During WWI, 416,809 Australians – 8% of the country's population – volunteered for overseas military service; 46,000 met their deaths on the Western Front (14,000 others perished elsewhere). The names of 10,722 Australian soldiers whose remains were never found are engraved at the base of the Australian National War Memorial's 32m-high tower, which stands atop a gentle hill where Australian and British troops repulsed a German assault in April 1918. Behind the tower, the Sir John Monash Centre museum has interactive displays.
The viewing area atop the tower, damaged by German gunfire in 1940, affords panoramic views of a large Commonwealth cemetery with 779 Australian graves and the one-time battlefield. An Anzac Day Dawn Service is held here every 25 April at 5.30am. The memorial is 3km north of Villers-Bretonneux along the D23.
