*Fromelles on SBS

Sunday 8 November 2009

on SBS

at 8:30 pm AEST

Lost and Found

Over 3,000 British and Australian troops were killed at the Battle of Fromelles on the Western Front, in what is still considered the worst 24 hour period in Australia’s military history. 
Now, thanks to amateur advocacy and commonwealth dollars, the remains of 250 missing from that night have been found and exhumed. The task of identifying the bodies through DNA analysis has begun, setting an expensive and complex precedent.  
But the question remains, where are the other bodies, and should the British and Australian Government’s go looking for them?

Find out more this Sunday 8:30pm on SBS ONE.
The program is repeated on SBS TWO on Monday at 7:30 pm AEST.

*****

The Families and Friends of the First AIF applauds the joint Australian–UK decision, announced by The Hon Greg Combet AM MP and the Hon Kevan Jones MP, to conduct a full DNA testing program on the remains of Australian and British soldiers found in mass graves at Pheasant Wood (Fromelles), and for their continuing commitment to identify as many of the fallen as is possible. We also thank the Australian, UK and French governments for affording dignified individual reburials for these soldiers, buried by German soldiers following the Battle of Fromelles on 19/20 July 1916, in the new Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery presently under construction at Fromelles.