What happened at Fromelles was little known in Australia during the war. Officially, the battle was described as some "raids". Awareness of the disaster remained limited until recently.
The locals of Fromelles however have a close association with Australians. Fromelles is one of the locations of Australia's heaviest loses during the Great War, and the local population are eternally grateful of the ultimate sacrifice made by the Diggers from the other side of the world to liberate France.
In this British-directed catastrophe 5,533 Australians became casualties in 24 hours. It was surely the most tragic day in Australian history and yet interestingly Fromelles is not honoured on the National or any State Memorial in Australia.
The Australian attack here was their first serious battle in France, and the only one in which they achieved no success.
The Australian 5th Division, along with the 61st British (South Midland) Division, attacked here on 19 July 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 Australians formed up for a major attack on the German lines towards a bulge, or ‘salient’, in the enemy line called the ‘Sugar Loaf’. But rain delayed the operation which finally took place at different times after 5.30 pm on 19 July 1916 and in broad daylight.
What followed was a complete disaster.
As one of them wrote, they had been "mown down in the flicker of an eyelid, like great rows of teeth knocked from a comb" by machine-gun bullets "swishing in a flat crisscrossed lattice of death". Revered military historian Charles Bean described it as ‘one of the bravest and most hopeless assaults ever undertaken by the Australian Imperial Force.’
Hundreds of wounded and dying men lay out in the fields where VC Corner and the Australian Memorial Park now stand. The approach trenches to the front line were packed with wounded and at the Regimental Aid Posts doctors worked frantically to cope with the deluge.
For three days and nights men ventured into no-man’s land, despite potential enemy fire, to bring in the wounded paying them, in Charles Bean’s words, ‘that magnificent tribute of devotion which the Australian soldier never failed to pay to his mates’. The scene was a dreadful one, particulary opposite the ‘Sugar Loaf’ where the wounded could be seen moving, especially one man, ‘blinded and distraught’, who kept walking in circles, falling and walking on again. Eventually, along with other wounded, the enemy shot him dead.
Prominent in his efforts to save the wounded was Sergeant Simon Fraser, 57th Battalion, of Byaduk, Victoria. In a letter, a lengthy extract of which Charles Bean quoted in his official history, Fraser described something of the process of bringing in the wounded in the face of the enemy at Fromelles. The Germans, he felt, treated them fairly well although ‘a few were shot at the work’. It was no easy task picking up and carrying a man on one’s back particularly if he had a serious wound or a broken limb. Where no stretcher was available to hoist a man up it was necessary to lie down, manoeuvre him onto your shoulders and then stand up in full view of the enemy and possible flying bullets. Fraser described the cries of the wounded and how impossible it was for those who heard them not to respond despite the danger to the rescuers’ own lives.
Fraser wrote of one man 'I could not lift him on my back; but I managed to get him into an old trench and told him to lie quiet while I got a stretcher. Then another man … sang out ‘Don’t forget me cobber’. I went in and got four volunteers with stretchers and we got both men in safely.'
Fraser, later promoted to the rank of Lieutenant was killed in action at Bullecourt on 11 May 1917 with the 58th Battalion.
The bravery of those who went out to rescue the wounded of Fromelles is commemorated at the Australian Memorial Park. In the middle of the Park is a statue, sculpted by Peter Corlett of Melbourne, and was erected in 1998. It depicts Sergeant Simon Fraser with a wounded man of the 60th Battalion on his shoulders, carrying him to safety and the work is appropriately entitled ‘Cobbers’.
The following link is to a short video of my visit to VC Corner Cemetery and The Australian Memorial Park at Fromelles. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew5lsprUIms
~ FTF Honours - winglen ~
WP1 - Accessible 10am to 5pm daily except Christmas Day. On Panel 165 find the name of a member of the 58th Battalion mentioned in the cache description.
A = # of letters in the surname 9 places above.
B = # of letters in the surname to the left.
C = # of letters in the surname 9 places below.
D = # of letters in the surname above.
E = # of letters in the surname of the reference point.
F = # of letters in the surname 3 places above.
S35 18.(A-1)(B-2)(B-A) E149 05.(D+2)(F-1)(E-1)
WP2 - Nearby this location you will find the name of the same member of the 58th Battalion and a nano container containing the final coordinates.
The cache is a 200ml Systema container with no room for swaps. Bring your own pen!