Villers-Bretonneux Memorial
- Country France
- Total identified casualties 10799 Find these casualties
- Region Somme
- Identified casualties from First World War
- GPS Coordinates Latitude: 49.88707, Longitude: 2.51292
Location information
Villers-Bretonneux is a village 16 kilometres east of Amiens on the straight main road to St Quentin. Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery is about 2 kilometres north of the village on the east side of the road to Fouilloy.
Visiting information
The Australian National Memorial stands within Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery.
The tower is open daily from 8:30am until 6:30pm from 1st April to the 1st October, and 8:30am until 5:30pm from 2nd October to the 31st March, with access restricted during bad weather.
Wheelchair access to Villers-Bretonneux Cemetery and the Australian National Memorial is via a ramp or lift next to the new orientation building in the car park.
The names on the memorial are engraved on the memorial in order of battalion, then alphabetically under rank.
For further information on the Sir John Monash Centre, located behind the Australian National Memorial, please visit www.sjmc.gov.au
History information
Villers-Bretonneux became famous in 1918, when the German advance on Amiens ended in the capture of the village by their tanks and infantry on 23 April. On the following day, the 4th and 5th Australian Divisions, with units of the 8th and 18th Divisions, recaptured the whole of the village and on 8 August 1918, the 2nd and 5th Australian Divisions advanced from its eastern outskirts in the Battle of Amiens.
The memorial is the Australian National Memorial erected to commemorate all Australian soldiers who fought in France and Belgium during the First World War, to their dead, and especially to name those of the dead whose graves are not known.
The Australian servicemen named on this memorial died on the battlefields of the Somme 1916-18, Pozieres, Bapaume 1917, Arras 1917, Bullecourt, Messines 1917, Ypres 1917, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Broodseinde, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Avre, Ancre 1918, Villers-Bretonneux, Lys, Hazebrouck, Hamel, Marne 1918, Amiens, Albert 1918, Albert 1918 (Chuignes), Mont-St. Quentin, Hindenburg Line, Epehy, St. Quentin Canal and Beaurevoir.
Both the cemetery and memorial were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. The memorial was unveiled by King George VI on 22 July 1938.
Of the 10,982 names displayed at the unveiling of the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial the burial places of many have since been identified and this continues to this day. As a result, there are currently 10,729 Australian servicemen officially commemorated by this memorial.