Australians can honour the diggers who helped change the course of World War I by supporting the current generation of servicemen and women, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has told a dawn service in France.
Mr Turnbull, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and Prince Charles paid tribute to the Australians who retook the Western Front town of Villers-Bretonneux from German forces in a ferocious battle 100 years ago.
"As dawn broke at this moment a century ago, victory appeared certain," Mr Turnbull said at the Australian War Memorial in France where 8000 people paused to remember the battle on April 25, 1918.
The stunning victory that changed the course of the war on the third anniversary of Anzac Day came at a terrible cost, with bodies from two Australian battalions left tangled in the German wire.
The sacrifice of those young men fighting so far from their homes was not lost on the crowd on the grassy hill just outside the town, where there were 2500 casualties from 3900 men.
Tears welled in the crowd as heartbreaking portraits of just some of the young men killed in WWI were projected onto the tower as their names and ages were read out.
Mr Turnbull said the best way to honour the courage and sacrifice of the diggers of WWI was to support the servicemen and women, the veterans and the families of today.
The Australian flag still flew in Villers-Bretonneux, with kangaroos guarding the town hall, and the words "never forget Australia" emblazoned on a local school.
Mr Philippe said the children of the town were taught the phrase "lest we forget" in school, so important was their link to Australia.
In WWI, 313,000 Australians volunteered and one in six never made it home, he said.
"Wherever the French, English and Americans were, the Australians were too," he said.
"A young nation coming to the aid of old nations."
The Prince of Wales said the traits displayed by Australian troops on the battlefields of northern France helped forge a nation, as those who survived returned to build their lives.
"They would remember forever their many mates, their fellow diggers they left behind here and before in places like Gallipoli and whose spirit will forever be part of Australia's identity," Prince Charles said.
Josh Brennan, 15, is one of the young generation who will remember.
He travelled from Hobart to be on the Western Front in the footsteps of of his great grandfather.
"He was an English soldier, fought with the Grenadier Guards and the British army, returned from the war and came to Australia," Josh told AAP.
Josh did a video project that won him a competition to go to France and Belgium with other Tasmanian students.
He said the thing that most struck him about soldiers like his ancestor was how normal they were.
"When he joined the Grenadier Guards they wore kilts," Josh said.
"But since there were quite a few people he had to borrow a kilt from a different regiment to send a photo back to his girlfriend back in England.
"At the end of the day these brave men were just like everyone else."
