Fromelles

‘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.’

July 2016 marks the centenary of the Battle of Fromelles – Australia’s worst-ever military defeat. On 19 July 1916, a British commander ordered 7000 Australian soldiers to launch an attack on the German lines close to the village of Fromelles in northern France. Underprepared and outnumbered, the diggers suffered 5533 casualties in one night. Almost 2000 men lay dead – more than in the Boer, Korean
and Vietnam wars combined. The fate of the many soldiers that broke through enemy lines remained unknown for decades, until a group of amateur historians set out to find the missing diggers of Fromelles.

Patrick Lindsay’s evocative and enthralling account takes you back to the killing fields of northern France. Fromelles: Our Darkest Day retells the story of the fateful battle and the people behind it, and details the passionate and determined quest to find the missing soldiers, and to give them their final, dignified resting place.

This updated edition includes material on the discovery of the Fromelles mass graves, and on the subsequent excavation, recovery, identification and re-interment of soldiers at Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery, with a full list of names of missing and identified soldiers.

‘Fromelles may be the most tragic battlefield in Australia’s history.’ LES CARLYON