The Hon Bruce Billson MP
Minister for Veterans’ Affairs
Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence
Addressing the Commemorative Ceremony, Australian Memorial Park, Fromelles

1 July 2006
Fromelles, France

Acknowledgments

Ladies and Gentlemen

It is my privilege to be here today on behalf of the Government and people of Australia, to remember and honour the sacrifice of the Australians who fought and died here ninety years ago.

The service and sacrifice of Australians during World War I remains at the core of our national identity.

Earlier today, I was at Thiepval where the monuments and cemeteries remind us of the horrific losses suffered by the British Army on 1 July 1916.

This evening we have come to the place that represents for Australia, our first great loss on the Western Front—the Battle of Fromelles.

Gallipoli is the birthplace of the Anzac legend, but the Western Front is where that legend was sealed. And at Fromelles, we had a baptism of fire.

The Australians and British 61st Division were sent to attack entrenched positions, facing an enemy who had watched their preparations and knew they were coming.

In the course of 27 hours the Australian 5th Division suffered five-and-a-half thousand casualties – a disastrous loss for our first major engagement on the Western Front.

Today, we remember those who lost their lives here. But we should also remember that this battle showed all the strength of the Anzac spirit.

Ninety years ago, in the morning and early afternoon of 19 July 1916, Australian soldiers of the 5th Division Australian Imperial Force—thousands of men from all over Australia—assembled in trenches across these fields. Their aim, along with the British 61st Division, was to attack and capture German lines and hopefully divert enemy forces from the Battle of the Somme raging away to the south.

The battalions of the 8th and 14th brigades quickly crossed 150-200 metres of no-man's-land, seized the enemy front line and pushed on looking for another German line to the rear which never materialised. But to their right was disaster and havoc.

There no-man's-land was at its widest at a bulge into the allied line – the Sugar-loaf salient. The men of the 59th and 60th battalions from Victoria had more than 450 metres to go in flat open country before they could reach the enemy line.

The observers who had thought that artillery had taken care of the German positions in the Sugar-loaf were wrong: 'Boys, you won't find a German when you get there', Brigadier Pompey Elliot commanding the 15th Brigade told his men as they as they saw the shells descending on the Germans.

But as the Australians began to cross, the Germans rose to their weapons and shot the Australians down in their hundreds.

Throughout the night of 19-20 July the Australians on the right, who had captured part of the German line, were vigorously counter-attacked. Next morning they were forced to fight their way back through a strengthened and reorganised enemy.

In just over 24 hours the 5th Division suffered more than 5,500 casualties. Effectively, the 59th and 60th Battalions had ceased to exist and as Pompey Elliott met the survivors struggling back, he wept.

Even more incredibly, for a force that had taken such terrible losses, Australian soldiers spent the next three days and nights going out under enemy fire to bring back their mates.

Many of the rescuers were killed or wounded as went out under fire, but another always took their place if they fell.

This is courage of the highest order – the mateship that stands at the heart of the Anzac legend. That courage is remembered here at Fromelles through the enduring tribute of the magnificent "Cobbers" sculpture that stands in this memorial park.

The sculpture was inspired by the story of Sergeant Simon Fraser of the 57th Battalion, one of the men who went out to rescue his mates.

Sergeant Fraser found one man who was too heavy for him to lift on his own. He was about to go back for a stretcher party when another man called out from 30 metres away: "Don't forget me, cobber".

Fraser returned with stretcher parties and rescued both men.

By comparison with places like Gallipoli and the Somme, Fromelles is not well known in Australia. But over the years local people here have not forgotten what happened on 19 July 1916.

I want to thank particularly the members of the ASBF (Association pour le Souvenir de la Bataille de Fromelles) whose dedication and enthusiasm has produced the wonderful trench museum in the village of Fromelles.

The story of the men of the First Australian Imperial Force who fought and died in this area is safe in the hands of the ASBF.

It is my wish that an ever increasing number of Australians will come to Fromelles to understand what happened to their countrymen here, not just at the battle itself, but during those many occasions when the AIF was stationed in the trenches of this area.

Ninety years later, he Australians who fought on the Western Front have now all passed away, but we remember with pride the courage and determination they showed here.

And we undertake to pass on their story, so that tomorrow's Australians never forget those who gave everything they had for our nation.

ENDS