Fromelles
Fromelles can be found about six miles west of Lille and five miles south of Armentieres. It can be visited easily by those using Ieper or Arras as a base for battlefield touring.
Map of Fromelles area
The Australians have a close association with Fromelles, as this is one of the sites where they lost heavily during the Great War. The Australian 5th Division, along with the 61st British (South Midland) Division, attacked here on July the 19th, 1916. At this time, the main Somme battles were raging around 40 miles to the south of Fromelles, and the intention was to make a feint here to prevent the Germans from bringing reinforcements to the Somme. Originally an artillery barrage only was planned, but then an infantry assualt was also agreed. The Australian attack here was their first serious battle in France, and the only one in whcih they achieved no success.
Fromelles Australian Memorial Park
This is located about a mile to the north-east of Fromelles itself, and can be reached by following the D22 from the village. It is located on the right-hand side of the road as you travel north, and is a fairly small area set in a cornfield.
Fromelles Australian Memorial Park
The Park is situated on the German front line position which was attacked by the Australians on July the 19th, 1916. This area was captured and held overnight, but the next day the Australians had to retire, and the whole attack was a failure, with great loss of life. An official communication from GHQ in France referred to this action in the following terms: "South of Armentieres we carried out some important raids, on a front of two miles, in which Australian troops took part. About 140 German prisoners were taken". German newspaper reports rightly suggested the failure here: "Considerable British (sic) forces attacked our positions north and west of Fromelles. They were repulsed, and wherever they succeeded in penetrating our trenches they were ejected by counter-attacks, in which we captured over 300 prisoners, among them being some officers". In fact, the 5th Australian Division lost more than five and a half thousand men in the attack.
At the front of the Park is an information board giving the story of the attack and also showing a montage of wartime aerial photographs, on which the site of the Park is marked.
Information board at Fromelles Australian Memorial Park
There is also a Ross Bastiaan bronze relief here. These are found at a number of sites of significance to the Australians, such as Pozieres on the Somme and Passchendaele in Flanders. Again, this gives some information on the actions here, as well as a relief map of the area (not orientated with north to the top).
Ross Bastiaan Bronze at Fromelles Australian Memorial Park
In the middle of the Park stands a bronze statue of an Australian soldier bringing in a wounded comrade. The statue is entitled " Cobbers", was sculpted by Peter Corlett and was unveiled in 1998.
The "Cobbers" statue in the Memorial Park
Beneath the statue is a plaque stating what the statue depicts; Sergeant Simon Fraser of the 57th Battalion whose company brought in many wounded men from the battlefield here.
The plaque beneath the 'Cobbers' statue
There are many Great War bunkers scattered around the battlefields in this area, but here at the Australian Memorial Park at Fromelles there are several within a very small area. The pictures below show the bunkers at the front and in the middle of the park.
The bunkers at the front (left picture) and middle (right picture) of the Memorial Park
The importance of concrete fortifications by this stage of the War is underlined by the concentration of bunkers here. The Holts in their Battlefield Guide to the Western Front - North report that one regiment of the 61st Division had 75 concrete protected positions in front of it, and they were largely undamaged by the preliminary bombardment. At the rear of the Park is another bunker - well preserved and with more standing above current ground level than the others.
Bunker at the rear of the Australian Memorial Park
VC Corner Cemetery
Just a short distance from the Memorial Park, continuing north on the D22, is VC Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial. This is an interesting and unusual cemetery, for several reasons. Firstly, it is the only wholly Australian cemetery in France, and the name at the entrance way reflects this (shown below).
The name itself is also interesting - "VC Corner". There was a spot on the battlefields, about another three-quarters of a mile north-east, which was known as VC Corner. Today this can be found where the D175 crosses the D171 - not far from Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery (see further down on this page). The origin of the name VC Corner (the cemetery itself is not at VC Corner) probably dates from May 1915 - with four VCs being won on the 9th of May, 1915, and another on the 16th of May. However, the awards do not relate directly to action near the Cemetery itself, and the origin of the name remains unclear.
Perhaps the most interesting point about this cemetery is that there are no headstones here. The plan of the cemetery on the Commonwealth Wargraves Commission website shows a regular layout of graves, in four plots with 10 graves in each of the rows within each of these plots. There are 410 graves here, but when the bodies were recovered from the battlefield at Fromelles, which only happened more than two years later, after the Armistice, none could be identified.
Rather than mark these graves with the usual "known Unto God" headstones for unidentified soldiers, the names of all the Australian soldiers killed in the Fromelles attack but with no known grave were instead inscribed on the wall at the rear of the cemetery. Over the centre of the plots of graves on each side of the cemetery is a large stone cross inlaid in the lawn, as shown below.
Cross in the lawn marks unknown burials at VC Corner Cemetery
The Memorial to the Australian Missing of Fromelles covers stone tablets in the wall at the rear, behind the Cross of Sacrifice, and there are 1294 names inscribed here. Simple arithmetic shows that, if 410 of these men are buried here, there must be another 884 who are either buried elsewhere in "Unknown" graves, or else whose bodies were destroyed during the fighting, or have never been recovered.
VC Corner Cemetery, and the commemorative inscription (right)
As with other memorials to the missing, one can look at the names listed on one panel, and see other names fade into the distance, bringing a sense of proportion of losses during the war. This is one memorial, for the soldiers of one nation who took part in an attack that lasted just two days - a "sideshow" in the parlance of the time, not a main event. And these names are those of have no kn own graves, not all who died in the battle. And yet - all these names, nearly 1300 of them - and behind every one is a man's story, and a family who grieved many thousands of miles away on the other side of the world.
Names on the memorial at VC Corner Cemetery
Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery
This cemetery can be found by following the road north-west from VC Corner Cemetery and taking the D175 turn to the right shortly after the road crosses a stream - Layes Brook, which was a feature of the 1916 battlefield near Fromelles, and also important earlier in the War and further south near Neuve Chapelle. It is reached by a path that crosses a moat and one enters the cemetery through a small entrance house. The moat runs all around the cemetery, and a bench at the rear left is a good spot to sit and enjoy the tranquility here. Ducks live in the moat and can be seen wandering among the graves here.
Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery
Started very early in the War, in October 1914, this cemetery was used until July 1915, and at the time of the Armistice contained just 123 burials. After the Armistice more burials were brought here, from other small cemeteries and the battlefields nearby, including Aubers Ridge, Loos and also Fromelles.
Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery
These later graves more than doubled the total number of burials here; there are now 356 burials here, with 207 of these unknown. Many of the graves of unknown soldiers from the Great War in war cemeteries simply state "A Soldier of the Great War: Known Unto God". Occasionally there was sufficient information to identify the unit the soldier had served with, in which case this was included on his headstone, or else his rank or just the fact he was an officer (as with this grave at Le Trou, shown below).
Headstone of an unknown British officer at Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery
There are five special memorials to men known or believed to be buried here, and these are located at the rear of the cemetery. The cemetery register and the CWGC website record one French burial here; in fact there are two - one known and one unknown burial. They are both shown on the cemetery plan on the CWGC website.
Memorial to Captain Paul Kennedy
Further to the south, in fact just outside the village of Fromelles, and again on the D22 heading north out of the village is one of many private memorials on the Western Front. This one was erected to commemorate the memory of Captain Paul Adrian Kennedy, of the 4th Rifle Brigade, who was killed during the battle of Aubers Ridge whilst attached to the 2nd Rifle Brigade.
Private memorial to Captain Paul Kennedy
Captain Kennedy has no known grave, and is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing, which is located in Belgium but not far north of here. The memorial to Captain Kennedy also commemorates three of his fellow officers as well as all the others who fell at Aubers Ridge on the 9th of May 1915.
Inscription at the base of Captain Kennedy's memorial
The other three officers mentioned on the memorial are Lieutenants Talbot Stanhope and Edward Liegh, and Second Lientenant The Honourable Henry Hardinge. Like Kennedy, they have no known graves and like him they are commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial.
Just a little further south on the same road is another private memorial, this time to Sergeant Kenneth Bramble, a pilot in the Second World War, who was shot down in his Spitfire near here.
Memorial to World War Two Pilot Kenneth Bramble
From here, a road leads west towards Aubers (the D141, Route D'Aubers), and after about 500 yards there is a large bunker to the north side of the road. This is sometimes known as the 'Hitler bunker', as Hitler is supposed to have visited this spot in 1940. He fought in this area in the Great War. This bunker was, as a sign in front states, in the 5th German line during the battle of Fromelles.
The 'Hitler Bunker' - built by 4th Field Pioneers (inscription, right)
Sources:
Major & Mrs Holt: Battlefield Guide to the Western Front - North
Commonwealths Wargraves Commission website