| V.C. Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial | |
|---|---|
| Commonwealth War Graves Commission | |
View of the cemetery with the memorial in the background |
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| For Australian forces at the Battle of Fromelles (1916) | |
| Location | |
| Designed by | Sir Herbert Baker (architect) |
| In honour of 410 unknown Australian soldiers here buried who were among the 1299 officers, non-commissioned officers and men of the Australian Imperial Forces killed in the attack at Fromelles July 19th/20th 1916 [1] | |
| Statistics source: Cemetery register: Details • Reports • Plans • Photographs. CWGC. | |
The V.C. Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial is a World War I memorial located in the commune of Fromelles, in the Nord departement of France, about 2 kilometres (1½ miles) northwest of the village of Fromelles on the D22C road (rue Delval).
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The Battle of Fromelles in July 1916 is significant as the first occasion on which the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF) saw action on the Western Front.
The battle is widely regarded as a disaster for the Allies, and has been described as "the worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history."[2] It resulted from a plan to divert German attention from the Battle of the Somme, but historians estimate that 5,500 Australians and 2,000 British troops were killed or wounded. The Australian losses were equivalent to the combined total Australian losses in the Boer War, Korean War and Vietnam War:[2] although later World War I actions would be more deadly for the AIF, Fromelles was the only one to achieve no success.[3]
Adolf Hitler is believed to have served as a messenger on the German side with the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division.[4]
The site was constructed in 1920 and 1921:[5] The name VC Corner has no obvious relation to actions in the region of Fromelles. It might just refer to a nickname soldiers gave the area during the war referring either to the bravery of the Australian troops or the danger of the place that demanded bravery to be held.[6]
The cemetery contains 410 unidentified bodies retrieved from the battlefield after the Armstice, that is, more than two years after the battle.[3][7] There are no headstones in the cemetery, two large concrete crosses laid face down in the grass mark where the soldiers are buried. Although the graves are not individually marked, these are individual graves, not a mass grave, as can be seen on the CWGC cemetery plan.[3] There is also a Cross of Sacrifice.
The memorial lists almost 1,300 Australian soldiers who were lost in the battle and who have no known resting place.[3][7][note 1] Of these, 711 are buried as "Known unto God" in other local cemeteries such as the Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery and the Rue-du-Bois Military Cemetery. The bodies of another 160 AIF soldiers (and 239 British soldiers) were recovered by the Germans after the battle and buried behind German lines, their names and personal belongings being passed to the Red Cross.[8] In May 2008, the remains of some of these soldiers were finally located in mass graves on the outskirts of Fromelles. A total of 250 British and Australian soldiers from this site are being reburied in the Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery.
The Australian Memorial Park is about 200 metres from the V.C. Corner cemetery and memorial, on the same road (D22C, rue Delval) in the direction of the village of Fromelles. It lies at the point where the German lines crossed the road, and has several surviving battlefield fortifications. In comparison, the V.C. Corner cemetery and memorial is approximately at the point where the Allied lines crossed the road.[9]
The Memorial Park was opened on 5 July 1998 by Bruce Scott, the Australian Minister for Veterans' Affairs, in the presence of Ian McLachlan, the Australian Minister for Defence. The opening of this memorial park was part of a series of events that commemorated the 80th anniversary of the end of World War I. A guard of honour was provided by the French 43rd Infantry Regiment, and the Australian 10th/27th Battalion, and the opening of the memorial park was attended by hundreds from Australia and France.[10] [11]
Cobbers is a prominent 1998 sculpture by Peter Corlett of Sergeant Simon Fraser[note 2] rescuing a wounded compatriot from No Man's Land after the battle.[7] A replica of the sculpture is in the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Victoria.[12] The title comes from a letter that Fraser, a farmer from Byaduk, Victoria, wrote a few days after the battle and that was widely quoted in Australia's official history of World War I.[13][14]
We found a fine haul of wounded and brought them in; but it was not where I heard this fellow calling, so I had another shot for it, and came across a splendid specimen of humanity trying to wriggle into a trench with a big wound in his thigh. He was about 14 stone weight, and I could not lift him on my back; but I managed to get him into an old trench, and told him to lie quiet while I got a stretcher. Then another man about 30 yards out sang out "Don’t forget me, cobber." I went in and got four volunteers with stretchers, and we got both men in safely.
Several commemorative events have been held at the Memorial Park. On 9 May 2009, a Service of Remembrance was held to mark the 94th anniversary of the Battle of Aubers Ridge.[15] On 19 July 2009, a service was held to mark the 93rd anniversary of the Battle of Fromelles.[16]