The Western Front WW1

Western Front WW1

The video below, titled ‘You Never Came Home’, is a memorial to Australians who died on the Western Front, during WW1.

Around 300,000 Australians served on the Western Front during WW1.

From 1916 to 1918, 46,000 died and more than 132,000 were wounded. In this period of time, Australia lost nearly half of all the people killed in all wars. It was a shocking time for Australia with a population just under 5 million. There were not many families in Australia that weren’t touched by the tragedy of the Western Front.

Many soldiers were wounded more than once. About 11,000 soldiers have no known grave. Australian nurses caught trench diseases such as typhus and dysentery.

Many who came home died not long after due to suffering horrendous wounds and being gravely ill. Many were totally and permanently incapacitated with lost limbs, shell shock, blindness and severely disfigured.

The words ‘You never came home‘, in a sense, tries to give some perspective from the loved ones of the soldiers.  Many lived in hope for a while that their loved one was still alive, especially those who were reported missing on the battlefield. It was absolutely heartbreaking and unimaginable shocking times for many Australian families during this war.
 
The video was created and produced by Peter Barnes who also wrote the words for the video.  You can visit his website here.