Our Darkest Day Read Online Free
Author: Patrick Lindsay
reported that it was quite common for earth mounds, as high a metre, to subside in the first two or three years after burial because of the partial decay of the bodies in them. This, Lambis believed, would explain why the graves were no longer obvious, nor even recognisable as such, when the people of Fromelles returned to the village two and a half years after the Germans filled them in.
In late 2005 a new player emerged on the scene. Sydney lawyer and amateur military historian, Chris Bryett, had just capped a lifelong fascination with Australia’s military history with an emotional tour of the Western Front battlefields of World War I. Bryett had watched Lambis’ work with fascination from afar but came home determined to help him get some resolution. He offered to help in any way he could. Lambis sent him the presentation document to the Army Panel of Investigation.
The first thing that struck Chris Bryett was the number of the missing. The lawyer emerged and he quizzed Lambis on how he had substantiated the final number. The original figures came from a spreadsheet that Senator Hill had handed over to the Senate Estimates Committee. It had originated from the Office of War Graves, which had apparently got it from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Chris was concerned at the method Lambis had used and went back to first principles:
I started to verify those numbers by visiting the State Library in Sydney, copying a register at a time and then sitting on the bus and reading the register and ticking them off. I checked each cemetery register as to who was in what cemetery and compared it with the spreadsheet that Senator Hill had given to the Senate Estimates Committee.
Chris knew that Lambis had gone through the 1299 listed in the Honour Roll of the Fromelles dead and missing in Corfield’s book and checked them off against the Red Cross records. Where they had mention of a German death list, he included them in and all else went out. However, Chris came at the numbers from a different angle. The spreadsheet listed the numbers of Australians from the Battle of Fromelles buried in eight regional cemeteries. He then went through those one by one and cross-matched them by battalions from the 5th Division and the dates of their deaths. If they died on the 19th or 20th he included them. Then he eliminated those recorded as being buried somewhere and came down to the number of those with no record of being buried. He spoke to Lambis.
We got to a point where I said yeah I’ve done it and I’m reasonably comfortable with the number. He said how many do you reckon there is? And I said 170 … And he said that’s amazing. I asked why and he said well we’ve just done this exercise with the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Records and we’ve come to 170.
So, in essence, Lambis and Chris had corroborated the missing by counting them in two ways: Lambis counted those the Germans claimed to have buried; Chris added up all bodies actually recorded as being buried at all the regional cemeteries and then subtracted that from the total known to have been killed or missing after the battle. They were elated.
Then, in November 2005, John Williams visited Pheasant Wood to conduct his inquiries for the Panel of Investigation. According to Williams, the only source that suggested the presence of the mass graves was the unit history of the 21BRIR which appeared in 1923. He quoted the official British historian, Sir James Edmonds, as telling Bean:
It won’t do to rely on regimental and divisional histories: they are nearly all written by ‘hacks’ … who wanted to earn their fees as quickly as possible, without research or investigation.
Williams told the panel that he visited a French historian named Baileul-Catignies in Sainghin-en-Weppes in the company of Martial Delebarre. He concluded:
M. Baileul believes, as I now tend to believe, that the constructions by Pheasant Wood were military and defensive in nature – possibly a
In late 2005 a new player emerged on the scene. Sydney lawyer and amateur military historian, Chris Bryett, had just capped a lifelong fascination with Australia’s military history with an emotional tour of the Western Front battlefields of World War I. Bryett had watched Lambis’ work with fascination from afar but came home determined to help him get some resolution. He offered to help in any way he could. Lambis sent him the presentation document to the Army Panel of Investigation.
The first thing that struck Chris Bryett was the number of the missing. The lawyer emerged and he quizzed Lambis on how he had substantiated the final number. The original figures came from a spreadsheet that Senator Hill had handed over to the Senate Estimates Committee. It had originated from the Office of War Graves, which had apparently got it from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Chris was concerned at the method Lambis had used and went back to first principles:
I started to verify those numbers by visiting the State Library in Sydney, copying a register at a time and then sitting on the bus and reading the register and ticking them off. I checked each cemetery register as to who was in what cemetery and compared it with the spreadsheet that Senator Hill had given to the Senate Estimates Committee.
Chris knew that Lambis had gone through the 1299 listed in the Honour Roll of the Fromelles dead and missing in Corfield’s book and checked them off against the Red Cross records. Where they had mention of a German death list, he included them in and all else went out. However, Chris came at the numbers from a different angle. The spreadsheet listed the numbers of Australians from the Battle of Fromelles buried in eight regional cemeteries. He then went through those one by one and cross-matched them by battalions from the 5th Division and the dates of their deaths. If they died on the 19th or 20th he included them. Then he eliminated those recorded as being buried somewhere and came down to the number of those with no record of being buried. He spoke to Lambis.
We got to a point where I said yeah I’ve done it and I’m reasonably comfortable with the number. He said how many do you reckon there is? And I said 170 … And he said that’s amazing. I asked why and he said well we’ve just done this exercise with the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Records and we’ve come to 170.
So, in essence, Lambis and Chris had corroborated the missing by counting them in two ways: Lambis counted those the Germans claimed to have buried; Chris added up all bodies actually recorded as being buried at all the regional cemeteries and then subtracted that from the total known to have been killed or missing after the battle. They were elated.
Then, in November 2005, John Williams visited Pheasant Wood to conduct his inquiries for the Panel of Investigation. According to Williams, the only source that suggested the presence of the mass graves was the unit history of the 21BRIR which appeared in 1923. He quoted the official British historian, Sir James Edmonds, as telling Bean:
It won’t do to rely on regimental and divisional histories: they are nearly all written by ‘hacks’ … who wanted to earn their fees as quickly as possible, without research or investigation.
Williams told the panel that he visited a French historian named Baileul-Catignies in Sainghin-en-Weppes in the company of Martial Delebarre. He concluded:
M. Baileul believes, as I now tend to believe, that the constructions by Pheasant Wood were military and defensive in nature – possibly a
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