IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF DIGGERS

The Western Front has never had the profile or interest of the Gallipoli campaign, but this is changing in 2016 as an influx of Australian tourists heads for the French and Belgian battlefields.

After the evacuation of Gallipoli in late December 1915, the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) returned to Egypt, rebuilt their battalions and undertook hard desert training. From April to June, 1916, the battalions travelled across the Mediterranean to Marseille, where they took the train to the north of France and the ‘nursery areas’ around Armentières.

The first major engagement was at Fromelles on 19 July 1916, in a ‘diversionary attack’ that resulted in 5553