Military History Tours Australia Western Front
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Military History Tours invite you to join us in the memorable experience of touring the battlefields of France in 2011.
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Our 2011 tour offers unique experiences use the button to your left to find out the details. On the evening of 24/25 April 1918 Australian troops recaptured Villers-Bretonneux forcing a German withdrawal and halting the German 1918 offensive. 93 years later to the day on 25 April 2011, be at the ANZAC Day Dawn Service at the Australian War Memorial in the Somme. |
Every year Australians make the pilgrimage to Gallipoli, it was at ANZAC Cove that Australians fought their first major battles of World War I. The
fighting was fierce and the losses terrible, the result was indeterminate and
the consequence a withdrawal. The Turks were victorious. On the
heights above the Turkish beaches, the legend of Australian valour and sacrifice
was born.
Australia did not, however, end its commitment to the war when we withdrew from the Gallipoli peninsula at the end of 1915. Australians were there until war's end in November 1918.
In France and Palestine it was the contribution of the Australian troops, now battle hardened but still with the indifference to authority forged by taming a wild continent, that ensured victory by the western alliance.
In France the effectiveness of the Australians in battle, now led by their own generals, turned the tide. Australia suffered more casualties per head of population than any other allied nation in the Great War.
Use the button to your left to find out more about the Western Front.
The main purpose of any of our tours is to pay our respect to those who fell during the conflict, but we also come away with an understanding of the high regard that the French people still have for the Australians and particularly for those young men who came from afar to give the ultimate sacrifice so that France would remain free. Although the subject of our tours is often solemn, a great feeling of camaraderie develops among the participants. No one needs to feel lonely but there is also time to be alone to think about the momentous events and personal struggles that are the basis of our tours.
While these tours are battlefield orientated, that is we examine the ground, the strategy, the tactics and the people, we also experience the historical elements such as the scenery, the buildings, the culture and the way of life in those bygone years through the visits to those local museums. Unlike some tours to the Western Front, where travellers are merely pointed in the general direction and then left to their own devices, we walk the battlefields and hear presentations from experts
(Military Historian Colonel Graham Fleeton supported by a team of experienced
guides) so as to build up a picture of the events that occurred on those fateful days and the months and years that followed.
