Fromelles is a small village in Northern France a few miles to the south of Armentières on the edge of the Lys basin. The village sits on the slope of the Aubers Ridge. In 1916 the front lines ran across the flat ground a mile below the village. On the 19th. July 1916 two divisions, the 5th Australian and the 61st (Second South Midland) attacked the German lines in broad daylight, after an inaccurate and ineffective artillery bombardment.
The Territorial 2/1st Buckinghamshire Battalion were ordered to attack across No Man’s Land – 400 yards of soggy water meadows – to take a strong point called the “Sugar Loaf” held by a Bavarian Reserve Regiment. They lost half their overall strength and all the officers but one in their assaulting companies. The attack was intended to pin down German reserves and to prevent them being sent to reinforce the Somme Battlefield. The attack was a failure; the Germans were not impressed and more than 5,500 Australians 1,500 British became casualties, of which 2,500 were killed. Many of the dead remained where they lay until after the war.
Two battalions of the Regiment were involved in the battle – as well as the 2/1st Bucks there were the 2/4th. Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. Fortunately, the Oxfords were in reserve at the time of the first attack and when called forward to try to take the Sugar Loaf after the 2/1st Bucks had failed, were saved when the attack was cancelled. Nevertheless, they suffered some casualties from German artillery fire. Both battalions were second line Territorial battalions brought to France in early 1916 as units of the 61st (Second South Midland) Division and allocated to the hitherto quiet sector opposite Fromelles. They were inexperienced and suffered accordingly. In 1917, both battalions were to take part in Third Ypres, attacking in the area of St. Julien in appalling conditions, and once again confronted by strong points and concrete pill-boxes manned by determined defenders, lost heavily.