The Old Digger…. Mount St.Quentin, France
This figure stands solidly atop a plinth put in place as a memorial to the Australian 2nd Division in recognition of their achievement in taking what was considered an impregnable ‘fortress’ from the Germans on 29th August, 1918.
The original sculpture was of an Australian soldier symbolically bayoneting a German eagle but this disappeared during the German occupation in the Second World War. The memorial was not otherwise damaged at that time and it stands today beside a busy main road with houses as its neighbours.
The gently rising slope across open farmland is as it was when the 2nd Division assaulted the heights of Mt. St.Quentin at top right.