VC Corner Cemetery

[paul guthrie]

Why does it have no headstones? Was there in April and have forgotten already!

[Greenwoodman]

I think this is the cemetery with a mass grave, and the names are on a wall at the rear of the cemetery.

[Terry Denham]

Extract from the CWGC site

"It contains the graves of over 400 Australian soldiers who died in the Attack at Fromelles and whose bodies were found on the battlefield, but not a single body could be identified. It was therefore decided not to mark the individual graves, but to record on a screen wall the names of all the Australian soldiers who were killed in the engagement and whose graves were not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Herbert Baker, commemorates almost 1,300 Australian casualties."

[Chris_Baker]

This is the cemetery in question. 410 men of the 61st and 5th Australian Divisions lie in a mass grave. On the rear wall is inscribed the names of a further 1,298 Australian soldiers who lost their lives in this area and who have no known grave. The white mark on the grass is one of two stone crosses inset into the lawns.

[Bob Coulson]

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I believe this is the only all Australian cemetery in France.

Bob.

[Chris_Baker]

It's not all Australian. There are Brits from the 61st (2nd South Midland) Division there too.

[Bob Coulson]

Chris,

Thanks for the correction, as I said I wasn't sure.

Bob.