Australia has been accused of excluding British soldiers’ descendants from commemorations marking the Battle of Fromelles Centenary in 2016, press reports say.
Some relatives have complained they won’t be allowed to attend a service planned for July 19th at Pheasant Wood Cemetery in Fromelles, near Lille.
The Australian Department of Veterans’ Affairs says priority for seating is being given to Australian and French representatives because of limited space at the site.
However it insists that ‘this is not to diminish the role of other nations but simply a recognition of the Australian focus of the event we are organising.’
Read the full story in the Mail.
Centenary News background:
The Battle of Fromelles, Australia’s first major action on the Western Front, is also remembered as the worst day in the country’s military history.
It was a diversionary attack launched with the British near Lille in July 1916, aimed at diverting German attention from the Somme.
The Australians suffered more than 5,500 casualties (killed, wounded, or missing) within a matter of hours. Britain lost over 1,500 soldiers (killed, wounded or missing).
Pheasant Wood Cemetery, dedicated in 2010, is the last resting place of 250 soldiers, most of them Australian, whose newly-discovered bodies were exhumed from a mass grave in 2009.
The Australian Government contributed more than $1 million towards a new museum, telling the story of the Battle of Fromelles, which opened alongside the cemetery in 2014.
Images: Centenary News
Posted by: CN Editorial Team