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Fromelles
By: Patrick Lyndsay (572/35736)
Publisher: Hardy Grant Books ISBN: 978-1-74066-511-7
Gallipoli was a picnic. Here it was a slaughterhouse.
Many of our Diggers survived Gallipoli only to lose their lives in an ill-conceived battle near the tine French village of Fromelles. They were outnumbered two to one by an entrenched German force. In the blackest night in Australian history - 19 July 1916 - the Diggers suffered 5533 casualties, with almost 2000 killed. Against all odds, hundreds of our soldiers broke through the enemy lines, never to return. Their fate has been unknown for close to a century. They simply disappeared into the mists of history. Until now.
Fromelles is Australia's worst military disaster, yet it barely rates a mention in our history books and the name is absent from our war memorials. Was there a cover-up? What happened to the missing Diggers? Why has it taken so long for action?
Bestselling author Patrick Lindsay takes us behind the scenes, following the remarkable investigative work of a band of amateur historians in search of the final resting place of the missing Diggers of Fromelles. He introduces us to some of our greatest - yet unknown - heroes and crosses the paths of characters that included on of the German defenders at Fromelles, Lance Corporal Adolf Hitler.
Passionately told, this enthralling mix of detective story and war history takes us to the killing fields of the Great War and back to Australia to find the key to one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of World War One
December 2007
