For more than three decades, every time Jean Letaille drove his plough across the fields of Bullecourt, he turned up another piece of a war fought 50 years before he was born. Machine gun parts. Shell casings. Gas cylinders. Horseshoes. Rifles. The personal effects of men who never came home. The copper from the bullets alone would have been worth a fortune. He never sold a single piece.
Instead, Jean and his wife Denise displayed the growing collection in the Bullecourt town hall, then moved it to their barn in 1995. Both received the Order of Australia Medal, one of the highest civilian honours the Australian government can bestow, for their decades of dedication to preserving the memory of Australian soldiers.
In 2008, the Australian Government co-funded a €900,000 redevelopment of Jean’s collection into a proper museum, jointly funded with French regional authorities. It was scheduled to open on Anzac Day, 25 April 2012.
Jean Letaille died on 10 March 2012, six weeks before the doors opened.
His wife Denise had passed in 2004. Today, Jean’s recorded voice still guides visitors through the museum via audio guide. The man who spent a lifetime collecting the memory of Australian soldiers now speaks to their descendants from beyond his own grave.
The relics Jean collected tell the story of two catastrophic battles. The First Battle of Bullecourt on 11 April 1917 was the first time tanks were used to replace an artillery bombardment, a radical experiment that went disastrously wrong. Twelve primitive tanks were supposed to lead Australian infantry through the Hindenburg Line’s barbed wire. Australian commanders protested vigorously. They were overruled.
On the morning of the attack, the tanks were late. Most broke down or were destroyed by German fire. Only one reached the front line. Despite this, Australian infantry performed the seemingly impossible: they broke into the Hindenburg Line without artillery support. But they were cut off, requested supporting fire 17 times, and never received it. The 4th Brigade sent in 3,000 men and had 660 left. A total of 1,170 Australians were captured, the largest number taken prisoner in a single action of the entire war.
The Second Battle of Bullecourt, three weeks later, was even bloodier. Combined Australian casualties across both battles exceeded 10,000. Charles Bean wrote that Bullecourt “more than any other battle, shook the confidence of Australian soldiers in the capacity of the British command.”
The aftermath created a bitter legacy. After Bullecourt, plans to expand the AIF were abandoned. Every Australian division on the Western Front needed major rest and recovery. And the soldiers who survived developed a deep mistrust of tanks that wasn’t overcome until Monash proved their worth at Hamel over a year later.
2,249 Australians killed at Bullecourt have no known grave. Jean Letaille’s museum exists because one man believed they deserved to be remembered anyway.
Fairways & Frontlines visits the Bullecourt 1917 Museum and the Australian Memorial Park during the Somme and Artois heritage day.