THE BATTLE OF FROMELLES - WALKING TOUR

The Battle of Fromelles (July 19-20, 1916) was one of the bloodiest episodes of the Great War, claiming thousands of lives, most of them Australian. This episode was all the more tragic in that it marked the first intervention of Australian forces on the front. A resounding failure that failed to produce any decisive breakthroughs, the Battle of Fromelles remains famous nonetheless, thanks to the courage and determination of these soldiers who came from the other side of the world in an attempt to save Europe. A path of remembrance has been created to pay tribute to them and allow visitors to immerse themselves in a key moment in history. The trail starts from the Fromelles church. High up on its embankment, it was a major strategic landmark, and was quickly targeted and destroyed by the Germans in 1916. The new neo-Romanesque church was consecrated in 1924. The second stage takes visitors to the middle of a field from which "Le Bunker de l'Abbiette" emerges. This command post is infamous for having been visited in 1915 and 1916 by Adolf Hitler. The "Kennedy Calvary" celebrates the courage of Captain Paul Adrian Kennedy. Mortally wounded, he asked to be left behind on the battlefield. His body was never found. Shortly after the war, his mother, who had lost three of her sons in the conflict, acquired the plot where her son had fallen and had a calvary erected there. The courage, strength and willpower of Australia's fighting men and women are honoured in the "Australian Memorial Park". The Cobbers statue pays tribute to those soldiers who returned to help the wounded. At Victoria Cross Corner Cemetery and Memorial, the only Australian cemetery in France, the names of 1,299 missing Australian soldiers are inscribed on a monument whose whiteness adds to the solemnity of the place. The memorial also contains the remains of 410 unidentified soldiers. The most beautiful stop on this memorial trail is undoubtedly the "Trou Aid Post Cemetery", a cemetery built next to the aid post at the locality known as "Le Trou", hence the name. Wooded, flower-filled and surrounded by a stream, it offers the 351 British soldiers buried there a beautiful burial ground. This is followed by the Rue Petillon Military Cemetery, the Pheasant Wood Military Cemetery, where 5 mass graves dug by the Germans exhumed 250 bodies, most of them Australian, and the Pheasant Wood Military Cemetery, inaugurated in 2010, where these 250 soldiers are buried. Finally, the trail ends at the Musée de la Bataille de Fromelles, which displays the collection of members of the association "Fromelles et Weppes, terre de mémoire 14-18". Educational and highly informative, the museum provides a better understanding of what was at stake in this battle. This walking tour keeps alive the memory of the men who gave their lives to defend peace. A visit not to be missed.