Western Front

The Western Front: An Australian Perspective takes a then-and-now approach to the 1914-1918 battlefields, offering a finely balanced mix of words and photographs that will help readers, and visitors to the area, understand and appreciate the Western Front as it once was and as it is today. It is also an evocation of the horrors and heroism of ordinary men called upon to do extraordinary things.



The book follows the Australian troops from their first arrival on the Western Front in March 1916 to their last action at Montbrehain in October 1918. It looks at the part they played, the locations where they fought, the conditions they endured, the cemeteries where the dead are buried and some of the memorials that commemorate their sacrifice. The focus is on remembering the 45,000 Australians who died and those who returned home but were changed forever.