Memorial services will take place today in Sydney and Melbourne for the 92nd anniversary of the Battle of Fromelles, fought on the Western Front in France, 19 July 1916 during the Great War 1914-1918. The Battle of Fromelles caused the greatest loss of life of any 24 hour period in Australian history. With 1,917 soldiers killed and 3,616 wounded and taken prisoner (5,533 total casualties), and had a major impact on many Australian families. In Melbourne there will be an additional service in the grounds of The Shrine of Remembrance where the unveiling of the Cobbers Statue will take place at 11:00am.
Ross McMullin, author of Pompey Elliott, filed this report for The Melbourne Age:
After 92 years, cobbers stand tall at the Shrine
Photo: Cobber’s statue arriving at The Shrine
In the battle of Fromelles, which began on the Western Front 92 years ago on Saturday, there were no fewer than 5,533 Australian casualties in one night, a tally equivalent to those of the Boer, Korean and Vietnam wars combined.
Yet for decades Fromelles was Australia’s forgotten battle – partly because of a British cover-up imposed immediately afterwards, partly because Fromelles was away from the main action, and partly because it was a ghastly disaster with no redeemable justification.
In recent years, though, awareness of the Fromelles fiasco has been increasing. In recent months this has accelerated, thanks to the publicity sparked by the archaeological discoveries there.
Photo: Cobber’s statue being lowered into position
Peter Corlett’s sculpture Cobbers has been enriching the experience of Australians visiting Fromelles since it was erected a decade ago. It shows a sturdy, resolute Australian carrying a wounded comrade.
Both are identifiably from the 15th Australian Brigade, which was led by a famous Australian commander, Harold “Pompey” Elliott. Brigadier-General Elliott had anticipated that the attack at Fromelles, initiated by his British superiors, would end in disaster and had tried to stop it. When his brigade of Victorians was slaughtered, as he had feared, his distress was unconcealed. After the battle, rescuers ventured into no-man’s-land to bring in the wounded.
Brigadier-General Elliott estimated that in his brigade 300 wounded were rescued, and about 30 rescuers became casualties in the process.
Sergeant Simon Fraser, a farmer from Byaduk, in Victoria’s Western District, was one of the rescuers. Writing home afterwards, he described looking after a wounded soldier, when another called out: “Don’t forget me, cobber.” He did not. For his sculpture at Fromelles, Corlett decided to depict Simon Fraser doing what he did after the battle. Cobbers is splendidly authentic and evocative.
Photo: Peter Corlett and his sculpture
But even though more visit Fromelles than they once did, not many Australians have had the opportunity to see Cobbers. Three Melbourne-based admirers of Cobbers resolved to do something about it. They included Garrie Hutchinson, an author who has recently concentrated on Australian battlefield pilgrimage, and Lambis Englezos, whose persistent campaign about the location of Australians missing at Fromelles has been spectacularly vindicated, generating headlines around the world.
Photo: Lambis Englezos, Peter Corlett and Tim Whitford
Their idea was for Corlett to create a replica of Cobbers that could be prominently located at the Shrine, where many more Australians would be able to see it than its twin at Fromelles. The money for the new Cobbers was provided by the State Government and the Tattersalls George Adams Foundation.
Mr Brumby, in association with Fromelles Mayor Hubert Huchette, will unveil Cobbers at the Shrine at 11am on Saturday. Mr Huchette is not the only French visitor. Also attending will be Martial Delebarre, who has helped so many Australian visitors to Fromelles that he has been awarded the Order of Australia Medal.
Photo: Mayor Hubert Huchette and Martial Delebarre at Australian Memorial Park, Fromelles. [Carole Laignel, Secretary Fromelles Museum]
The list of the ‘missing at Fromelles’ compiled by Lambis and his fellow researchers contains the names of 175 Australian diggers lost to their families after the Battle of Fromelles. Amongst those listed is Lance Sergeant Ernest Augustus Jentsch, No3331, one of the 14 members of the 53rd Battalion, 14th Brigade, 5th Division AIF.
Ernest Jentsch lived in Petersham, an inner western suburb of Sydney, when he volunteered for service with the AIF until the end of the war (plus 4 months) on 13th June 1915. Sadly Sergeant Jentsch was to serve for only 13 months before becoming one of the 5,533 casualties of the Battle of Fromelles and one of the 495 men of the 14th Brigade to die during the disastrous attack on the German lines at Fromelles.
Photo: Lance Sergeant Ernest Jentsch [AWM P02150.001]
This photo has been reproduced with the permission of the Australian War Memorial
Private Jentsch underwent his basic training at the Liverpool camp before embarking for overseas service on 2 November 1915 aboard HMAT Euripides from Sydney, as a member of the 11th Reinforcement, 3rd Battalion. Upon arrival in Egypt, Ernest was transferred to the 53rd Battalion two days after its formation as part of the ‘doubling’ of the AIF. Whilst posted in Egypt he served at Tel-el-Kebir and Ismailia and was promoted to Corporal at the beginning of May and by the end of May had reached the rank of Lance Sergeant. The 53rd Battalion embarked from Alexandria on 19th June 1916 as part of the British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.) bound for the Western Front, France.
The Australian War Memorial states: The battalion arrived in France on 27 June 1916, entered the front line for the first time on 10 July, and became embroiled in its first major battle on the Western Front, at Fromelles, on 19 July. The battle of Fromelles was a disaster. The 53rd was part of the initial assault and suffered grievously, incurring 625 casualties, including its commanding officer, amounting to over three-quarters of its attacking strength. Casualty rates among the rest of the 5th Division were similarly high, but despite these losses it continued to man the front in the Fromelles sector for a further two months.
The infantry attack on the German lines in the Battle of Fromelles by the British 61st Division commenced at 5:30pm at a time noted by historian CEW Bean that the sun of a bright sunny day was still fairly high. The Australian attack began thirteen minutes later at 5:43pm when the Diggers ‘hopped the bags’. The 14th Brigade was in the centre of the 5th Division attacking forces opposite Delangre Farm.
Map: FROMELLES by Patrick Lindsay.
In no more than a quarter of an hour from the commencement of the Australian attack Sergeant Jentsch lay dead on the battlefield. The reports in his Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau File give details of his death which was reported by the Commanding Officer 53rd Battalion on 28 July 1917. A graphic report by eyewitness Corporal L.Perry states:
I saw Jentsch on July 19 at dusk with his head blown off.
Another report from C.S. Major L. Gale, A Company 53rd Battalion states:
Jentsch was killed instantly by a shell at about 6pm on July 19 1916, during our attack at Fromelles. This was out in the open. I do not know what afterwards became of his body…….
Thanks to the research of Lambis Engelzos and his team, we now know what happened to Lance Sergeant Jentsch and 190 other Australians of the previously “missing” that were unaccounted for after the Battle of Fromelles and the clearing of the No-Man’s Land after the Armistice. The Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau Files of these men contained the clues which led to the archaeological excavation of the field adjacent to Pheasant Wood. The German army kept meticulous records of those they buried when clearing their lines of the battle dead, completing ‘Death vouchers’ for each victim and removing their identification discs. Both of which were returned to the Australian Army through the Red Cross. The originals of the documents and vouchers from the Prussian War office can be viewed on-line at the National Archives of Australia in the Service Records of the ‘missing at Fromelles’.
Photo: Example of German documents from Service Record of L/Sgt E.A. Jentsch [www.naaa.gov.au]
Mr E. and Mrs Alice Jentsch received a cable, dated 19 August 1916, stating that their son had been killed in action. The only possession of Ernest, that appears from his records, to have been returned to the family was his identity disc.
It appears that Mr E. Jentsch was a member of the Ashfield Bowling Club, located in the inner western suburbs of Sydney, as his sons name appears on the Roll of Honour of the club.
Photo: Ashfield Bowling Club Roll of Honour -which still hangs in the club today. [AWM P02150.002]
This photo has been reproduced with the permission of the Australian War Memorial
Lance Sergeant Jentsch was one of the Australian soldiers whose bodies were taken to the field adjacent to Pheasant Wood where they were placed in pits and lay undetected for nearly 92 years.
*****
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.
Call back tomorrow for MORE UPDATES