Lest We Forget - Armistice Day

Or Remembrance Day as it is now called in Australia on 11th November.

This is our local Cenotaph.

In WWW 1 thousands of Australian and New Zealand men and women (Nurses) enlisted in support of the UK.

In Australia 416809 enlisted and 60,000 were killed, 156,000 wounded and many to this day still missing.
In NZ 16,697 were killed and 41317 were wounded.

Given that both our countries had relatively small populations back then, this was a huge loss.

My Grandmother had seven brothers all who enlisted and fought and fortunately all returned. Another G'ma had one brother in the Light Horse Brigade and he also survived but had injuries.
My husband's uncle (19 yrs old) was killed on the Somme on 5/4/1918 at the Battle of Dernancourt, where 2000 Australians held their line against 10,000 Germans. They were told the night before that they were to die where they stood as there would be no retreat. At 1000hrs they ran out of ammunition and fought with bayonets and bare hands. By 1830hrs the battle had ended and the Germans were in full retreat. For their efforts the Australians were awarded the "Battle Honour" Ancre 1918.

We visited his grave when we were in France this year and it was so incredibly sad to see his grave so far from home, especially knowing what he must have endured.
Patrick is seated bottom right.