Like all Australian infantry battalions, their normal strength of 1,000 men was impossible to maintain as the war went on. When the 42nd attacked the Hindenburg Line in late September 1918, it had less than 300 men.

The sites on the Australian Remembrance Trail along the Western Front cover some of the most significant places where Australians fought in France and Belgium between 1916 and 1918. Many other places where Australians also fought are listed in the table.

Locations on the Western Front where Australians fought
No.	Battle Location	Date of Battle	What happened here
1.	Passchendaele	October–November 1917	Failed Australian attack in the final phase of 3rd Battle of Ypres.
2.	Broodseinde	October–November 1917	Australian victory, the third in a series of successes after the Battle of Menin Road.
3.	Polygon Wood	September 1917	Australian victory at 3rd Battle of Ypres.
4.	Menin Road	September 1917	Beginning of the Australian participation in 3rd Battle of Ypres—Australian victory.
5.	Messines	June 1917	Australian victory—3rd Divisions first major battle.
6.	Fromelles	July 1916	The 5th Division suffers a disastrous defeat in the first major Australian operation on the Western Front.
7.	Bullecourt	April–May 1917	During the Battle of Arras, the first Australian attack on Bullecourt fails, the second succeeds.
8.	Pozières	July–August 1916	1st Anzac Corps captures Pozières village and the heights beyond.
9.	Mouquet Farm	August–September 1916	Australian defeat—After Pozières, 1st Anzac Corps fails to capture Mouquet Farm.
10.	Le Hamel	July 1918	Brigades from 2nd, 3rd and 4th Australian Divisions capture Le Hamel.
11.	Villers-Bretonneux	April 1918	At the second battle of Villers-Brettoneux the Australians recapture the village.
12.	Mont St Quentin	September 1918	2nd Australian Division captures Mont St Quentin.
13.	Péronne	September 1918	South of Mont St Quentin, Péronne is taken by 5th Australian Division.
14.	Bellenglise	September 1918	4th Division captures the Hindenburg Outpost Line in its last battle of the war.
15.	Gueudecourt	November 1916	Rested after Pozières, 1st Anzac Corps returns to the Somme, making limited gains.
16.	Lagnicourt	April 1917	The Australians repulse a German counterattack between the First and Second Battles of Bullecourt.
17.	Hébuterne	March–April 1918	4th Australian Division defensive victory.
18.	Dernancourt	March–April 1918	Australian defensive victory south of Albert.
19.	Morlancourt	March–June 1918	Between the Aisne and Somme rivers 2nd, 3rd and 5th Australian Divisions in turn advance towards Morlancourt.
20.	Hazebrouck	April 1918	1st Australian Division holds Hazebrouck against the German Sixth Army.
21.	Hangard Wood	April 1918	South of Villers-Bretonneux the Australians failed to capture Hangard Wood.
22.	Merris	May–June 1918	1st Australian Division, in a series of small operations, recovers ground lost in the German offensive.
23.	Etinehem	August 1918	13th Brigade (4th Division) captures Etinehem.
24.	Bray	August 1918	The Australians capture Bray as part of the general advance from 8 August.
25.	Proyart	August 1918	Several days after the commencement of the 8 August offensive, the Australian 10th brigade (3rd Division) captures Proyart.
26.	Chuignes	August 1918	Australians capture Chuignes ridge overlooking the Somme during the Second Battle of Albert.
27.	Lihons	August 1918	1st Australian Division captures Lihons.
28.	Bellicourt	September 1918	The Australian Corps breaks through the Hindenburg Line.
29.	Montbrehain	October 1918	The last phase of the Hindenburg Line breakthrough and the Australian infantry's last battle.

Ieper (Ypres)—Belgium

During the First World War the Belgian town of Ypres (Ieper) was devastated by shellfire and deserted by its inhabitants.

Tyne Cot Cemetery—Zonnebeke, Belgium

Towering over the headstones in the Tyne Cot Cemetery, Belgium, is a Great Cross. Hidden beneath the cross's stone pedestal are the remains of a German concrete bunker which, an inscription relates, was captured by the 3rd Australian Division on 4 October 1917.

Toronto Avenue Cemetery—Ploegsteert Wood, Belgium

On the night of the 6–7 June 1917 gas shells rained on Ploegsteert Wood. The soldiers of Australia's 3rd Division fumbled for their gas masks; dozens of pack horses and mules gasped for air; and men collapsed retching by the side of duckboard tracks...

VC Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial—Fromelles, France

On 11 November 1918 Charles Bean, Australia's official war historian, stood on the battlefield of Fromelles: 'We found the old no-man's-land simply full of our dead'. These men died on 19–20 July 1916 assaulting the German lines, and their remains lie buried in VC Corner Australian Cemetery.

The Bullecourt Digger—France

Helping his mother to see what the battlefield of Bullecourt in May 1917 looked like, Private John Ware wrote: 'if ever you saw a sheep camp in time of drought you will know how many sheep [die] in one night our men are lying about just the same'.

Thiepval Memorial—France

Private George Lewis Grant, Australian Imperial Force, was killed during the Battle of the Somme at Pozières on 29 July 1916. His body lies in one of the most unusual cemeteries on the old Western Front, the Anglo-French Cemetery at Thiepval.

First Australian Division Memorial—Pozières, France

During the last week of July 1916 shells fell in their thousands on Australian soldiers in a village they had captured from the Germans—Pozières. I had not the slightest idea where our lines or the enemy's were, and the shells were coming at us from, it seemed, three directions, wrote Australian Lieutenant John Raws.

The Windmill—Pozières, France

The Windmill site at Pozières was established as an Australian memorial in the 1930s at the suggestion of Australia's official war historian, Charles Bean, because, 'The Windmill site … marks a ridge more densely sown with Australian sacrifice than any other place on earth'.

Australian National Memorial—Villers-Bretonneux, France

https://sjmc.gov.au/On 22 July 1938, Queen Elizabeth laid a bunch of poppies, given to her by a local schoolboy, at the unveiling of the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux.

Australian Corps Memorial—Le Hamel, France

The Battle of Hamel on 4 July 1918, it is usually claimed, took 93 minutes. According to one source in their official 'War Diary' the 44th Australian Infantry Battalion required only 85 minutes to take all their objectives.

Second Australian Division Memorial—Mont St Quentin, and Péronne, France

Between 31 August and 2 September 1918, Australia's Second Division attacked and captured the German stronghold of Mont St Quentin, the key to the strategic town of Péronne on the Somme River.

Fourth Australian Division Memorial—Bellenglise, France

Between 18 and 20 September 1918, the 48th Battalion, Fourth Division AIF, fought its last successful action on the Western Front. Advancing on the Hindenburg Outpost Line near Bellenglise, they suffered 65 casualties but captured 500 prisoners, 'nearly one per man of the battalion'.

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