On 25 April 2019, commemorations are set to take place at the Anzac Commemorative Site – North Beach on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey and the Australian National Memorial (ANM) situated next to the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery in France.
The ANM is the site of an intense battle fought exactly 101 years before as part of wider efforts to halt a German spring offensive which was threatening to win them the war.
Throughout early April, in 1918, Australian units helped defend Villers-Bretonneux from this onslaught, but at dawn on the 24th the Germans attacked and captured the town. Leading the British counter attack, the Australian 13 and 15 Brigades enveloped the town and successfully cleared it of Germans on 25 April, the third anniversary of the Anzac landings at Gallipoli.
The Commemoration on 25 April 2019, not only commemorates this remarkable action which effectively ended the German offensive launched a month prior but also marks the 104th anniversary of the Anzac landings at Gallipoli.
Canada
Global