The Australians in Villers-Bretonneux, France, during WW1 By
James and Abbie Lye
Slide 3
What happened in Villers-Bretonneux? In 1918 the German Army
Force captured lots of beautiful villages and cities in France but
when the Germans got to Villers-Bretonneux they took it for a day.
During the battle the next day, the Australians freed the village
and stopped the Germans. This meant that the Germans couldnt get
through to the important city Amiens.
Slide 4
Where they fought After the horrible battles in Gallipoli in
1915, the Australian Imperial Force fought in 1918 in France,
Belgium and particularly in the Somme. They fought for 4 years with
everyone dying and every one shooting.
Slide 5
Why did we stay ? We stayed here for a couple of nights so we
could learn about what the Australians did in the war. We visited
the Musee Franco Australian- museum, The Adelaide cemetery,
Australian War Memorial, Villers Bretonneux School and Villers
Bretonneux itself.
Slide 6
War Numbers 1914 Start of WW1 1918 End of WW1 59,000
Australians killed in the war 25 Date in April 1918 when
Australians retook Villers Bretonneux 11,000 Australian soldiers
that died in France without a grave 3,000,000 numbers of soldiers
who fought in the Somme 50,000 Casualties on 1st of July 13,000
Number of visitors that came to the museum last year
Slide 7
Villers Bretonneux Today Villers Bretonneux today is a
beautiful town in North East France. It has 4000 people and the
main job is farming. The tourists come here to see their family
members who died during the war, if you are Australian or you are
just driving through it.
Slide 8
Where we got our information We got our information from the
town hall, the Australian war memorial and particularly in the
Musee Franco Australian museum.
Slide 9
Interviews with people in the town These are questions that we
asked people in the town: 1) What does Australia mean to you? 2)
How many Australians come here each year? 3) What signs in the town
can you see that are Australian? 4) Would you like to go to
Australia or have you already been? Here are the answers: number
9pharmacy Museum lady
Slide 10
What did we think of Villers-Bretonneux ? James It was a
devastating thing to see hundreds and hundreds of graves where I
could see the ages on the graves of soldiers who were really young
when they died. Since seeing all those graves there are still many
more soldiers that died in the war without a grave in France,
because their bodies were never found. Abbie I was sad for the
soldiers that died. We went to some graves and there were lots of
grave stones. Some of the people were young and some were old.
Villers-Bretonneux is very welcoming to Australians. It is
welcoming for Australians because they look after the grave stones.
The Australians saved the French from the Germans taking over.
There was a museum that was set up especially for Australians.