Work has started on the new cemetery at Fromelles, in northern France, which will provide a final resting place for around 400 British and Australian soldiers.
The troops died during the Battle of Fromelles in July 1916, with the bodies buried in a number of pits by the German army in the hours after the battle. In May 2008, after several years of painstaking research and investigation, five burial pits dating from the First World War were identified at Pheasant Wood, near Fromelles in northern France. The pits, which have lain undisturbed for more than 90 years, are believed to contain the remains of between 250 and 400 British and Australian soldiers, buried behind German lines after the Battle of Fromelles in July 1916.
A team of archaeologists are currently extracting the bodies and countless items of clothing and equipment and it is hoped that DNA techniques will enable as many of the soldiers as possible to be named and given an individual headstone.
Families who believe their relatives may have lost their lives at Fromelles are urged to check the lists of casualties at www.fromelles.org.
