Fromelles.
They remained in the mists of history until a Greek-born Australian art teacher from Melbourne began his quest to find them about eight years ago. Lambis Englezos and his team of supporters now believed they knew the fate and the final resting place of around 170 of those missing Diggers of Fromelles.
… a wretched, hybrid scheme, which might well be termed a
tactical abortion.
B RIGADIER G ENERAL H AROLD ‘P OMPEY ’ E LLIOTT
( ON THE PLAN FOR THE B ATTLE OF F ROMELLES )
The Cross of Sacrifice at VC Corner Cemetery. The only all-Australian cemetery in France, it is the final resting place of 410 unknown Diggers from Fromelles. ( PATRICK LINDSAY PHOTO )
1
THE BREWING STORM
One thing is clear; we are entering the first act of a
world-wide tragedy.
M AXIM G ORKY , 1914
Because of the vast spread of European colonisation, when war flared in Europe in August 1914 it ignited the first global conflict in history. While the main theatre remained centred in Europe, the reverberations were felt from America to the Pacific, from the Middle East to Japan.
In 1870 Germany’s 39 separate states had merged to form a united nation. She had much ground to make up against the existing dominant colonial nations like France and Britain. Knowing that ‘the sun never set on the British Empire’ prompted Germany to seek its own place in the sun by embarking on colonial expansion in the final years of the nineteenth century. It rapidly established African colonies in Togoland and Namibia, Pacific outposts in New Guinea, Samoa and Micronesia and a naval base at Tsingtao in China.
THE WESTERN FRONT
Britain grew increasingly wary of Germany’s aggressive growth and soon realised that her own far-flung Empire had become a two-edged sword: it enabled her to influence events around the world but it provided Germany with the means to stretch and divide Britain’s forces as she tried to protect her territories.
Germany’s expansion soon threatened the world’s political status quo. Germany eyed the Panama Canal and even briefly toyed with a hare-brained scheme to attack the east coast of the USA. By 1912, it was evident that Germany was gearing up for a conflict in Europe.
Clearly, the conflict evolved from a complicated cauldron of national and individual imperatives, but perhaps the underlying causes were best summed up by the British philosopher Bertrand Russell:
And all this madness, all this rage, all this flaming death of our civilisation and our hopes, has been brought about because a set of official gentlemen, living luxurious lives, mostly stupid, and all without imagination or heart, have chosen that it should occur rather than that any one of them should suffer some infinitesimal rebuff to his country’s pride.
It was a bizarre situation in which Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm, oldest grandson of Britain’s Queen Victoria, took up arms against his first cousins, King George V of Britain and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Wilhelm, who still ruled Germany as an autocrat, said: ‘The sword must now decide’.
In the summer of 1914 Germany’s 3.8 million troops lined up against a similar number of French soldiers to its west and around 3 million Russians on its eastern border. Germany moved swiftly and invaded Belgium in early August, sweeping aside the mismatched Belgian forces and using systematic terror to subdue the civilian population. The invaders used Belgian civilians as human shields, took hostages and torched towns and cities. On 4 August, Britain declared war on Germany. More than 6000 French and Belgian non-combatants, including women and children, were killed in the first month of hostilities. Around 180,000 Belgians fled across the Channel to Britain. Reports of the vicious German behaviour spread around the world, giving the Allies a powerful propaganda weapon to inflame anti-German sentiment and promote enlistment.
German troops in high spirits as they head off to battle early in the war.
They remained in the mists of history until a Greek-born Australian art teacher from Melbourne began his quest to find them about eight years ago. Lambis Englezos and his team of supporters now believed they knew the fate and the final resting place of around 170 of those missing Diggers of Fromelles.
… a wretched, hybrid scheme, which might well be termed a
tactical abortion.
B RIGADIER G ENERAL H AROLD ‘P OMPEY ’ E LLIOTT
( ON THE PLAN FOR THE B ATTLE OF F ROMELLES )
The Cross of Sacrifice at VC Corner Cemetery. The only all-Australian cemetery in France, it is the final resting place of 410 unknown Diggers from Fromelles. ( PATRICK LINDSAY PHOTO )
1
THE BREWING STORM
One thing is clear; we are entering the first act of a
world-wide tragedy.
M AXIM G ORKY , 1914
Because of the vast spread of European colonisation, when war flared in Europe in August 1914 it ignited the first global conflict in history. While the main theatre remained centred in Europe, the reverberations were felt from America to the Pacific, from the Middle East to Japan.
In 1870 Germany’s 39 separate states had merged to form a united nation. She had much ground to make up against the existing dominant colonial nations like France and Britain. Knowing that ‘the sun never set on the British Empire’ prompted Germany to seek its own place in the sun by embarking on colonial expansion in the final years of the nineteenth century. It rapidly established African colonies in Togoland and Namibia, Pacific outposts in New Guinea, Samoa and Micronesia and a naval base at Tsingtao in China.
THE WESTERN FRONT
Britain grew increasingly wary of Germany’s aggressive growth and soon realised that her own far-flung Empire had become a two-edged sword: it enabled her to influence events around the world but it provided Germany with the means to stretch and divide Britain’s forces as she tried to protect her territories.
Germany’s expansion soon threatened the world’s political status quo. Germany eyed the Panama Canal and even briefly toyed with a hare-brained scheme to attack the east coast of the USA. By 1912, it was evident that Germany was gearing up for a conflict in Europe.
Clearly, the conflict evolved from a complicated cauldron of national and individual imperatives, but perhaps the underlying causes were best summed up by the British philosopher Bertrand Russell:
And all this madness, all this rage, all this flaming death of our civilisation and our hopes, has been brought about because a set of official gentlemen, living luxurious lives, mostly stupid, and all without imagination or heart, have chosen that it should occur rather than that any one of them should suffer some infinitesimal rebuff to his country’s pride.
It was a bizarre situation in which Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm, oldest grandson of Britain’s Queen Victoria, took up arms against his first cousins, King George V of Britain and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Wilhelm, who still ruled Germany as an autocrat, said: ‘The sword must now decide’.
In the summer of 1914 Germany’s 3.8 million troops lined up against a similar number of French soldiers to its west and around 3 million Russians on its eastern border. Germany moved swiftly and invaded Belgium in early August, sweeping aside the mismatched Belgian forces and using systematic terror to subdue the civilian population. The invaders used Belgian civilians as human shields, took hostages and torched towns and cities. On 4 August, Britain declared war on Germany. More than 6000 French and Belgian non-combatants, including women and children, were killed in the first month of hostilities. Around 180,000 Belgians fled across the Channel to Britain. Reports of the vicious German behaviour spread around the world, giving the Allies a powerful propaganda weapon to inflame anti-German sentiment and promote enlistment.
German troops in high spirits as they head off to battle early in the war.
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