A good crowd paid tribute last week to Australians who have fought in conflict.
The Camden Haven paused to remember the sacrifices of those Australians who took part in war and conflict - on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year we come together to pay tribute.
In Kendall reflections told the story of Remembrance:
Remembrance Day was born at the end of the First World War. After 4½ years of war, at 11am on 11th November 1918, hostilities ceased on the Western Front and the Armistice (suspension of hostilities) was signed ending the war. After the signing of the Armistice Agreement it became known as Armistice Day. It became a day to remember those who died, especially those unknown soldiers in unknown graves. 2009 is the 91st anniversary of the signing of that Armistice.
The Flanders poppy became accepted throughout the allied nations as the flower of remembrance to be worn on Armistice Day. The blood-red poppies were among the first flowers that sprouted from the devastation of the battlefields that ran with the blood of the fallen in northern France and Belgium.
After the end of the Second World War the Australian and British Governments changed the name from Armistice Day to Remembrance Day to commemorate all war dead.
In 1993, to mark the 75th anniversary of the 1918 Armistice, the Australian Government exhumed the remains of an unknown Australian soldier from the Western Front for entombment at the Canberra Australian War Memorial. As the Unknown Soldier was laid to rest, World War I veteran Robert Comb, a survivor of battles on the Western Front, sprinkled soil from Pozières, France, over the coffin and said, ‘Now you’re home, mate’.
In 1997, Governor-General Sir William Deane issued a proclamation formally declaring 11th November to be Remembrance Day urging all Australians to observe one minute’s silence at 11am on November 11 each year to remember those who died or suffered for Australia’s cause in all wars and armed conflicts.
The Kendall RSL sub-Branch and community held their Remembrance Day Commemoration Service last Wednesday at the Cenotaph in the War Memorial Park, Comboyne Street, Kendall. (See report on Page 5)
In Laurieton the local RSL Sub Branch commemorated one of the worst days in Australian Army history. On July 19, 1916 at 6pm the 5th Australian Division and a British Division attacked a strong German position known as the Sugar Loaf Salient, near the town of Fromelles, as a feint to draw German troops away from the Somme offensive then being pursued further south. By 8am on July 20, the battle was over. The 5th Australian Divison suffered 5, 533 casualties. The attack was a complete failure. There were more troops killed than wounded.
It was known that the Germans had conducted mass burials of allied troops after the Battle of Fromelles, in many cases the gravesites were not marked. In June 2008 a search of bodies began, initiated by a Melbourne schoolteacher Lambis Englezos, who as part of a group of searchers became increasingly convinced that there were Australian bodies still unrecovered. Arising from Englezos’s research it became the Australian Army’s task to investigate a series of burial pits at Pheasant’s Wood close to Fromelles to see if bodies might still be there.
The German records suggested that there could be at least 170 Australians and many more British. Digging by skilled archaeologists commenced with everyone involved, determined that the utmost dignity and respect be applied to the task. The discovery of the burials after 91 years aroused wide public interest and once again brought the battle at Fromelles to the forefront of public attention.
The Australian Government on September 9 announced that 250 sets of remains of Australian soldiers had been recovered and the focus of the project will now be to identify the remains and their reinterment at a new military cemetery at Pheasant Wood. The burials will commence on January 30, 2010 and continue through February until every soldier is laid to rest with full military honours. A commemorative event to open the cemetery is scheduled for the 94th anniversary of the Battle of Fromelles on July 19, 2010.
Information provided by Kendall RSL Sub-Branch and Laurieton RSL Sub-Branch.
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