Diggers finally identified

Five infantrymen killed on one of the worst days in Australia’s military history have been formally identified, as part of ongoing research into remains found in a mass grave in France.

They were among 1957 men killed, out of 5533 total Anzac casualties, during the disastrous assault on strong German positions at Fromelles in July, 1916.

Among the five was Private Maurice James Claxton, 24, whose brother Theodore was in the same unit – the 32nd Battalion – and who was wounded and taken prisoner in the chaos. In a letter from captivity to their parents in Victoria, Theodore wrote of the action: “I don’t know where Maurice got to. We were together until we made the charge, when we got separated. I am getting treated all right here, but I will not be sorry when the war is over.”

The battle at Fromelles was the Australians’ first major engagement in France, following the Gallipoli campaign and just before the bigger push at Pozieres. Now described as “a bloody catastrophe” by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, it swiftly became a disaster as soldiers advanced across open country into devastating German fire.

Also newly identified, along with St Arnaud-born Claxton, were NSW Corporal William John Stephen, 28 – a grocer in civilian life – and dairy farmer Private Richard James Mcguarr, 27; a 28-year-old milkman from Perth, Private Alexander Russell Robert Page; and 20-year-old South Australian Sergeant Oscar Eric Baumann, formerly a joiner.

Their identities were established with a range of evidence – including DNA from family members – collated by anthropologists, archaeologists and DNA specialists, analysed by the Australian Army’s Unrecovered War Casualties Team.