As the Battle tactics of the Battle of Fromelles reveals, there the planning for the July 1916 was characterised by changes and included a 7 hour artillery bombardment prior to the infantry assault.
The outcome of the battle was a heavy loss of life among the soldiers of the 5th Division, AIF with 1,917 killed among the 5,533 casualties. Many of these soldiers have headstones marked “Known only unto God” with only 618 of those soldiers killed having their names on their headstones. Some of the soldiers remained unaccounted for in British and Commonwealth War Records.
Photo: Fallen British soldiers Fromelles 20 July 1916 (www.stahlgewitter.com)
Research by Lambis Englezos using the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau Files confirmed that 170 Australian soldiers are recorded as buried by the German Army at a location adjacent to Pheasant Wood on the outskirts of Fromelles. His investigations also showed no evidence that the Graves Recovery Unit had exhumed any bodies from this location during the post war period.
In 2007, a non-invasive geophysical survey conducted by British archaeologists from Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division (GUARD) showed that the Pheasant Wood area had been virtually unchanged since 1916 and revealed signs of burial pits, consistent with mass graves for hundreds of soldiers adjacent to Pheasant Wood.
Photo: Pheasant Wood April 2008
The GUARD team returned in May 2008 this time excavating the site to confirm that the soldiers buried after the Battle of Fromelles were still located in the pits dug by the German Army.
There are 173 Australian ‘missing’ soldiers of Fromelles. Each has been named and for a significant number we can put faces and family details to the names. Today we are proud to introduce Private Norman Arthur Hale of the 31st Battalion AIF.
Norman Arthur Hale enlisted in the AIF on 14 July 1915. In order to be able to enlist Norman gained the consent of his father and also from his employer, the Victorian Railways, with whom he was indentured as an apprentice instrument maker.
Photo: Norman A. Hale [AWM: H05488]
This photo have been reproduced with the permission of the Australian War Memorial
The copy of the following letter from Private Hale’s service record, available on line at the Australian National Archives, grants him leave from his job for the ‘purposes of Defence for as long as required’. Private Hales trained at Broadmeadows Camp, Victoria.
The 31st Battalion had raised companies at both the Broadmeadows Camp in Victoria and at Enogerra on the outskirts of Brisbane. In early October 1915, the two elements came together at the Broadmeadows Camp and embarked at Melbourne for overseas service as part of the 8th Brigade. Private Hale embarked in Melbourne as a member of C Company, 31st Battalion aboard HMAT Wandilla on 9 November 1915.
The Australian War Memorial website traces the 31st Battalion initiation into overseas service: The 8th Brigade joined the newly raised 5th Australian Division in Egypt, and proceeded to France, destined for the Western Front, in June 1916. The 31st Battalion fought its first major battle at Fromelles on 19 July 1916, having only entered the front-line trenches 3 days previously. The attack was a disastrous introduction to battle for the 31st – it suffered 572 casualties, over half of its strength. Although it still spent periods in the front line, the 31st played no major offensive role for the rest of the year.
An eye witness report in the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau Files describes the fatal events which surrounded Private Hale’s involvement in the Battle of Fromelles. Private Thomas Perham, 31st Battalion stated: ….on the night of July 19th he went over with me in the 1st wave at Fromelles. He was slightly wounded, so bandaged him up and he went on with us. We stopped at the German line where we bombed the dugouts and had a feed together. I then took some prisoners back and missed him when we came out of the dugouts and don’t know where he went. I went forwards and joined the others till we withdrew from the German lines.
Private Hale was reported missing in action on 21 June 1916 by his commanding officer and in August 1916 his father received a telegram from the Australian Army conveying the news. Early in February 1917, Mr. Joseph Hale, after receiving no further information from the army since the telegram, wrote to the Army Records Office seeking information and clarification of his son’s fate. By this time he had received a letter from his son’s Captain stating ….I regret to inform you that he was killed when our Batt first went into action last July. Although he was not actually working with me on that night, I know he was hit by a piece of shell. Your son had always been a pet of mine and I had a good deal to do with him in those days and I grieve his loss almost as much as I know you must. I regret I cannot give you any fuller particulars, but his own platoon commander was very seriously wounded and has not returned to duty. All I know is what I have learnt from the men of the coy. Unless an officer can vouch for a man’s death the authorities will only post as missing, hence the meagre news that has filtered through to you………
It was not until 13 March 1917 that he was officially classified as killed in action following an army board of enquiry at which it was stated that his name had appeared on the ‘German death list’.
Private Hale had the opportunity to serve in the AIF for only one year and one month as he is amongst those 16 men of the 31st Battalion who took part in the Battle of Fromelles and are listed amongst those buried by the German Army at Pheasant Wood.
It is now time that these fallen Australian soldiers of Fromelles are afforded the same respect and laid to rest with the dignity bestowed on other Australian soldiers from World War 1.
Photo: La Trou Aid Post Cemetery
Photo: CWGC Headstones La Trou Aid Post Cemetery
FFFAIF Policy Statement
The Families and Friends of the First AIF believes that the Australian Government through the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs should commit the to re-burial of the “missing of Fromelles” with individual graves and headstones in a new Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery at Pheasant Wood after DNA testing.
FROMELLES IS NOT HONOURED ON THE NATIONAL OR ANY STATE MEMORIAL IN AUSTRALIA.
FFFAIF SUPPORTS ALL EFFORTS TO RECOGNISE FROMELLES ON OR AT THE NATIONAL AND ALL STATE MEMORIALS THAT PRESENTLY LIST BATTLES BY NAME.
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