Fromelles

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Fromelles
Fromelles coat of arms
Fromelles (France)
Fromelles
region Hauts-de-France
Department North
Arrondissement Lille
Canton Annœullin
Community association Métropole Européenne de Lille
Coordinates 50 ° 36 '  N , 2 ° 51'  E Coordinates: 50 ° 36 '  N , 2 ° 51'  E
height 18–32 m
surface 8.54 km 2
Residents 958 (January 1, 2017)
Population density 112 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code 59249
INSEE code 59257
Website http://www.fromelles.fr/

Fromelles

Fromelles is a French municipality with 958 inhabitants (at January 1, 2017) in Nord in the region of Hauts-de-France , 16 km west of Lille .

history

From the so-called Christmas Peace of 1914, descriptions of a church service in the no man's land between the trenches near the place have come down to us.

On July 19 and 20, 1916, the so-called Battle of Fromelles (Battle of Fromelles) took place at this location, which had been occupied by German troops since 1914 . The attack by mostly Australian troops on the German trenches was planned as a relief attack for the Battle of the Somme , but it went down in history as the greatest defeat by Australian troops in a single day. The Australian troops of the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF) experienced their first deployment on the Western Front here. More than 5500 Australian soldiers and around 2000 soldiers from the British Army were killed here in one day.

Many of the fallen were also rescued and buried by German troops, they were buried together with those who were able to recover the Allied troops in a mass grave at the VC Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial after the war . But 399 Allied dead in this battle could not be buried. In July 2007, however, archaeologists from the University of Glasgow were able to locate a previously unknown mass grave with 250 Australian and British soldiers on the outskirts of Fromelles. Between May and September 2009 the dead were exhumed and officially buried in the newly created Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery 120 m away from where they were found.

literature

  • Le Patrimoine des Communes du Nord. Flohic Editions, Volume 1, Paris 2001, ISBN 2-84234-119-8 , pp. 197-199.

Web links

Commons : Fromelles  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Disaster at Fromelles article by Ross McMullin for: Australian War Memorial, Wartime Issue 36
and display information about the image
Fromelles panorama 1914