REMEMBRANCE TOURISM GUIDE 2018


city of Reims invested heavily in updating the museum, which is now 40 per cent larger, with a more diverse range of exhibits. 51500 Puisieulx  www.lamarne14-18.com


The Historial museums at Péronne and Thiepval Set in the old castle and with beautiful lakeside gardens, the museum at Péronne in the Somme is a great place to find out about the political, military and social background to the Great War. Its sister museum at Thiepval, near the Monument, is devoted to the battles of the Somme and offers invaluable context to the British and South African memorial here. 80200 Péronne 80300 Thiepval  www.historial.fr


See also


Musée de la Somme rue Anicet Godin, 80300, Albert  www.musee-somme-1916.eu


Fort de la Pompelle 51500 Puisieulx  www.reims.fr


Centre d’Interprétation Marne 51600 Suippes  www.marne14-18.fr


ESSENTIAL VISITS Mémorial de Verdun Located on the Verdun


battlefield, this is a memorial site and military museum. Displaying weaponry, medical equipment, photographs and recreated trenches, the museum provides multimedia tours. Also giving tourist advice on discovering the area, it’s a good starting point for visiting all the region’s other battlefields and museums. 55100 Fleury-devant-Douaumont  www.memorialdeverdun.fr


Douaumont Fort


This is the tallest of the 19 forts built following the Franco- Prussian War to protect nearby Verdun from future attacks. With accompanying barracks, including dormitories to accommodate 635 soldiers, an


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AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND MUSEUMS,


MEMORIALS AND CEMETERIES IN FRANCE  Australian National Memorial and Franco- Australian Museum, Villers-Bretonneux


 Australian Memorial Park, Le Hamel


 Centre Vignacourt 14-18  Memorial to the 1st Australian Division, Pozières


The tower of the Douaumont Ossuary was built largely with American donations


on-site bakery and water tank, the building was almost constantly modernised and fortified throughout the years leading up to 1914. Today, plaques commemorate those who lost their lives here and tell the story of the fort’s capture and later recapture by French troops. 55100 Douaumont


Douaumont Ossuary Situated beside the largest military cemetery in the region dedicated solely to the French, with 16,142 graves, is a stone monument containing the unidentified bones of at least 130,000 French and German soldiers killed during the Battle of Verdun. The tower was built largely with donations from the US.


55100 Douaumont


AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND IN THE GREAT WAR During the First World War, Australian and New Zealand troops were involved in action across the globe, including in Turkey, Egypt, Palestine and the Pacific. But their greatest efforts and loss of life were on the Western Front in France and Belgium. Every year, on April 25, ANZAC Day is held in remembrance of the 60,000 Australian and 16,000 New Zealand soldiers who lost their lives in the conflict.


The Australian forces’ major battle in France was at Fromelles (see www.musee-bataille-


fromelles.fr), ten miles west of Lille, in July 1916, where a military disaster unfolded with tragic loss of life, described as “the worst 24 hours in Australia’s entire history” on the Australian National Memorial in Canberra. 5,553 men died – 90 per cent of the troops who took part. Two years later, Australian troops fought bravely to recapture the village of Villers-Bretonneux and at the Battle of Hamel, where the ‘Diggers’ overran German troops. There will be a centenary commemoration of the Battle in Hamel, in Hamel on 4 July. Following 25 April 2018, ANZAC Day, the new Sir John Monash Centre, commemorating Australia’s role in the First World War, will be inaugurated at Villers-Bretonneux.


New Zealand committed over 100,000 servicemen to the war effort and suffered the highest per capita death and casualty rates of any country involved. The loss of life on the Western Front and in Belgium was more than 13,000. Kiwi soldiers distinguished themselves during the Battle of the Somme in 1916, at Messines Ridge in 1917, and in the horrific Third Battle of Ypres at Passchendaele in the same year. Greater success was to be had towards the last days of the war when the New Zealand Division captured the town of Le Quesnoy. At Arras, the recently rediscovered tunnels bear testimony to the extraordinary work of New Zealand engineers, who helped save many lives.


 VC Corner and Australian Memorial


 Australian Memorial Park  Pheasant Wood Cemetery  New Zealand Memorial of Longueval


 Caterpillar Valley Memorial  Buttes Polygon Wood Memorial


 NZ Messines Ridge Memorial


 Euston Road Cemetery  Tunnels of Arras and Carrière Wellington Museum


 Quesnoy National Memorial  Tyne Cot Memorial


CANADA IN THE GREAT WAR


It is often said that Canada entered the Great War a colony and emerged a nation. It is certainly true that during the four years of the war, Canada suffered devastating losses. Early in the war, in support of Great Britain, Canadian troops saw action in 1915 at the Ypres Salient, where 2,000 lost their lives in the infamous poison gas battles.


Gradually gaining a reputation as fearless fighters, the Canadian divisions saw action right across the Western Front over the following years, and suffered terrible losses at the Battle of the Somme.


In 1917, now an experienced fighting force, all four divisions claimed a major victory at Vimy Ridge. This proved a great milestone in the progress of war, and for Canada’s sense of national identity, albeit at the price of over 10,000 casualties.


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IMAGE © OSSUAIRE DE DOUAUMONT


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