More than a century after they died in the Battle of Fromelles, nine Australian soldiers have been formally identified.

The soldiers’ bodies were recovered from unmarked graves near Pheasant Wood in France 102 years after the deadly WWI battle.

Their re-burial in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery at Fromelles provides closure for families whose missing members were lost after the war, Defence Personnel Minister Darren Chester says.

New headstones will be unveiled during the annual commemoration ceremony in July.

“One hundred years later, Australia has not forgotten the service and sacrifice of these soldiers,” Mr Chester said on Monday.

There are still 91 Australian soldiers yet to be identified as part of the Fromelles Project which has already formally identified 159 Australians killed in the 1916 battle.

Soldiers identified from the Battle of Fromelles

• Captain Kenneth Malcolm Mortimer – 29th Battalion Australian Imperial Force (AIF)
• Corporal Alfred Thompson – 55th Battalion AIF
• Private Henry Bell – 29th Battalion AIF
• Private William Edwin Boyce – 32nd Battalion AIF
• Private Henry Gardner – 30th Battalion AIF
• Private Alexander McCulloch – 32nd Battalion AIF
• Private Stanley Richard O’Donnell – 29th Battalion AIF
• Private James Robert Smith – 31st Battalion AIF
• Private Claude Yeo – 30th Battalion AIF

Captain Mortimer and eight of his comrades have been identified for the first time since their death in 1916. Photo: AWM

The Fromelles engagement was an attempt to distract German forces who were battling the French and British on the Somme to the south on July 19, 1916.

It was Australia’s introduction to the Western Front – the main theatre of the war – after spending months fighting in Gallipoli, and the results were disastrous.

It is estimated there were some 5500 Australian casualties on the first day – the greatest loss in a single day in Australia’s history.

By 8am the next morning the Battle of Fromelles was over, with Australian forces forced to withdraw.

The Australian War Memorial refers to the offensive as “the worst 24 hours in Australia’s entire history”.

“Practically all my best officers are dead,” senior officer General Harold Edward ‘Pompey’ Elliott said at the time, describing Fromelles as a “tactical abortion”.

The famous phrase “Don’t forget me, cobber” originated in Fromelles, when it was shouted by a wounded soldier at Sergeant Simon Fraser – who reported on the aftermath in a letter home – during a rescue mission.

It has also been established that 27-year-old Corporal Adolf Hitler was amongst the Germans in Fromelles fighting the Australians.