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Jo’s Monday Walk
Week-40
Australian Memorial-2
Le Hamel, France
Last week we commenced a walk around…. 
the Australian Corps Memorial
at Le Hamel in France.
Along the walk to the Memorial is information…
relating to the battle and the tactics used by
General Monash to overcome German forces.
I was still not used to seeing people tending
these sites keeping them neat and tidy.
A surprise…but a very pleasant one…knowing that
our war Memorials in Europe are in
pristine condition all the time and not just
for a professional film crew, or photographer,
who happens to be in the vicinity.
However, we eventually made it…
and noted that it sat silently overlooking
the village of Le Hamel.
This may be a politician speaking however,
it was tributes like this one,
to Australian soldiers,
which I found quite moving.
Had I not known we were in France,
this shot could have been taken
on a spring day in Australia,
or for that matter any rural area
throughout the world.
It is difficult to imagine the bloodshed
on these battlegrounds.
A short walk down this path and we came upon…
some of the trenches used during that battle.
None of them appeared to give as much cover
as I would like if someone had a rifle
or field artillery aimed at them.
Back for a final quick photo…yes, I was there…
and then back to our vehicle and shade…
and off we drove through a sea of blood-red poppies
which grow wild in the region constantly
reminding all of the blood that was shed
on these fields/paddocks.
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Jo’s Monday Walk
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