WW1 body recovery in crisis

The project to exhume, identify and re-inter up to 400 British and Australian soldiers in France is in crisis after bad weather and the Australian Department of Defence's choice of a low-cost commercial archaeological firm.

Heavy rain and lack of a contingency plan for toxic groundwater and drainage have upset the dig for the remains of 191 missing Australian soldiers near the site of the bloody battle of Fromelles in World War I, Fairfax newspapers report.

Only 24 bodies of up to 400 have been retrieved in more than two months.