In April and May 1917, the village of Bullecourt, near Arras, in the north of France, was the scene of one of the biggest bloodbaths of the First World War. The ground of the former battlefield still retains the bodies of hundreds of missing Australian, British and German soldiers...

The memory of the deadly combat would have remained buried as well were it not for the efforts of a couple of schoolteachers who took an interest in the ordeal of these soldiers in the 1980s.

For more than three decades, Claude and Colette Durand have gathered dozens of accounts of Australian veterans which now allow us to get a clearer picture of the horror that was the battle of Bullecourt. In the process, they formed a long-lasting bond with Australia about the sacrifice of these men who came from the ends of the earth.

But the book also shows the hidden face of the commemorative events that mark the centenary of World War 1, as the official tributes mask a shadier reality.

(The extended version is only available on tablets iPad)