This was just one field and chapter of the Somme, conducted on the 19th and 20th of July 1916 south of the Somme front about the town of Fromelles. Worth adding to this list for two reasons. The first relates to the current time: there had long been rumours of a mass grave for Allied fatalities at Fromelles and in 2007 a geographic survey was carried out to test the rumours and what seems to be the fabled mass grave was found. Closer inspection turned up war relics and it’s now believed around 400 men were buried here so this is an active site. The second reason is that the battle itself was a huge and shameful loss and an important lesson for humanity in general.

On with an explanation of the second reason: This was the first battle outing on the Western Front of the Australian Imperial Force and was planned to distract German forces away from the Somme. In these 24 hours the Allies gained no ground and around 7,000 men were killed, wounded or captured, more than 5,000 of them Australian. The Allied plan was the same as many others at that time - bombard the Germans with artillery fire then rush their line with infantry. The main problem in this instance was that there were no trenches in the German second line so men remained exposed and were cut down by machine gun fire. In a truly magnificent cock up orders for a second attempt were given then retracted without telling all the Australian forces and they went over the top alone. Not able to hold the trench-less positions, more men feel to the heavy machine gun fire during the retreat. Australian losses on that day were more than they had sustained in a 24 hour period, ever.

BBC Report about the discovery of the mass grave.

Written by  Anthony Harrison.

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