DNA testing to try to identify hundreds of bodies buried in a massgrave during World War I will start this week, the British andAustralian ministries of defense announced Monday.
The bodies come from Fromelles in northern France, where thousandsof British and Australian troops were killed or wounded in a singlenight in 1916 — a night the Australian military still considers amongthe worst in its history.
An exploratory dig in May of this year confirmed that there are between 250 and 300 bodies buried at the site.
Enough DNA has been recovered from teeth and bones to make full-scale testing worthwhile, the British Ministry of Defence said.
Pieces of uniforms including belt buckles and buttons have also beenfound, which will help with identification, the ministry said.
“Each one of these soldiers will be laid to rest with the dignity theydeserve and we owe it to them to do all we can to identify them,”British Veterans Minister Kevan Jones said in a statement.
The DNA testing program will be the largest undertaking to identifyindividuals killed in combat ever commissioned, the ministry said.
The announcement comes only a week after the burial of the last British veteran of World War I still living in the United Kingdom.
Harry Patch died July 25 at the age of 111, a week after fellow BritishWorld War I veteran Henry Allingham died at the age of 113.
So many soldiers died on the night of July 19, 1916, that many were never found, identified, or given a proper burial.