Cadets honouring the ANZAC spirit

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Honouring the ANZAC spirit on the Western Front

A group of 20 Sydney-based Australian Army Cadets have just concluded a two-week tour of the United Kingdom, Belgium and France to commemorate the spirit of the Anzacs.

Over the course of the two-week program, cadets from 203, 204 and 206 Army Cadet Units as well as AAC Band - Sydney were privileged to be part of the ceremony at Westminster Abbey for the opening of the Field of Remembrance.

In Belgium they joined with cadets from Barbados, New Zealand and United Kingdom to form a Commonwealth Cadet Guard at a moving reinternment ceremony for two unknown Australian diggers and a Lancashire Fusilier.
They also took part in the Last Post ceremony at Menin Gate and the Ypres Centenary of Armistice Parade and Service.
The tour included a number of emotional visits to World War I battlefield and memorials and the opportunity for a number of the contingent to find relatives memorialised there.

Cadet Lance Corporal Ethan Wynne from 203ACU Lancer Barracks said: “The highlight of my trip was seeing both my grandfathers’ names at both Villers-Bretonneux and Pozieres.”

Cadet Eva West, from 206ACU North Sydney – which is celebrating its centenary this year – found the visit to Thiepval, France, the most moving experience, saying: “The ability to communicate with someone who gave their life so that we could have experiences such as this was deeply overwhelming. Even more so by the fact they were hardly older then us.”

Cadet Lance Corporal, from the Australian Army Cadet Band Sydney said of the experience: “Sitting in a classroom being taught about WWI trenches, weapons and warfare has close to no impact. When I came to Europe and went to actual war sites with real trenches, guns and stories it was hard to describe.”

The cadets, no doubt, enjoyed the opportunity to learn from and get to know cadets from around the Commonwealth.

Cadet Connor Wherry, from 204ACU Parramatta said: “This trip completely surpassed all my expectations, but was made even better by opportunity to work with other cadets from other nations.”

Caption: A cadet takes time to “chat” to an unknown French soldier of WWI at the Thiepval Memorial.