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In early 1917 the Germans carried out a withdrawal from the Somme, scene of a major Allied offensive the previous year, to a series of heavily fortified positions to the east, known by the Allies as the Hindenburg Line.
While the Gallipoli Campaign was still being fought, the landing was already becoming etched into the minds of many Australians and New Zealanders.
The Sir John Monash Centre was opened in 2018 and is set on the grounds of the Villers-Bretonneux Cemetery in northern France adjacent to the Australian National Memorial.
The German Spring Offensive comprised three major attacks launched on the Western Front in March, April and May 1918.
On 6 June 1944, D-Day, thousands of British, Canadian, French and United States paratroopers began landing behind the invasion beaches to secure the allied flanks, destroy artillery positions and seize and hold vital junctions and causeways until infantry and armour could make their way inland.
The Japanese ceasefire took effect on 15 August 1945, following the threat of invasion and Allied bombings. The official surrender ceremony, however, took place on 2 September 1945 on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
On 7 May 1945 Germany signed an unconditional surrender on all fronts. The surrender took effect from midnight 8–9 May, with 8 May declared Victory in Europe (VE) Day. This brought an end to the war against Germany and her European allies that had spread across Europe, the Middle East and the Atlantic Ocean, lasting for five years and eight months. However, the war in the Pacific continued until Japan surrendered in August that year.
Australia's involvement in East Timor (later Timor-Leste) from the Second World War to the International Stablisation Force established in 2006.
The Battle of Milne Bay was the Allies’ first defeat of Japanese forces on land during the Second World War.
To meet a possible threat from Japan, Australian personnel, in the form of three RAAF squadrons had been based in Malaya and Singapore since 1940. They were followed in 1941 by an additional RAAF Squadron and the Australian 8th Division and supporting units. On 8 December 1941 the Japanese invaded the Malayan peninsula, marking the beginning of the Malayan Campaign.