13 November 2020
On 11 November 1918, the guns of the Western Front fell silent after four years of continuous warfare. With their armies retreating and close to collapse, German leaders signed an Armistice, bringing to an end the First World War. From the summer of 1918, the five divisions of the Australian Corps had been at the forefront of the allied advance to victory.
This year on this day, as we do each year, Australians observed one minute’s silence at 11am, in memory of those who died or suffered in all wars and armed conflicts.
The reason poppies are used to remember those who have given their lives in battle is because they are the flowers which grew on the battlefields after World War One ended.
This is described in the famous World War One poem In Flanders Fields.
'They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.'
Lest We Forget
