Site to help identify WWI dead

A site set up to help identify dead soldiers from World War One is planning to use DNA techniques to put names to the servicemen.

Australian and British soldiers fought in Fromelles in France in July 1916 over two days.

More than 7,000 troops lost their lives and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is due to exhume 400 bodies in the coming weeks.

Two websites, one for the British dead and the other for the fallen Australians, have been set up.

Fromelles.net, for the Australian troops, is already live and the British version, Fromelles.org is due to go online in the coming days.

Anyone who believes their relatives might have died in the battle is invited to contact the Commonwealth War Graves Commission through the websites.

The lack of identifying information was caused by the fact the bodies were buried by German troops and were stripped of regimental and personal effects as a means of intelligence gathering.

Ancestry.co.uk has an extensive collection of World War One records on its website.