terry carter
Birmingham Pals
Over the last few days there has been several news reports regarding the events that have took place over the last year regarding the mass battlefield graves containing the British and Australian soldiers buried by the Germans after the Battle of Fromelles that took place on 19/20 July, 1916.
The action took place well north of the Somme fighting and was aimed at stopping the Germans sending troops from the quieter areas of the trenches to support their troops on the Somme.
It was to be a joint effort, the Australian 5th Division who had recently arrived in France after serving at Gallipoli and the British 61st Division who were a 2nd Line Territorial Division raised at the outbreak of the war.
Without going into too much detail..... it was a complete disaster and thousands of British and Australians were slaughtered crossing No Mans Land.
The Australian's suffered over 5,000 casualties and the British 1,500.
Over the last year a team from Glasgow University working with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission have removed the remains from the mass grave and attempted to identify them. As you have seen on the news this has been very difficult and attempts have been made to match DNA from the bones to relatives of men who were killed in the battle.
The CWGC have now built a new cemtery to accomodate the remains with the first burials this weekend.
The reason I have started this thread is that Forum members may not be aware that the 61st Division contained four battalions of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. The 2/5th, 2/6th, 2/7th and 2/8th.
Of these four battalions the 2/6th and 2/7th took part in this disastrous attack. Both battalions had nearly 100 men killed each and probably double that wounded.
The majority of these men killed were never buried and there names commemorated on the Loos Memorial. Thus, its fair to say, that when you see the television news regarding these unknown soldiers being reburied in the new cemetery, some could actually be from the 2/6th or 2/7th.
The 2/6th, as you would expect, being raised in Birmingham in 1914, contained a fair amount of Brummies, and the 2/7th being raised in Coventry was mostly men from Warwickshire.
In Remembrance
Terry
The action took place well north of the Somme fighting and was aimed at stopping the Germans sending troops from the quieter areas of the trenches to support their troops on the Somme.
It was to be a joint effort, the Australian 5th Division who had recently arrived in France after serving at Gallipoli and the British 61st Division who were a 2nd Line Territorial Division raised at the outbreak of the war.
Without going into too much detail..... it was a complete disaster and thousands of British and Australians were slaughtered crossing No Mans Land.
The Australian's suffered over 5,000 casualties and the British 1,500.
Over the last year a team from Glasgow University working with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission have removed the remains from the mass grave and attempted to identify them. As you have seen on the news this has been very difficult and attempts have been made to match DNA from the bones to relatives of men who were killed in the battle.
The CWGC have now built a new cemtery to accomodate the remains with the first burials this weekend.
The reason I have started this thread is that Forum members may not be aware that the 61st Division contained four battalions of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. The 2/5th, 2/6th, 2/7th and 2/8th.
Of these four battalions the 2/6th and 2/7th took part in this disastrous attack. Both battalions had nearly 100 men killed each and probably double that wounded.
The majority of these men killed were never buried and there names commemorated on the Loos Memorial. Thus, its fair to say, that when you see the television news regarding these unknown soldiers being reburied in the new cemetery, some could actually be from the 2/6th or 2/7th.
The 2/6th, as you would expect, being raised in Birmingham in 1914, contained a fair amount of Brummies, and the 2/7th being raised in Coventry was mostly men from Warwickshire.
In Remembrance
Terry
