World War I became known as the ‘Great War’, the ‘war to end all wars’. The most important battleground was the Western Front, in Belgium and France.

After the Gallipoli Campaign, Australian soldiers and airmen fought in each of the major British campaigns on the Western Front. Many battles became household names in Australia: Fromelles, the Somme, Bullecourt, Messines, Passchendaele, Villers-Bretonneux, Hamel, Amiens and Mont St Quentin.

Over 295,000 Australians served on the Western Front between March 1916 and November 1918. Of those service men and women, 46,000 lost their lives and over 130,000 were wounded. Battle conditions were so dire that more than 18,000 of the fallen had no known grave.

Devastating Ruins of Ypres Cloth Hall. Nearby stood Menin Gate, the archway through which thousands of allied soldiers marched to Menin Road leading to the battlefields on the Ypres Salient. This was the area where some of the bloodiest fighting of World War I unfolded, and towns and villages were ravaged by the fighting that took place. The Third Battle of Ypres went on for several gruelling months between 31 July and 10 November, with hundreds of troops leaving the town to fight in the Ypres Salient. Many thousands would never return from these battlefields.