TIM Whitford has been many, many times to Pheasant's Wood, the tiny copse in the wheat fields below the French village of Fromelles.

But yesterday anticipation and emotion caught his breath as a small yellow grader began the final, meticulous journey to find his long-lost great uncle, Private Harry Willis.

Mr Whitford, from Tallarook, Victoria, who was accompanied by his wife, Liz, and daughter Alexandra, 8, has spent years searching for his great uncle Harry, one of his great-grandmother's 14 children, who died in the ferocious battle of Fromelles on July 19, 1916.

A team of Australian, French and Scottish archaeologists is on the second day of a long-anticipated dig of the field at Pheasant's Wood. They believe they are within hours of unearthing the first remains of up to 170 Australian World War I soldiers, resolving a mystery that has haunted their families for more than 90 years.

In a remarkable twist, a surface search of the site, before this week's archaeological search, found a good luck charm given to Private Willis by the Shire of Alberton. He was the only man from the area and there is no doubt it was his.

"I just had to have a quiet moment when it all began," Mr Whitford said. "It was very strange, it was gratifying. I have to admit I teared up.

"I have been rehearsing this moment for years … when it happened the emotions were so different. It was mainly relief and a sense of connectedness. When I saw the soil's surface break, that's when it hit me."

The dig's leader, Dr Tony Pollard of Glasgow University, said he was extremely happy with the first day's work, which had found the edges and cuts of pit five, where the bodies are believed to be buried.

"Now it is a matter of slow, careful, scientific evaluation," he said. "The soil conditions are of clay — very, very moist, there is no oxygen. It is likely that if the remains are there, they will be in good condition."

Mr Whitford's anxiety and anticipation were matched by his friend and partner in the search, Victorian school teacher Lambis Englezos, who worked for more than six years to research the site and push for its formal investigation

His passion for the search was fired by meeting some Fromelles veterans years ago.

The Battle of Fromelles was designed to draw the Germans away from other front-line positions on the Somme. More than 1917 Australians were killed and 5500 wounded in just 24 hours.

Historians believe the burial site at Fromelles may be the biggest mass grave found in Western Europe since World War II.