Inspect Our Darkest Day: Battle Of Fromelles Narrated By Patrick Lindsay Released As Ebook

Lindsay has provided a comprehensive account of much related to the Battle of Fromelles, A sad day in Australian history given the number of wonderful young men injured or killed, Sad but we should be very proud of their bravery and never forget their sacrifice, A very well researched book into a series disaster of war tactics, Lindsey draws upon a lot of primary sources and opened my eyes to things I never knew about WWI,

This book really makes you appreciate how war fare has evolved and the loss of life is significantly lower these days,

I selected this for a Reading Challenge as a book with a one word title It is hard not to feel anger and sorrow while reading 'Fromelles: Our Darkest Day'.
Anger at the senior British command behind the decisions that led to this battle, and sorrow at the loss of life and living hell so many soldiers experienced in the trenches and noman's land of Fromelles.
Anger too at the lies and obfuscation that were told and promoted by the command after the battle,

But, there is a sense of hope too in those people who have spent so much energy in trying to reveal the truth of the battle and bring human stories to the horrific numbers associated with this battle and WWoverall.


The story of the 'fight' to bring closure to the families of those whose relatives were lost and missing from the battle brings the book into the current time and reminds us that the past is very much a part of the present and we should never forget those who have gone before.


Thanks to Goodreads and Hardie Grant for the opportunity to read this book, whilst my own relatives, were not, to my knowledge at this battle, two of my great Uncles brothers died in WWI, one at Gallipoli and one, a month prior to the battle at Fromelles in France, and in a melancholy way this book brought me closer to them.
This is a book in two parts, The first part covers the battle of Fromelles inand the terrible loss and waste because of men who didn't understand then how modern warfare had changed the battlefield.
The second part covers the modern day search for theodd diggers whose remains are still unaccounted for,

The history of the battle is well covered even though it doesn't seem to go into as much depth as it could, It provides stories of great courage and sacrific made by Australian diggers as they struggled to complete what was really an impossible task the taking of Sugar Loaf salient.
It illustrates the tremendous mateship that existed within the Australian forces that even after the cessation of the battle many were still prepared to go into no man's land looking for survivors.
In many cases this meant that they too would be become a statistic of the dead or wounded,

The story behind the search for the missing diggers from Fromelles and beaurcacy that stood in the way of something that should have been so simple.
It again demonstrates the spirit of Australians as a school teacher from Melbourne took it on himself to find the missing diggers and ensure they were duely recognized and laid

to rest with the honours they deserved.


Overall the book is a worthwhile read for people interested in Australia's worst single military loss as well as the saga of proving that some of those fallen still lie without the recognition they deserve.
It is not a book of deep military history but for those interested in Australia's contribution in World War One it is a recommended read, A great account of what happened up to a point, now want to read more about what happened since, I vaguely recall some of the press coverage but not in detail, Fromelles is Australia's worst military disaster,yet it barely rates a mention in our history books amp the name is absent, from our war memorials, Keep in mind Gallipoli and Passchendaele, suregreat battles for Aussies but the key battle was Fromelles, It was brutal and cruel and it was the first battle the ANZACS fought on the Western Front, One fact which was carefully researched was that an English guards officer told an Australian high ranking one that the assaults were futile and that if the Guards had been ordered to go they would have simply refused.
Such luxury was not given to the "dominion" troops, Prior to reading this book, I admit that I had not known much of the events of July,, Nor do I think that I had known much of the Battle of Fromelles, This book was an eye opening experience and an incredible look into such a devastating loss to Australia, Fromelles, a village in France, is the location of a battle that spanned from theth to theth of July,, With,Australian soldiers dead in a matter of just days, there's a lot to be explained, Our Darkest Day discusses a lot of aspects of the battle in question, providing various evidence of the goings on, We can view numerous photographs, letters and other sorts of research, Not only does it take a look into the historical aspects of the battle, but also takes a look into more recent effects, My favourite example of this is the epilogue featuring the story Harry Willis, a soldier who was lost in the war and how his family found him,

In my opinion, I'm pretty impressed by the amount of information provided to me by this book, As I admitted prior, I didn't really know much about the battle before reading Our Darkest Day, I appreciate that the book took multiple peoples' perspective of the battle, It's interesting to see how such an event had such a huge impact on such a range of people, Even nowadays, people are still baffled by certain portions of it and some families are still missing loved ones, Overall, I found that the book was an emotional journey, Fromelles: Our Darkest Day provided me with a valuable look to Australia's past and an insight to our loss,

I found some links on Google that one might like to view if you are interested in reading a little bit more about it,
The Fromelles Project aims to identify soldiers lost at Fromelles using forensics and historical information,
sitelink army. gov. au/ourwork/unrec
The Australian War Memorial
sitelink awm. gov. au/encyclopedia/f
sitelink awm. gov. au/militaryevent
Graves tell story of the forgotten battle of Fromelles
sitelink theguardian. com/world/
'Dear Mother, I lost all but my life'
sitelink smh. com. au/national/dearm

I won a copy of this book via Goodreads Giveaways, thanks to Hardie Grant Books, and these are just my honest thoughts on it, I won this book on Goodreads and have only just had the chance to read,

A superb story of not only the The Battle of Fromelle, but also the story of one man's passion to identify those whose final resting place was unknown for so long.


An important part of Australia's military history and the ANZAC legend, Fromelle is a great introduction to a battle that destroyed so many lives, yet remains largely overlooked when discussing and remembering the Great War and spirit of ANZAC.
On July, , in the northern French village of Fromelles, Australia suffered its worstever military defeat when a British officer ordered,of our best and bravest to go 'over the top' and attack the German lines.
Eight hours later, more than,Diggers lay dead or wounded: the equivalent of all Australian casualties from the Boer, Korean, and Vietnam wars combined, The phenomenon of Fromelles has captured the hearts of Australians all over the country, The story of Australia's worst military disaster and the resulting international campaign to reclaim the lost soldiers of the Battle of Fromelles sparked national and international headlines, a military investigation and an archaeological dig to find the resting place of these missing soldiers.
Lambis Engelzekios's tireless investigation and Patrick Lindsay's sensational resulting book Fromelles was the catalyst for much of this action, Fromelles has sold over,copies since publication, and now Hardie Grant presents the perfect version for fans of military history, An abridged version covering the battle itself, Our Darkest Day will intrigue military history fans who are keen to learn about this most infamous wartime battle.
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