Australians at War 1901-2000
1918
25 April 1918
Australians drove Germans from Villers-Bretonneux, France.
'The ships come back with honoured brave but none came back with our Dave'
[Inscription written by his family for the gravestone in France of Private D E Arnold, 55th Battalion, First AIF. Private Arnold was killed on 16 April 1918, age 20].
1 June 1918
Appointment of Lieutenant General Sir John Monash to command the Australian Corps in France. The Corps brought all five Divisions of the First AIF under an Australian commander.
2 July 1918
- Enlarge
- Prime Minister William Morris Hughes, the ‘Little Digger’, being carried through the streets of Sydney by returned soldiers, 1919. [National Library of Australia]
Prime Minister William Morris Hughes, the 'Little Digger', addressed Australian troops on the Western Front before the Battle of Hamel, France.
4 July 1918
- Enlarge
- Battlefield memorial, Quincone, France, to the men of the 53rd Battalion, ALF, who were killed in the battalion’s attack on Mont St Quentin, 1 September 1918. [AWM negative E03364]
Battle of Hamel, France.
31 August –2 September 1918
Australians attacked and seized Mont St Quentin, France.
29 September 1918
Australians stormed the Hindenburg Line, France.
Captain G H Wilkins, official AIF photographer, rallied American troops at the Battle of the Hindenburg Line. For this action he was awarded a bar to his Military Cross, becoming the only Australian official photographer to be decorated for bravery in the field.
30 September 1918
Lance Corporal E A Corey, a stretcher bearer with the 55th Battalion, was awarded a third bar to his Military Medal. The winning of four Military Medals is a unique feat in the Australian or any other Commonwealth army.
September 1918
'Anzac leave' to Australia allowed for AIF veterans of Gallipoli.
11 November 1918
Germany signed an armistice and fighting ceased on the Western Front.
The number of Australians who died in the First World War (1914–1918): 61,919
(From the names recorded on the national Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial)