Our Darkest Day Read online

  Towards the end of the dig, Tim Whitford was one of the last outside the GUARD team to again see the exposed remains before they were covered back over.

  In Pits 4 and 5 it is a scene of abject horror. Men have been thrown in on top of each other without any care or reverence. There are men lying in grotesque positions. One man has been thrown in and is lying unnaturally against the side of the pit wall. Another has been hoiked in. These men are not at rest. If we leave them like that it is a travesty. And if anyone believes anything different they should come here, get off their chesterfields and come here.

  The sight of these remains changed Tim’s views on the next steps for the remains from a flexible preference for exhumation, identification and individual reburial to a position where he was absolutely convinced and deeply passionate that the men were not resting in peace and deserved nothing less than exhumation, identification and individual reburial.

  Tony Pollard was similarly affected:

  You cannot have the moral wherewithal to look for these guys, find them, then see what condition they’re in and how they’ve been buried and then say, well that’s adequate, we know where they are.

  You would have to have the heart of most solid granite and I don’t care whether you’re religious or not – and I’m pretty a-religious – but I look into those pits and I think you boys deserve better than this!

  Three rifle volleys are fired as a gesture of remembrance during the Cemetery Dedication Ceremony, 19 July 2010 (PHOTO COURTESY OF CWGC)

  Mike O’Brien arranged for a brief but solemn closing ceremony on the site. The local equivalent of the RSL provided a wonderfully colourful guard of honour in their dress uniforms and carrying their regimental colours. The gendarmerie and the French, Australian and British Armies sent representatives. The GUARD team, led by Tony Pollard, stood proudly in the crowd. The guest of honour, Mme Marie-Paule Demassiet, the owner of the land on which the graves stood, took her seat in front. The Mayor of Fromelles, Monsieur Hubert Huchette, said that the people of Fromelles remembered and honoured the sacrifices of the Australian and British troops who fought to save their liberty. He promised that the memory would be passed on to future generations and never forgotten.

  It was after the ceremony had concluded that the most emotional moment of the day occurred. While most people were mingling, and Lambis and Tim were being interviewed by the TV crews present, Mme Demassiet quietly approached Mike O’Brien. Without any fanfare she said she felt she no longer owned the land and that it now belonged to ‘les soldats’ (the soldiers who lay in it). Her gift lent strength to the logic of exhuming the remains in the graves at Pheasant Wood and reburying them in a new cemetery on the site.

  In another moment that Lambis had been anticipating for years the sculptor, Peter Corlett, made a second casting of his evocative bronze work, Cobbers, that has graced the Australian Memorial Park outside Fromelles since July 1998. On the 92nd anniversary of the Battle of Fromelles, the replica was unveiled on the corner of St Kilda Road and Domain Road.

  Following the discovery of the mass graves at Pheasant Wood, the British and Australian governments set up a jointly funded body, the Fromelles Management Board, to recover, identify and re-inter the bodies. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission acted as its agent and provided day-to-day project management building the Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery between 2009 and 2010. The inaugural reburial – watched by around 400 people from the viewing area outside the cemetery walls and attended by representatives from Australia, France and the UK – took place on 30 January 2010.

  The Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery seen from above on the morning of the Cemetery Dedication Ceremony, 19 July 2010 (PHOTO COURTESY CWGC)

  The first new CWGC cemetery in more than 50 years, the Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery contains the graves of the 250 British and Australian soldiers who were reburied with full military honours in a series of funeral services between January and February 2010. Care was taken that each body be reburied beside the same soldier he had laid next to for 93 years.

  The original location of the mass graves, which was offered as a possible site for the cemetery by Mme Demassiet, proved to be too prone to flooding. Instead, a nearby location was chosen about 120 metres to the southwest of the village but on a higher piece of land.

  Designed by CWGC architect Barry Edwards, the hexagonal cemetery incorporates radial rows of headstones leading towards a raised Cross of Sacrifice on its southern side. The cross is visible from the nearby VC Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial and, in turn, the Fromelles battlefield can be seen from the Cross’s elevated terrace. The construction costs for the new cemetery were covered by funding from CWGC member countries while the funding for the excavations, DNA analysis and reburial ceremonies was shared equally by the British and Australian governments.

  Archaeologists from Oxford Archaeology working with LGC Forensics were involved in the project to indentify the soldiers. British and Australian governments agreed in August 2009 that all remains would be tested for DNA samples; however, in some cases only small amounts of DNA have been found and thus there is potential for remains to go unidentified. The forensics team aim to retrieve viable Y and mitochondrial samples from the remains and trace maternal and paternal ancestors. At least two attempts at DNA testing will be made on the exhumed remains.

  Families who registered their ancestral connections to the missing soldiers have also been assisting teams in Australia and the UK to create family trees. Over 2000 relatives were invited to provide genetic tissue to further aid efforts to identify the unknown. Personal facts about unidentified soldiers such as physical traits and wounds, medical and army records will also be used to enhance the process of identification. On occasion that personal objects are recovered with soldier remains they can also be used and potentially returned to the families.

  The first successful identifications of the 250 men re-interred in the cemetery were announced on 17 March 2010. Of these, 75 Australians had been identified by name, a further 128 men were confirmed as Australian, three as British, and 44 remain with no nationality or other identification established. A second identity board was held in May 2010, announcing that a further 19 Australian soldiers had been identified by name, with two more Australian identifications being announced on 7 July 2010, including Lieutenant-Colonel Ignatius Bertram Norris, who commanded the 53rd Battalion in the fateful attack.

  On 19 July 2010, the 94th anniversary of the Battle of Fromelles, the official opening and dedication of the Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery took place with one final burial. At last the missing Diggers of that tragic battle had their final resting place.

  The identification board reconvened in London on 4 April 2011. The identities of an additional 14 Australian soldiers were confirmed, bringing the total of identified Australian soldiers to 110. The revised number of unnamed soldiers stands at 100 Australian and two British; the nationality of 38 are unknown. Further boards will convene annually until 2014.

  Identified soldiers March 2010 (75):

  Pte Arnott Colin Henry #1968 30th Battalion

  Pte Balkin Michael #4254 54th Battalion

  Pte Barrett Rossiter Alfred #3031 55th Battalion

  L/Cpl Bennett Allan #1602 32nd Battalion

  Pte Benson George Verner #840 30th Battalion

  Cpl Bolt Herbert Thomas #3009 55th Battalion

  Pte Bourke Harold John #1682 30th Battalion

  Pte Brumm Norman Leslie #1470 29th Battalion

  Pte Burney Edward Nason #1226 32nd Battalion

  Lt Burns Robert David #16 14th Machine Gun Company

  Pte Clingan Alexander Stanley #3168 53rd Battalion

  Pte Corigliano Maurice #2011 32nd Battalion

  Pte Cosgriff Thomas Joseph #2150 59th Battalion

  Pte Cressy Henry Alfred (Harry) #4179 54th Battalion

  Pte Cuckson William Joseph #3032 54th Battalion

  Pte Cullen William #623 31
st Battalion

  Pte Dibben Edwin Henry #4183 54th Battalion

  Pte Dunstan Benedict John Arthur #4483 54th Battalion

  Pte Dyson Fred Arthur #3560 54th Battalion

  Pte Esam Harold #391 31st Battalion

  Pte Fahey Patrick William #3060 55th Battalion

  Pte Farlow Samuel #80 29th Battalion

  Pte Fenwick Robert Gladstone #882 30th Battalion

  Cpl Green Robert Courtney #1274 32nd Battalion

  Pte Griffiths Gilbert Allen #1276 32nd Battalion

  Pte Hale Norman Arthur #702 31st Battalion

  Pte Hart Leslie William #865 32nd Battalion

  Pte Higgins William Bruce #196 30th Battalion

  Pte Holliday Clifford Dawson #4801 54th Battalion

  Pte Holmes Arnold #955 32nd Battalion

  Pte Irving Allan William James #1528 32nd Battalion

  Pte James Frederick #3347 14th Machine Gun Company

  L/Sgt Jentsch Ernest Augustus #3331 53rd Battalion

  Pte Johnston Cyril Donald #4315 54th Battalion

  Cpl Kendall Hassell Marsden Harding #365 31st Battalion

  Pte Lawlor Daniel Michael #126 32nd Battalion

  Pte Leister Leslie #4840 55th Battalion

  Pte Loader Frank Oliver #2064 32nd Battalion

  Pte Lucre George Henry #467 30th Battalion

  Pte Mayer Henry #2873 55th Battalion

  Sgt McDowell Athol Halliday #3194 60th Battalion

  Pte McKenzie Alexander (Alec) McGregor #1797a 32nd Battalion

  Lt Mendelsohn Berrol 55th Battalion

  Lt Mitchell Alan 30th Battalion

  Pte Momplhait Alfred Victor #3282 32nd Battalion

  Pte Moore William #3393 53rd Battalion

  Pte Morey Gilbert Major #3366 53rd Battalion

  Pte Morgan (AKA Colin Meyers) Cecil #2055 31st Battalion

  Pte Morley (AKA William John Howard) John #258 31st Battalion

  2nd Lt Parker John #572 30th Battalion

  Pte Pflaum Raymond Holstien #161 31st Battalion

  Pte Pheasant Walter #2462 54th Battalion

  Pte Pollard Herbert George #324 29th Battalion

  Pte Pretty Walter Hainsworth #1556 32nd Battalion

  Pte Randall Howard James #1558 32nd Battalion

  Pte Rawlings Frederick #916 31st Battalion

  Sgt Reid James Alexander #335 29th Battalion

  Pte Ridler Samuel James Thomas #1036 32nd Battalion

  Pte Ronson William #3102 53rd Battalion

  Pte Ross James Hugh #1216 29th Battalion

  Acting Sgt Ryan William Polding #1520 31st Battalion

  Major Sampson Victor Horatio Buller 53rd Battalion

  Pte Scott Robert Grieve Moncrieff #1046 32nd Battalion

  Pte Simon Victor George #1516 32nd Battalion

  Pte Stead Joseph Raymond #187 32nd Battalion

  Cpl Steed Frank #755 30th Battalion

  Pte Tisbury Charles Frederick #1623 30th Battalion

  Pte Tucker William Charles #1581 32nd Battalion

  Pte Turner John #767 30th Battalion

  Pte Vincent Lawrence Stanley#777 30th Battalion

  Pte Weir Arthur Joseph #358 29th Battalion

  Pte Wildman (AKA Bradney) Reginald Raymond #1888 54th Battalion

  Pte Willis Henry Victor #983 31st Battalion

  Pte Wilson Eric Robert #4887 53rd Battalion

  Pte Wilson Samuel Charles #3534 53rd Battalion

  Identified soldiers May 2010 (19):

  Pte Bishop Raymond Charles #3761 55th Battalion

  Lt Chinner Eric Harding 32nd Battalion

  Pte Croft George #2006 30th Battalion

  Pte Croker Harry # 2010 30th Battalion

  Pte Dewar Robert Arthur #3047 55th Battalion

  Pte Harriott Laurence #4509 54th Battalion

  Pte Hawcroft Charles Henry #188 30th Battalion

  Pte Irvin David George #4807 54th Battalion

  Pte McLean Hughie #293 32nd Battalion

  Pte Nevill Joseph Howard #269 31st Battalion

  L/Cpl Pagan George #2906 54th Battalion

  Pte Parry Frederick #320 29th Battalion

  2nd Lt Pratt Albert Ernest #3099 53rd Battalion

  Pte Spence Malcolm #4614 30th Battalion

  Pte Stalgis Gregory Francis #2898 14th Machine Gun Company

  Pte Verpillot Aime #4885 53rd Battalion

  Pte Wallis (Wailes) Joseph Patrick #4617 54th Battalion

  Pte Webb Thomas Richard #2910 60th Battalion

  Pte Wilkin Ernest Frank #1314 29th Battalion

  Identified soldiers July 2010 (2):

  Lt Col Norris Ignatius Bertram 53rd Battalion

  Pte Pitt Harold Charles #595 32nd Battalion

  Identified soldiers April 2011 (14):

  Pte Bromley Albert Clive #4744 53rd Battalion

  L/Cpl Craigie William Andrew #4420 54th Battalion

  Cpl Fletcher Frederick #3310 55th Battalion

  Pte Geason Percy #4811 55th Battalion

  Pte Haslam Herbert James #1390 29th Battalion

  Pte Hepple Matthew #2056 30th Battalion

  Pte Hungerford George #3327 53rd Battalion

  Cpl Livingston David Frederick #1168 29th Battalion

  Cpl Murray Charles William #1590 30th Battalion

  Pte Reid Maurice Leslie #3256 32nd Battalion

  Pte Russell Arthur #4299 54th Battalion

  Pte Ryan Daniel Bernard #743 30th Battalion

  Cpt Sheridan Thomas Francis 29th Battalion

  Pte Walsh Leslie Gordon #311 31st Battalion

  Introduction

  BRAVE BLOOD

  Never let me hear that brave blood has been shed in vain; it sends

  an imperious challenge down through all the generations.

  SIR WALTER SCOTT

  It is a land sown with sadness and suffering and sacrifice. Although almost 100 years have passed since the horrors, the memories and the spirits linger here.

  The day is dull and grey and the cold hangs like a melancholy mantle over the flat, freshly ploughed fields. A bitter wind swirls and spits the rain into my face. But the scene is mesmerising and soon the cold and the rain seem to recede and another picture emerges like a slow dissolve in a movie.

  I am standing on the battlefield at Fromelles in French Flanders. It has long been restored to farmlands. The bomb craters and the death and destruction have been ploughed over. The homes and the church and the buildings have been rebuilt. But the memories remain.

  The longer I look out over the fields, the clearer the picture becomes. In July 1916 – the European summer – this was part of the line gouged across Europe where two armies faced each other locked in a death struggle. I am standing in the Australian lines. We are hunkered down behind our two-metre high parapet of sandbags in a trench full of young men, brimming with promise and potential. They show no outward fear but their eyes betray them. All around the air is foul with cordite and death and menace. The noise is so pervasive you can feel it in your bones and the concussive force of the massive artillery shells raining down from both sides reinforces the ever-present risk of random death or mutilation. Yet the men wait for their moment of truth with a pent-up kinetic energy, straining like dogs on the lead as they count down the minutes until the order to go over the top. For many this is their first taste of battle. For all, it is the first time they have seen action in France, or have taken part in what has already become known as ‘trench warfare’. They are scared but each is cocooned in the invincibility of youth and is keen to prove his manhood in front of his mates.

  Before us no-man’s land stretches as much as 300 metres across the flat Flanders clay. On the other side of this killing field, the enemy waits. He knows we are coming. He holds the high ground and he has seen us prepare for this attack. He has held this position for almost two years now and his defences are intricate and almost impregnable – concrete bunkers and machine-gun nests, protected by thick skeins of barbed wire and massive waves of sandbags. Beyond the ridge b
ehind him, his artillery lurks ready to unleash a hell of lethal metal against the fragile humanity facing it.

  The Diggers will have to cross no-man’s land, running the gauntlet of the machine guns and the artillery before they can come to grips with the Germans manning the trenches opposite them. There is no cover there, only the scattered shelter of craters torn from the earth as the projectiles, some as big as car engines, pound into the soil. The Germans have positioned their machine guns with lethal efficiency, especially at the jutting headland known as the Sugar Loaf where they can fire to both sides along the killing field, as well as to the front.

  Australian Sculptor Peter Corlett’s wonderful Cobbers statue, at the Australian Memorial Park at Fromelles, depicts the heroic rescues carried out by Sergeant Simon Fraser of the 57th Battalion. The statue looks across from the German front line toward the Australian front line over the deadly open ground of no-man’s land. (PATRICK LINDSAY PHOTO)

  Even before they make their charge, the Australian casualties are mounting. The German artillery gunners have the range of the Australian trenches and here and there men fall, luckless victims of the hail of shrapnel and jagged chunks of high-explosive metal. In places, whole sections of trenches and the men sheltering in them are blown into small pieces and tossed high into the air.

  But the Diggers have faith in their leaders. They’ve been told that their artillery will smash the German defences, tearing open the barbed wire and the bunkers and killing the defenders or sending them fleeing.

  One of their most trusted chiefs is with them in the front lines and he said: ‘Boys, you won’t find a German in the trenches when you get there’.

  He was wrong. And the Diggers were wrong to place their faith in the men who sent them out on this attack.