Historian stands on hallowed battleground

Late afternoon sunshine drenches the hills and crops sway in a light breeze as Dalyellup man Jeff Peirce looks out over farmland in front of the Villers-Bretonneux Australian War Memorial in northern France.

Mr Peirce was last week nearing the end of a special visit to Europe with his wife Carol to attend the centenary Anzac Day dawn service at Gallipoli and visit the major battlefields of Belgium and France, where more than 45,000 Australian troops were killed in action from March 1916 to November 1918.

Speaking to the _South Western Times _ on what is hallowed ground for Australians - where in 1918, the Australian Imperial Force stopped a German attack threatening the important city of Amiens in France - he said arriving at the sacred site was very special.

"For me, this is the culmination of five years' research and work," he said.

"I feel I have got to know some of the men who are buried and mentioned on these special walls.

"It is an honour to be standing before the graves that contain their remains and walls that list the men who paid the ultimate price with sacrifice."

Mr Peirce - who in March completed the Bunbury City Council's anzacheroes.com.au website dedicated to the men and women from the Bunbury-Wellington area who served in World War I - said it had been an emotional trip.

"It was my grandfather who originally piqued my interest in the First World War," he said.

"We were very close and he served in the artillery.

"I travelled to the area he served in and went to where he was treated in hospital after being gassed.

"Having been in the cemeteries and the battlefields, I now realise he did a lot to honour his mates who were left behind in the fields of Flanders and France.

"Granddad suffered with his heart and lungs all his life - but he returned."

Having said these words, Mr Peirce turned to face the walls that list more than 10,000 Australians who died on those battlefields but have no known graves.