In France, the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Alan Griffin,
today joined the Governor-General, Ms Quentin Bryce AC, to
lay a wreath at Fromelles, where the remains of up to 400
Australian and British soldiers were found earlier this year
in a group burial ground near Pheasant Wood. Mr Griffin also
inspected the site of the proposed new cemetery - which is
diagonally opposite the village church at Fromelles, overlooking
the battlefield to the west and within line of sight of the
original burial ground at Pheasant Wood. The cemetery, to
be built by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, will be
the first official war cemetery built for more than fifty
years.
"The new cemetery will be a dignified final resting place
for the soldiers who fought and died in the Battle of Fromelles
on 19 July 1916 and have been lost to us for more the 90 years.
This cemetery, overlooking the battlefield where they fell,
will honour their memory and be a place of pilgrimage,"
Mr Griffin said. "The Battle of Fromelles was a dark
day in our wartime history. Australia suffered 5,500 casualties,
with more than 1,900 killed. Another 470 were taken prisoner.
"After the battle, Australian and German officers tried,
but failed to negotiate an armistice to collect the dead and
wounded from no-mans land. Subsequently, several Australians
slipped out at night to rescue the wounded, and their efforts
are reflected in the 'Cobbers' statue in the Australian Memorial
Park at Fromelles. German forces collected the
dead from in and behind their front lines and buried them
in battlefield graves. Pheasant Wood was one of these grave
sites.
"The Australians at Pheasant Wood are among more than
18,000 of their countrymen killed on the Western Front who
have no known grave. They made the ultimate sacrifice, and
will have a peaceful resting place, and we will have a place
to pay our respects to them," Mr Griffin said. The original
burial ground, which is too water-logged to be a cemetery,
and to which access is relatively difficult, will be commemorated
with a community memorial.
Construction of the new cemetery is scheduled to begin next
year. The remains are expected to be exhumed in the European
summer of 2009 and reinterred in the summer of 2010. The Australian
Government will be holding a Remembrance Day service at Villers-Bretonneux
at 10:15am on Tuesday 11 November 2008. Australians travelling
in France are invited to attend.