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Saturday, May 5, 2018

Australia: Australian Memorial Park near Fromelles

On Wednesday I got two postcards: one from Australia and one from Belgium.

The card from Australia shows the Cobbers statue in the Australian Memorial Park near Fromelles in France. The Australian Memorial Park was inaugurated in 1998 to commemorate the Australians killed during the Battle of Fromelles. The Cobbers statue is a prominent sculpture of Sergeant Simon Fraser rescuing a wounded compatriot from No Man's Land after the battle.

The Battle of Fromelles was fought on the 19th and 20th July 1916 between troops of the German Empire and the British Empire. It was subsidiary to the Battle of the Somme and resulted in a German victory, as preparations for the attack were rushed, the troops involved lacked experience in trench warfare and the power of the German defence was underestimated. The attack was the debut of the First Australian Imperial Force on the Western Front. Later it was described as the worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history. 

The card is a maxicard. The stamp is from a set of five about war memorials and was issued on 10th April 2018.

Update: As one of the Funerary and memory sites of the First World War (Western Front) in Belgium and France this site is since 2023 on the UNESCO World Heritage List.


The card is prepaid.


Thank You very much Monica!

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