Bentley to the battlefields
THE D1 IN NORTHERN France is one of those perfect roads. It lopes across the plains above the River Somme, at the heart of the WWI battlefields. It’s open, inviting, and flows to the horizon with just a few kinks that won’t impede your progress. If you’re in a fast car like the Bentley Continental GT Convertible, you can let it rip here.
But then, heading east towards Bray-sur-Somme, you crest a rise and an imposing, grey stone cenotaph bearing a Rising Sun emblem looms beside the road. If you’re Australian, it will stop you in your tracks.
It commemorates the First Australian Imperial Force’s Third Division. It is one of the emotive memorials that honour the Diggers who so distinguished themselves in France between 1916 and 1918. As you drive this country – and it is pleasant country to drive, now – they’re constant reminders of the enormity of what happened here and, most especially, of the Australians’ crucial role in the battles that led to Germany’s defeat.
No further attempt to break the Australian line here was ever made. To the Third Division, this was the place for their memorial
Photo boards around the pillar’s base tell you why the Third Division chose this spot for the memorial to its 6220 men killed and more than 24,000 wounded on the Western Front. The city of Amiens, a crucial transport hub 24 kilometres west, was a key target in the Germans’ massive 1918 Spring Offensive.
