Author(s): Gilles Prilaux, Michael Fiechtner, Donna Fiechtner

Military

During the winter of 2014, a team of Archaeologists brought to light the most important concentration of soldier graffiti  dating from the Great War. To their surprise, located throughout the Naours caves in Northern France, rediscovered by the local Abbot in 1877, they discovered inscriptions written by soldiers of many nations made during the First World War. Intensive research of these inscriptions has led to an amazing inventory of nearly 3000 names ,most of them of Australian soldiers. Ongoing  research has unearthed incredible, individual stories of these Soldiers at War. These were men. We now know their names and we want to discover their stories. Some received medals, some returned home after the war and many paid the ultimate sacrifice. Their inscriptions are their lasting legacy!    “Shadows Beneath the Somme” unearths individual and unique stories of 40 Australian men who went to war and wrote their names on cave walls under the village of Naours.