Remembering Fromelles: A New Cemetery for a New Century [Paperback]

At 96 pages, a masterpiece of conciseness in explaining the Battle of Fromelles and the subsequent discovery, recovery, identification and re-interment of the 250 men at Pheasant Wood Cemetery. Every aspect is covered, in layman's language where necessary, so that the reader can understand the problems faced at each stage. The book is very well illustated, each picture complementing the text. For me the important 'first step' was to see the map of the battlefield as it was perceived in the official history of the war, and from there, one can understand subsequent stages leading to the dedication ceremony on the 19th july, 2010. I had a number of questions that had not been answered through TV programmes and press articles on Fromelles. This book provided those answers and it is now a welcome addition to my bookshelf! Well done to all of those involved in the Pheasant Wood project, regardless of role!

This is an excellent book on a very important finding of the lost soldiers,British and Australian in the battle for Fromelles. It covers a large range of subjects with many illustrations. I fully recommend it to all who are interested in the history of ww1.

This glossy volume, which covers a lot of ground in its slender width, deals with the discovery, exhumation and reburial, of some 250 Australian and British soldiers posted as missing presumed dead after the battle of Fromelles in July 1916. To characterise it roughly its seven chapters break down into three parts. An initial introduction and two chapters outline the origins, establishment and raison d'etre of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), the July 1916 Battle of Fromelles, the subsequent search for the remains of "missing" soldiers, and the eventual discovery of three "lost" battlefield graves that had been dug by opposing German forces in 1916 to bury the `British', in Northern France in 2008. The central section deals, over four chapters with the exhumation and study, by a team from Oxford Archaeology, of the human remains and the artefacts. A brief but well illustrated chapter on the actual excavation is followed by another beautifully illustrated chapter on the artefacts (5). This chapter, in its presentation and the understatement of its text, gives a poignant and palpable testament to the essential humanity of the remains, it plugs the reader directly into both the temporal proximity of the events and the essential similarities between aspects of our own lives, and those of the men and boys shattered on that battlefield ninety five years ago. Margaret Cox, in chapter 6, explores the post-excavation and the forensic nature of the investigations, both their organisation and limitations. Whereas the artefacts link us, as reader, with the essential humanity of the remains, the forensic investigation of these graves, the employment of a scene of crime officer employed from Gwent Police and mortuary managers and forensic radiographers from the NHS, in being more reminiscent of the series Silent Witness, strike home the fact that this is not a usual archaeological project but an act in the wider trauma (drama) of re-situating the excavated dead within the context of existent family, only two or three generations removed. It is within this context that the next chapter, 7, provides greater detail on the use of DNA profiling and its potential limitations in identifying human remains. The final section deals with the creation of the first, all new, commonwealth war cemetery since those of the Second World War. The logistics and aesthetics, the challenges of burying the dead at the same time as building the cemetery and the later horticultural challenges of giving the Fromelles cemetery that particular Commonwealth War Graves feel (designed to be reminiscent of an English country churchyard). The penultimate chapter provides a photo montage of some of the interments, the bearing of the coffins by a mixed guard of the armies of Britain and Australia, the bugle, the last post, and the firing of the salute. Finally, a brief chapter section (6 pages) provides a "flavour" of the men behind the stories, by speaking to family members of soldiers posted as missing, or dead, following the battle of Fromelles in 1916.

Remembering Fromelles: a new cemetery for a new century is well organised, professionally produced and has a very high standard of photography among which the images taken by of Tim Loveless and Kate Brady stand out. Julie Summers compilation of the book manages to marry the various strands, processes, of the story well, despite writers of apparently varying sensibilities. This is not an archaeological report though, nor does it attempt to be, it is a small book - or extended pamphlet - on a project that had archaeological components, its quality of production belying its ten pound price tag. It is apparent that the project itself was an undertaking of some considerable size and logistical complexity and if there is any criticism of this book it must be that it lacks something in emotional cohesion. This may be because some of the sections don't seem to quite fit together. The relative elegance of the first two chapters by Summers and Nigel Steel, both of whom are published authors specialising in one or both of the European conflicts of the twentieth century, stands in contrast to the sections on uncovering the fallen and the scientific overview. The interview sections, on DNA profiling and building the cemetery manage to convey what a logistically complex and pressured project this was but in a more immediate and human way. As such, two of the three sections which touch directly on the archaeology feel a little cold. The first a little padded and if anything over contextualises Oxfords suitability for the Fromelles project. The second, in discussing the forensics and logistics, a little removed. Maybe this is reflective of much formulaic writing that archaeologists do in the pursuit of their everyday jobs. It is, however, the only detraction (possibly in addition to the price tag) from what is an interesting coffee table book.

Finally though, the purpose of this book should not be lost. It was the detective work and tenacity of one man, Lambis Englezos, a school teacher from Victoria and the pressure he put on the Australian Army Historical Unit that enabled the first archaeological investigations of the German dug battlefield graves of the 250 Australian and British soldiers of Fromelles. This, the story of the investigations, the efforts to put names and faces to the fallen (some 75 individuals of the 250 persons buried have been identified to date) and the continued good works of the CWGC are to one point. That point being that there are 250 mothers sons who now have a headstone, where they can be known and remembered. No matter what ones political stand on war, ones interpretation of the causes of 1914-18 or the empires which asked people to go to the front, where, at Fromelles (as elsewhere), they were needlessly slaughtered (5,300 Australians killed in less than 24 hours), the 250 of Fromelles, their sacrifice and their remains, in purely human terms, are deserving of our respect and it is this respect, the raison d'etre behind the CWGC, which underpins this book.