The corner of a foreign field where not one soldier lies, but 400

Published on Monday 4 May 2009 21:57

THEY were sent on an almost impossible mission and fell in their thousands, only for their deeds to remain largely forgotten.

Now – more than nine decades after one of the First World War's least documented slaughters – the bodies of hundreds of British and Australian war dead are to be recovered from a mass grave in northern France.

As many as 400 soldiers are thought to remain in eight pits, having been stripped of their identity tags and buried by German forces following the Battle of Fromelles.

In what represents one of the largest exhumations in recent history, archaeologists, including key staff from Scotland, will today begin the operation on behalf of the British and Australian governments, supervised by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC).

The five-month operation at Pheasant Wood, seven miles south of the French-Belgian border, will be concentrated on one of the largest modern mass graves that was not the result of genocide.

The majority of the archeologists, radiologists and anthropologists involved in the recovery scheme are from Oxford University but the initiative is being led by Robert McNeil and Alison Anderson from Glasgow, international experts in body recovery and identification who have worked for the United Nations in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Peter Francis, spokesman for the CWGC, said: "We've had some very emotional moments... we know we are going to come face to face with the human cost of the Great War."

Field supervisor Ambika Flavel said: "As far as I'm aware, this is the largest excavation of its kind. We have never had eight pits in which there could potentially be bodies and for that reason this is a unique project.

"The challenge is always, when relatives are involved, to make sure that the process is done in such a way that will be respectful. The ultimate goal of this is to give individual burials to people who have sacrificed their lives in war for us – we need to reciprocate that."

The Battle of Fromelles began on 19 July, 1916 and was designed to divert German troops away from the Battle of the Somme some 50 miles to the south. A 27-year-old corporal by the name of Adolf Hitler was among those on the battlefield.

Within 24 hours, the 61st British Division saw 1,547 of its men killed, wounded, or taken prisoner. The 5th Australian Division suffered even greater losses, with 5,533 casualties, some 1,780 of whom were killed.

The CWGC said cross-referencing of casualty records had yielded possible identities for the dead, including at least 17 Scots.

Those soldiers who can be identified will be buried nearby, with headstones showing their names and regiments.

Should identification not prove possible, the headstones will carry the regimental emblem and in some cases the words "unknown soldier".