News from the batllefields...

And from the Historial Museum of the Great War : New Exhibitions at the Historial for 2012, Commemorating the 95th anniversary of the battle of the Somme,...

Missing of the Somme

Major new exhibition at Historial

19 April > 25 November 2012

Free admission

Opening of the House of Australians in Vignacourt (Somme)

As part of the ANZAC Day and the commemorations of the liberation of Villers Bretonneux by the Australians and New-Zealanders on April 25th, 1918, a House of Australians has been inaugurated in Vignacourt as a symbol of the Franco-Australian friendship . A superb and unique collection of photographs showing Australian soldiers is on display there. These prints were made from original glass plates.

These photographs of World War I soldiers, mostly Australians and English, were taken by farmers Louis and Antoinette Thuillier in the years 1915-1920. The collection of over 4000 plates was recently found in attic.

Informations and contact :

House of the Australians

413, rue Léon Thuillier
80650 Vignacourt
Email: maisondesaustraliens@hotmail.fr

website

New : On the Front Line number 2

Save the Front Line newsletters in pdf here :

On the Front Line 2 (pdf - 539.83 ko)

On the Frontline 1 (pdf - 727.04 ko)

Have a look...at The La Boisselle Project :

A detailed long-term archaeological, historical, technological and genealogical study to help promote multi-disciplinary international study of First World War sites, attract a new generation of battlefield archaeologists, and encourage the perpetual preservation of a unique segment of battlefield in the village of La Boisselle, Somme.

by The La Boisselle Study Group

Discover the video of the unveiling of the memorial dedicated to the American 42nd ‘Rainbow’ Division in the Great War :

© Tourisme en Tardenois

On 12 November 2011, nearly a hundred years after the outbreak of the Great War, a new war memorial will be unveiled on the site of Croix Rouge farm, close to the village of Fère-en-Tardenois in northern France which saw heavy fighting in the 1914-1918 conflict. The statue – a dramatic and poignant sculpture of an American soldier holding a dead comrade – commemorates the sacrifice made by the American 42^nd ‘Rainbow’ Division played a key role in the late-July 1918 campaign by the American and French forces against the Germans; this new memorial will mark one of the ‘Rainbow’ Division’s most daunting battles during this phase of the war, which took place on 26 July 1918 when the 167^th Alabama Infantry regiment, part of the Division, successfully regained the Croix Rouge Farm, a fortified farmhouse, which was the last stand of the German army south of the Ourcq river, after two assaults.

Famously earning its nickname the ‘Rainbow’ Division from General Douglas MacArthur because it contained men from all across the United States, the 42nd suffered heavy casualties in the campaigns of 1918: Croix Rouge Farm was no exception, costing some 162 American dead from the 167th Alabama Infantry Regiment. The Croix Rouge site, currently unmarked, owes its belated recognition to the actions of a dedicated voluntary Alabama Foundation which has purchased the ruins of the farm in order to preserve the location and commissioned the memorial sculpture to raise greater public awareness of American sacrifices in the Great War. A veritable military pieta, the new memorial sculpture, by the acclaimed British sculptor James Butler, is currently on display at the Royal Academy of Arts in London until August 2011. For Butler, the military pieta theme is at the core of this work: ‘the dead soldier is limp as if his body had just been lifted from the battlefield. The figure holding the dead man began to have the presence of the Angel of Mercy.’ When it reaches its final resting place at Croix Rouge Farm the sculpture will mark a fitting tribute to the Americans who died there – its installation also a symbolic reminder of the terrible overall toll of many thousands of Americans of all races, ethnicities and creeds who died fighting in the Great War.

Pictures of the ceremony commemorating Armistice Day at Thiepval Memorial. 11th november 2011.

Armistice day, Thiepval. November 11th - © Vincent Laude	Armistice day, Thiepval. November 11th - © Vincent Laude	Armistice day, Thiepval. November 11th - © Vincent Laude
Armistice day, Thiepval. November 11th - © Vincent Laude	Armistice day, Thiepval. November 11th - © Vincent Laude	Armistice day, Thiepval. November 11th - © Vincent Laude
Armistice day, Thiepval. November 11th - © Vincent Laude	Armistice day, Thiepval. November 11th - © Vincent Laude	Armistice day, Thiepval. November 11th - © Vincent Laude
Armistice day, Thiepval. November 11th - © Vincent Laude	Armistice day, Thiepval. November 11th - © Vincent Laude	Armistice day, Thiepval. November 11th - © Vincent Laude