Somme Battlefields 3 - Adelaide Cemetery and Third Division Memorial

Just near the town of Villers Bretonneux is the Adelaide War Cemetery. Compared to other cemeteries we had visited, this one was relatively small mainly because it wasn't started until June 1918. Nevertheless, there are almost 1000 graves of which more than half are Australian.

What is notable about Adelaide Cemetery is that the Unknown Soldier who is now buried in the War Memorial in Canberra was exhumed from this cemetery.

Because we had a car, we also did some touring of our own. Near Sailly-le-Sec (which is close to Albert) we found this Memorial to the Australian Third Division. Grandfie Dwyer was a member of the Third Division.

As we discovered when we were in Belgium, farmers regularly find unexploded ordnance in their fields. This is a photo of what we found propped up against the fence of the memorial.

Finally, we took this photo just on sunset of the flags inside the Australian Memorial Park at Le Hamel. We didn't get inside the park because the gates close at 4pm in winter. However, the park is a memorial to the 100,000 Australians who served in the AIF in France from 1916 to 1918. The flags acknowledge the forces involved in the defense of Le Hamel in July 1918.

POSTSCRIPT

This map gives a good summary of the main battlefields in Belgium and France, the location of the front line and where some of the sites we visited were situated.