Report by FFFAIF Vice President Jim Munro:
More than 100 FFFAIF members and visitors with an interest in the service and sacrifice of the “Diggers” of the AIF attended the inaugural Regional Meeting of the FFFAIF held at Bathurst RSL in rural New South Wales on Sunday, 15 March to focus on the “missing soldiers“ from the Battle of Fromelles of 19-20 July 1916.
FFFAIF President, Russell Curley opened proceedings by inviting Lt. Col. Peter Morrison to recite The Ode. In welcoming Members and visitors Russell outlined how the FFFAIF is committed to Digger Heritage through making representations to Governments and other organisations, by conducting meetings focussed on, and publishing stories of, soldiers and their families, and by funding the John Laffin Travel Prize for an outstanding student to travel to the Great War battlefields and broaden their horizons.
FFFAIF’s Regional Co-ordinator Peter Benson, presented an overview of Diggers from Bathurst. With over 1660 AIF soldiers identified as born in Bathurst (not including surrounding areas) and 2050 enlistments in Bathurst, this would necessarily be a selected few. Officers of high rank, highly decorated soldiers and notable individuals from Bathurst were identified along with notable visitors to Bathurst were revealed and are included in the slide presentation following.
[slideshare id=1157022&doc=bathurstdiggerspeterbensonwebsite-090317062200-phpapp01]
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Lambis Engelzos and Tim Whitfield focussed on the “missing of Fromelles”. Lambis revealed how he had identified a discrepancy between the number of soldiers reported Killed in Action, Died of Wounds and taken prisoner and the number of soldiers buried, both identified and those not identifiable and the number of prisoners taken. With an initial estimate of 161 soldiers “unaccounted for”, Lambis with a small number of colleagues commenced searches of records, maps, aerial photographs, reports and archives seeking clues as to the fate of these soldiers and the possible location of their remains. Through this research and in reviews by knowledgeable people, a hypothesis evolved that the Germans had buried about 400 British and Australian soldiers in mass graves after the battle but these had not been identified when the Graves Registration Units had searched for and identified burial sites and exhumed soldiers remains and reinterred them in Commonwealth War Graves Cemeteries in the period following cessation of the war. Lambis explained how he had to present the case for further investigating and testing of this theory to an Expert Panel established by the Department of Defence. With a requirement to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the soldiers’ remains were at the location identified in German advice to the International Red Cross, considerable time, effort and resources went into research and preparation of the case. Lambis described how with the support of an extensive network of colleagues they embarked on the slow and rigorous process of convincing the Expert Panel.
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Lambis explained the importance of a series of aerial photographs before and after the battle showing that a number of pits had been dug immediately after the battle and within few days five of these were covered in and were not visible at the end of the war when the civilian population returned. After 3 sessions with the Expert Panel, the panel recommended a non-invasive testing or the Pheasant Wood site in 2007. This survey indicated that there was a high probability that the site had not been disturbed since the end of the Great War and recommended an excavation to establish whether soldiers’ remains were still present at the site, and if so whether they were British and Australian and an estimate of the numbers of soldiers thought to be buried there. During this survey a medallion was recovered that was identified as a good luck charm from the Australian Shire of Alberton. Tim Whitford whose great-uncle Harry Willis was thought to be one of the “missing”, identified that Harry was a recipient of such a good luck charm and Tim joined the small team working with Lambis.
Photo: Guest Speakers – Mr Roger Lee, Major General (R’td) Mike O’Brien, Tim Whitford and Lambis Englezos. [Ben Snodgrass]
The Glasgow University Archaeological Department (GUARD) commenced the excavation in May 2008 and Lambis and Tim used slides to outline the process used as well as describing their emotions as soldiers’ remains were identified late on the second day and on subsequent days.
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Major General Mike O’Brien, the senior Australian Army Officer with responsibility for the investigation and recovery of any Australian War Dead at Fromelles, outlined the processes and allocation of responsibilities between the Australian Army and the Office of Australian War Graves and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and French Government jurisdictions. He was supported by Roger Lee, Head of the Army History Unit in discussions of the approach to using all possible means (including DNA analysis) to identify the soldiers.
The location and design of the new Commonwealth War Grave Commission (CWGC) Cemetery at Fromelles was shown and the broad timetable was presented:
February 2009 – CWGC announced Oxford Archaeology as the successful tenderer for exhuming the soldier remains;
March 2009 – expected the CWGC will announce the successful tenderer for scientific testing (including DNA analysis) of the remains;
May 2009 – exhumations to commence;
Late 2009 – preparation of the new CWGC Cemetery completed;
February 2010 – reburial of soldier’s remains in the new CWGC Cemetery will commence at a rate of about 20 soldiers per day with a simple service for each soldier;
March 2010 – a Joint Information Board will consider the scientific and physical evidence to assign identities to those soldiers where DNA or other evidence indicates a match;
April 2010 – Next of Kin will be advised of the outcome of the identification process;
19 July 2010 – the Dedication Ceremony for the new CWGC Cemetery will take place.
Professor Richard Wright from Sydney University, who is a member of the Oxford Archaeology team, gave an overview of the nature of forensic work related to mass graves and some background to the Oxford Archaeology team.
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The meeting concluded with a “show and tell” session for FFFAIF members.
The photos of the meeting used in the slide show below were taken by Ben Snodgrass and Grant Paterson.
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The Families and Friends of the First AIF thanks the Australian, UK and French governments for affording Australian and British soldiers – presently buried in mass graves at Pheasant Wood – dignified individual reburials in a new CWGC cemetery at Fromelles, and applauds Minister Snowdon and his British counterpart, Parliamentary Under–Secretary of State for Defence and Minister for Veterans, Kevan Jones MP, for their joint decision to DNA test the remains at exhumation and use every reasonable method to attempt identification of each soldier.