Proudly supported by
This is a series of videos as a documentary about the wonderful sister-town relationship that has formed over the past nearly 100 years between Australia, particularly Robinvale, Victoria, and the French village of Villers-Bretonneux near Amiens in northern France – all relating back to the liberation of the town by Anzac troops on the night of the 4th Anzac Day, 25th April 1918.
* * *
Villers-Bretonneux is just a short train trip east from Amiens in beautiful green fields on a rise overlooking the River Somme valley. Here on the 4th Anzac Day, April 25th 1918, Australian troops from the 13th & 15th Brigades retook the town from occupying German troops who stormed it 24 hours earlier.
* * *
The Victoria School in Villers-Bretonneux was built by finances raised in Australia after the First World War, when Anzac diggers who had spent time there during the war felt they wanted to help rebuild the ravaged town.
* * *
The Victoria School Anzac Museum, part of a 60 minute documentary called ‘The Anzac Connection’, looking at the relationship between Australians and the small French village of Villers-Bretonneux, forged by Anzacs in WW1
* * *
Just outside the village of Villers-Bretonneux, on a hilltop overlooking the Somme River valley, there stands the Australian First World War Memorial, site of the first ever Anzac Dawn Service in 2008.
* * *
The 90th anniversary Anzac Day Dawn Service at the Australian WW1 Memorial on a hill beside Villers-Bretonneux in France.
* * *
In 1985 the Victorian town of Robinvale officially became the twin-town of Villers-Bretonneux in France. This relationship has seen many people of both towns come together in exchanges and tours over the years.
* * *
The area around the village of Villers-Bretonneux was the stage of many battles over particularly the last 12 months of WW1… It was not far from here that the famous German Ace pilot ‘The Red Baron’ was shot down on 21st April 1918 by Australian machine gunners on the ground.
* * *
The final part of this documentary, looking at the extraordinary relationship that has formed between the Australian and French people around the Anzac story of Villers-Bretonneux in the First World War.
