The lead up to ANZAC Day 2023 in France.

We timed our journey from India to France so that we would be settled into our accomodation and comfortable driving on the wrong side of the road well before ANZAC day. Mission accomplished! 
We’ve been fortunate to share in a number of special events in the lead up to ANZAC day.

We have made many friends here in Bray-sur-Somme by connecting with the town band “Les Amis Réunis”. We have also become good friends with Rebecca Doyle, the Director of the Sir John Monash Centre at the Australian National Memorial Villers-Bretonneux.

Thursday April 20 The first event was an outdoor concert by the band and choir of the Gippsland Grammar School (from Victoria, Australia) at the Sir John Monash Centre. The School were conducting a language, music and history tour for the students, centred around the Digger’s experiences on the Western Front. Concert started at 5.30pm and it was pretty chilly. There were some very cold musicians and even colder instruments. We invited people we had met at the town band “Les Amis Réunis” to join us. 

Despite the cool conditions, the Gippsland band and the choir sounded great. Here are some highlights from their performance.

As we were walking away from the Memorial, we got chatting with a very friendly Frenchman named Xavier Graux. He happened to be the President of the ANZAC Day Commemoration Association for the town of Villers-Bretonneux. He very kindly asked me to carry the Australian flag at an event that was coming up on the Saturday to come.

Friday April 21

It was the Army’s turn to provide the musical support for the 2023 ANZAC Day Dawn Service at the Australian National Memorial. One of the musicians in the band is a great friend of mine Bill Barker. Bill and I were room mates in France in 2016 when we were in the band for the 100^th Commemoration Services for the Battles of Fromelles and Pozières. We have kept in touch (beers by Zoom) and Victoria and I have enjoyed holidays in Queensland with Bill and his family. The band for the Dawn Service were staying in Amiens (about 40 minutes drive from Bray-sur-Somme) and so we were able to catch up with Bill for an aperitif followed by dinner.

We had a lovely dinner at a restaurant looking directly onto the beautiful Amiens Cathedral. Following dinner we caught up with the rest of the Army Band for a cleansing Belgian beer…

 

Saturday April 22

The Villers-Bretonneux ANZAC Day Commemoration Association organised a guided walk of part of the battlefield. Bill Barker and Shane Landry (also a good friend from the Army Band) accompanied me as Victoria had an ‘R&R’ day. This was the event that Xavier had asked me to carry the Australian flag last Thursday. It was cold, wet, and in some places, muddy, but a great experience. It was a 10km (almost 3 hour) walk which echoed the costly but successful southern attack by the Australian 13^th Brigade on the night of 24/25^th April 1918. The map below outlines our route in blue.

 

The walk encompassed really significant places such as Hangard Wood, views across to Lancer Wood, Crucifix Corner and Hangard Wood Cemeteries. It was quite an emotional experience for us to walk the ground that had seen such courage and sacrifice. The were around 75 people on the walk and while there were some Australians, the majority were locals of Villers-Bretonneux wanting to learn about and pay respect to our Diggers.

  

After the walk had finished we all went to the local footy ground for refreshments; champagne, ANZAC biscuits and chocolate brownies.  Much appreciated!! Feeling recuperated, we went to the Sir John Monash Centre museum  for a few hours in the afternoon.

 

Sunday April 23

…another wet and cold day. The first event on the agenda was the Opening Ceremony for the Legacy Centenary Torch Relay, which marks 100 years of service by Legacy. The ceremony was held at the Pozières British Cemetery, a place of great significance for me, as I played with the Australian Army Band at the internment ceremony (2016) of 3 unidentified diggers whose remains had recently been found. During the ceremony the Legacy Torch was lit and then over the next months will be passed to torch bearers at the Menin Gate in Ypres Belgium, to London and then around Australia, finishing in Canberra on October 13. 

Sunday afternoon was back at the footy ground in the town of Villers-Bretonneux. Women’s then Men’s AFL games between AFL France and Aussie Spirit teams. The Australian teams were made up of men and women who had applied to play, all of them having some kind of connection to relatives in WW1 or 2, or relatives of past/present serving members or past/present serving member themselves. The women won their game after a tough time sliding around a wet and muddy field, but unfortunately the men lost by 100 or so points…let us say no more. 

One of the buglers from the Army Band Sgt Danny Dielkens performed the Last Post and Rouse with minute silence prior to each game commencing . 

Really competitive games of footy plus BBQ sausage baguette and drinks for the spectators.

Again, cold and wet but great fun for all involved. 

 

Back home to Bray-sur-Somme to recover and get ready for a big ANZAC day!!