{"id":8243,"date":"2010-03-24T17:21:06","date_gmt":"2010-03-24T06:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/?p=8243"},"modified":"2010-03-24T17:21:06","modified_gmt":"2010-03-24T06:21:06","slug":"fromelles-layout-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/?p=8243","title":{"rendered":"Fromelles layout, photos"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Remembering Fromelles<\/em><\/strong><\/a> <\/em><\/strong>website and\u00a0the Australian Army Fromelles Project Group<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (AFPG) website have both been updated following the release of the names of the soldiers identified as being buried by the German Army near Pheasant Wood following the Battle of Fromelles in July 1916.<\/p>\n

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Photo<\/strong>: Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery – top soil being spread in front of Plots I and II, 4 March 2010 [CWGC]<\/p>\n

The Australian Army Fromelles Project Group<\/a><\/em><\/strong> website\u00a0Project Update for March<\/a><\/em><\/strong>\u00a0thanks the soldiers who had recently returned from the reburials in France and the volunteers from the Army History Unit for assisting in contacting over\u00a0430 family members across the globe who are registered with them for the 75 named soldiers and advises that letters have now gone out to all registered relatives advising them of the next steps in the process. There are also updated photos in the Image library<\/a><\/em><\/strong> of the CWGC\u00a0Remembering Fromelles<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>website that can be downloaded.<\/p>\n

The Australian Army Fromelles Project Group<\/a><\/em><\/strong> website\u00a0also <\/span>includes the Cemetery layout<\/a><\/em><\/strong> of the new CWGC\u00a0Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery showing the burial position by category for\u00a0the named and un-named Australians, un-named British and remaining unidentified soldiers.\u00a0 Read in conjunction with the Results of the Identification Board document First_Fromelles_soldiers_identified.pdf<\/em><\/strong> available for downloading from the Department of Defence<\/em><\/strong> <\/a>website, the locations of the graves of the named soldiers can be determined.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo<\/strong>: Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery – turf being spread\u00a016 March 2010 [CWGC]<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Of the 250 sets of remains recovered from Pheasant Wood, the AFPG site indicates that 75 Australian soldiers have been identified with a further 128 identified as serving with the AIF and 3 with the British Army and a further 44 that cannot yet be distinguished as either\u00a0Australian or British soldiers.<\/div>\n

The AFPG site also has updated statistics showing:<\/p>\n

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The Battle of Fromelles<\/strong>
\n1333<\/strong> – AIF Soldiers killed who have no known grave.*
\n1121<\/strong> – AIF soldiers buried in local cemeteries as ‘unknown’.*
\n212<\/strong> – AIF soldiers not accounted for.*<\/p>\n

The Project<\/strong> (at 23 Mar 10)
\n701<\/strong> – Soldiers with registered contacts.
\n2171<\/strong> – Relatives registered with Army.
\n75<\/strong> – Of the 250 soldiers identified.<\/p>\n

The Original Working List<\/strong> (at 23 Mar 10)
\n191<\/strong> – Soldiers on Army’s original Working List. \"Open<\/a>
\n768<\/strong> – Relatives for soldiers on that list.
\n161<\/strong> – Soldiers with contacts from that list.
\n57<\/strong> – Soldiers identified from that list.<\/p>\n

* Numbers provided by the Office of Australian War Graves<\/sup><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

With 203 soldiers being identified as serving with the AIF, and a probability of some Australians among the\u00a044 that cannot yet be distinguished as either\u00a0Australian or British soldiers,\u00a0this would suggest that the Office of Australian War Graves estimate of 212\u00a0AIF soldiers not accounted for will be equalled or exceeded.\u00a0 The inference from this is that it would be unlikely that there are any or many Australian soldiers buried in locations other than Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries.<\/p>\n

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Photo<\/strong>: Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery – turf in front of Plot I, 9 March 2010 [CWGC]<\/p>\n

The statistics also indicate that 18 soldiers who have been identified were not on the “Original\u00a0Working List” that was compiled using 4 criteria:<\/p>\n