Fromelles site bans finders (original) (raw)
This was published 15 years ago
By Paola Totaro in Fromelles and France
May 4, 2009 — 12.00am
THE two amateur historians who located an unmarked mass grave containing 400 Australian and British World War I soldiers have been banned from the site on the eve of work to exhume the bodies.
Lambis Englezos, a Victorian schoolteacher who pinpointed the site, and Tim Whitford, a former Australian tank commander who worked with him - and whose uncle is buried in the German dug mass grave pit - have been told they cannot observe the operation and can attend for no more than 24 hours.
Both men have expressed deep disappointment, telling the Herald that they were not there simply to watch but to see through years of work and research.
"It leaves a really bitter taste really," Mr Whitford said.
A huge exercise will begin this week to exhume and give individual burials to the men who were found in several pits in the tiny township of Fromelles, northern France.
The existence of the bodies, buried by the Germans after the Battle of Fromelles on July 19, 1916, was confirmed by an archeological team of forensic specialists from Glasgow University last May.
A British group will exhume the bodies and aims to match DNA samples taken from the bodies and match them with descendants.
More than 5500 Australians were killed, wounded or reported missing in action during the battle, the worst casualty rate in Australian military history.
The Federal Government plans to rebury all the men in individual plots in a new Commonwealth War Graves military cemetery, the first built by Australia since World War II.
The Glasgow team, led by Dr Tony Pollard, confirmed the existence of eight pits near a pretty copse of trees known as Pheasant's Wood.
The dig is expected to last at least four months and is unfolding in spring and early summer as the clay is heavy and the grounds waterlogged.
High-security will be attached to the site as archaeologists exhume and X-ray the bodies.
The Australian Army and historians have compiled a list of 190 names of soldiers they believe lie at Fromelles, and about 120 relatives are registered to offer samples for cross-checking.
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