Unearthing War's Tragic Legacy

Illawarra Mercury

Monday October 1, 2007

By MICHELLE HOCTOR

ALBION Park's Michael Molkentin will be among those attending a memorial service in Belgium this week for five World War I Diggers.

The soldiers were killed in the battle of Passchendaele, the costliest campaign of Australia's bloodiest year in the war, 1917. In less than six weeks, more than 8000 Australians were killed.

The remains were recovered in September last year. Two, Private John Hunter of Queensland and Sergeant George Calder of Victoria, have since been identified.

Mr Molkentin will join a team of film-makers who are producing a documentary about the Australian 3rd Division that was blooded at the Battle of Messines on June 7, 1917.

The expedition was mounted by Britain's Ministry of Defence and Mr Molkentin was appointed as an archival researcher, chosen specifically for his research of the division.

He travelled to Belgium in July when many artefacts, belonging to both Australian and German soldiers, were unearthed from the buried trenches.

"The diggings changed hands during the fighting, which is represented in the archaeology.

"When the trench was occupied by the Germans, a 90,000 pound mine was exploded after being planted by the British, who tunnelled under the trench. It was then that the Australian 3rd Division came in," Mr Molkentin said.

He said the diggings didn't just tell the story of the fighting, but also of the Belgian people left homeless after their houses were shelled.

"We excavated part of a house that was thrown into the air and landed upside down by a mine explosion," he said.

Mr Molkentin, a history teacher at Shellharbour Anglican College, will return to Belgium today for the funeral of the Diggers, while helping to complete the documentary.

He is proving to be a jet-setting historian, having just returned from the two-week digging of a World War II air raid shelter in Adelaide.

© 2007 Illawarra Mercury

Back to News Index | Back to Home