A Walking Guide to Australian Battlefields on the Western Front
By Mat McLachlan
Published 8th March by Hachette Australia, RRP $35.00, ISBN 9780734409072

Walking with the ANZACS is the new essential companion for Australians visiting the Western Front. It exposes the human element of war and allows readers to walk in the footsteps of the Australian ANZACS. For all the significance attached to the brave, doomed heroism at Gallipoli, the Western Front was the single greatest wartime tragedy that elicited the greatest sacrifice. Of the 60,000 Australians who died in the course of the war, 45,000 were lost at the Western Front. In a matter of weeks, more Australians were slain in one or two battles than in the entire eight months at Gallipoli.

This book represents an illustrated walking tour across the battlefields of the Western Front. The tours are designed along easily accessible routes and show readers battlefield landmarks that still exist, memorials to the men who fought there and the cemeteries where many of them still lie. In this way, the visitor will gain a greater appreciation of the site’s significance.

More than just a handy travel guide, Walking with the ANZACS is an absorbing read for people planning a trip to the Western Front and armchair travellers alike.

Mat McLachlan (32) is an editor and journalist who has written for some of Australia’s leading travel and tourism titles. He has spent the past decade researching his passion, the Australian experience in times of war, and walking in the footsteps of the ANZACS in France, Belgium, Gallipoli, Vietnam and Korea. Walking with the ANZACS is his first book.

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Published 11/08/2008.