Australian WWI soldiers in French grave identified

Seventy-five Australian soldiers unearthed from a World War I mass grave in northern France have been identified with the help of DNA tests, Australia's PM Kevin Rudd has announced. The last soldier is to be reburied in an official ceremony on the 94th anniversary of the Battle of Fromelles on 19 July this year. 

A shell hole in Fromelles in 1916 Deutsches Bundesarkiv/Commons

The remains of 75 Australian soldiers who died in World War I in France have been identified by name, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has told parliament. Their remains were excavated and have now been reburied in individual graves in Fromelles.

Finding out their identity was made possible through forensic tests linking them to living relatives.

Those identified were among 203 sets of remains found to be Australian in a mass grave of 250 soldiers, which was dug by German troops after the 1916 Battle of Fromelles.

The battle of Fromelles involved Germans, British and Australians, and left more than 5,500 Australian soldiers killed, wounded or missing. German troops later buried the bodies of the Allied soldiers in several pits at a forest site. The site was discovered in 2007.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he hoped the certainty of a final resting place would comfort relatives of the fallen who had been left with unanswered questions about the fate of their loved ones for so long.

“After waiting for nearly 94 years, those families now have some certainty”, Rudd said. He added he was hopeful that more soldiers could be identified by name as the process of scientific analysis was continuing.

All but one of the mass grave’s 250 sets of remains have so far been reburied in individual plots at an official war cemetery near the original grave site.

The final soldier would be laid to rest at a commemorative event on the battle’s 94th anniversary of the battle on 19 July, said Kevin Rudd.

The DNA test results showed that most of the soldiers were younger than 20 when they died at Fromelles.