Bunbury photojournalist David Bailey has captured the moment three Australian diggers who died on the World War One battlefield of Pozieres, France a century ago were buried with full military honours on Saturday.
Mr Bailey, who has a longtime interest in military history, told the Mail he has enjoying being at the event in Pozieres over the past month and hopes the Australian government will consider a more fitting memorials for those who fought and died there.
In mid-July 1916, three Australian divisions marched to the Somme and were assigned to capture Pozieres, where the Germans had repelled three previous assault.
They did so on the first day and defending it over a number of bloodied counter-attacks. After six weeks of intense fighting, more than 23,000 allied troops had died in the successful bid to liberate the town.
Many of the bodies were not recovered and still lie where they fell. The three unknown Australian soldiers buried on Saturday now lie alongside 720 of their brothers in the town’s British war cemetery.
