19.7.1916
Fromelles has become known as Australia’s blackest night.
On 19 July 1916, the troops of the 5th Australian and 61st British Divisions attacked a strong German position, at the centre of which stood the Sugar Loaf salient, near the small French village of Fromelles. The overnight assault – the first major battle fought by Australian troops on the Western Front – was mainly intended as a diversion to draw German troops away from the Somme offensive further south.
The attack failed, and losses were great: the 5th Australian Division suffered 5,533 killed,wounded & missing; the 61st British Division suffered 1,547.....all in a 24 hour period. Over 1000 of those Australian's killed have no known grave. It is regarded by many as the single largest disaster in Australian history. With 24 sets of brothers and at least one father and son killed, the attack changed the very landscape of future generations.
My photo has just one of many books I have on Australia serving on the Western Front. The photo on the cover is a statue known as "Cobbers" at the Australian Memorial Park at Fromelles....along with a sprig of rosemary, a Flanders Fields badge from my recent trip to the Western Front & also a Poppy scarf that I bought at Fromelles.
