On 28 August 1914, the retreating French army passed through Péronne. Evacuated by its inhabitants in 1916, the town was shelled by the French artillery during the Battle of the Somme. With the arrival of the British peace returned to Péronne, the front line having shifted further east.

Péronne was abandoned by the Germans in March 1917 when they withdrew eastwards to the Hindenburg line.
The town was next occupied by the British, who were driven out by the German offensive in March 1918. When the town was liberated by the Australians in September it consisted of nothing but ruins.

The memorial to the 2nd Australian Division

The original monument showed a soldier pinning an eagle to the ground with his bayonet. Dismantled by the Germans in the Second World War, it was replaced in September 1971 with a less belligerent statue; commemorative plaque presented by Ross Bastiaan.