Eleven Australian soldiers who died in France and Belgium in WWI have been identified

Résumé détaillé

The soldiers remains were recovered during excavations of battle sites and unmarked graves, with their identities remaining unresolved until now.

Almost a dozen Australian soldiers have been newly identified more than a century after the end of the First World War.

The eleven soldiers lost their lives in France and Belgium during World War One, which lasted four years from 1914 to 1918, and have now been formally identified.

Archaeologists used DNA and historical documentation to identify the soldiers, following investigations by the Australian Army’s Unrecovered War Casualties - Army team (UWC-A).

The mammoth effort also required the assistance of the Office of Australian War Graves, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, French authorities, independent researchers and descendants of the identified soldiers.

“As we pause on Remembrance Day to honour all Australians who have served, we also remember these eleven soldiers who gave their lives during the First World War and whose identities have remained unresolved for more than a century,” acting prime minister Richard Marles said.

“These men died at Fromelles, the Somme, Bullecourt, Menin Road, Passchendaele, Amiens and during the Advance to the Hindenburg Line.

“They served in infantry battalions, machine-gun units and field ambulance formations, and each made the ultimate sacrifice in service to Australia.”

Four of the soldiers were from the 2nd Australian Field Ambulance AIF, and were all killed in action on May 5, 1917, during the Second Battle of Bullecourt.

The men were killed when an artillery shell struck a Regimental Aid Post established in a railway cutting.

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