France has been criticised over an “outrageous” plan to build a six-turbine wind farm on a First World War battlefield where thousands of British and Australian soldiers were killed.

The proposal by French energy firm Engie Green to develop the turbines near the small farming village of Bullecourt has prompted a barrage of criticism in Australia and led to calls for the federal government to voice its objections directly to French president Emmanuel Macron.

During two battles in April and May 1917 at the village in north-east France, Australia lost more than 10,000 troops as it tried – ultimately unsuccessfully – to break the Hindenburg Line, a shortened front to which Germany had withdrawn.

It marks one of the most significant sites in Australian military history.

Nearly 9,000 British troops were killed, injured or captured. Of the tens of thousands of British, Australian and German soldiers who died there, it is believed the remains of 3,000 to 4,000 were never recovered.