Battle of the Yser
Fromelles, VC Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial
I pray God I may come through – Major Geoff McCrae
Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery. [DVA]
From Rue Pétillon Military Cemetery the D175 leads to a T junction just before which, on the right-hand side of the road is Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery. This one of the most beautiful cemeteries on the old Western Front with tree branches overhanging a moat surrounding the cemetery. Considering that it lies very close to the Australian battlefield of 19–20 July 1916 – the Battle of Fromelles – it is surprising to find only four named Australians buried here. Lance Corporal John Innes, 54th Battalion (New South Wales) in Row K, Grave 28, killed at Fromelles, was described by his mother as having a maternal great-grandfather who fought at the Battle of Waterloo. Lieutenant Alexander Paterson, 32nd Battalion (South Australia and Western Australia), was an emigrant to Australia from Scotland. While his family there may have been informed of his death this news never reached Olive Andrews in West Perth who wrote to the military authorities in December 1916, months after Paterson’s death:
I am engaged to be married to him so am very anxious with regards to his whereabouts, his home being in Scotland makes me entirely without news.
Letter, Olive Andrews, 24 November 1916, Lieutenant Alexander Paterson, personal dossier, http://naa12.naa.gov.au/
Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery. [DVA]
Headstone of Lieutenant Alexander Patterson, 32nd Battalion (South Australia and Western Australia), Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery. [DVA]
A short way after Le Trou there is a T junction. A left turn leads to where the little Riviere des Layes (River Laies) crosses the road. Through the fields all around here on the days leading up to 17 July 1916 came thousands of Australian soldiers, members of the battalions and support units of the Australian Fifth Division. They passed down communications trenches with names like ‘Cellar Farm Avenue’, ‘Mine Avenue’, ‘Brompton Avenue’, ‘Pinney’s Avenue’ and ‘VC Avenue’. At times these communications trenches were little better than waterlogged ditches and it took the 14th Field Company Australian Engineers a whole night to make ‘Brompton Avenue’ passable by laying duckboard tracks. One infantry battalion took from 9 pm on one evening to 6 am the next morning to move a few kilometres to the front line where ‘many dropped down and were immediately fast asleep’. The Australians were forming up for a major attack, in conjunction with the British 61st Division, on the German lines to the south-east of here towards a bulge, or ‘salient’, in the enemy line called the ‘Sugar Loaf’. But rain delayed the operation which finally took place at different times after 5.30 pm on 19 July 1916. Before leading his battalion into action Major Geoff McCrae of the 60th Battalion (Victoria) wrote to his family:
Today I lead my battalion in an assault on the German lines and I pray God I may come through alright and bring honour to our name. If not I will at least have laid down my life for you and my country which is the greatest privilege one can ask for.
McCrae, quoted in Bill Gammage, The Broken Years, Penguin Books, 1990, p.170
It was a ‘privilege’ which cost McCrae his life, and those of hundreds of men of his battalion as they advanced over no-man’s-land in a slight south-easterly direction across the fields from the crossing of the River Laies towards the ‘Sugar Loaf’. The Battle of Fromelles had begun.
Horses near Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery. [DVA]
Old road sign for Fromelles in a farm on the other side of the T junction from Le Trou Aid Post. [DVA]
Major Geoffrey Gordon McCrae, 60th Battalion (Victoria), prior to his enlistment in the Australian Imperial Force in August 1914. [AWM P02896.01]
Commonwealth War Graves Commission signs at the T junction from Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery. The trees at the cemtery are visible in the background. [DVA]
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© 2008 Department of Veterans' Affairs and Board of Studies NSW :: Last update - November 2008