Villers-Bretonneux catafalque - no weapons?

Just curious - watching the Anzac Day dawn service from the Australian War Memorial Cemetary in Villers-Bretonneux I wonder that the guard have no weapons.

On April 24th 1918 the Germans had taken Villers-Bretonneux and were driving the allies back.

Something else to remember about the battle at Villers-Bretonneux is that it was a victory, the ANZACs and the French drove back the Germans and won the battle, the allies eventually winning the war.

The battle won, the ANZACs realised it was three years to the day that the landing at Gallipoli took place.

The Last Post and Reveille were very well played at this service.

ANZAC Day - AWM

Tomorrow is ANZAC Day, I'll be attending the Dawn Service at 4:28am, and then the Gunfire Breakfast with the local RSL members.

For The Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)

Menin Gate at Midnight, by Will Longstaff (click here for more info, and here for larger image.)

This is the tribute to the Anzacs by Kemal Ataturk

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives...
you are now lying in the soil of a frendly country.
Therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies and Mehmets to us
where they lie side by side here in this country of ours....
You, the mothers,
who sent their sons from faraway countries
wipe away your tears;
your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace.
After having lost their lives on this land
they have become our sons as well.'

KEMAL ATATURK

Kemal Ataturk Memorial, Canberra.

In the above Kemal Ataturk memorial link King George Sound is mentioned. I've been to Albany in WA. King George Sound was where the soldiers sailing from Australia to the First World War had their last glimpse of Australian soil. This memorial is there. It is beautiful. I have photos of it, but this is from a better angle. More information here on King George Sound's Desert Mounted Corps Memorial, more commonly known as the Light Horse Memorial.

To learn more about ANZAC Day, visit the Australian War Memorial site.

More information here, too. A lot to read!

This site is great, too. It's last update seems to have been in 2006 - he needs help to record all the war memorials at his site - I can not find an address for him/her. I hope he notices my visit and contacts me! Australian war memorials are unusual, we commemorate not only those who died, but all who went to war.

War memorials honour people, not war.

These deeds
Which should not pass away
Names that must not wither.