As part of our French trip, Sarah and I, together with some of our extended family went on a three day tour of the Somme battlefields. Our tour included attending the ANZAC service at the Australian National Memorial at Villers Bretonneux . We went to honour my grandfather who volunteered to serve in the AIF in WWI and WW2, including duty in Gallipoli, France and Belgium as part of the 28th Battalion.
| Historial de la Grande Guerre, Peronne |
As part of the tour we visited the Historial de la Grande Guerre in Peronne. The displays showed what life was like for soldiers in the front line trenches, and included artifacts from French, Allied, and German soldiers. Many of the items were in attractive floor displays. (I accidentally sent off an alarm when I got too close to take a photo – oops!)
I was drawn to the hand made items in the soldiers kit – probably made by mothers, wives, and sisters of the soldiers. You could see the care that went into making all the practical items.
A pouch to hold spare buttons for the uniform.
A cutlery roll, including a can opener and a mirror.
Knitted balaclava, neck warmer and scarves.
It is hard to image what life was like for the soldiers who served during this period. It is important that so much of this history has been preserved.
Lest we forget.
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What an amazing experience that must have been. My husband is a big war history buff and he’ll love seeing these pictures!
Such a pity you stayed in France and didn’t pop over to Ypres(Belgium) 😉 No, really, the ‘In Flanders Fields’ museum there is really worth its while if you want to experience what it must have been to be a soldier during the First World War. Don’t think any alarms could be set off there…. 😉
Marian
Plus, Ypres is a beautiful city tout court, worth visiting, just see my blog 😉
The world is little sometimes. Our town has a town twinning with Corbie, it’s very close to Villers-Bretonneux. Some years ago I stayd to a family in this little village and I visited the Memorial too. It is impressiv, and did you see the age of the fallen soldiers?
We will go to Corbie on Thursday this week to celebrate our 50 years town twinning.
Kind regards Gabi