British and Australian soldiers reburied

[Azog 150]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8488863.stm

The first of 250 British and Australian soldiers whose remains were recovered from a World War I battlefield in northern France has been reburied.

The unidentified soldier, who died in the 1916 Battle of Fromelles, was reburied with full military honours in a special service near the site.



It is the first new cemetery built for World War I or II soldiers in 50 years.



The bodies, which were buried by German forces, were excavated from six mass graves in 2008.



The cemetery, which has been built by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, is currently only 70% complete but due to be finished by July.



The remainder of the military burials there will take place three times a week over the next month, with approximately 30 burials every day.





Lost soldiers of Fromelles

Heavy losses

UK Veterans Minister Kevan Jones and his Australian counterpart Veteran Affairs Minister Alan Griffin attended the one-hour service in the village of Fromelles on Saturday with families of fallen soldiers.
Mr Jones said both governments wanted to give the "brave soldiers" a "fitting place of rest" which "honoured the commitment" to fallen soldiers after World War I.



He urged families who thought they might have had a relative killed during the battle to come forward to assist the identification process.
The battle, on 19 July 1916, was the first major one on the Western Front involving Australian troops.


In total, the 61st British Division suffered losses of 1,547 personnel, who were either killed, wounded, taken prisoner or missing.



The 5th Australian Division suffered 5,533 similar losses.

Sad to think they lay completely forgotton all these years. May they finally rest in peace.

[Boyar Son]

Heh, i can't help but think of the british WW2 soldiers, walking around the same WW1 battlefield, not knowing there are still some of their comrades buried under them.

[Yorkshireman]

There's still 760,000 British & Commonwealth soldiers missing and another 212,000 unidentified graves from 1914-45. I don't know the figures for German/French/Belgium/USA etc There's a few million men still buried under the mud in France and Flanders.

, i can't help but think of the british WW2 soldiers, walking around the same WW1 battlefield, not knowing there are still some of their comrades buried under them

They'd know alright, it would be their fathers and uncles.

[Azog 150]

^^Jesus. Didn't know it was that many. Thats like the large majority of the British and Commonwealth dead.

[Yorkshireman]

^^Jesus. Didn't know it was that many. Thats like the large majority of the British and Commonwealth dead.

I made a mistake there, thats the missing for both world wars out of a total of 1.7 million dead. In WW1 there's about 300,000 British & Commonwealth soldiers missing.

I've got 2 great-uncles missing from then, 1 at the 1st Ypres 1914 and one on the Somme 1916. One name on the Menin Gate and one on the Theipval memorial.