 Australian casualties amounted to nearly 6,800 men.On 2 July 1917, Major General Holmes was mortally wounded by a German shellburst while surveying the Messines battlefield with the Premier of New South Wales, William Holman.Between September and November 1917, I Anzac Corps took part in a number of actions around Ypres in Belgium as the Allies launched a campaign in order to capture the Gheluvelt Plateau in Belgium.