Fromelles

Today we joined our tour of the WWI Battlefields of the Western Front with Matt McLachlan's Battlefields Tours.

We left Paris and headed north towards Belgium, crossing the Somme and making our way through areas with names synonymous with the war. It is such beautiful farming country, it is hard to imagine what it was like 100+ years ago, although the remains of concrete German defensive blockhouses give a clue .

Our first stop was the
Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Cemetery, where 250 unknown Australian and British soldiers were buried in 2010. The Fromelles Museum tells the story of the July 1916 battle and the discovery of their bodies in 2009 and subsequent and ongoing identification through DNA.

The Battle of Fromelles was the worst day in terms of casualities in our military history.

We then went to the Cobbers Memorial and then on to the VC Corner Cemetery (the only all-Australian cemetery in France). 410 unknown soldiers are buried here, commemorated by 410 red roses. In an adjoining ploughed field, we immediately found shrapnel remains.

We also visited the Rue Patillon cemetery.

Our final destination was Ypres in Belgium, our home for the next two nights.Leggi altro