Fromelles was the first major battle fought by Australian troops on the Western Front. The battle took place near the French village of Fromelles. The Allies planned the attack as a diversion from the Somme offensive. The intended diversion was unsuccessful.
Soldiers from the 5th Australian Division were led by British commanders. They faced the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division, which had strong defences. Of more than 5,500 Australian casualties, almost 2,000 were killed in action or died from their wounds and over 400 were captured. The British lost around 1,500 men and the Germans more than 1,000.
The attack was a disaster for Allied forces on the Western Front. It is believed to be the largest loss by a single division in 24 hours in all of World War I. It is seen as the worst military disaster in Australian history and a human tragedy.
Key facts
Strategic importance: The Allies planned to attack 4,000 yards (3.7 km) of German-held trenches. This was planned as a diversion to stop the Germans from reinforcing their units on another part of the Somme front where the Allies had launched a major offensive on 1 July 1916.
Location: The battle took place in France between the Allied-occupied village of Fleurbaix and the German-occupied village of Fromelles, which formed part of the Somme front.
Timing: A bombardment of German positions started at 11 am on 19 July 1916 before the infantry assault started at around 5:30 pm. While most surviving Allied troops had withdrawn by around 7:50 am on 20 July 1916, the Germans had captured the last troops by 9:20 am.
Nations involved: United Kingdom and Australia representing the Allies, and Germany representing the Central Powers.
Australian units: troops of the 5th Australian Division, including the 8th, 14th and 15th brigades.
Enemy units: troops of the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division, including the 17th, 16th, 21st and 20th infantry regiments.
Casualties: 5th Australian Division 5,533 casualties, British 61st Division 1,547 casualties and 6th Bavarian Reserve Division more than 1,000 casualties.
Outcome: The battle was an Allied defeat with a very high number of casualties and failed to capture and hold German positions. The diversion partially worked because it probably delayed the movement of German troops to another part of the Somme front for a few weeks. The 5th Division did not fight again for many weeks as it rebuilt numbers and fighting confidence.
Notable Australians: Major James McCay of Victoria commanded the 5th Division. Brigadier Harold Elliott of Victoria commanded the 15th Brigade. Brigadier Edwin Tivey of Victoria commanded the 8th Brigade. Colonel Walter Cass who commanded the 54th Infantry Battalion was one of the last Australians to withdraw. Major Alexander Murdoch of the 29th Infantry Battalion tried to negotiate a truce with the Germans to recover the wounded.
Before the Australians arrived
The area of the Somme near Fromelles was the scene of heavy fighting in 1915 at places like Aubers Ridge, Neuve Chapelle and Loos.
In 1916, the village of Fromelles was behind German lines. It had been occupied by the Germans for nearly the whole of the war. Most of the houses had been destroyed. The French villagers suffered, being forced to leave Fromelles to the German military.
A view from the German observation post on the church at Fromelles looking towards the west. This view gives an idea of the enemy's complete domination over the battlefield on 19 July 1916. Fromelles, France, 11 November 1918. AWM E04032
Plan of attack
Three weeks after the start of the Battle of the Somme, the British high command decided to launch an attack at Fromelles, 70 km to the north of the Somme.
This attack was planned as a diversion to stop the Germans moving troops from Fromelles to the Somme front.
Two inexperienced infantry divisions – the 5th Australian Division and the British 61st Division – were ordered to capture the first and second lines of German trenches across a 3.7 km front near Fromelles.
The 5th Australian Division would attack on the left. The British 61st would advance on the right. The Sugar Loaf salient was at the border of where Australia's 15th Brigade and British 61st Division met.
Across the Australians' section, the 8th, 14th and 15th brigades were positioned from left to right. The units involved were:
- 8th Brigade – 31st and 32nd infantry battalions leading assaults and 29th and 30th supporting
- 14th Brigade – 53rd and 54th infantry battalions leading assaults and 55th and 56th supporting
- 15th Brigade – 59th and 60th infantry battalions leading assaults and 57th and 58th supporting.
The ground between the Allied and German trenches – called no-man's-land – was waterlogged and muddy. The width of no-man's-land varied from 90 m to 365 m across the whole front. This meant that, in some sections during the assault, some troops would be under enemy fire much longer than others.
The Allies were up against the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division. The Germans held a strong position protected by barbed wire and fortified with concrete bunkers. (One of the men serving in the 6th Bavarian was an Austrian corporal named Adolf Hitler.)
Maps of the battle
Long description: The Allied and German lines extend from 3 km north of Fromelles (on the eastern side of the map behind the German line) to the south-west, with no-man's-land varying in width from 200 to 500 m. The British 61st Division was placed west, and the 5th Australian Division was placed east of the Sugar Loaf salient, a German strongpoint in the centre of their line. Flowing south-west along the line of trenches, mostly on the German side, was the Layes River (Rivière des Layes). The towns of Trivelet and Aubers were behind the German line on the front that the British were to attack, and 3 farms (Delaporte, Rouge Bancs and Delangre) were behind the German lines on the Australian front. Leclarq Farm is shown north-east of Aubers. Pheasant Wood is shown north of Fromelles. Le Trou and Cordonnerie Farm are shown north and north-east of the Sugar Loaf. On the western edge of the map, Fouquissart is shown just behind the Allied front.
How the battle unfolded
On 19 July 1916, the 5th Australian Division and the British 61st Division tried to seize German lines along 3.7 km of front. The German positions were centred around the Sugar Loaf, a small raised area that gave the Germans good views of no-man's-land.
The Sugar Loaf was a heavily fortified stronghold with machine guns. The German guns had clear lines of fire to where the attacking forces would cross no-man's-land. The Germans at the Sugar Loaf detected the Allied troops as they moved into position for the attack. They shelled Allied lines, causing hundreds of Australian and British casualties before they had even left their lines.
An Allied artillery bombardment before the attack was supposed to damage or destroy German machine guns. But the field guns were ineffective against the well-prepared German defences.
The Allied assault began at 5:30 pm on 19 July 1916 with only 3 and a half hours of daylight remaining.
The Germans had survived the Allies' artillery bombardment. As Australian and British troops attacked, the Germans devastated the waves of assaulting troops. Allied soldiers were shot down in no-man's-land or pinned there by machine-gun and rifle fire.
Some Australian troops in the 18th and 14th Brigade crossed no-man's-land and captured sections of the German front. They then advanced another 140 m in search of a third line of German trenches as ordered. In fact, no third line existed. The Australians began to form an unconnected series of emplacements in their new position.
On the right of the Australian section, the 15th Brigade and the British had been devastated under shell and gun fire. The commander of the 15th Brigade, Brigadier General Harold 'Pompey' Elliott, was deeply distressed by his losses. He wrote:
We attacked in four waves and there was not the least hesitation … One of the best of my Commanding Officers was killed and practically all my best officers, the Anzac men who helped to build up my Brigade are dead. I presume there was some plan at the back of the attack but it is difficult to know what it was.
The British planned a second attempt to capture the Sugar Loaf and sought Australian help. However, when the British cancelled their plan, the Australians did not receive an update. They launched another attack with disastrous results.
Overnight and in the early morning, the Germans counterattacked and began to recapture their lost trenches. They surrounded the forward Allied troops. General Richard Haking, the British commander, ordered a retreat. The next morning, the Australians in the enemy's lines withdrew.
By 5 am on 20 July, after holding the German trenches for 11 hours, most Allied soldiers who could retreat had moved back to their lines. They failed to capture the German trenches near Fromelles.
They did achieve their strategic objective to prevent the Germans at Fromelles from reinforcing another part of the Somme. Fearing another attack at Fromelles, the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division did not send troops to the Battle of the Somme until weeks later.
The Germans reported around 1,000 casualties in the battle. The Allied attackers reported more than 7,000 killed, wounded or missing. Some 5,500 of the casualties were Australians, including almost 2,000 killed in action or dying of wounds and some 400 captured. This made 19 July 1916 the worst day in Australian military history.
On 11 November 1918 when fighting ended on the Western Front, Charles Bean, Australia's official war historian, stood on the battlefield of Fromelles:
We found the old no-man's-land simply full of our dead
A portion of the German lines entered by Australian forces at the Battle of Fromelles on 19 to 20 July 1916, France. The Germans re-occupied their positions on the morning of 20 July. AWM A01562
Eyewitnesses of the event
Assault by the 58th Battalion
Soon after the first attacks, the British Expeditionary Force sent reinforcements.
Two companies of the 58th Battalion launched an assault towards the Sugar Loaf at Fromelles in support of the 59th and 60th battalions. Charles Bean described it as:
one of the bravest and most hopeless assaults ever undertaken by the Australian Imperial Force.
Attacks of the 59th and 60th battalions
Artillery fire was supposed to have silenced the Germans and their machine guns in the Sugar Loaf salient before the attack. Brigadier Harold 'Pompey' Elliott had told his men of the 15th brigade:
Boys, you won't find a German when you get there.
Elliott was wrong. The Germans were operating their machine guns by the time the Australians advanced. At the point where the 15th Brigade advanced, no-man's-land was more than 365 m wide compared to 90 m where the other Australian brigades attacked.
As the 59th and 60th battalions moved across no-man's-land, they were shot to pieces. Hundreds were wounded or killed. Anyone unharmed took cover.
Most leaders were swiftly killed or wounded by the Germans after leaving the Australian lines. This threw the attack into confusion.
Shortly after 7 pm, Elliot learnt that the attack was a dismal failure. In a report to the divisional commander at 7:18 pm, Elliott wrote:
The trenches are full of enemy … Every man who rises is shot down. Support from wounded indicate that the attack is failing from want of support.
Supplying the new lines
Despite considerable casualties, Australians from 6 battalions seized the German line at Fromelles.
As they dug in, Australian engineers dug a 'sap' (trench) across no-man's-land to allow the new line to be safely supplied. The German artillery discovered this and bombarded it with bullets and shells.
The Allies' communication trench was awash with mud and full of wounded soldiers. One man described it as a 'butcher's shop' with men 'groaning, crying and shrieking'. Ammunition carriers were hit, and their boxes fell into the water and blocked forward movement.
Some supplies were getting across to the men in the new front line. In this critical task, men like Corporal Luther Chadwick, MC, MM, 55th Battalion, an orchardist from Galston, New South Wales, came to the fore:
Private Chadwick displayed conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty in that he took charge of a party and kept up the supply of ammunition and bombs to the front line. To do this he crossed "NO MAN'S LAND" several times under heavy fire. Our position to the left would have been jepoardised if it had not been for the prompt assistance of men like Private Chadwick and Private Perkins. He also, at great personal risk, assisted Lieutenant Denoon, who was severely wounded, to safety.
[Recommendation for Military Medal, Private Luther Chadwick, 55th Battalion AIF, Australian War Memorial]
Fighting German counterattacks
Lieutenant William Denoon, MC, 55th Battalion, was an accountant from Cootamundra, New South Wales. He was wounded at Fromelles as the Australians were trying to repel increasing German counterattacks.
At around 4:30 am on 20 July 1916, Denoon was ordered to lead a bombing attack against enemy soldiers advancing along the now-empty old frontline trench. The Germans were encircling groups of Australians in forward positions. If they succeeded, any retreat would be cut off.
Denoon led his men forward. In the face of brutal machine-gun and rifle fire, they won back critical metres of trench. So intense was the bombing duel between Australians and Germans that there were reportedly nearly 12 bombs in the air at any one time. A Bavarian soldier later told the German crown prince that he had personally thrown over 500.
During this struggle, Denoon's chest was hit by a bullet, which led to a lengthy hospitalisation. He returned to Australia and terminated his appointment in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). He was awarded the Military Cross for his 'gallantry and devotion to duty in the field' at Fromelles. Denoon survived the war and died in 1923, aged 41.
The Australian position was precarious. Even before daylight, troops at the extreme left of the Australian line had withdrawn. After that, the Australians could not hold their positions. Survivors of the 53rd, 54th and 55th battalions were ordered back to the old Australian line.
A rearguard fought to protect the communication trench entrance so men could escape across no-man's-land. This was led by Captain Norman Gibbins, 55th Battalion, described by Charles Bean as 'of great height and strength' and one who 'magnificently performed his duty'.
Gibbins was the last to leave. He called to the Lewis gunners to retire. He then followed his men up the communications trench towards the Australian line. Large numbers of wounded blocked his way, so he clambered out of the trench and across the Australian breastwork. Sergeant Bertram White, 55th Battalion, wrote:
I saw him just reach the top of our trenches where he turned his head around sharply and was immediately struck in the head by a bullet and killed instantly.
The Australians recovered Gibbins body for burial. His grave is about 7 km behind the Australian line in the Anzac Cemetery, Sailly-sur-la-Lys.
Wounded in no-man's-land
After describing the death of Captain Gibbins in the official history, Bean wrote:
So ended the ill-starred action at Fromelles
Hundreds of wounded and dying men lay in no-man's-land. The trenches to the front line were packed with wounded. At regimental aid posts, doctors worked frantically to cope with the deluge.
Captain Frederick Collier of Wallsend, New South Wales, was the Regimental Medical Officer of the 60th Battalion. His aid post was directly behind the line from which his battalion started its fatal advance towards the Sugar Loaf. Collier wrote:
We worked all that afternoon (the 19th) that night and all next day without ceasing. We could not show a light and when we came to a wounded man we would ask him where he was hit and feel for his wound with hands covered with dried blood and mud. There was no time and no water to wash hands.
[Captain Collier, quoted in Colonel A G Butler, The Australian Army Medical Services: The Western Front, p 46.]
When the 60th Battalion mustered for roll call after Fromelles, only 106 men answered out of 887 who had gone into battle on 19 July.
On the morning of 20 July, while tended to the wounded in no-man's-land, Private William 'Billy' Miles spoke with an English-speaking German officer. He returned to get Major Alex Murdoch of the 29th Battalion. With Murdoch, the Germans proposed a truce while both forces collected the wounded. But Murdoch received orders to end the tentative truce.
So for 3 days and nights, men ventured into no-man's-land, at risk of enemy fire, to bring in the wounded. In Bean's words, this was:
that magnificent tribute of devotion which the Australian soldier never failed to pay to his mates
Many of the wounded were rescued at night. A wounded soldier's position was marked during daylight so he could be fetched under cover of darkness.
In the official history, Bean listed a string of men who 'went out boldly by day'.
This boldness cost the life of Private Edgar Williams, 58th Battalion, of Ouyen, Victoria. He had gone out at 8 am on 22 July, nearly 3 days after the attack. He brought in 3 wounded and 5 uninjured men. Later that day, he was seen to be wounded in no-man's-land and then disappeared. Williams' body was never recovered. He is commemorated at VC Corner.
Sergeant Simon Fraser, 57th Battalion, of Byaduk, Victoria, was prominent in his efforts to save the wounded. In a letter, Fraser described bringing in the wounded in the face of the enemy at Fromelles. He felt the Germans treated them fairly well, although 'a few were shot at the work'.
It was difficult picking up and carrying a wounded soldier, particularly if he had a serious wound or a broken limb. Where no stretcher was available, a rescuer had to lie down, manoeuvre them onto their shoulders and then stand up in full view of the enemy and possible gunfire.
Fraser described the cries of the wounded and how it was impossible not to respond despite the danger to the rescuers' lives. One man he heard calling was 14 stone [88 kg] in weight:
… and I could not lift him on my back; but I managed to get him into an old trench and told him to lie quiet while I got a stretcher. Then another man … sang out 'Don't forget me cobber'. I went in and got four volunteers with stretchers and we got both men in safely.
[Fraser, quoted in Charles Bean, The AIF in France, 1916, The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, Vol 3, Sydney, 1929, p 441]
Liddelow – a Melbourne schoolteacher
Captain Aubrey Liddelow, 59th Battalion, of East Malvern, Victoria, was a schoolteacher before he was appointed to the AIF. When Liddelow was wounded, one of his men urged him to go back and seek medical attention. He responded:
I'll never walk back into safety and leave the men I have led into such grave danger—we'll wait for reinforcements.
Liddelow was later killed by shellfire while sheltering in a shellhole. His name is listed at VC Corner along with 235 other soldiers of the 59th Battalion. His parents and widow Fannie grieved his loss. In 1917, he was commemorated on the Tarraville school honour roll.
Hutchison – a Tasmanian military cadet
Major Arthur Justin Sanford Hutchinson of Hamilton, Tasmania, was a graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon. Aged 21, he led the 58th Battalion in the assault on the Sugar Loaf. Bean described Arthur as a 'boy of the finest type this country produces'.
As a result of the attack, Bean wrote that:
the two companies of the 58th were practically annihilated.
The Victorians had been shot to ground by heavy machine-gun fire after some had managed to get two-thirds of the way across towards the Sugar Loaf. Hutchinson trying to encourage them, was riddled with bullets close to the German line. One of his men, Private George Smythe, later described how Hutchinson had:
cheered them all up on the way over on the charge
Hutchinson's fiancée, Gladys Forrest, wrote to the authorities to find out what had happened to him:
Being engaged to Major AJS Hutchinson I am naturally very worried at having received a telegram forwarded on home to Reverend Hutchinson saying 'Officially reported missing twentieth July, Major AJS Hutchinson Ninth Light Horse Regiment' … I am writing to ask if you would be kind enough and can tell me? Is Major Hutchinson now in the 58th in France? Or in Egypt back in the 9th LH? … It would help so much in every way, if you would be able to find out any particulars as to if he is still missing, as the anxiety is so great.
[Undated letter, Gladys Forrest, Arthur Justin Sanford Hutchinson, personal dossier]
Brigadier Elliott, his commanding officer, described Hutchison as energetic, competent, enthusiastic, modest and unassuming. Hutchinson had led his men forward against the Sugar Loaf into 'murderous machine gun fire' with 'great dash and resolution'.
Elliott had considered Hutchinson's conduct worthy of a Victoria Cross, but his recommendation for this award was denied. Hutchinson's name is remembered at VC Corner with 52 other men of the 58th Battalion who were killed, most of them in the assault on the Sugar Loaf on 19 July.
Ignatius Norris – a Sydney barrister
The man who led the 53rd Battalion into its first battle on the Western Front was Lieutenant Colonel Ignatius Bertram Norris.
Norris, a 36-year-old Sydney barrister, was commissioned in the AIF in May 1915. In February 1916, Norris was given command of the newly formed 53rd Battalion in Egypt.
The 53rd, comprising Gallipoli veterans and new recruits, arrived in France on 27 June 1916. Less than a month later, the men went into battle in 4 waves from trenches just north of no-man's-land.
Norris went over with battalion headquarters in the fourth wave.
One official source has it that Norris was killed as he crossed no-man's-land. A more recent account has him reaching the German front line but then being cut down by an 'unsuppressed machine gun' as he moved on towards the enemy support line.
With Norris at the time was Private Francis Leslie Croft, DCM, a battalion signaller, who tried unsuccessfully to bring his wounded leader back to safety. Croft was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his actions that evening. Croft had tried to rescue Norris and repair telephone lines under prolonged artillery and machine-gun fire. The shrapnel and gunfire was so heavy that Croft's uniform was shredded.
In 1918, wounded himself, Croft wrote to the Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau in London seeking to be put in touch with Norris' widow:
Croft states that he was the last man with the colonel and that it was through what he did for him that he got the DCM. Croft says that Mrs Norris lives in England and that he would like to see or write to her about the colonel's end.
Croft was too late. Jane Norris had left England in October 1916 and sailed back to Australia with her infant son, John Bertram Norris. She had married Norris in Sydney in late March 1915, just 3 months before he sailed for Egypt. Their son John was born in Cairo in February 1916, and Jane moved with baby John to London in April 1916.
As Norris only arrived in France from Egypt with his battalion in late June, it's unlikely that he saw his family in London before his death at Fromelles. His son John, aged 14, was present in 1931 when a memorial window to Norris was blessed in the chapel of his old school, Riverview College in Sydney.
Honouring the fallen
No-man's-land
There are no headstones at VC Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial. The site contains the remains of more than 400 Australians who were killed in action nearby or died of wounds. The cemetery is in the middle of the old no-man's-land between the Australian and German trenches of 19 July 1916.
Of the fighting at Fromelles, Lieutenant Ronald McInnis, 53rd Battalion, of Mackay, Queensland, wrote:
We thought we knew something of the horrors of war, but we were mere recruits, and have had our full education in one day.
[McInnis, diary, 19 July 1916, quoted in Bill Gammage, The Broken Years, 1990, p 175]
Of the 1,299 Australians originally listed at VC Corner Australian Memorial, 595 were from the 58th, 59th and 60th battalions of the Victorian 15th Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Elliott.
Samuel and Eric Wilson – Port Macquarie brothers
Two brothers from Port Macquarie, New South Wales, were buried side by side:
- Private Samuel Charles Wilson
- Private Eric Robert Wilson.
DNA sampling and skeletal investigation revealed that they had originally been buried next to each other by the Germans in 1916.
Alexander Clingan – a Sydney cricket batsman
Alexander Stanley Clingan, age 22, was a boilermaker's labourer on the NSW Railways. His mother, Ruth Clingan of Newtown, wrote in neat handwriting on his AWM Roll of Honour Circular that her son had obtained 'the highest individual score in junior grade cricket (Moore Park) in 1915'. Alexander enlisted in the AIF that year.
Clingan was reported missing at Fromelles on 19 July 1916. He was later recorded as killed in action while serving with the 53rd Battalion. His mother received his war service medals, a memorial scroll in 1921 and a memorial plaque in 1922.
Aimé Verpillot – a Swiss immigrant
Private Aimé Constant Verpillot, 53rd Battalion, was determined to defend Australia and the British Empire. Born in the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel in 1891, he emigrated with his parents to New Zealand, and then to Australia in 1912.
On 16 August 1915, Verpillot applied to become a British citizen. That same day, he wrote to the Department of External Affairs asking them to send his naturalisation papers as soon as possible, stating, 'I have to produce them prior to being sworn in.'
When Verpillot took his oath on 6 September 1915, aged 24 years and 4 months, to 'serve our Sovereign Lord the King in the Australian Imperial Force … until the end of the war' and 'to resist his Majesty's enemies', he produced his 'Oath of Allegiance' certificate, which was duly witnessed by the recruiting officer: 'I have examined his naturalisation papers and am of the opinion that they are correct'.
According to Sergeant Lewis, Verpillot was absent at the battalion roll call of 21 July 1916 and 'has not been heard of since'.
Pheasant Wood
On 19 July 1916, 850 men of the 53rd Battalion went into battle against the Germans at Fromelles. They advanced across the ground where the Australian Memorial Park stands today. The Germans eventually drove them from the positions they had captured.
When the 53rd assembled on 21 July 1916 for roll call, only 227 soldiers answered their names. Of the 623 who failed to answer, a few were prisoners of war, many lay wounded and 223 had been killed.
Since its construction in the 1920s, 188 of the war dead were accounted for among the 'missing' and their names were inscribed on the VC Corner Australian Memorial.
After the exhumations at Pheasant Wood, 14 of them were identified. They now lie under headstones at Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery.
Le Trou
The Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery is one of the most beautiful cemeteries on the old Western Front. Tree branches overhang a moat surrounding the cemetery. Considering that it lies very close to the Fromelles battlefield, it's surprising that only 4 named Australians are buried there.
Through the fields all around Le Trou on the days leading up to 17 July 1916 came thousands of Australian soldiers. They were members of the battalions and support units of the 5th Division. The troops passed down communications trenches with names like Cellar Farm Avenue, Mine Avenue, Brompton Avenue, Pinney's Avenue and VC Avenue.
At times, the communications trenches were little better than waterlogged ditches. It took the 14th Field Company Australian Engineers a whole night to make Brompton Avenue passable by laying duckboard tracks.
One infantry battalion took from 9 pm one evening to 6 am the next morning to move a few kilometres to the front where 'many dropped down and were immediately fast asleep'. They would then take part in the attack.
Before leading the 60th Battalion into action, Major Geoffrey Gordon McCrae of Hawthorn, Victoria, wrote to his family:
Today I lead my battalion in an assault on the German lines and I pray God I may come through alright and bring honour to our name. If not I will at least have laid down my life for you and my country which is the greatest privilege one can ask for.
[McCrae, quoted in Bill Gammage, The Broken Years, Penguin Books, 1990, p 170]
It was a 'privilege' that cost Major McCrae his life, and those of hundreds of men of his battalion as they advanced over no-man's-land.
Lance Corporal John Innes, 54th Battalion, was a school teacher in the Quirindi district of New South Wales before he enlisted. He was killed at Fromelles, aged 23. John's mother described him as having a maternal great-grandfather who fought at the Battle of Waterloo. He is commemorated at Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery, Fleurbaix.
Lieutenant Alexander Paterson, 32nd Battalion, was an emigrant to Australia from Scotland. While his family may have been informed of his death, their news never reached Olive Andrews in West Perth. She wrote to the military authorities in December 1916, months after Paterson's death:
I am engaged to be married to him so am very anxious with regards to his whereabouts, his home being in Scotland makes me entirely without news.
[Letter, Olive Andrews, 24 November 1916, Lieutenant Alexander Paterson, personal dossier]
Bean's account of the battlefield
Charles Bean visited the Fromelles battlefield on 11 November 1918, the day that fighting ended on the Western Front. That same day, he wrote:
We found the old no-man's-land simply full of our dead. In the narrow sector west of the Laies [Layes] River and east of the corner of the Sugar-loaf Salient the skulls and bones and torn uniforms were lying about everywhere. I found a bit of Australian kit lying 50 yards [45m] from the corner of the salient; and the bones of an Australian officer and several men within 100 yards [91m] of it. Further round immediately on their flank were a few British—you could tell them by their leather equipment. And within 100 yards [91 m] of the west corner of the Sugar-loaf salient there was lying a small party of English too—also with an officer—you could tell the cloth of his coat.
The ground is all divided into shallow turtleback ridges between grassy ditches or water channels ---
And along one of these water channels near the German wire were lying so many Australian water bottles that it can scarcely have been an accident. The poor chaps must have crawled here wounded, at night, for water, I think. Or else one of them must have collected a number of these water bottles and crawled out with them for himself and his mates.
The Sugar-loaf Salient had been tremendously pitted by shellfire and by plum pudding bombs. And the old German wire had been splendidly cut. Both sides had put up new wire since. The British wire was very good and high and uncut—I couldn't have attempted to get through it in most parts …
On the east side of the road, about 500 yards [457m] west of Delangre farm and 300–400 yards [274-365m] south of the German front line, we found the water-filled ditch which was taken as our objective. It had certainly been in part a ditch. It ran to the corner of a sort of orchard, 400–500 yds. S.W. of Delangre, and merged into the ditch along the orchard hedge nearest to the German line.
At the point marked X, I found a bit of the cover of an Australian water bottle; and at Y an old rifle butt, probably Australian.
In the front line were a lot of concrete shelters, about three feet [0.9m] of concrete on the top and just room in the little box below for a man to lie crouched.
[Charles Bean, diary extract, 11 November 1918, 3DRL 606/117/1, AWM]
German concrete pillboxes photographed on the old Fromelles battlefield, France, 11 November 1918. The original Australian War Memorial caption states these were located in the German front line north of 'Rue Delaporte', which probably means north of Delaporte Farm. Certainly, they were not far from where the remains of German pillboxes can be seen today in the Australian Memorial Park. Originally, these structures were covered by sandbags and an earthwork parapet for soldiers during attacks. AWM E03970
Commemoration
In 1998, Australian Memorial Park was dedicated on the old German front. In the centre of the park stands the statue 'Cobbers'. Sculpted by Peter Corlett of Melbourne, it depicts Sergeant Simon Fraser carrying a wounded man of the 60th Battalion on his shoulders. Cobbers is a tribute to those Australians who scoured no-man's-land after the Battle of Fromelles.
In 2008, 92 years after the battle, a mass grave of Australians was discovered. The men had been killed during the Battle of Fromelles and buried by the German. The Australian soldiers were reburied in Commonwealth war graves near Fromelles.
The story of this catastrophic military event for Australia is told in the Museum of the Battle of Fromelles. The museum opened in 2014 as part of the Australian Remembrance Trail.
The Sir John Monash Centre also tells this story.
Sources
1916 'FOR THEIR COUNTRY.', Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931), 11 August, p. 4. , viewed 08 Jan 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article120380806
1917 'TARRAVILLE.', Gippsland Standard and Alberton Shire Representative (Vic. : 1914 - 1918), 11 July, p. 3. , viewed 08 Jan 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121028386
Australian Army, Recovering Lost Soldiers – First World War, accessed 3 Jan 2025, https://www.army.gov.au/our-work/recovering-lost-soldiers/first-world-war
Australian Red Cross Society (ARCS) (no date), Major Arthur Justin Sanford Hutchinson, Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry file, Australian War Memorial Digitised Collection accession number RCDIG1048446, Wallet 4, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1398865
Australian Imperial Force (1916), Recommendation file for honours and awards, AIF, 1914-18 War, 5th Australian Division, 18 July 1916 to 22 July 1916, AWM28 1/255 PART 1, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1586525
Barton, Peter (2014), The Lost Legions of Fromelles – the Mysteries Behind one of the Most Devastating Battles of the Great War, Allen & Unwin, Australia.
Bean, CEW (Charles Edwin Woodrow) (1941), Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, Volume III – The Australian Imperial Force in France, 1916 (12th edition), Chapter XI –The Battle of Fromelles, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1416847
Bean, CEW (Charles Edwin Woodrow) (1918), diary extract for 11 Nov 1918, 3DRL 606/117/1, Australian War Memorial
Butler, Colonel Arthur Graham (1940), The Australian Army Medical Services: the Western Front, First World War Official Histories Volume II, Canberra.
Ekins, Ashley, (2010), Battle of Fromelles: 94th anniversary speech, 19 Jan 2010, Australian War Memorial, accessed 3 Jan 2025, https://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/speeches/94th-anniversary-fromelles
Hutchinson, Major Arthur Justin Sanford b.1894 – d.1916 (1915–16), Australian War Memorial Private Record accession number 1DRL/0371, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C92676
Lindsay, Patrick (2007), Fromelles Our Darkest Day, Hardie Grant Books, Australia.
McCrae, Major Geoffrey Gordon b.1890 - d.1916 (1914–16), Australian War Memorial Private Record accession number 1DRL/0427, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C92819
National Archives of Australia: Chadwick Luther: SERN LIEUT 3219: POB Castlemaine VIC: POE Sydney NSW: NOK F Chadwick Frank; circa 1914 - circa 1920; B2455; CHADWICK L; Item ID 3223700.
National Archives of Australia: Clingan Alexander Stanley: SERN 3168: POB Sydney NSW: POE Warwick Farm NSW: NOK M Clingan Ruth; circa 1914 - circa 1920; B2455: CLINGAN A S; Item ID 3258587.
National Archives of Australia: Collier Frederick William Dean: SERN CAPT: POB N/A: POE N/A: NOK W Collier Elva Angwin; circa 1914 - circa 1920; B2455; COLLIER F W D; Item ID 3271051.
National Archives of Australia: Denoon William : SERN 1449/1324 : POB Cootamundra NSW : POE Liverpool NSW : NOK M Denoon Catherine Helen; circa 1914 - circa 1920; B2455; DENOON W; Item ID 3501423.
National Archives of Australia: Fraser Simon: SERN Second Lieutenant/3101 POB Byaduk VIC: POE Melbourne VIC: NOK B Fraser Peter; 1914 - 1920; B2455; FRASER S; Item ID 4033794.
National Archives of Australia: Gibbins Norman: SRN Captain/86: POB Ararat VIC: POE Sydney NSW: NOK S Gibbins Violet; circa 1914 - circa 1920; B2455; GIBBINS N; Item ID 4171528.
National Archives of Australia: INNES John: Service Number - 4242: Place of Birth - East Maitland NSW: Place of Enlistment - Newcastle NSW: Next of Kin - (Father) INNES John; 1914 - 1920; B2455; INNES JOHN; Item ID 7365198.
National Archives of Australia: McInnis Ronald Alison: SERN LIEUT: POB Mackay QLD: POE At sea: NOK M McInnis A E; circa 1914 - circa 1920; B2455; MCINNIS R A; Item ID 1946291.
National Archives of Australia: McCrae Geoffrey Gordon: SERN MAJOR: POB N/A: POE N/A: NOK F McCrae George Gordon; circa 1914 - circa 1920; B2455; MCCRAE G G; Item ID 1941228.
National Archives of Australia: MOFFITT Harry Lowry: Service Number - Lieutenant: Place of Birth - Bendigo VIC: Place of Enlistment - Melbourne VIC: Next of Kin - (Father) MOFFITT George Lawry; 1914 - 1920; B2455; MOFFITT HARRY LOWRY; Item ID 7980719.
National Archives of Australia: NORRIS Ignatius Bertram: Service Number - Lieutenant Colonel: Place of Birth - North Sydney NSW: Place of Enlistment - N/A: Next of Kin - (Wife) NORRIS Jane Elizabeth; 1914 - 1920; B2455; NORRIS IGNATIUS BERTRAM; Item ID 8004034.
National Archives of Australia: PATERSON Alexander: Service Number - Lieutenant: Place of Birth - Turriff Scotland: Place of Enlistment - Northam WA: Next of Kin - (Father) PATERSON William; 1914 - 1920; B2455; PATERSON ALEXANDER; Item ID 8010141.
National Archives of Australia: VERPILLOT Aime: Service Number - 4885: Place of Birth - Newchatel Switzerland: Place of Enlistment - Warwick Farm NSW: Next of Kin - (Father) VERPILLOT Eugene; 1914 - 1920; B2455; VERPILLOT AIME; Item ID 8398154.
National Archives of Australia: Williams Edgar: SERN 4621: POB Castlemaine VIC: POE Melbourne VIC: NOK W Williams Esme; circa 1914 - circa 1920; B2455; WILLIAMS E; Item ID 1806523.
National Archives of Australia: Wilson Eric Robert: SERN 4887: POB Port Macquarie NSW: POE Liverpool NSW: NOK F Wilson George; circa 1914 - circa 1920; B2455; WILSON E R; Item ID 1997726.
National Archives of Australia: Wilson Samuel: SERN 2024: POB Melbourne VIC: POE Melbourne VIC: NOK F Wilson G H; circa 1914 - circa 1920; B2455; WILSON S; Item ID 2014761.
Pollard, Tony (2008), Digging hallowed ground, Wartime 44: 30–33, updated 30 Mar 2021, accessed 3 Jan 2025, https://www.awm.gov.au/wartime/44/page30_pollard
Glossary
- Allies
- assault
- bombardment
- breastwork
- casualty
- emplacement
- no-man's-land
- pillbox
- Victoria Cross (VC)