Description

The Attack at Fromelles (French pronunciation: [fʁɔmɛl] 19–20 July 1916, was a military operation on the Western Front during the First World War. The attack was carried out by British and Australian troops and was subsidiary to the Battle of the Somme. General Headquarters of the British Expeditionary Force had ordered the First Army and Second Army to prepare attacks to support the Fourth Army on the Somme, 50 mi to the south, to exploit any weakening of the German defences opposite. The attack took place 9.9 mi from Lille, between the Fauquissart–Trivelet road and Cordonnerie Farm, an area overlooked from Aubers Ridge to the south. The ground was low-lying and much of the defensive fortification by both sides consisted of building breastworks, rather than trenches.