Arras - Day 2 - Fromelles

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Geo: 50.2918, 2.77

I managed to score a tour of Fromelle today. Apparently this is something I really should have booked ahead. The first tour company I approached were fully booked, but they recomended Phil, an Aussie expat living here in Arras. Phil had just returned from holiday and had no bookings the afternoon. The usual tour bus was in for a service, so as it was just the two of us we toured the countryside in his car.

The tour was fantastic, sad, but really good. First stop was a trip to Pheasant Wood, where the bodies of 250 missing Australian and British soldiers were found in 2008. It is a quiet little nondescript paddock on the edge of town. A Melbourne history buff by the name of Lambis Englezos, found the bodies by comparing aerial photographs of the site before and after the battle of Fromelles. He had a bit of a battle with the politics of getting a formal investigation, no-one in Australia or France wanted to touch it, until he started negotiating with private contractors to excavate the site. Then the Australian government got involved and took over. I wondered how the farmer who owned this land felt about all these people digging up his property. Apparently he was very happy for them to do it as the idea of all of these people, coming half way across the world to fight for France, amazes the locals. He was happy to donate the land for a proper burial, his crops never grew well on that patch anyway.

The soil at the mass grave site was mainly clay. Due to the infirm nature of the soil they couldn't bury the soldiers there, so they built the cemetery and the museum across the road, to honour the soldiers. The Museum was very interesting but very sad. In the graveyard I saw the headstones of Samuel and Eric Wilson lying side by side. I assumed they were brothers. The museum confirmed that they were. The Germans, had burried them side by side in the mass grave and now they remain that way for eternity. A third brother, James, had also fought at Fromelles but had been injured. What a horrible tragedy for one family. The last two exhibits broke my heart. The first was the ID tag of a soldier. The tag was found by the germans and forwarded to the British army. The army returned it to the family with a letter, that was also on display. The letter, or note really, was so cold. Essentially, we have this piece of Private Creswells personal effects, if we find anymore, we'll let you know. After months of a loved one being missing in action, could you imagine receiving such a letter? The last display was an extract of a letter written to the Australian Army, from a Brisbane woman, pleading for information about her son. Her pain was tangible. "I know he was not the only one by thousands, but he was my son just lent to me for only 35 years"

Did you know that Hitler was at the battle of Fromelles? He was a runner back then. Running messages between officers on the front lines. Phil stopped to show me the barracks where he would have stayed (now someones house) and "Hitlers bunker" where it is believed he was during the battle. If the Aussies had been successful, we could have prevented WW2.

We went to the Cobbers statue. Its called cobbers from the story of Simon Fraser, who had the unenviable task of retrieving the wounded from no mans land, after the battle. He had to sneak out under cover darkness, with the threat to drawing enemy fire, to drag the wounded back to the trenches. While bringing one man back he found another wounded soldier. He dragged the second man into a shell ditch, with the promise he'd be back. As he left the soldier called out, dont forget me cobber. Fraser didn't forget him, returning later to pull the man to safety.

After Cobbers statue, we went to VC corner, a small graveyard with the unmarked graves of unknown soldiers. As we had more time we went up to Vimys ridge. Here stands a massive memorial to the missing Canadian soldiers. Vimy's ridge is where the Germans took control. From the ridge you can see all the surrounding valleys, giving them a great advantage. Neither the French or the British could take it back. But the Canadians, fighting for the first time under a Canadian general succeeded. Which is why their memorial is here. Its massive and its beautiful.

The last two stops of the day were the French cemetery and the German cemetery. They were both huge but german one in particular took my breath away. Unlike the allied forces who are buried all over the place, all the german bodies where gathered up and buried in one place. The graves are marked with crosses. They don't even get one cross each, there is one cross for four soldiers, and it was a massive field of crosses. Over 45,000 soldiers are buried here. Looking through them at ground level, you cannot see through the crosses to the fields beyond. So much loss.

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Photos

Grave of an unknown soldier
Too many of these

Comments

[janette beirne]

Very moving stories Tracie. I wld love to visit there one day. Looks like you had a bonus too with one on one tour.

[Karen & Garry]

Loving the detail. Luggage saga over - at last . Two bags now to worry about - oh no.

[phil]

well done tracie. looking back we got through a fair bit in a short afternoon. I'm sure your blog gives people itchy feet and keen for travel....