Fromelles1915 - May 9, 2009

[stiletto_33853]

Michel,

A pleasure to meet you also after so long.

Andy

[TonyE]

..and a belated thanks to Victoria from me too.

A very enjoyable weekend.

Regards

TonyE

[stevem49]

Thank you for the excellent photos Michel. Trust you and your family are well.

Steve M

[michel knockaert]

Thank you for the excellent photos Michel. Trust you and your family are well.

Steve M

Steve, my Dear Friend

glad you enjoy the photos

Here everything goes well, sabine even accompanied me to the ceremony ...

I also hope that all goes well for you at home.

Best wishes

Michel

[Victoria Burbidge]

Well, I’ve finally shifted a two-day headache, have managed to get to bed before 2.00 a.m. (first time in nearly three weeks) and now feel able to face the world again.

Saturday was amazing; terrifying, but amazing. An enormous “thank you” is owed to everyone who supplied information and photos for our “Roll of Honour” display; panel upon panel of faces. To Des who not only wrote the most stirring article on the subject of our “Forgotten Irishmen”, but who also set up a website which will focus solely on Fromelles 1915 (lots to be done on this!). To everyone who turned up at the hall, before the service, to help set up the exhibition – thank you! A stunning team effort. Without you, we’d never have got it done in time. To Jeremy Banning, who must have nearly broken his neck to get there early enough to deliver and display the material which Peter Barton had sent on ahead.

To Dave and Andy who had rallied the troops and succeeded in swelling the British numbers. To the Forum Pals who offered not only a physical presence on the day, but a boost to my morale when needed. To the families who travelled from all over to be there. To Mark and Liz for being willing to take an active part in the service and for doing it so beautifully. To Judy and Martin Willoughby from the WFA who were just fabulous. To Iain McHenry, John Sutherland and Chris Lock from the RBL Ypres Branch, Erwin from the Passchendaele 1917 Pipe & Drum and Benoit Mottrie and Patrick Donck from the Last Post Association who all offered every assistance and some very valuable advice. To the Buglers and the Pipes and Drums themselves who brought us close to tears (for some of us it went beyond “close to …”).

To Paul Stevens at the Office of Australian War Graves who gave an immediate “Yes” to my request to use the Australian Memorial Park. To the wonderful David Symons from the CWGC who helped with gaining the permission to use the Memorial Park and was ready to step in with an alternative venue if necessary. To Jean-Marie Bailleul, who struggled valiantly with my terrible French in order to put my requests into practice, I have awarded the D.S.O. To Carole Laignel who beautifully read the French translation of my speech and who continued to translate for everyone at the reception.

To Monsieur Huchette (the Mayor of Fromelles) who, despite the fact that he already organised and attended two other services last week, worked like a Trojan to help get our exhibition up and running. To everybody who offered a financial donation towards the cost of the whole event, my heartfelt thanks, but please hold onto those donations as I think we may be able to put them to good use a little farther along the line (I have high hopes of something permanent at Rouges-Bancs to honour all of our men (1914-1918)).

To Katherine Seymour who made a fantastic job of translating my speech into French - and didn't complain once, despite the number of times I decided to make "one last change ...".

To Lord Faulkner, whose presence helped to add the seal of approval to the day and from whom the words “Is there any more blu-tack?” was the very last thing I expected to hear. To Peter Barton, someone who has made Fromelles his own, a huge “thank you” for his genuine interest and unfailing support in all I have attempted to do in Fromelles – and also for the incredible German material and rather good English wine which he very generously supplied!

And, finally, to Tim and to Marc Thompson, without whom I quite simply couldn’t have managed, I have awarded the Victoria Cross (no pun intended).

Now you see what I mean by “a team effort”. If you had any idea of the nature of the e-mails which came out of Fromelles prior to this service taking place, you’d realise just what an incredible success Saturday really was. So much so, that Monsieur Huchette told me, again and again, what a wonderful day it had been and who has asked if Peter and I would organise a similar exhibition for the July anniversary of the 1916 battle.

Miracles do happen ……………

V.

[Victoria Burbidge]

Part of the speech, underlining why we were there. I've cut out the thanks at the beginning. The whole thing will seem a little disjointed, but it seemed to run quite smoothly with Carole reading the French translation immediately after each paragraph.

"I am delighted to welcome, in addition to all our other guests, the families of some of the men who fought here on the 9th May 1915. Paul Smith, whose great-grandfather, James, was killed in action and for whom there is no known grave. Eddie and Stephanie Wimble and their family. The Wimble family lost two sons, one of at least eleven pairs of brothers to be killed that day. By coincidence, Stephanie’s grandfather, Frederick Martin, also fought here that day and was wounded.

Mark Vent and his family. Their relative won the Military Cross for his actions that day. 2nd Lieutenant William Gray attempted to bring fifty reinforcements across No Man’s Land, but only William and fifteen of the men made it; the rest falling fallen prey to the withering machine-gun fire. William managed to repair a German machine gun and used it to good effect on the enemy and he was the last officer to leave the trench in the early hours of the following morning.

At about 7.30 in the evening of the 9th May, the enemy counter-attacked. Rifleman John Watkinson caught three bombs in the air and threw them back at the enemy; the fourth bomb exploded taking with it part of his hand. His grandsons, Brian, David and Terry, are here today and have brought with them their grandfather’s Distinguished Conduct Medal, 94 years to the day that the action, for which it was won, occurred.

The losses sustained in both the northern and southern attacks were horrific. The village of Burwash in Sussex lost nine men on 9th May 1915. Its neighbouring village of Wadhurst lost twenty-four, the twenty-fifth man dying of his wounds nine days later. Along with the village of Aubers, with which it is now twinned, Wadhurst marks each 9th May as a black day in its history.

Here at Rouges-Bancs the statistics speak for themselves. At least 1536 men killed, of which number only 181 men have known graves. The names of their comrades join the many thousands on a memorial not here, but at Ploegsteert, in Belgium. We refer to these soldiers as men, but many of them were little more than boys of 16 and 17 years of age. Sydney Wyllie was only 15, making him probably the youngest 9th May casualty to be added to the Ploegsteert Memorial.

The remains of the blockhouses which we see here today were not here in 1915, but they were built here because of what happened here in 1915 and they were part of what our Australians had to contend with during their baptism of fire.

It’s a well known fact that many of the Australian men who fought here in 1916 were British born. Percy Barr was one of them. Born in Oxford in 1897, he had emigrated with his family to New South Wales. Killed here and buried by the Germans, his body was later removed to Rue-du-Bois Military Cemetery. His headstone carries the inscription “He fought, he died, not for his own, but England’s unsullied name”.

But there were Australians fighting here a full year earlier, albeit in a much smaller number. Sgt. Charles Holmes, of the 2nd Battalion East Lancashire Regiment, was born in Adelaide, but died here on 9th May. Horace Mawdesley was born in Geraldton, Western Australia, but was living in London when war broke out in August 1914. Enlisting in the September, he was posted to the 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade, dying here on 9th May. Neither man has a known grave.

These British and Australian men stood shoulder to shoulder. They lived side by side, they fought side by side and they died side by side, as witnessed by Pheasant Wood. As my colleague, Martial Delebarre, said the first time that we met, these men died for France.

The British first came here in 1914 – and many of them they never left. Along with their Australian comrades, they fill the local cemeteries and the remains of many of them still lie in the fields which surround us here. I would ask you now to join me in prayer for these men, for those who went before, those who came after and those most often forgotten – the German men for whom Fromelles was home for four years."

[Fedelmar]

THANK YOU Victoria

[J Banning]

It was a wonderful day Victoria and I was delighted to attend. The visual material from Ingolstadt seemed to be a real hit, especially with the French. You should be congratulated wholeheartedly for your hard work and utter conviction in remembering these men and the battle. It was a pleasure to meet you and Tim (and many others from the GWF) that day.

Well done!

[SiegeGunner]

It would be great if that wonderful material could all be kept together and perhaps eventually found a permanent home on display somewhere at Fromelles.

Mick

[Victoria Burbidge]

I agree, Mick, but if the French want it, the French will have to work for it.

Time will tell ........

V.

[Brian in France]

Victoria, it was a pleasure to meet you and the others who came to commemorate the fallen of Aubers Ridge. Through your collective endeavours and some very knowledgeable people, so much that we did not know about our families and what they went through is coming to light. It was also good to see and talk to the Maire of Fromelles and see that he was taking an active interest in the exhibition, even after the ceremonies of the previous day.

Not sure if this is the right place for this, but I have one question that somebody may know the answer to. With the efforts now being made to exhume the remains of the dead buried at Pheasants Wood, we noticed that a quite a large proportion of those buried at the Clearing Station Cemetery, Australian, British and one Frenchman are also unknown. Is it the intention to try and establish the identities of these soldiers and in one case an airman, or are they considered to be "rest"?

[AKEY]

Hi,

It's AKEY (aged 11). I have being doing some research on my GGGGreat Uncle, Rifleman Henry Collins, army no. 3085, who was in the 2nd Battalion of the King's Royal Rifle Corps. He died during fighting at Aubers Ridge in the early hours of 9 May 1915. The first reply on this topic, by Victoria Burbridge, said something about Pheasant Wood. Could someone please tell me what that is and is it near Aubers Ridge?

Cheers,

AKEY

[markivee]

Hi everyone,

I've uploaded a few of our photos from the day in Fromelles

http://s466.photobucket.com/albums/rr25/br...Fromelles_2009/

and a quick youtube video -

Mark.

[Victoria Burbidge]

Mark, thank you. They're lovely photos. It was really good to meet you last weekend. I only wish that we'd had more time to talk. I had no idea that things would be quite so frantic.

Brian, from your description, I take it that you are referring to Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery. When the Imperial War Graves Commission was first established, it was done so on the basis that all men would be treated equally in death. Pheasant Wood, for a number of reasons, has stepped outside of that decision. The old Western Front is covered with the graves of unknown soldiers and I, for one, would not condone the exhumation of men simply to satisfy curiosity. Every one of these men has been commemorated somewhere and those of us who do not know of the final resting place of our relative(s) must be satisfied with that.

Known Unto God.

V.

[Victoria Burbidge]

I have being doing some research on my GGGGreat Uncle, Rifleman Henry Collins, army no. 3085, who was in the 2nd Battalion of the King's Royal Rifle Corps. He died during fighting at Aubers Ridge in the early hours of 9 May 1915. The first reply on this topic, by Victoria Burbridge, said something about Pheasant Wood. Could someone please tell me what that is and is it near Aubers Ridge?

AKEY, over the course of the next few months, I shall be turning my attention to the Southern Attack of the Battle of Aubers Ridge. As your gggg-uncle fell here, he will form part of my research, so expect to hear from me at some point! In the meantime, if you’d like some further information, PM your e-mail address to me.

Pheasant Wood is on the very edge of Fromelles. This area formed part of the Northern Attack on 9th May 1915, but the pits that form the mass grave at Pheasant Wood were dug in July 1916 to hold the remains of British and Australian men killed during the Battle of Fromelles 19th/20th July 1916. There’s been a thread running for quite some time on this subject. Try this link:

Fromelles - July 1916

V.

[tripit]

More...

More...

\sorry if on the wrong reply....

managed to get to service with help from grand daughter..

A great service , and a great day to remember , she did her cometary for me again without any trouble a lady on my right was also telling us who the people

were ,think i frightened her a little , she was very kind . not tell me her name .

once again a great day thank you Victoria and all those who organized the event

cossak

[purley]

Victoria - I have now had a response from Mark Francois at the MOD but unfortunately I have had to change computers and now have a Windows 7 machine (Ugh) and a new e-mail client so I have lost all my e-mail addresses - can you reply to john.chapman@purley.eu and I will send you copies. Not very re-assuring I am afraid

regards

John