ANZAC's & Village of Villers-Bretonneux

At the small primary school in the French village of Villers-Bretonneux is an inscription which reads ''N'oublions jamais l'Australie'' (Never forget Australia).

''Many people may not remember what happened but no one will ever forget, not here, our nations are tied for life,'' says Frenchman Alain Martin, on a plateau surveying thousands of white headstones, many marking the graves of Australian soldiers, just outside the village.

On April 24-25, 1918, the village became the site of the world's first tank battle between the British Mark IV and the German AV7s.

But it was the heroics of Australian troops who won the day and were to forever to be remembered, with a dogged storming of the German trenches that eventually liberated Villers-Bretonneux.

The Australian push, led by a former bank clerk from Queensland, Brigadier-General Bill Glasgow, resulted in the loss of more than 1200 Diggers and for that the town vowed never to forget the sacrifice and to forever honour the men from a nation few locals knew anything about before the battle.

Most Australians know the Anzac legend as being that of the slaughter of Diggers in Gallipoli in western Turkey between April and December, 1915.

The tragic event epitomised the futility and brutality of World War I for Australia but also created a legend and ethos that today defines what it means to be Australian.

Three years later, almost to the day, another battle raged that perhaps only this year will gain the recognition and commemoration it deserves.

William Glasgow was as famous for his daring on various battlefields across the world as he was for being the man to defy the British military masters and, in the process, probably saving thousands of young lives.

At the very least, he saved his men. At the very most, he won a decisive battle that some historians have since claimed swung the war in the Allied favour.

The brigade fought many battles in the ensuing two years but it was at Villers-Bretonneux that it gained an almost mythic status.

The village had been captured from the British by the Germans with an attack using tanks for the first time. The British 8th Division believed the entire Allied line south would fall if the town was not recaptured and numerous attempts were made.

For the British, the village area represented one of its biggest defeats in military history, with 21,000 troops captured in the first 24 hours, including up to eight battalion commanders.

Thousands of others were slaughtered and the remaining troops were about to be pushed back across the Channel.

Then two Australian divisions, the other led by Brigadier-General Pompey Elliot, were moved into position. Glasgow inspected the proposed battle ground where his mainly Victoria-based troops would fight and die, before seeing British 8th Division commander General Heneker.

The men instantly clashed on the proposed tactics of where to begin the push and how.

''Tell us what you want us to do, sir, but you must let us do it our own way,'' Glasgow famously declared.

He also wanted to start the battle at night but the Briton preferred early evening despite the fact the Germans would see the soldiers amassing on their lines.

''If it was God Almighty who gave the order, we couldn't do it in daylight,'' Glasgow exploded at the British officer before they settled on a compromise of 10pm.

''The villagers could be heard calling from one house to another `Les Australiens' ,'' he recalls. ''A few minutes later . . . they began unloading their carts and their furniture was carried indoors again.

An old man said (to an Australian soldier), `pas necessaire maintenant vous les tiendrez' (we don't need to run; you will hold them).''

The fierce attack was a success and the flouting of the rules was later seen by historians as one of the most impressive operations of its kind that occurred on the Western Front.

''Without Glasgow's strength holding his point against the pressure of a hierarchy of commanders, the effort would have been futile.'' Bean claims.

''In the whole of history, we cannot find an army more marvellous in its bravery, and in the war there was none that contributed more nobly to the final triumph.''

French Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch added: ''Although our task was never easy, it was made less difficult by the patriotism and the passionate valour of the Australians, which served as an example to the whole world. That wonderful attack of yours at Villers-Bretonneux was the final proof, if any were needed.

''You saved Amiens. You saved France.

'Our gratitude will remain ever and always to Australia.''

War & Peace-A Contradiction?

It may seem contradictory to pray for peace when many of our own soldiers are fighting far away from home in foreign fields.

Many people think that if only we got rid of all our weaponry then the world would have peace. The problem with this thinking is that it is not 'weapons' that are the real evil, it is sin.

If the world decided tomorrow to destroy every weapon ever invented without first changing themselves from within, then we would have achieved absolutely nothing.

How did Cain kill Abel? What killed Abel? Sin.

While praying for peace, we must not attack our sons and daughters in the military who are fighting for the freedoms we hold dear. These brave young men and women also need our prayers.

If we really want change then let us go back to the basics and pray that God's Love will still the savage beast which lurks within us all.

Dorothy Day and Pacifism

"War is deviltry. It calls for sacrifices indeed, but not at the altar of love. "Greater love hath no man than this." A great blasphemy this, to use Christ’s words in connection with men going to war. They go because they are drafted, because they are afraid of what their neighbors will say, because the pay is good, because the benefits accruing afterward (the G.I. Bill of Rights) are great....they are filled with a warm glow of self-love."

There has been an ongoing discussion at 'Vox Nova' about pacifism and Dorothy Day's thoughts & words during this tumultuous time in the history of mankind.

As you can see in the comment section the debate became heated, but I hold true that debate is healthy.It is a vital ingredient which we enjoy within our free countries.

Idealism has its place but the reality is we do not live in an ideal world. It would be wonderful if every country refused to make armament's. That no man would pick up a weapon to use against another. But where in our history has that happened?

To try and imply that the Allied soldiers of World War II were no better or worse than the evil tyranny of the Nazi's and the Japanese is offensive. There IS a difference. Two countries were intent on ruling the world by force, they cared not how many lives they would destroy. What mattered to these Facist Nations was the subjugation of the world no matter the cost.

We owe our freedom to those brave young men who fought and died for each of us. I honour their sacrifice. I remember their courage when confronting such savagery as the German and Japanese war machine, which was intent on destroying everything we hold dear, our freedom.

I also honour those men and women who fought in the resistance in various countries against the occupation of the Nazi's. Many of these men and women were tortured and shot for defending their right to live freely in their own country.

To imply that U.S soldiers went to War for a higher pay cheque is absurd it also diminishes those men who chose to take a stand for freedom. To also imply that these brave young soldiers went to war out of fear, from 'what will the neighbours think' is equally bizarre. These men saw evil and they confronted it. Many lost their lives while doing so, are we now to condemn them?

Rather than go to Germany and confront Hitler over his illegal occupation of innocent European countries, Dorothy Day stayed home. Rather than go to Germany and organize peace rallies, once again Dorothy Day stayed home. It was her choice to make, but let her not condemn those brave young men who went to fight for Dorothy's freedom.

None of us want war but when war comes to us, what are we to do, meet the enemy with wet noodles? Or feather dusters?

In one speech Dorothy Day compared her own living conditions and those she sought to help as equal to the sufferings in war torn Europe. She wrote, "Let their noses be mortified by the smells of sewage, decay, and rotten flesh. Yes, and the smell of the sweat, blood and tears spoken of so blithely by Mr. Churchill, & so widely and bravely quoted by comfortable people." Were the Jews in Auschwitz, Treblinka and other death camps, comfortable?

Of course living in the tenements was not easy, but did Dorothy and her neighbours face death by gas? Were they in peril of being thrown into ovens alive? No!

As I wrote in one of my comments, 'Just because Dorothy Day wrote some words it does not make it right or correct'.

During the dark years of World War II there were two choices, a battle of Good vs Evil. Let those brave Allied soldiers who fought speak up they earned the right. Let those who survived the holocaust raise their voices they lived through horror. Let the heroic resistance fighters have their say, they fought for it. But let those who stayed safely at home respect and honour those who chose to fight evil, rather then glibly dismiss their Sacrifice as nothing. Do not compare the Allied soldiers to those of the Fascists.

Have we reached a time in our day where we dismiss the heroism of our fallen soldiers? Where we dishonour those who fought for the freedoms we now take for granted?

"It is better that the United States be liquidated than that she survive by war." - Dorothy Day

What are your thoughts on this topic? Do we throw away the freedoms for which so many sacrificed their lives for?

Armchair Soldiers-Revisionist Historians

I am getting really tired of arm chair soldiers, who write large tomes describing Allied soldiers as 'war criminals'.

Let us get things straight. War is evil, it is a dreadful thing to wage war on another nation in order to rule it by force. It is an evil thing to bomb cities and other area's without warning them. It is also a great evil to invade other Nations by bombing them in massive bombing raids, including countries deemed 'neutral', such as Holland.

All these evil actions were done by the German Government of 1939, against innocent populace. They didnt waste time worrying about the 'feelings' of the oppressed. The National Socialists also paid little heed to their own 'Peace Pacts' which they had signed with another Nation. If other countries were foolish enough to trust the German Chancellor of the time, well more fool them! In order to honour an agreement you have to possess that quality, Adolf Hitler was not an 'honourable man', lest historions forget!

America during these tumultuous years were not at war with any other Nation. War was thrust upon them when another Empire decided that they also wanted a slice of the global cake which Germany was bingeing on and bombed Pearl Harbour in 1941, without warning. We must also remember that America did NOT declar war on Germany. Germany declared war on America!

War is brutal, it is unforgiving and it is waged unto death. There is nothing 'pretty' about war. Innocent people die, others are tortured and once the dogs of war are loosed there are NO winners! Bombs rain down on the oppressors and the oppressed in equal measure.

Can anyone not imagine the blood drenched beaches of Normandy with the slaughter of British and America's youth being spent in the sea and think that is victory? Can we look at the carnage of the Kokoda trail and the bloody warfare waged there and think there is victory? Can we say after the death of millions of people in death camps, that there was a victory? The Nazi mass murder machine was stopped but is the loss of over 6 million Jewish people and millions more from various countries called a victory?

Is it realistic to say that the British and American soldiers who were freed from Japanese concentration camps, starved almost unto death, tortured, beaten and brutalised, were victors? Were the women prisoners who had been raped for years by Japanese soldiers victorious upon their release from such a hell?

Is it a victory when upon defeating the Nazi German 'War Machine' half of Europe was given to yet another evil despot, Stalin?

British, American, Australian and European Mothers and Fathers wept for their dead sons. Can holding a flag take the place of their beloved sons?

Do not correct the soldiers who fought a war which was thrust upon them. Also do not condemn those who sacrificed their lives in a war they did not wage, lest their death be in vain.

War is war who on earth though it fair?

And in the end is it correct to write about such events when the 'arm chair soldiers' were NOT involved, did NOT fight and did NOT suffer?