ONCE the Club trip to China was over near the end of October this year, the travelling had just begun for the Club’s Innovations Coach, David Dunbar.
Embarking on a mission to the battlefields of World War One’s Western Front, Dunbar was not only treading in the footsteps of his grandfather, William Whyte, but was also taking a rare chance to pay tribute to five of the Melbourne Football Club fallen.
We have our fallen of World War One in a variety of regions - Gallipoli, Malta and northern France amongst them - and it was to this last that Dunbar ventured.
Embarking on a mission to the battlefields of World War One’s Western Front, Dunbar was not only treading in the footsteps of his grandfather, William Whyte, but was also taking a rare chance to pay tribute to five of the Melbourne Football Club fallen.
We have our fallen of World War One in a variety of regions - Gallipoli, Malta and northern France amongst them - and it was to this last that Dunbar ventured.
Along the way, he carried cards that commemorated Clifford Burge, Frank Lugton, James ‘Charlie’ Mackie, Percy Rodriguez and Alf Williamson. Burge was a ruckman, Lugton played at centre half-back, Mackie on the wing, Rodriguez as a rover and wingman, and Williamson was a lively goal kicker who was known as ‘Lofty’.
Dunbar was amazed by the landscape that unfolded itself as his tour guide - a former British Marine - made his way across the countryside.
‘You’re going from memorials to battlefields, and the thing that struck me the most was how open it was. As far as the eye can see, it’s field after field. It’s all farming land, dotted with little villages in between…The thing about it being so open was that it was all about the high ground. That was where the Germans were positioned, so it was about being able to take that off the Germans…It’s a great vantage point….’
The evidence of the ‘war to end all wars’ was ever present, from still remaining structures to the fields that stretched to the horizon.
‘The Germans had set up this line of trenches and pillboxes, and the pillboxes were these concrete boxes that they cemented in with strong steel reinforcement…some of them are still there today, in the fields, and there are farmers who are still continually ploughing up shells, and bullets, and bits of uniform - and bayonets and guns.’
Dunbar was amazed by the landscape that unfolded itself as his tour guide - a former British Marine - made his way across the countryside.
‘You’re going from memorials to battlefields, and the thing that struck me the most was how open it was. As far as the eye can see, it’s field after field. It’s all farming land, dotted with little villages in between…The thing about it being so open was that it was all about the high ground. That was where the Germans were positioned, so it was about being able to take that off the Germans…It’s a great vantage point….’
The evidence of the ‘war to end all wars’ was ever present, from still remaining structures to the fields that stretched to the horizon.
‘The Germans had set up this line of trenches and pillboxes, and the pillboxes were these concrete boxes that they cemented in with strong steel reinforcement…some of them are still there today, in the fields, and there are farmers who are still continually ploughing up shells, and bullets, and bits of uniform - and bayonets and guns.’
In the middle of these reminders, however, there is positive and ongoing reinforcement of the connection forged through the conflict between Australia and France.
‘There is a school in Pozieres that was built through Victorian school kids’ money. There was a collection throughout Victoria, and they built this school, and there’s a big sign in this school - ‘Never Forget Australia’.
With museums, memorials and an abiding sense of fraternity, Australia and the Australians are certainly remembered to this day.
Melbourne’s Western Front fallen were all commemorated at Villers Bretonneux, although Williamson and Rodriguez were killed at Bullecourt and on the Somme respectively.
The place names are sombre, and Dunbar, also taking in the landscape of his grandfather’s survival of three years without break on the Western Front, ‘didn’t know how I’d feel - in particular where my grandfather had been. But it wasn’t a feeling of grief or sadness - once I started talking to the tour guide…it was more amazement. You started thinking ‘how stupid is this?’ I was amazed at hearing how these fellows lived. They were living almost underground. It was just starting to go into winter when I was there. With the clay in some of these areas, you could see where the farmers had gone through with their tractors. Can you imagine how wet and muddy that must have been when it was continually shelled? They had the worst winter of all time in about 1915, 1916. So, guys were actually drowning in mud.’
The horror of the Western Front - survived by Dunbar’s grandfather, the final resting place of five boys in red and blue - is all too vivid still.
‘There is a school in Pozieres that was built through Victorian school kids’ money. There was a collection throughout Victoria, and they built this school, and there’s a big sign in this school - ‘Never Forget Australia’.
With museums, memorials and an abiding sense of fraternity, Australia and the Australians are certainly remembered to this day.
Melbourne’s Western Front fallen were all commemorated at Villers Bretonneux, although Williamson and Rodriguez were killed at Bullecourt and on the Somme respectively.
The place names are sombre, and Dunbar, also taking in the landscape of his grandfather’s survival of three years without break on the Western Front, ‘didn’t know how I’d feel - in particular where my grandfather had been. But it wasn’t a feeling of grief or sadness - once I started talking to the tour guide…it was more amazement. You started thinking ‘how stupid is this?’ I was amazed at hearing how these fellows lived. They were living almost underground. It was just starting to go into winter when I was there. With the clay in some of these areas, you could see where the farmers had gone through with their tractors. Can you imagine how wet and muddy that must have been when it was continually shelled? They had the worst winter of all time in about 1915, 1916. So, guys were actually drowning in mud.’
The horror of the Western Front - survived by Dunbar’s grandfather, the final resting place of five boys in red and blue - is all too vivid still.
