The Australian Imperial Force was very active in the Artois region and Fromelles is a poignant place for Australians. The Battle of Fromelles was fought there from 19th to 20th July 1916.
In a twenty seven hour period the Australian 5th Division suffered 5533 casualties, with 1917 killed, of whom 1299 were unidentified. Also approximately 400 were taken prisoner. To illustrate the extent of the losses the 60th Battalion Victoria Regiment started the battle with 887 men and when the fighting was over had 1 officer and 106 men left. It is also estimated that the British Army had 1,547 men killed or wounded and that the German Army lost 1,500 soldiers killed or wounded in the Battle of Fromelles.

The attack at Fromelles was planned as a diversionary attack to the north of the battle raging on the Somme. Fromelles had already seen action in 1915 when British efforts to take Aubers Ridge had been repulsed with heavy losses.

The Fromelles attack in 1916 saw the baptism of the Australian Imperial Force to fighting on the Western Front as the units sent down to the Somme had yet to be committed to action.

As on the Somme the provisional artillery bombardment did not cut the German barbed wire as hoped would be the case and the German machine guns, with a clear view of the attackers, were able to wreak havoc.

The battlefield saw many acts of heroism as the Australians found themselves cut off and had to fight their way back to their own lines. Many wounded were left in no-man’s land and needed rescue.

V.C.Corner Cemetery contains the remains of over 400 Australians who died at Fromelles whose bodies were found on the battlefield but could not be identified and rather than marking individual graves a wall records the names of all those who died. The memorial commemorates the 410 Australians buried in a communal grave and the total of 1,299 Australian casualties whose bodies could not be identified. There are no headstones but 410 red rose bushes grow above the unidentified remains.