2018's A Year to Remember

The final year of the Anzac Centenary is an opportunity for people to reflect on the full story of Australia’s role in the Great War of 1914-1918.

For many Australians the 2014-2018 commemorations supported strongly by the Australian Government have shown that the Great War was more than the Gallipoli Landing. Stories of our diggers on the Western Front and in the Middle East have opened peoples’ eyes to the realities of the most costly war in Australian history.

While this year marks the final year of the Centenary – 100 years since the guns fell silent at 11am on 11 November 1918 – it also remembers a year of fierce battles and the courage and resilience of our diggers in turning back a determined German Army.

In March 1918, with some 500,000 additional seasoned German troops released from the Russian front, Germany launched its Spring Offensive on the Western Front.  The push was fast and furious. Germany wanted to gain ground before the arrival fresh American troops. Germany broke through Allied lines spearheaded by crack Stormtroopers. The gains put Germany within reach of the channel ports and its massive guns within range of Paris.  The first few days of the attack were such an overwhelming success, that Kaiser William II declared March 24th a national holiday and many in Germany assumed that the war was all but over.

While the German attack had been spectacular in terms of land conquered, it had also been expensive in terms of men lost. Between March and April, Germany suffered 230,000 casualties. The German Army simply could not sustain such casualties. For the next two months fighting along the front continued until in mid-July Germany launched its final and futile offensive. Between March and July 1918 Germany lost one million men. The stage was now set for the final Allied counter offensive and victory.

Centenary events 2018

100th Anniversary of the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux. (France, 25 April)

100th Anniversary of the Battle of Hamel. (France, 4 July)

100th Anniversary of the Battle of Amiens. (France, 8 August)

100th Anniversary of the Battle of Mont St Quentin. (France, 31 August)

100th anniversary of the First World War Armistice (Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 11 November)