Military History

of the Clark and Heard extended family

Charge of the Light Brigade, World War 1 & World War 2 Australian & British Service

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
British Army..........................................................................................................................................3 The orders to attack...............................................................................................................................8 The British Army of 1914-1918..........................................................................................................33 History of the Rising Sun Badge.........................................................................................................42 Australia First World War 191418....................................................................................................45 Second World War 193945...............................................................................................................71 Australian Army .................................................................................................................................71 RAAF World War Two.......................................................................................................................93 The Ode...............................................................................................................................................99

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British Army
The British Army has been a standing army since 1660, made up of cavalry and infantry regiments and corps of specialized troops such as artillery, engineers etc. The Captain-General or Commander-in-chief as he became was the most senior officer but the post was only filled as required (it was abolished in 1904). The two most senior permanent officers were the Adjutant-General and the Quartermaster-General, responsible for discipline and administration. Secretary of State for War, Haldanes reforms of 1907-08 saw the creation of the Imperial General Staff under a senior officer who was Chief of the Imperial General Staff. The Ministry of Defence was created in 1964, with a Defence Staff made up of the three service chiefs, which included the Chief of the General Staff. The regiments and corps are made up of officers, non-commissioned officers and other ranks. Originally regiments were known by the name of their colonel and this changed when the commanding officer changed. In 1751 regiments of foot (infantry) were allocated regimental numbers in order of precedence. Some also had distinctive names often linking them to a county. Most regiments consisted of two battalions, one serving at home and one serving overseas. The battalion serving at home might be posted anywhere in Great Britain or Ireland and even if it had a link by name to a county it was not permanently based there and its depot moved around with it.

The Royal coat of arms and a Trooper, 17th Lancers, 1900

Cavalry regiments were also originally known by their colonels name. Regiments consisted of dragoon guards and dragoons. There were seven regiments of dragoon guards in addition to the regiments of dragoons. Do not confuse the 3rd Dragoon Guards with the 3rd Dragoons, they are two different regiments. From the second half of the eighteenth century some dragoon regiments were equipped as light dragoons and from these were created regiments of hussars and lancers. As a result of Edward Cardwells army reforms in 1881 many infantry regiments were merged and linked to counties. From then on each regiment had a permanent headquarters and depot, often in or near the county town. The county militia(s) became the third or fourth battalion of each county regiment, and volunteer units an additional battalion.

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11th Hussars

Badge of 11th Hussars Regiment The 11th Hussars (Prince Albert's Own) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army. The regiment was founded in 1715 as Colonel Philip Honeywood's Regiment of Dragoons and was known by the name of its Colonel until 1751 when it became the 11th Regiment of Dragoons. A further name change, to the 11th Regiment of Light Dragoons, occurred in 1783. Their career during the 18th century included fighting in Scotland at the Battle of Culloden as well as service in the Seven Years' War when they took part in the charge at Warburg.[1] In 1840, the regiment was named after Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's consort, who later became the regiment's Colonel.

James Brudenell on horseback, by Francis Grant, circa 1841 During the Napoleonic Wars battle honours were received for Salamanca, Peninsular and Waterloo. The regiment's nickname, the "Cherry Pickers", came from an incident during the Peninsular War, in which the 11th Light Dragoons (as the regiment was then named) were attacked while raiding an orchard at San Martin de Trebejo in Spain. When the regiment became the 11th (Prince Albert's Own) Hussars in 1840, their new uniform by coincidence included "cherry" (i.e. crimson) coloured trousers, unique among British regiments and worn since in all orders of uniform except battledress. This was not in memory of the orchard incident but reflected the crimson livery of Prince Albert's House: Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.[2]

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The 11th Hussars from the Nile Expedition, 1884 The 11th Hussars charged with the Light Brigade, which was commanded by their former Colonel, Lord Cardigan, at Balaklava during the Crimean War. During the Charge, Lieut. Alexander Robert Dunn, saved the life of two fellow soldiers from the 11th Hussars Sgt. Major Robert Bentley and Private Harvey Levett for which Dunn was awarded the Victoria Cross.[3] Dunn was the first Canadian-born recipient of the Victoria Cross.[4]

Edward Richard Woodham of the 11th Hussars became Chairman of the organising committee for the 21st Anniversary dinner held at Alexandra Palace on 25 October 1875 by the survivors of the Charge. On 30 October 1875, The Illustrated London News devoted its front-page and five other pages to an article about a reunion of the survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade to celebrate the 21st Anniversary of the Charge. This was fully reported in the Illustrated London News of 30 October 1875 [5] and included some of the recollections of the survivors including those of Edward Richard Woodham.

What specifically ignited the Crimean War in 1854 has long been forgotten in the collective memory.
The conflict erupted in 1854 with the Russian Empire on one side and Britain, France, the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Ottoman Empire on the other. Their dispute centered on which side would have dominant influence in the declining Ottoman Empire. The wars's major battleground was in Russia's Crimean Peninsula, which gave the conflict its name. British and French forces landed in the Crimea in the fall of 1854 with the objective of attacking Russia's naval base at the city of Sevastopol and thereby weaken its naval presence in the Black Sea. Although the war itself is only a dim recollection, what is vividly remembered is one valorously tragic incident of the campaign: the headlong cavalry charge of the British Light Brigade into murderous Russian fire; an action immortalized by Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem. The Charge of the Light Brigade took place during a battle near the city of Balaclava on October 25, 1854. Through a miscommunication of orders, the Light Brigade of approximately 600 horsemen began a headlong charge into a treeless valley with the objective of capturing some Russian field artillery at its end. Unbeknown to them, the valley was ringed on three sides by some 20 battalions of Russian infantry and artillery.

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The result was disastrous. An estimated 278 of the Light Brigade were killed or wounded. Observing the charge, a French Marshall remarked: "It is magnificent, but it is not war. It is madness." When news of the action reached London, it caused a national scandal that prompted Tennyson to pen his poem. History remembers the charge of the Light Brigade as an example of the extraordinary bravery of the British soldier in the face of enemy fire in spite of poor leadership.

An artist's conception of the Charge of the Light Brigade

"They swept proudly past, glittering in the morning sun. . ."

William Howard Russell was a correspondent for the London Illustrated News and was present at the battle. It was his description that prompted Tennyson's poem. We join Russell's account as the Light Brigade begins its charge: "They swept proudly past, glittering in the morning sun in all the pride and splendor of war. We could hardly believe the evidence of our senses! Surely that handful of men were not going to charge an army in position? Alas! it was but too true - their desperate valor knew no bounds, and far indeed was it removed from its so-called better part - discretion. They advanced in two lines, quickening their pace as they closed towards the enemy. A more fearful spectacle was never witnessed than by those who, without the power to aid, beheld their heroic countrymen rushing to the arms of death. At the distance of 1200 yards the whole line of the enemy belched forth, from thirty iron mouths, a flood of smoke and flame, through which hissed the deadly balls. Their flight was marked by instant gaps in our ranks, by dead men and horses, by steeds flying wounded or riderless across the plain. The first line was broken - it was joined by the second, they never halted or checked their speed an instant. With diminished ranks, thinned by those thirty guns, which the Russians had laid with the most deadly accuracy, with a halo of flashing steel above their heads, and with a cheer which was many a noble fellow's death cry, they flew into the smoke of the batteries; but ere they were lost from view, the plain was strewed with their bodies and with the carcasses of horses. They were exposed to an oblique fire from the batteries on the hills on both sides, as wed as to a direct fire of musketry. Through the clouds of smoke we could see their sabers flashing as they rode up to the guns and dashed between 'them, cutting down the gunners as they stood. . .We saw them riding through the guns, as I have said; to our delight we saw them returning, after breaking through a column of Russian infantry, and

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scattering them like chaff, when the flank fire of the battery on the hill swept them down, scattered and broken as they were.

Wounded men and dismounted troopers flying towards us told the sad tale. . . .At the very moment when they were about to retreat, an enormous mass of lancers was hurled upon their flank. Colonel Shewell, of the 8th Hussars, saw the danger, and rode his few men straight at them, cutting his way through with fearful loss. The other regiments turned and engaged in a desperate encounter. With courage too great almost for credence, they were breaking their way through the columns which enveloped them, when there took place an act of atrocity without parallel in the modem warfare of civilized nations. The Russian gunners, when the storm of cavalry passed, returned to their guns. They saw their own cavalry mingled with the troopers who had just ridden over them, and to the eternal disgrace of the Russian name the miscreants poured a murderous volley of grape and canister on the mass of struggling men and horses, mingling friend and foe in one common ruin. It was as much as our Heavy Cavalry Brigade could do to cover the retreat of the miserable remnants of that band of heroes as they returned to the place they had so lately quitted in all the pride of life. At twenty-five to twelve not a British soldier, except the dead and dying, was left in front of these bloody Muscovite guns."
References:

This eyewitness account appears in: Russell, William Howard, The British Expedition to the Crimea (1858); Royle, Trevor, Crimea: the Great Crimean War, 1854-1856 (2000).

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The orders to attack

The interpretation of the order to attack has been the subject of intense speculation by historians. A popular theory is that the order referred to recapturing Turkish guns that were being taken by Russian forces in the hills above the battlefield. Nolan, however, seems to have assumed the target was the Russian guns about a mile away up the north valley and may have advised Lucan to lead the charge there. Nolan, who charged with the 17th Lancers, was the first to be killed and was thus unable to clarify this point. Lucan and Cardigan for their part hated each other. (Cardigan had been married to Lucan's youngest sister but was now separated from her.) None of the personalities involved in initiating the charge appear to have acted well. Raglan's order was imprecise, Airey's drafting of the order was ambiguous, Nolan failed to explain the order to Lucan adequately, Lucan failed to question Nolan properly to establish his commander's intent and Cardigan failed to seek adequate clarification from Lucan. Lucan also failed to provide the support from the rest of the cavalry and the horse artillery mentioned in the order. After the charge, Lord Raglan blamed Lucan

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The Charge of the Light Brigade: according to Lucan

Transcript :The Heavy Brigade having now joined the Light Brigade, the Division took up a position with a view of supporting an attack upon the heights, when being instructed to make a rapid advance to our front to prevent the Enemy carrying the guns lost by the Turkish Troops in the morning; I ordered the Light Brigade to advance in 2 lines, and supported them with the Heavy Brigade. This attack of the Light Cavalry was very brilliant and daring, exposed to a fire from heavy batteries on their front and 2 flanks, they advanced unchecked until they reached the Batteries of the Enemy, and cleared them of their gunners, and only retired when they found themselves engaged with a very superior force of cavalry in the Rear. Major General the Earl of Cardigan led this attack in the most gallant and intrepid manner, and his Lordship has expressed himself to me as admiring in the highest degree the courage and zeal of every Officer, Non Commissioned Officer, and Man that assisted

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The Charge of the Light Brigade: according to Raglan

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Transcript

...From some misconception of the instruction to advance, the Lieutenant General [Earl of Lucan] considered that he was bound to attack at all hazards, and he accordingly ordered Major General the Earl of Cardigan to move forward with the Light Brigade. This order was obeyed in the most spirited and gallant manner. Lord Cardigan charged with the utmost vigour, attacked a battery which was firing upon the advancing squadrons, and having passed beyond it, engaged the Russian Cavalry in its rear; but there, his Troops were assailed by Artillery and Infantry as well as Cavalry, and necessarily retired, after having committed much havoc upon the Enemy. They effected this movement without haste or confusion, but the loss they have sustained has, I deeply lament, been very severe in Officers, Men, and horses, only counterbalanced by the brilliancy of the attack, and the gallantry, order, and discipline which distinguished it, forming a striking contrast to the conduct of the Enemy's Cavalry which had previously been engaged with the heavy Brigade.

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WILLIAM ELLIS - 11th Hussars

Surname Rank Forename Regtl No Regiment

Ellis

Private

William

1456

11th Hussars

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William Ellis account (in his own words) of the charge.

"We remained at inkerman till the horses and men were nearly starved to death. The horses hadn't a bit of mane or tail left. We went on to Balaclava and on October 25th the famous charge took place in the Valley of Death. I was very lucky there. We were going to breakfast when the first shot was fired. We could see the Scots Greys hard at it before we got into our saddles, which didn't take us long, I assure you. "The 4th Heavy Dragoons and the 6th Inniskillings were with the Greys, and the Light Brigade advanced under the French redoubts for shelter. Lord Cardigan gave the order, "Draw swords, Charge", and we charged. To see the field was something awful. I shall never forget it. Of the 600 who rode into Death Valley, only 195 were counted on roll-call as fit for active service."
Private William Ellis 11th Hussars,

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Extract from: Forgotten Heroes: The Charge of the Light Brigade

By Roy Dutton

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4th Hussars

Regimental History:
The 4th Queen's Own Hussars were raised in 1685 when they were known by their Colonel's name - Berkeley's Dragoons or as Princess Anne of Denmark's Regiment of Dragoons. They served with distinction throughout the 18th Century, against Jacobite rebels and in the Wars of the Spanish and Austrian Successions. Its first Battle Honour was at Dettingen (27th June 1742). It was in this battle that Irishman George Daraugh (a dyer of Capel Street, Dublin) serving with Rich's Dragoons, as the Regiment was then known, attacked a French Officer who had carried off one of Rich's standards. He cut the Frenchman and returned to the British lines with the Standard. This was the last battle at which a British King (George II) was present as Commander; he Commissioned Daraugh and presented him with a purse of guineas. During the Napoleonic Wars the 4th (or Queen's Own Dragoons) served with distinction under Wellington in the Spanish Peninsular. It arrived at Lisbon on April 25th 1809 with a strength of 29 Officers, 37 Sergeants and 674 Other Ranks. Its first action was at Talavera (July 27/28th 1809). Present at a number of actions including Busaco, the Lines of Torres Vedras, Albuhera, Usagre and Ciudad Rodrigo. On July 22nd 1812 at Salamanca, led by their Colonel Lord Edward Somerset, the 4th charged as part of Le Marchant's Brigade helping Wellington his greatest victory in Spain. After action at Vittoria (June 21st 1813), the Regiment entered France itself, being present at the last battle of the War at Toulouse (April 20th 1814). It marched north to Calais, arriving in England on July 20th 1814. In 1821, the Regiment - by then known as the 4th (Queen's Own) Light Dragoons set sail for India where it would pass the next 20 years. In 1839 it was present at the capture of the citadel of Ghuznee in Afghanistan (on the Guidon it is always spelt with "ff" to avoid confusion with the 1879-80 Battle Honour. Sailing for the Crimea under its Colonel, Lord George Paget, the 4th landed at Constantinople in May 1854, and witnessed the Battles of Alma and Inkerman as well as the Siege of Sevastopol. It was as part of the famous Charge of the Light Brigade that the Regiment won lasting fame and, for one of its members, the Victoria Cross. Page 18

The Regiment served both at home and in India until the outbreak of the First World War. In India in 1896 the newly commissioned Winston Churchill wrote of the style in which the Regiment's Officers lived that "princes could live better than we". In fact the expense of life as a Cavalry Officer meant that Churchill's father wanted his son to serve in an Infantry Regiment rather than the Cavalry. During the Great War the 4th served in France. In 1915 they renewed their association with the 8th Hussars when, at Curragh Camp in County Kildare the Depot Squadrons of both Regiments amalgamated to form the 10th Reserve Cavalry Regiment. In the Second World War the 4th and 8th served together again when they fought in the Battle of Alam el Halfa in the Western Desert. In 1941, it took part in the defence of Greece, during which it was involved in a series of rearguard actions covering the withdrawal from the Yugoslav border to the Southern Beaches. Two Officers and 14 Other Ranks were killed in the fighting and a further 14 Other Ranks were drowned in the subsequent evacuation. After reforming in Cairo the 4th again fought in North Africa during the Gazala battles and at El Alamein before being taken out of the line for re-equipping. After serving in Cyprus and North Africa as part of 10th Armoured Division the regiment land in Italy as the Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment of 1st Armoured Division in May 1945. After a serious of engagements the 'C' Squadron was initially converted to drive Armoured Infantry Carriers being equipped with Sherman tanks (modified to carry troops known as "Kangaroos"), while the other Squadrons still had tanks, but later A the B Squadrons were also converted to use Priest SPGs modified to carry troops known as "Kangaroos or Defrocked Priests". The regiment ended the war at Padua in Italy and soon after moved to Austria, near Paternion, where it became part of the Army of Occupation, capturing war criminals and maintaining law and order. In September 1945 it returned to Italy, initially near Trieste and Venice, after being converted back to an Armoured Regiment again. The Regiment spent the years between the end of the War and Amalgamation in Austria, Italy and Germany before serving as an armoured car regiment in Malaya from 1948-51 combating terrorists. Amalgamation in 1958, with the 8th Hussars, to form the Queens Royal Irish Hussars. Later in 1993 this regiment merged with The Queen's Own Hussars to form a new regiment The Queen's Royal Hussars (Queen's Own and Royal Irish) which is one of the two Hussar Regiments in the British Army today.

History, 4th Queen's Own Hussars

The 4th Hussars have forebears as old as the 3rd, created as the original Dragoons, and boast a chronicle in conflict as any cavalry regiment. They were also a very smart, wealthy regiment with a strong equine tradition, excelling particularly at polo and pig sticking. To The Queen's Royal Hussars, they have bequeathed the motto "Mente et Manu", translated as "might and main", the green colour which offsets the main colour of garter blue and Winston Churchill, "The greatest Hussar of them all". The character of the 4th has been epitomised by a son of a 4th Hussar as " The Regiment you wanted to join if you had not joined your own"

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Monmouth's rebellion scared Parliament into forming the first standing Army in 1685, among it six regiments of horse and two of Dragoons, the latter becoming 3rd and 4th Hussars. It was constituted of six troops, raised by the honourable John Berkeley and named after him as "Berkeley's Dragoons" it's recruiting area for all of the troops was Wessex. Berkeley married Barbera Villiers, an intimate friend of the King's younger daughter, Princess Anne. Thus came about the first title of the Regiment "The Princess Anne of Denmark's Regiment of Dragoons". In October Berkeley's Dragoons rode into London to be inspected by the King, a critical Commander, who was nevertheless impressed with them. For the next three years the regiment came to annual summer camp on Hounslow Heath. In the glorious revolution of 1688, the Regiment performed the same role as most of the King's Army changing to William of Oranges side when the Monarchs position became untenable. In 1689 Berkeley's Dragoons saw their first action in Scotland fighting against those still loyal to King James. The following year Fitzhardinge took over the colonelcy from Berkeley and the title of Princess Anne's Regiment fell into disuse. In 1692 the Regiment went to Flanders to fight against the French for six years, a tedious succession of marching and counter marching waiting to catch the enemy unawares. In 1692 they fought at Steinkirk, a badly orchestrated defeat in which Fitzardinge's Dragoons lost 130 Killed, despite their conspicuous gallantry. The colonelcy changed again in 1693, when the Earl of Essex took over for almost twenty years. Two years later the Regiment helped to recapture the fortress of Namur. After the peace of Ryswick in 1697, Essex's Dragoons returned to Yorkshire, a blooded Cavalry Regiment. They were removed to Ireland for four years, then they returned to England for the same time until two troops were sent to Spain and fought along side the 3rd and 8th at the battle of Almanza in 1707. It was heavy defeat and Essex's Dragoons lost half their number, the remainder being sent home later in the year. The whole regiment boarded ships for action in 1708, but after some sabre-rattling at Cherbourg and La Hogue came back to Portsmouth. Until 1715 the regiment was engaged in home service, before joining the 3rd and the 7th at sheriffmuir late that year. Their brave charged smashed the enemy's left wing however it was a Pyrrhic victory which ended the old pretenders hopes of the crown. The regiment moved around England and Scotland on home duty, the next notable event being Sir Robert Rich's appointment to the colonelcy in 1735 having previously being Colonel of the 8th Dragoons, later the 8th Hussars. Another peaceful period was ended in 1742 when the War of Austria succession started at Rich's Dragoons went into battle the following year at Dettingen. Their third charge drove back the French and turned the battle in favour of the British while George Daraugh, a Dragoon from the 4th, won the Regiment and himself great fame. He saw a French Officer riding off with a Regimental Standard, and followed him, cut him down and returned to the Regiment with the Standard. Her was Promoted by King George II on the Battlefield to the rank of Cornet, and given a purse of guineas. Rich's had only very light casualties, a different story to the encounter they had with the French in July 1745 when they were ambushed five miles short of Ghent, ordered to fight through the town and reached it with only 150 of the 400 with which they started. During the subsequent attacks on Ghent, only 60 of Rich's dragoons got away. They were sent home and took no further part in the 45. The reconstituted and were sent back to Holland by 1747, and thrown against the French again at Lauffeldt where the cavalry saved the British from severe defeat. In 1748 Rich's returned home for sixty years quiet service. The names of regiments were enumerated in 1751 thus Rich's became the 4th Dragoons. Their coats remained scarlet and their waistcoats and breeches were to be green. In 1775 James Hugonin took over as Lieutenant Colonel, the first of three generations who commanded or "coloneled" the 4th Dragoons continuously until 1836. The civil disorder which erupted into the Gordon riots of 1780 called the 4th Dragoons to London for their first trial in the use on minimum force and eight years later another reorganisation of cavalry occurred with the 4th accruing the title "The Queen's Own Regiment of Dragoons". Finally in December 1808 the 4th sailed to Portugal to join Wellesley's Army which was trying to push the French out of Portugal by bringing them to battle in Spain. They achieved this at Talavera in July 1809. The British withstood the French Force of twice their number and thus they won the battle. Two years of defence consolidated Britain's last remaining Army until 1811 at Albura when although the Beresford lost half the English number in the battle, the French lost double that. At Usagre a fortnight later the 4th were part of a perfectly executed ambush which started to turn the War to Britain's favour. The master stroke was at Salamanca in July 1812 when the 4th, next to the 3rd, in Le Marchant's Cavalry Brigade took part in a murderous Cahrge described by wellington with praise, "I never saw anything so beautiful in all my life". After the rout, the regiment captured some of Joseph Bonaparte's silver from the baggage train which was melted down to provide cutlery and the Salamanca Donkey in the Officers' Mess. Later in the year the 4th were again in action at Vittoria, slowly pushing the French out of Spain and into

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France where the final battle in the Peninsula War was fought and won in 1814 at Toulouse. From Toulouse the regiment marched the 700 miles to Boulonge and embarked for England. They spent some time in Ireland before sailing for their first tour in India in 1821. Three years earlier with another supposed clarification of the titles they had become The 4th or Queen's Own Regiment of Light Dragoons. For seventeen years the 4th remained peacefully in the easy soldiering routine of India, stationed at Kaira and Kirkee, until two squadrons were called upon to join the Bombay column marching to Kabul. In 1838 the first fighting was done storming the defended fortress of Ghuznee in which the 4th were ready should they be needed, and later in the year Kabul, was taken without a fight. Fortunately the 4th were called back to India in 1840, thus avoiding the retreat from Kabul from which there was one survivor two years later. Foreign service ended in 1841 when they were sent back to England and Ireland commanded by the witty, unorthodox Lord George Paget, son of the great Marquis of Anglesey, a 7th Hussar. Another quiet decade was to pass before the 4th were chosen as part of the Allied Army of fifty thousand which was to Immortalise it's exploits in the Crimea. The reason for the war with Russia involved complex diplomatic and religious agreements between the European powers, a far cry from the deprivation suffered by the 4th in 1854 through disease and maladministration. The first battle was near the river Alma in September in which the Allies inflicted heavy losses on the Russians. The "Battle of Balaclava" took place in October, including the "Charge of the Light Brigade", that ultimate catastrophe from which so much honour has been drawn. 607 charged into the valley of death, and 198 were at the roll call afterwards; twenty minutes of hell. The "reasons why" can be pursued in any amounts of documents and books, but the result was summed up by Paget, commanding the 4th: "What a scene of havoc was the last mile, strewn with the dead and dying and all friends. Some running, some limping, some crawling; Horses in every position of agony, struggling to get up, then floundered again on their mutilated riders!". Paget led the remnants of the Light Brigade back through the valley of death and out of danger to find that out of the 118 men of the 4th Light Dragoons, 79 were killed or missing, Private Samuel Parkes of the 4th was awarded the Victoria Cross for protecting the Colonels Trumpeter against the Cossacks and despite his selling it to buy a drink, it is now back in the Regiments possession. At the battle of Inkerman the infantry were the heroes before the Allied Army endured a dreadful winter besieging Sevastpol which finally fell in September 1855. The following may the Army was evacuated back to England, having spent two years a long way from home, having defeated an enemy superior in numbers and having endured heavy deprivation it had emerged victorious. From 1856 the 4th served at home, becoming in 1861 The 4th (Queen's Own) Hussars, before sailing for India in 1867 serving at Meerut and Rawalpindi for 12 years. Home service from then until 1896 passed in England, Scotland and Ireland presaging a return to India until 1905. It was during this time that Winston Churchill joined the regiment, proclaiming in his training that "The 4th Hussars exceeded in severity anything I had previously experienced in military equitation". In India Churchill adored Polo helping the regiment win the Inter-Regimental tournament in 1899. When he left the regiment his comrades paid him the rare compliment of drinking his health the final time he dined with them. In 1905 the 4th Hussars moved to South Africa for four years, reaching home in 1909. They were in Ireland for the Curragh incident but this was overtaken by the outbreak of War in Europe in 1914, with the regiment sailing immediately to France. By the 24th August the 4th were at War as they were when the Armistice was signed in November 1918, four years of intermittent action that was to account for 549 casualties killed or wounded from the regiment and 22 battle honours. During the retreat from Mons the 4th Hussars acquitted themselves well in the skirmishes and holding engagements which allowed for an orderly withdrawal. They fought at Mons and nearby Angre and soon after the Commanding Officer, Lt Col Hogg, was killed in action, before they were thrown into the defence of Ypres to prevent the Germans from reaching the Channel ports. In the first battle of Ypres Lieutenant North commanding the machine gun section was recommended for the Victoria Cross. There was some rest over Christmas before in February 1915 the 4th were bought back into the line for the second battle of Ypres. The Germans used gas for the first time, in conjunction with their massive assault but the tenacity of the allies prevented them gaining much ground. The 4th Hussars were spied during this encounter by

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the Brigade Commander. The Regiment advanced through the retreating infantry and the gas in the best possible style. After Ypres, the cavalry were withdrawn to wait for the "Gap" but still had to provide working parties to dig the trenches initially and then form the cavalry dismounted division which worked as infantry in the front line, taking one one infantry company from each cavalry regiment. Between November 1915 and March 1917 the regiment was constantly warned off for the "Gap" but it never appeared. The spring offensive of 1917 provided another opportunity but the cavalry were stood by the river Scarpe inactive again prior to two months uneventful duty in the trenches opposite the Hindenburg Line. The summer was spent out of the trenches and in the billets, but the 4th were bought back to witness Cambrai, the first successful use of the tank in November, standing by for another breakthrough which did not occur due to over exploitation in this case, rather than failure to punch through the German defences as had appeared so many times before. In 1918 cam the final German offensive launched on the 21st March which hit the 4th Hussars at Compiegne on the Somme costing the regiment 129 casualties in one week. On the 30th March the 4th, as part of the 3rd cavalry Brigade fought an important action at Moreuil wood in keeping the advancing Germans from getting through the wood. The Commanding Officer, Lt Col Darley and sixteen others were killed before they were relieved by the infantry. After some months rest the regiment followed the advancing allies, taking it's share of casualties through shelling, until on the 11th November it found itself at Villerot, ten miles north of Angre, where it had started the War. The Inter-War years, although changing the character and routine of the cavalry through the demise of the horse, were nevertheless to provide the 4th Hussars with outstanding sporting success in India, to where they moved in 1921. "Scotty" Scott Cockburn, on his horse Carclew, won the Kadir Cup for pigsticking three times, and came second three times in a sport that carried immense Kudos at that time. In 1931 the regiment moved back to Aldershot, finding itself with the rest of the Cavalry in 1936 being Mechanised, a dreadful prospect made better only by it's inevitability or by it's alternative, Disbandment. During the second World War the 4th Hussars were seemingly destroyed, time after time, only to rise phoenix-like from the ashes to find their next enemy. From 1941 they were under the watchful eye of their Colonel of the Regiment Winston Churchill who certainly helped to guide their fate. Initially they fought in Greece, merely withdrawing in the face of an enormous German Army placed there to satisfy political aims. The first action was at Proasteion, but the biggest was at the Corrinth Canal bridge followed by the 4th keeping contact with the advancing enemy until the remainder of the allies had managed to flee the Peloponnese. Unsurprisingly all the senior officers and over 400 men of the 4th Hussars were taken prisoner. In June 1941 the regiment began to reconstitute in Cairo. By April 1942 they were issued with Grant and Stuart tanks and then joined the 1st Armoured Brigade. As armour was scarce "B" Squadron found itself detailed to the London Yeomanry but in an Action on the 12th June was so badly ambushed that almost the whole squadron was lost. Things were no better as they collected themselves as a regiment after the retreat to El Alamein; only 12 officers, 152 soldiers, no tanks and some wheeled vehicles were left. For the battle of Alam el Halfa, the 4th joined the similarly wounded 8th becoming the 4th/8th Hussars, equipped with Start tanks. At the end of august they were told to move from the Qattara Depression to the top of the escarpment to ambush Rommel's columns and finding a supply column; they dealt with 57 lorries. For the battle of El Alamein the 4th/8th Hussars operated in the southern flank in the 4th Light Armoured Brigade doing diversionary attacks before taking the lead in pursuing the Afrika Korps back to Tunui, and capturing the strategically important Halfaya Pass. In November the 4th/8th split up, with the 4th moving to Cyprus for a rest then further training. In June 1943 they moved back to Egypt for a years reconnaissance of the 1st armoured division fighting the first for the Gothic Line at Coriano where they lost 5 officers and 35 men in the first few days, then pushing up through Italy equipped with Armoured Personnel Carriers which they utilised well in clearing a pocket from the east bank of the Senio river which earned them the Army Commander's Congratulations. There was another lull in the conflict until April 1945 before the final battles up to the river Po and at the Argenta Gap came just before the axis collapsed on 2nd May. The Second World War had ended but the 4th Hussars did not go home for two and half years after the enemy had surrendered, serving first in Austria helping to root out EX-SS members now on the run and then in July 1946 moving to Northern Austria and into Syria in the British area of occupation. In March 1947 they moved up to Lubeck on the Baltic coast for nine months until they finally returned to England to Colchester.

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They were only to be there for nine months when , as a trained armoured car regiment they were sent to Malaya scattered around the country dealing with the roving band of Chinese communists who were trying to disrupt the people and the economy of Malaya. The 4th Hussars suffered 54 casualties killed or wounded during their three year tour but received an impressive clutch of medals for their tireless work. Back in England they were re-roled to Tanks for two years and then sent out to Hohne in northern Germany for their first tour as part of the British Army of the Rhine. On the 24th October 1958, in Hohne, the 4th Hussars amalgamated with the 8th Hussars. 273 years of service to the crown and a unique regimental identity envied by many other people, was lost to the ravages of political expediency.

WILLIAM STEWART HEARD - 4th Hussars

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FREDERICK WALTER HEARD 4th Hussars

Information from the WW1 Medal Roll: Frederick W Heard 4th Hussars, MG Squadron, Machine Gun Corps Rank L/Cpl Regimental Number : 5485,41436, Clasp & Roses I.V. 1379 cd 207.21 Clasp 30884(1?) Victory & British Medal : Roll, MGC/101 B28; page, 2660 .Allied Victory Medal (Victory Medal) was awarded for service in any operational theater between 5 August 1914 and 11 November 1918. It was issued to individuals who received the 1914 and 1914-15 Stars and to most individuals who were issued the British War Medal. The medal was also awarded for service in Russia (1919-1920) and post-war mine clearance in the North Sea (1918-1919). British War Medal was awarded to both servicemen and civilians that either served in a theater of war, or rendered service overseas between 5 August 1914 and 11 November 1918. It was also awarded for service in Russia, and post-war mine clearance in the Baltic, the Black Sea, and the Caspian Sea between 1919 and 1920 1914 Star : Roll, CY/14. Page 58. awarded for service in France or Flanders (Belgium) between 5 August and 22 November 1914 Remarks : Trans 27/6/16

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Infantrymen through the ages, on this We beat 'em before. We will beat 'em again public information poster, 1939-1945.

The British Army of 1914-1918

The last years of peace
It is generally accepted that Germany an d her ally the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary (together called the Central Powers) played the main role in creating the conditions that led to the Great War. Great Britain officially maintained friendly relations with Germany, but was all too conscious of the growth of the German economy and the threat to British trading interests. Germany began to take the initiative after her traditional enemies France and Russia joined in an alliance, geographically encircling Germany. She expanded her army and more conspicuously began a programme of construction of battleships that also brought her into conflict with Great Britain. As early as 1905, Germany considered how to win a war on two fronts in Europe, given sufficient forces to be able to tackle only one front at a time. The plan took a more detailed form under Chief of Staff Graf von Schlieffen. The conclusion was that Russia would take time to mobilise her army, in which time France must be defeated. The power of the army would be concentrated against

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France, and it would attack through neutral Belgium to do so. It was not anticipated that Great Britain would play any significant part in the land war, and naval clash would be unlikely.

1914
A crisis in the Balkans, sparked by the public assassination of a member of the Austro-Hungarian royal dynasty in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, was when the great plan began to be executed. On 2 August 1914, German troops marched into Luxembourg, and soon after crossed into Belgium. Read Sir Edward Grey's speech to the House of Commons, that set the British Parliament on the path to committing to a war in Continental Europe. The British Government voted for war, officially enraged by the violation of traditional Belgian neutrality. The Royal Navy was ordered to rapidly seize control of the seas, which it promptly did. An Expeditionary Force (the BEF) of the regular army was immediately moved to France in accordance with pre-war plans agreed with the French High Command. The BEF moved up as required to the left flank of the French Army - the majority of which was already engaged in a disastrous offensive into Alsace-Lorraine - and first encountered the advancing German army near Mons in southern Belgium. The Allies soon became engaged in a great strategic retreat which left a huge German-occupied salient into France, the Western Front which remained the principal theatre of war until late 1918. The British also took early military steps to protect economic and political interests in Mesopotamia, Egypt and East Africa.

1915
By the end of 1914, the war on the Western Front had become a stalemate along a continuous front of 400 miles between the North Sea coast and Switzerland. The British Government was alarmed at reports that the German Army was transferring large numbers of troops from the Western Front to the Eastern (against Russia). A German success against the already-defeated and tottering Russians would soon release enough forces to win a decisive victory in the West. The British Army was being hugely expanded, but most would not be ready until 1916. The French favoured an offensive, while the Germans planned to stand on the defensive in the West in 1915. The year saw a series of costly efforts by the Allies, which gained very little. Britain began to consider alternative theatres of war by which Germany could be defeated, with possibilities in the Balkans, and against Turkey which declared itself an ally of Germany. In April 1915, an amphibious landing on the Gallipoli peninsula was launched. It was defeated, and the campaign concluded by January 1916. Italy entered the war on the side of the Allies, Bulgaria on the side of the Central Powers

1916
The situation for the Allies in early 1916 was not encouraging: stalemate and heavy losses on the seemingly impenetrable Western Front; defeat at Gallipoli; the British troops in Mesopotamia besieged; a British force in East Africa defeated; the Russians falling back; Italian offensives against Austria-Hungary achieving little. The Central Powers were able to move resources from one front to the other and enjoyed a far greater unity of command than the Allies. However, the Allies had command of the seas, and a

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manpower and material advantage which was to improve during 1916 as the British New Armies came to the fighting fronts. Allied strategy was agreed in late 1915 - it was to be a simultaneous effort on both Western and Eastern Fronts, to grind down German resistance. A minimum of forces would be deployed in the secondary theatres, and economic war particularly by blockade, stepped up. The main Franco-British effort in the West was to be astride the River Somme, a battle that was eventually launched with reduced French effort in July 1916. French effort was reduced with good reason. Germany determined that Great Britain was the main enemy, and that her best land weapon was the by now strained French Army. The latter would be finally destroyed by a campaign launched against Verdun in February 1916. By early Summer this battle was grinding on, and Joffre exhorted the British to launch on the Somme earlier than was comfortable for the New Armies.

1917
By summer 1916, the position of the Central Powers had become precarious: the Verdun offensive proved to be as wasteful for Germany as France; Britain struck a forceful blow on the Somme; the Austro-Hungarian offensive against Italy in the Trentino had failed; the Brusilov offensive by Russia had been a success. Manpower reinforcements were becoming harder to find. The British Army reported that by May 1917 it would be able to make a maximum effort. The French knew that from now on their manpower could not be replaced as fast as battle losses were incurred. Germany once again took the initiative, by making a bold strategic withdrawal to a prepared position - the Siegfried Stellung - that was shorter and released more men for reserves. France appointed a new commander, Robert Nivelle, who gained acceptance for a large offensive in the Champagne and Artois. The offensive failed, leaving many units of the French Army broken and in mutiny. British efforts at Vimy and Messines succeeded brilliantly, but a large summer offensive at Ypres, aimed at recapturing the coast of Belgium and keeping German eyes away from the French, floundered in awful weather against impregnable German positions. The United States joined the war on the side of the Allies in1917 but could not supply an Army until well into 1918. Russia withdrew from the war.

1918
British Divisions were sent from the Western Front to Italy in late 1917, initially as a response to an apparent collapse of the Italian army in front of a German attack at Caporetto. The British Government agreed to take over more of the Western Front in early 1918, without reference to the Army Command, which was pointing out a severe and growing shortage of men. The French Army was in a condition only to stand on the defensive. Germany now enjoyed overwhelming manpower superiority, having moved all units from the Eastern Front. She launched a final offensive designed to defeat the Allies before the USA could bring her enormous resources to bear. The British Army, which had been starved of manpower, was forced to reorganise and disbanded many units in France. Yet it fought magnificently against the German attack and recovered sufficiently while Germany reeled from its losses and launched what turned out to be a rapid, if Page 34

rather surprising, counter-offensive that achieved victory by November. The army pressed on while David Lloyd George's government fought out some 'dirty tricks' in denying that it had deliberately withheld men and the truth about what it had been doing. The British Army advanced into Germany in December 1918.

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WILLIAM STEWART HEARD - Royal Army Service Corp

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The front and back of a photo of Williams Regiment.

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From : David P.Whithorn, Great War Society, U.K. 2008

From the photograph, it is clear your grandfather was involved with horses. He is wearing a smart pair of riding breeches and his puttees ('sox' as you termed them) are up-side down denoting that he was not infantry but a mounted soldier. He wears the single stripe of a Lance Corporal and also a shoulder lanyard on his left shoulder. The latter denotes a more senior soldier and certainly an NCO. The tunic has indeed an odd collar. This is more reminiscent of a cavalry uniform of the 19th rather than the 20th century and must have been quite uncomfortable. The 'badge' on his left upper tunic pocket is a decorative watch fob and not part of his uniform. His waist belt is the standard 1903 leather belt issued to mounted troops. In the photographs (both taken at the same time) your grandfather was either on his way to or had just returned from active service as he is not wearing his first field dressing in his tunic. I have looked in the Medal Index system and found only two William S. Heard's who served in the Great War, although there are many William Heard's who are listed without a middle initial. There is a Pte William S. Heard 8671 of the Army Service Corps. The ASC did have mounted troops being responsible for much of the transportation in the Great War. The ASC badge would be a distinct possibility for the one in the photograph and be my best bet (I have one of the actual badges in front of me). Although this William S.Heard also served in the Labour Corps, he never bore the rank of Lance-corporal according to his medal card. There is another possibility which could be quite likely given William's age. He would have been 33 when war broke out and married with children. The initial requirement was for single men between 19-30 to enlist, although men younger and older did join up as did married men. In late 1915, he would have been required to attest and be willing to be called up in his group. Given his age, marriage and children this would have been around August 1916. He would have had little choice as to the branch of the services he would have been in, although previous experience (with horses) may have helped in some cases (not my great-grandfather!). Possibly because of his age/medical background he may have been declared unfit for active service overseas. As a result of this, he may never have been awarded medals and thus not be in the medal index system. This would also explain his very smart (if slightly unusual) uniform, as serving in the UK at a base depot would have allowed him access to the depot tailor who (for a consideration) could have tailored his uniform to his requirements. The latter is but conjecture. To go further, you need to root around the family to try trace any stories that may have survived, other photographs and even perhaps some medals (the medal indexing system is not infallible) and come back to me. You have lots of other good evidence which will help build the story and confirm identity should his service records have survived at the UK National Archive (about 35% did following enemy action in ww2 burning the rest).

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I can confirm that the men I have been able to trace on the unit photograph all belong to the Army Service Corps. The signatures (16) match the number of people (17) on the photograph, assuming your grandfather omitted his own (please confirm which one he is, if he is on it, I am finding this tricky) . The following I have traced (traced negative):

Hubert Llewellyn Lewis, Cpl SS/792 ASC - also served in Labour Corps and London Regiment (the latter two I expect in 1918) Vernon J.Roberts, Pte 120909 ASC - commissioned as 2nd Lt in Machine Gun Corps and later a Lt in Tank Corps Sidney E.Ferris, Pte ASC - S4/055697 - commissioned as 2nd Lt Tank Corps Ernest Urquhart, Pte ASC - S4/058728 - commissioned as Lt Tanks Corps Frank G.Kirkby - no medal records exist RSM G.W.Wheatley - no medal records exist Fred J.Thomas - 2 candidates in ASC

It is possible to identify several men in the photograph (officers) as they have given their rank and regiment (ASC). Three we have were later commissioned, all eventually ending up in the Tank Corps which is very interesting in its own right. Ferris and Urquhart were both S4, this relates to the Supply Units of Kitcheners 4th Army. Kitchener's first 3 Armies all served in their units in the war. Kitchener's 4th Army were either home based units on sent abroad as replacements. Lewis as SS is Special Supply, later transferred to the London Regiment, an infantry unit. It is interesting that I cannot find a trace of Frank G.Kirkby or RSM Wheatley, as like your grandfather, they are not listed on the medal roll. Looking at this photograph, there are two officers, one RSM and at least 5 sergeants. This is very disproportionate to make this photo that of an 'active' ASC unit in their own right. What I believe this is, is a photo possibly taken in a depot in the UK of staff 'permanently' attached to the depot in their individual roles and have been there for some time to know each other well enough to have this photo organised. At this point, all were in the ASC, some of whom later went on to gain their commissions (in England) and take up their posts in an active theatre of war - probably in 1918. This photo would date to 1916/17 (sergeant LHS, middle row, with bandolier is wearing an 'economy' tunic of this period). It is a wonderful photograph and not that difficult to put names to some faces. All this would strengthen/confirm my earlier findings that your grandfather served in the ASC in the Great War (the cap badge enlargement is a little clearer and again would seem to be ASC). Quite probably he served in the UK from 1916 onwards. 2007.

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History of the Rising Sun Badge

Proudly worn by soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Australian Imperial Forces in both World Wars, the 'Rising Sun' badge has become an integral part of Digger tradition. The distinctive shape, worn on the upturned brim of a slouch hat, is readily identified with the spirit of ANZAC. Yet despite the badge's historic significance, well researched theories as to its origin are more numerous than its seven points. In 1902 a badge was urgently sought for the Australian contingents raised after Federation for service in South Africa during the Boer War. Probably the most widely-accepted version of the origin of this badge is that which attributes the selection of its design to a British officer, Major General Sir Edward Hutton, KCB, KCMG, the newly appointed Commander-in-chief of the Australian Forces.
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He had earlier received as a gift from Brigadier General Joseph Gordon, a military acquaintance of long standing, a "Trophy of Arms" comprising mounted cut and thrust swords and triangular Martini Henri bayonets arranged in a semicircle around a brass crown. To Major General Hutton the shield was symbolic of the co-ordination of the Naval and Military Forces of the Commonwealth. A refurbished replica of the shield is on display in the main foyer of Army Headquarters in Canberra. (Figure 1). The original design, created and produced in haste for issue to the contingent departing to South Africa, was modified in 1904. This badge(Figure 2), was worn through both World Wars. Since its inception the Basic form of the 1904 version has remained unchanged although modifications have been made to the wording on the scroll and to the style of crown. In 1949, when Corps and Regimental Badges were reintroduced into service, the wording on the scroll of the "Rising Sun" Badge was changed to read "Australian Military Forces". (Figure 3). Twenty years later, the badge was again modified to incorporate the Federation Star and Torse Wreath from the original 1902 version of the badge and the scroll wording changed to "Australia" (Figure 4). In the 75th anniversary year of the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli there arose a desire to return to the traditional accoutrements worn by Australian soldiers during the World Wars and which clearly identify the Australian Army. (Figure 5). The recent change coincides with the 90th anniversary of the Army which was commemorated on 1st March 1991.

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Original

1904

1949

1969

1991

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Australia First World War 191418

For Australia, as for many nations, the First World War remains the most costly conflict in terms of deaths and casualties. From a population of fewer than five million, 300,000 men enlisted, of which over 60,000 were killed and 156,000 wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner. The outbreak of war was greeted in Australia, as in many other places, with great public enthusiasm. In response to the overwhelming number of volunteers, the authorities set exacting physical standards for recruits. Yet, most of the men accepted into the army in August 1914 were sent first to Egypt, not Europe, to meet the threat which a new belligerent, the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), posed to British interests in the Middle East and the Suez Canal.

HMAS Sydney at full speed, ten minutes after the ceasefire was ordered in her battle with the German cruiser Emden. AWM EN0470 After four and a half months of training near Cairo, the Australians departed by ship for the Gallipoli peninsula, with troops from New Zealand, Britain, and France. The Australians landed at what became known as ANZAC Cove on 25 April 1915 and established a tenuous foothold on the steep slopes above the beach. During the early days of the campaign, the allies tried to break through Turkish lines, while the Turks tried to drive the allied troops off the peninsular. Attempts on both sides ended in failure and the ensuing stalemate continued for the remainder of 1915. The most successful operation of the campaign was the evacuation of troops on 19 and 20 December, under cover of a comprehensive deception operation. As a result, the Turks were unable to inflict more than a very few casualties on the retreating forces. After Gallipoli the AIF was reorganised and expanded from two to five infantry divisions, all of which were progressively transferred to France, beginning in March 1916. The AIF mounted division that had served as additional infantry during the campaign remained in the Middle East. When the other AIF divisions arrived in France, the war on the Western Front had long been settled in a stalemate, with the opposing armies facing each other from trench systems that extended across Belgium and north-east France, from the English Channel to the Swiss border. The development of machine-guns and artillery favoured defence over attack and compounded the impasse, which lasted until the final months of the war. While the overall hostile stasis continued throughout 1916 and 1917, the Australians and other allied armies repeatedly attacked, preceded by massive artillery bombardments intended to cut barbed wire and destroy enemy defences. After these bombardments, waves of attacking infantry emerged from the trenches into no man's land and advanced towards enemy positions. The surviving Germans, protected by deep and heavily reinforced bunkers, were usually able to repel the attackers with machine-gun fire and artillery support from the rear. These attacks often resulted in limited territorial gains followed, in turn, by German counter-attacks. Although this style of warfare favoured the defence, both sides sustained heavy losses. Page 44

An Australian digger uses a periscope in a trench captured during the attack on Lone Pine, Gallipoli, 8 August 1915. AWM A03771 In July 1916 Australian infantry were introduced to this type of combat at Fromelles, where they suffered 5,533 casualties in 24 hours. By the end of the year about 40,000 Australians had been killed or wounded on the Western Front. In 1917 a further 76,836 Australians became casualties in battles, such Bullecourt, Messines, and the four-month campaign around Ypres, known as the battle of Passchendaele.

Troops of 53rd Battalion wait to don equipment for the attack at Fromelles, 19 July 1916. Only three of these men survived. AWM A03042 In March 1918 the German army launched its final offensive of the war, hoping for a decisive victory before the military and industrial strength of the United States could be fully mobilised in support of the allies. The Germans initially met with great success, advancing 64 kilometres past the region of the 1916 Somme battles, before the offensive lost momentum. Between April and November the stalemate of the preceding years began to give way, as the allies combined infantry, artillery, tanks, and aircraft more effectively, demonstrated in the Australian capture of Hamel spur on 4 July 1918. The allied offensive, beginning on 8 August at Amiens, also contributed to Australian successes at Mont St Quentin and Pronne and to the capture of the Hindenburg Line. In early October the Australian divisions withdrew from the front for rest and refitting; they were preparing to return when Germany surrendered on 11 November.

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Australian wounded infantrymen at the first battle of Passchendaele, near Zonnebele railway station. AWM E01202 Unlike their counterparts in France and Belgium, the Australians in the Middle East fought a mobile war against the Ottoman Empire in conditions completely different from the mud and stagnation of the Western Front. The light horsemen and their mounts had to survive extreme heat, harsh terrain, and water shortages. Nevertheless, casualties were comparatively light, with 1,394 Australians killed or wounded in three years of war. This campaign began in 1916 with Australian troops participating in the defence of the Suez Canal and the allied reconquest of the Sinai peninsular. In the following year Australian and other allied troops advanced into Palestine and captured Gaza and Jerusalem; by 1918 they had occupied Lebanon and Syria. On 30 October 1918 Turkey sued for peace. Australians also served at sea and in the newly formed flying corps. The Royal Australian Navy (RAN), under the command of the Royal Navy, made a significant contribution early in the war, when HMAS Sydney destroyed the German raider Emden near the Cocos Islands in November 1914. The Great War was the first armed conflict in which aircraft were used; about 3,000 Australian airmen served in the Middle East and France with the Australian Flying Corps, mainly in observation capacities or providing infantry support.

3rd Australian Light Horse Regiment machine-gunners in action at Khurbetha-Ibn-Harith, near Palestine, 31 December 1917. AWM B01697 Australian women volunteered for service in auxiliary roles, as cooks, nurses, drivers, interpreters, munitions workers, and skilled farm workers. While the government welcomed the service of nurses, it generally rejected offers from women in other professions to serve overseas. Australian nurses served in Egypt, France, Greece, and India, often in trying conditions or close to the front, where they were exposed to shelling and aerial bombardment. The effect of the war was also felt at home. Families and communities grieved following the loss of so many men, and women increasingly assumed the physical and financial burden of caring for families. Anti-German feeling emerged with the outbreak of the war, and many Germans living in Australia were sent to internment camps. Censorship and surveillance, regarded by many as an excuse to silence political views that had no effect on the outcome of war, increased as the conflict continued. Social division also grew, reaching a climax in the bitterly contested (and unsuccessful) Page 46

conscription referendums held in 1916 and 1917. When the war ended, thousands of ex-servicemen, many disabled with physical or emotional wounds, had to be re-integrated into a society keen to consign the war to the past and resume normal life.

9th Australian Light Horse bring in Turkish prisoners in the Sinai, 13 April 1916

The Right Honourable William Morris Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia, addressing members of the 14th Australian Infantry Brigade

A machine gun position established by the 54th Battalion during the morning of the attack through Peronne. The photograph was taken the following day, after the capture of the town, when positions close to it had been taken.

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PERCY HECTOR CLARK - 4/45th Infantry Battalion

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4th Battalion
The 4th Battalion was among the first infantry units raised for the AIF during the First World War. Like the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions it was recruited from New South Wales and, together with these other battalions, formed the 1st Brigade. The battalion was raised within a fortnight of the declaration of war in August 1914 and embarked just two months later. After a brief stop in Albany, Western Australia, the battalion proceeded to Egypt, arriving on 2 December. The battalion took part in the ANZAC landing on 25 April 1915 as part of the second and third waves. The commander of the 4th Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel A. J. O. Thompson, was killed the next day. At ANZAC, the battalion took part in the defence of the beachhead and in August, along with the rest of the 1st Brigade, led the charge at Lone Pine. The battalion served at ANZAC until the evacuation in December. After the withdrawal from Gallipoli, the battalion returned to Egypt. In March 1916, it sailed for France and the Western Front. From then until 1918 the battalion took part in operations against the German Army, principally in the Somme Valley in France and around Ypres in Belgium. The battalions first major action in France was at Pozires in the Somme valley in July 1916. Later the battalion fought at Ypres, in Flanders, before returning to the Somme for winter. The battalion participated in a short period of mobile operations following the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line in early 1917, but spent much of that year fighting in increasingly difficult conditions around Ypres. In 1918 the battalion returned to the Somme valley and helped to stop the German spring offensive in March and April. The battalion subsequently participated in the Allies great offensive of that year, launched east of Amiens on 8 August 1918. The advance on this day by British and empire troops was the greatest success in a single day on the Western Front, one that German General Erich Ludendorff described as the black day of the German Army in this war. The battalion continued operations until late September 1918. At 11 am on 11 November 1918, the guns fell silent. The November armistice was followed by the peace treaty of Versailles signed on 28 June 1919. Between November 1918 and May 1919, the men of the 4th Battalion returned to Australia for demobilisation and discharge.

Colour Patch

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PATRICK JOSEPH STETTLER 14th Infantry Brigade - 54th Battalion

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Regimental number Religion Occupation Address Marital status Age at embarkation Next of kin Enlistment date Rank on enlistment Unit name AWM Embarkation Roll number Embarkation details Rank from Nominal Roll Unit from Nominal Roll Fate Family/military connections

Patrick Joseph STETTLER 2231 Roman Catholic Labourer Church Street, Parramatta, New South Wales Single 18 Mother, Mrs Isabella Stettler, 403 Church Street, Parramatta, New South Wales 11 May 1916 Private 54th Battalion, 4th Reinforcement 23/71/3 Unit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A42 Boorara on 19 August 1916 Private 1st Australian Dermatological Hospital Returned to Australia 30 January 1918 Brother: 2977 Pte John Harold STETTLER, 57th Bn, returned to Australia, 31 October 1917.

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The First Shot of WWI

The first shot of World War 1 by any allied army is supposed to have been fired from Point Nepean fort at Port Phillip Heads. The date was 5 August 1914, and the war was just one day old. The target was the German steamer Pfalz which was attempting to leave the port. When she left Melbourne, news that Britain had declared war had not yet reached Australia. But that news had come through by the time Pfalz had reached the Heads. A shot fired ahead of the ship prompted wrestling over the engine-room telegraph control between the ship's Master and Melbourne Pilot Captain M. Robinson of Williamstown, followed by a quick reversal of course. The ship returned to anchor off Williamstown. More than five hours passed after the incident before the crew realised why the vessel had been fired upon and detained.

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The Amazing Tale of the SS Pfalz/HMAT A42 Boorara

A 42. HMAT Boorara (ex-enemy Pfalz) 5,923 tons. 10.5 knots. Manned by Australia officers and crew. Transferred to Commonwealth Government Line 24 June 1919. Sister ship to A 41 HMAT Bakara

SS Pfalz. Pfalz was fitted out as a troop transport, and renamed H.M.A.T. A42 Boorara. Boorara is a former gold mining area south east of South Kalgoorlie in West Australia. She took part in the 2nd Australian convoy and later carried Turkish prisoners from the Dardanelles. While in the Aegean Sea, in July 1915, she was unintentionally rammed by the French Cruiser Kleber, but was beached and patched up at Mudros, then repaired at Naples.

This photo of SS Pfalz (later HMAT Boorara) kindly provided by Bob Pounds, who obtained the image from a German source. A UK visitor to this page, Max Turner, kindly has donated 15 images of A42 Boorara to the Defending Victoria website. These photographs, Max believes, belonged to a crew member of Boorara. Defending Victoria Website (Max Turner having agreed) will donate these historically valuable images to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra as a gift to the Nation in due course. Some are Page 54

sepia toned, and others in need of restoration and conservation after nearly a century.

HMAT A42 Boorara

Boorara beached on Mudros

after being unintenionally rammed by French Cruiser Kleber. There was extensive damage to the hull...

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well below the waterline.

' The Hole' from inside the ship... Patched up.

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A tug prepares to tow Boorara off Mudros Island

In dry dock at Naples . This catastrophic damage, fully revealed at Naples, should have sunk the ship on the spot when she was rammed. A ladder and workman (bottom left) give some scale to the devastation.

In the rest of the small collection of photographs sent to Fred Miles, there were three portraits. One was of a pretty young lady with dog, another was of two women - and this one, possibly of three shipmates (perhaps stewards on the Boorara). The surnames of the men, written on the back in pencil, are almost indecipherable - from left to right 'Tar (or Far), Dow, Sparkes (or Shanks)'.

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Boorara later was twice torpedoed in the English Channel. On the first occasion, on 20 March 1918, off Beachy Head. She managed to reach Southampton and was made seaworthy for a tow to Newcastle for extensive repairs. However, she was torpedoed again off Whitby on 23 July 1918. Despite her engine room being wrecked twice, the sturdy vessel was repaired in time to help repatriate Australian troops in 1919. The first shot of the Second World War is believed to have been fired from the same spot--Point Nepean--at a passing German ship--ss Stassfurt--which refused to stop and escaped. Despite continuing research, this cannot as yet be verified. Other versions of this incident exist, including mistaken identification of a Tasmanian vessel. Can anyone cast light on the subject? -----------------------------

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THE 54TH Battalion

The 54th Battalion was raised in Egypt on 16 February 1916 as part of the "doubling" of the AIF. Half of its recruits were Gallipoli veterans from the 2nd Battalion, and the other half, fresh reinforcements from Australia. Reflecting the composition of the 2nd, the 54th was predominantly composed of men from New South Wales. The battalion became part of the 14th Brigade of the 5th Australian Division. Moving to France in June 1916, the 54th fought its first major battle on the Western Front at Fromelles, on 19 July. It was a disaster. The 54th was part of the initial assault and suffered casualties equivalent to 65 per cent of its fighting strength. Casualty rates among the rest of the 5th Division were similarly high, but despite these losses it continued to man the front in the Fromelles sector for a further two months. After a freezing winter manning trenches in the Somme Valley, in early 1917 the 54th Battalion participated in the advance that followed the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line. It was spared the assault but did, however, defend gains made during the second battle of Bullecourt. Later in the year, the AIF's focus of operations switched to the Ypres sector in Belgium. The 54th's major battle here was at Polygon Wood on 26 September. With the collapse of Russia in October 1917, a major German offensive on the Western Front was expected in early 1918. This came in late March and the 5th Division moved to defend the sector around Corbie. The 14th Brigade took up positions to the north of Villers-Bretonneux and held these even when the village fell, threatening their flanks. Once the German offensive had been defeated, the Allies launched their own offensive in August 1918. The 14th Brigade did not play a major role in these operations until late in the month, but its actions, including those of the 54th Battalion at Anvil Wood, were critical to the capture of Pronne, which fell on 2 September. Heavy casualties throughout 1918 and declining enlistments in Australia resulted in a decision in mid-September 1918 to disband several Australian battalions to reinforce others; in the 14th Brigade this battalion was to be the 54th. The men mutinied in response, which resulted in a temporary postponement of the order. The 54th fought its last major battle of the war, St Quentin Canal, between 29 September and 2 October 1918. On 11 October it ceased to exist as a separate entity when it was merged with the 56th Battalion to form the 54/56th Battalion.

Colour Patch

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View of possibly the headquarters of the 54th Battalion AIF near the front line at Oostaverne Wood. Note the duckboard in the foreground and the shattered trees

Members of the 54th Battalion AIF, after having bathed and rested at a farm house near Polygon Wood

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JOHN HARROLD STETTLER - 15th Infantry Brigade - 57th Battalion

-

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John Harold STETTLER Regimental number 2977 Religion Roman Catholic Occupation Labourer Address Parramatta, New South Wales Marital status Single Age at embarkation 24 Next of kin Mother, Mrs Isabella Stettler, 403 Church Street, Parramatta, New South Wales Enlistment date 19 July 1916 Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll 12 July 1916 Rank on enlistment Private Unit name 57th Battalion, 7th Reinforcement AWM Embarkation Roll number 23/74/4 Embarkation details Unit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A19 Afric on 3 November 1916 Rank from Nominal Roll Private Unit from Nominal Roll 57th Battalion Fate Returned to Australia 31 October 1917 Family/military connections Brother: 2231 Pte Patrick Joseph STETTLER, 1st Australian Dermatological Hospital, returned to Australia, 30 January 1918. 2008

A 19. HMAT Afric

11,999 tons. 13 knots.Federal SN Co Ltd London Torpedoed and sunk in the English Chanel 12 February 1917

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57th Battalion
The 57th Battalion was raised in Egypt on 18 February 1916 as part of the "doubling" of the AIF. Half of its recruits were Gallipoli veterans from the 5th Battalion, and the other half, fresh reinforcements from Australia. Reflecting the composition of the 5th, the 57th was predominantly composed of men from the suburbs of Melbourne. The battalion became part of the 15th Brigade of the 5th Australian Division. Having only arrived in France in late June, the 57th became embroiled in its first major battle on the Western Front on 19 July, without the benefit of an introduction to the trenches in a "quiet" sector. The battle of Fromelles was a disaster. Fortunately for the 57th it was allocated a supporting role and suffered relatively light casualties compared to its sister battalions. This, however, meant that 57th carried the burden of holding the line in ensuing days for the battalion. Despite its grievous losses, the 5th Division continued to man the front in the Fromelles sector for a further two months. Early in 1917 the battalion participated in the advance that followed the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line, but it was spared having to assault it. It did, however, defend gains made during the second battle of Bullecourt. Later in the year, the AIF's focus of operations switched to the Ypres sector in Belgium. The 57th's major battle here was at Polygon Wood on 26 September. With the collapse of Russia in October 1917, a major German offensive on the Western Front was expected in early 1918. This came in late March and the 5th Division moved to defend the sector around Corbie. During this defence, the 57th Battalion participated in the now legendary counterattack at Villers-Bretonneux on 25 April. When the Allies launched their own offensive around Amiens on 8 August, the 57th Battalion was amongst the units in action, although its role in the subsequent advance was limited. The battalion entered its last major battle of the war on 29 September 1918. This operation was mounted by the 5th and 3rd Australian Divisions, in cooperation with American forces, to break through the formidable German defences along the St Quentin Canal. The battalion withdrew to rest on 2 October and was still doing so when the war ended. The battalion disbanded in March 1919.

Colour Patch

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Members of the 7th Reinforcements, 57th Battalion stand and sit in lines on the railway tracks on the wharf waiting to embark on the troopship HMAT Ballarat (A70) from Melbourne on 19 Feb 1917.

Albany Anzac 2014-18 SMITHSON PLANNING

364 Middleton Road Albany WA 6330 www.smithsonplanning.com.au PO Box 5377 Albany WA 6332 smithson@smithsonplanning.com.au

Tel : (08) 9842 9841 Fax : (08) 9842 9843 Mob : 0428 556 444
2006 Smithson Planning Organisational Management, Media, Town Planning & Environmental Assessment PO Box 5377 Albany WA 6332 Australia Tel : (08) 9842 9841 Fax : (08) 9842 9843 Mob : 0428 556 444

MONUMENTAL MOMENTS
A Brief History of the Albany Anzac legend of WW1, from The Australian & New Zealand Expeditionary Forces Assemblage at and Departure from Albany, Western Australia 1915 Albany Advertiser

Foreword
The matter contained in the publication was prepared and placed in the hands of the printer, W.F. Forster & Co., Proprietors Albany Advertiser Printers and Publishers, early in 1915. When all but complete, a copy was submitted to the Censor, who totally forbade its issue. So it is that it has taken five years to reach the public. It is obvious that any attempt to revise the contents from the point of view of to-day would have altered the character entirely. At the outset, the dispatch of a force of 30,000 men overseas appeared a big effort. Ten times as many were sent before peace came; indeed, a second contingent rendezvoused at Albany within a few months of the first. It would have been impossible to make the body of work more comprehensive, because after a while the necessities of war made it imperative to vary organisation, and ports other than Albany were used by departing transports. In these circumstances, it was decided to issue publication as originally designed. The purpose at the beginning was to let the world know how the first Australian Army left the Commonwealth. It still remains so. To understand the letterpress which follows, the reader must remember that they are viewing events from the early days of 1915, and that the dates quoted belonged to the year 1914. Reprinted from the original by Albany Advertiser Pty Ltd July 2003. Photographs by W.H. Campbell and A.G. Sands
Copies for sale from : The Albany Advertiser 165 York Street Albany Western Australia 6330 Tel : + 61 8 9892 8300

Assemblage at Albany
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Germany declared war against Russia on 01 August 1914. It was not until 04 August 1914 that a condition of war developed between Germany and Great Britain. The intervening days were days of suspense, and while the issue was yet in doubt, the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia cabled the Imperial authorities with offers of naval and military assistance should the necessity arise. As a matter of fact, the Federal Ministry met and discussed the situation on the night of 03 August 1914, and subsequently the Prime Minister, Andrew Fisher (Labor) made the following announcement : The Government has decided in the event of war to place the Australian vessels under the control of the British Admiralty. We have also decided to offer to the Imperial Government an expeditionary force of 20,000 men of any suggested composition to any destination desired by the Home Government, and the cost and dispatch and maintenance will be borne by the Commonwealth Government. Thus it came to pass that when the Prime Minister announced on 05 August 1914 the outbreak of war between England and Germany, adding Australia is now at war, he also read the following cablegram received by the Governor-General The Right Hon. Sir Ronald MunroFerguson, GCMG, DL from the Secretary of State for the Colonies : Referring to your telegram of 03 August 1914, His Majestys Government greatly appreciate the prompt readiness of your Government to place the naval forces of the Commonwealth at the disposal of the Admiralty, and your generous offer to equip and maintain an expeditionary force. From His Majesty King George V, the following message was also received : I desire to express to my people of the overseas dominions the appreciation and pride with which I have received the messages from their respective Governments during the last few days. These spontaneous assurances of the fullest support recall to me the generous self-sacrificing help given by them in the past to the mother country. I shall be strengthened in the discharge of the greatest responsibilities which rest upon me by the confident belief that in this time of trial my Empire will stand united, calm and resolute, and trusting in God. Two days later, the Imperial authorities formally notified their grateful acceptance of the offer of the Commonwealth Government to send 20,000 men to the assistance of the Empire, and steps were taken forthwith to organise the force. It had first to be decided what form the expeditionary force should take. All details in this regard were completed by 10 August 1914, and that same day instructions were issued to officers in the different military districts of Australia to enrol volunteers. The response on the part of the young manhood of the country was immediate. Within the week, the full number of men called for had passed the medical examination and were in the different camps constituted in the several States. Then followed months of hard training to the day of embarkation. The title chosen for the contingent was the Australian Imperial (Expeditionary) Force (the 1 st AIF), and it was arranged that it should consist of a Light Horse Brigade and a Division of Infantry, every branch of the Australian Army being thus fully represented. A Light Horse Brigade on its war establishment is made up of : Three Regiments (each of 530 men) A Field Artillery Battery A Light Horse Brigade Ammunition Column A Signal Troop A Light Horse Brigade Train

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 A Field Ambulance An Army Service Corp, and The Headquarters Staff. The approximate total of the personnel is 104 officers and 2,122 of other ranks, while 2,315 horses, 8 machine guns, six 18-pounder quick-firers, 20 carts, 408 wagons, 4 motor cars, 66 bicycles, 3 motor cycles, and field wireless equipment go to make up the strength. A Division includes roughly 17,747 troops of all ranks, attached to headquarters, three infantry brigades, two light horse squadrons, headquarters divisional artillery, three field artillery brigades, a divisional ammunition column, headquarters divisional engineers, two field companies, a signal company, a divisional train, three field ambulances, and an army service corps. The Division also has associated with it 5,328 horses, thirty-six 18-pounder quick-firers, 24 machine guns, 125 carts, 654 wagons, 8 motor cars, 271 bicycles, and 9 motor cycles. Infantry Brigades are made up of four Battalions (each 1,046 strong), field artillery brigades of three batteries with four guns and four ammunition wagons, each drawn by six horses. The complete expeditionary force was thus constituted as follows :

Light Horse Brigade Division

Personnel Horses Guns Personnel Horses Guns Headquarters 80 54 Three Infantry Brigades 12,351 768 24 Two Light Horse Squadrons 321 334 HQ Divisional Artillery 22 20 Headquarters 34 26 Three Field Artillery Brigades 2,178 2,112 36 Three Regiments 1,608 1,689 6 Ammunition Column 607 734 Field Artillery Battery 162 173 4 HQ Divisional Engineers 12 8 1 Ammunition Column 100 118 Two Field Companies 412 114 Signal Troop 43 45 Signal Company 163 80 Train 150 158 Divisional Train 645 638 Field Ambulance 120 106 Three Field Ambulances 762 300

Totals 2,217 2,315 10 Totals 17,553 5,162 61

The grand totals for the two units were : Personnel 19,779; Horses 7,477; Guns 70; and there besides 221 officers and men employed in various capacities. Each State contributed to the force on a population basis. New Zealand offered an expeditionary force of 10,000 men, and this joined the Australian force at Albany. The two groups were kept entirely separate, but they sailed together on 01 November 1914, and fought side by side. ] Twenty-eight transports were employed to carry the Australian force, and it took a further ten to accommodate the New Zealanders. Those loaded up at different ports and only at Albany were they seen together. King Georges Sound was the rendezvous appointed, and between 24 and 28 October 1914, they assembled. The fleet of transports comprised some of the largest and finest commercial steamers trading with Australia, and they came from all of the five States of the Commonwealth, as well as from New Zealand. The ships, on entering the Sound, steamed to anchorages already allotted them, and there they rode at anchor, forming four lines running east and west. H.M.A.T. Orvieto was the flagship, with General Bridges on board. In twos and threes, the vessels came into Princess Royal Harbour; some took water and others coal. Many also took provisions, but these were delivered to those in want of them while at anchor in the Sound.

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For the first three days, operations were considerably delayed by one of the most violent easterly gales experienced for many years, but once the weather cleared up rapid progress was made. From the first, numbers of troops were landed in detachments for marching exercise, as many as 1500 coming ashore at one time. With the men came bands and regimental mascots in the form of all conceivable breeds of dogs, and in some instances a march of 10 miles was made. There was little leave, but not much, and really only officers and men with business to transact spent any time in the town. Night and day the scene was one pulsating with life. Signalling was constantly kept up, and the military and naval authorities ashore worked at fever-heat day in, day out, meeting calls made on them by the fleet. Naturally, among so many, illness was not absent. One officer and seven others were admitted to hospital and several operations were performed by local medicos. One death unfortunately resulted. Trooper Leslie White of the 1 st Light Horse Regiment, New South Wales, succumbed on 12 November 1914 to meningitis, and his body was buried with full military honours. The majority of the other patients, having become convalescent, returned to the State of their enlistment. No fewer than 89 men were discharged at Albany, the majority of whom were found medically unfit, and these returned to the Eastern States during the week after the departure of the transports. One fatal accident was reported while the ships lay at anchor. Colour-Sergeant OMeara of the Victorian Light Horse fell into the sea from H.M.A.T. Hororata while sky-larking. A sad feature of the fatality was the fact that the body was never recovered. The fleet of transports left on Sunday 01 November 1914 at 05.45 am. At that hour, H.M.S. Minotaur left the harbour, followed by H.M.A.S. Melbourne. The Minotaur took the lead, and H.M.A.T. Orvieto then left her anchorage in the Sound and was followed by the transports in order, each line taken in turn. Thus in Indian file they ranged past Breaksea Island, where two cinematograph operators were stationed to get a permanent record of the event. The last boats to leave were the New Zealand transports, which went out in three lines. The Australian division proceeded out to sea, and abruptly turned and went west, it being understood that this order was maintained until the fleet was finally formed in three lines. It was roughly 06.00 am when the departure was entered upon, but it was 10.00 oclock before the last ship had disappeared from view round Bald Head. The different vessels of this magnificent fleet arrived without announcement, and took up the positions allotted to them as if the movement had been thoroughly rehearsed. When all assembled they presented a magnificent sight, and the fact that Albany was selected for so notable a gathering is eloquent testimony to the natural resources of the port. All reference to the subject was forbidden at the time, and it was only at noon on Wednesday 13 November 1914, that the ban of the censor prohibiting publication was removed.

The Port of Albany

Reference to so important a shipping achievement as that recorded would be incomplete without some information of the port chosen for it. Albany, situated on the northern shore of Princess Royal Harbour (King George Sound), possesses the distinction of being the oldest settled portion of Western Australia. It can indeed claim three years seniority of Perth. In June 1825, the French vessels Thetis and Esperance were cruising about the southern coast. It was at that time strongly suspected that France, recognising the maritime strength derived

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from the possession of suitable colonies, desired to found a settlement in Australia. Lieutenant-General Sir Ralph Darling, then Governor of New South Wales, sent Major Edmund Lockyer of the 57th Regiment to found a settlement at King George III Sound, so named by Captain George Vancouver in 1791. The party comprised all told about 75 persons, made up of officers and rank and file of the 39th Regiment and convicts. The expedition, consisting of H.M.S. Fly and the Brigs Amity and Dragon, sailed from Sydney on 09 November 1826, and landed at the Sound on the following Christmas Day, 25 December 1826. To the town which was built was given the name of Frederick Town (or Frederickstown), but the name was subsequently changed to Albany. Albany is a fortified town situated in latitude 35 o2 South and longitude 117o54 East. As the land at this point, however, stretches out into the Indian Ocean, the position is open to ocean breezes from the south, east and west, and the climate is thus rendered the coolest in Australia. Because of its climate, Albany enjoys the distinction of being the place at which the official summer residence of the Governor is located. King Georges Sound is a stretch of water some seven miles from north to south and five miles from east to west. It faces south. Princess Royal Harbour opens out to the westward and measures about two miles by three. The Town itself nestles between two hills, which rise from the verge of the harbour on the east and the west. At the present time Albany is a port of call for all interstate steamers, vessels of the White Star Line, and indeed all shipping following the cape route. It is an important coaling station. The population of the town is 4,500, but a large and productive area surrounds it.

Naval Escort
The naval military escort supporting the 1st Detachment of the Australian and New Zealand Expeditionary Forces comprised six surface warships from the British, Japanese, Australian and New Zealand Navys : H.M.S. Minotaur Flag Ship of the China Station. Cruiser of 14,600 tons; armament, four 9.2 in. guns and ten 7.5 in. guns; speed, 23 knots. H.I.J.M.S. Ibuki Japanese Battle Cruiser of 14,620 tons; armament, four 12 in. guns and eight 8 in. guns; speed, 21 knots. H.M.A.S. Sydney Cruiser of the Australian Navy, 5,400 tons; speed, 24.5 knots. H.M.A.S. Melbourne Cruiser of the Australian Navy, 5,400 tons; speed, 24.5 knots. H.M.S. Psyche Light Cruiser of the New Zealand Squadron, 2,135 tons; speed, 20 knots. H.M.S. Pyramus Light Cruiser of the New Zealand Squadron, 2,135 tons; speed, 20 knots.

The New Zealand Transports

Officer Commanding : Major-General Sir Alexander John Godley KCB KCMG.

His Majesty's New Zealand Transport Ships

No. Name of Ship Tonnage Speed No. Name of Ship Tonnage Speed 3 Maunganui 7,527 16 8 Star of India 6,800 11 4 Tahiti 7,585 17 9 Hawke's Bay 6,800 12 5 Ruapehu 7,885 13 10 Arawa 9,372 12 6 Orari 7,207 13 11 Athenic 12,234 12 7 Limerick 6,827 13 12 Waimana 10,389 14 Page 68

Total 37,031 Total 82,626 Note : H.M.S. Psyche & H.M.S. Pyramus are believed to be ships 1 & 2 in the NZ fleet.
Note : Further information available from the Digger History: an unofficial history of the Australian & New Zealand Armed Services. Note : Further information available from the Australian Defence Force Academy - UNSW

The Australian Transports

Officer Commanding : Major-General Sir William Throsby Bridges KCB. His Majesty's Australian Transport Ships
No. Name of Ship Tonnage Speed Port of Embarkation Troops, etc. detailed Navigating Officer Military Officer Commanding A1 HMAT Hymettus 4,606 11.5 Sydney, Melbourne & Adelaide ASC & Horses Captain H.A. Evans Major Holdsworth A2 HMAT Geelong 7,951 12.0 Melbourne & Tasmania Mixed Captain R. Bidwell Lieut.-Col. L.F. Clarke, DSO A3 HMAT Orvieto 12,130 15.0 Melbourne GOC & Mixed Captain P. Layton Major-General Bridges A4 HMAT Pera 7,635 11.0 Sydney Artillery Horses Captain S. Flinch Lieut. E.W. Richards A5 HMAT Omrah 8,130 15.0 Brisbane Infantry & ASC Captain V. Seymour Lieut.-Col. Lee A6 HMAT Clan Maccorquodale 5,058 12.5 Sydney Horses Captain A. Clarke Major A.T. Bennett A7 HMAT Medic 12,032 13.0 Adelaide & Fremantle 2 Co. Infantry, Artillery, ASC & AMC Captain T. Roberts Major A.T. Bessel Browne A8 HMAT Argyllshire 10,392 14.0 Sydney Artillery Captain W. Chicken Major S.E. Christian A9 HMAT Shropshire 11,911 14.0 Melbourne Artillery Captain B. Hayward Col. J.J.T. Hobbs A10 HMAT Karroo 6,127 12.0 Sydney & Melbourne Signallers & AMC Captain E. Ryder Large Major H.L. Mackworth A11 HMAT Ascanius 10,048 13.0 Adelaide & Fremantle Infantry & ASC Captain E. Chrimes Lieut.-Col. Weir A12 HMAT Saldanha 4,594 11.0 Adelaide Horses Captain A. Mulholland Lieut. P.A.MacE. Laurie A13 HMAT Katuna 4,641 11.0 Sydney & Tasmania Horses Captain H. Jackson Major S. Horley A14 HMAT Euripides 14,947 15.0 Sydney Infantry Captain W.H. Douglas Col. H.L. MacLaurin A15 HMAT Star of England 9,150 13.5 Brisbane Light Horse Captain P.W. Whyatt Lieut.-Col. R.M. Stoddart A16 HMAT Star of Victoria 9,152 13.5 Sydney Light Horse Captain E.C. Beck Lieut.-Col. J. Merrydith A17 HMAT Port Lincoln 7,243 12.0 Adelaide Light Horse Captain J.C. Hutchison Lieut.-Col. Rowell A18 HMAT Wiltshire 10,390 14.0 Melbourne Light Horse & AMC Captain J. Prentis Lieut.-Col. L. Long
A19 HMAT Afric 11,999 13.0 Sydney Infantry, ASC & Engineers Captain W. Marshall Lieut.-Col. Dobbin

A20 HMAT Hororata 9,491 14.0 Melbourne Infantry Captain J.J. Lawson Lieut.-Col. Semmens A21 HMAT Morere 6,443 12.5 Melbourne Horses Captain P.E. Mollo Capt. C.H. Spurge A22 HMAT Rangatira 10,118 14.0 Brisbane Artillery, Infantry & AMC Captain R.L. Lowden Lieut.-Col. C. Rosenthal A23 HMAT Suffolk 7,573 12.0 Sydney Infantry Captain P. Davis Lieut.-Col. G.F. Braund A24 HMAT Benalla 11,118 14.0 Melbourne Infantry & ASC Captain W.C. Simonds Lieut.-Col. Botton A25 HMAT Anglo-Egyptian 7,379 12.0 Brisbane & Melbourne Horses Captain P.J. Greenhill Lieut. Stansfield A26 HMAT Armadale 6,153 11.0 Melbourne Line of Communication Unit Captain A. Hunter Major P.W. Smith A27 HMAT Southern 4,763 10.5 Sydney & Melbourne Horses Captain R. Salland Lieut.-Col. Southerland A28 HMAT Miltiades 7,814 13.0 Fremantle Imperial Reserves Captain J. Burge Major Griffiths
Total tonnage 238,988

Lest we forget.
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Second World War 193945 Australian Army

2nd Australian Imperial Force

7th Australian Infantry Division 2/4th Field Regiment, RAA 2/5th Field Regiment, RAA 2/6th Field Regiment, RAA 2/2nd Anti-Tank Regiment, RAA 2/2nd Australian Machine-Gun Regiment 2/2nd Australian Pioneer Battalion (Victoria) 7th Australian Divisional Cavalry 2/4th Field Company, RAE - New South Wales 2/5th Field Company, RAE - New South Wales 2/6th Field Company, RAE - New South Wales 2/2nd Field Park Company, RAE - Western Australia 19th Australian Infantry Brigade - Formed from three extrabattalions of 16th, 17th, 18th Brigades. Transfered to 6th Infatry Division after reorganization 2/4th Australian Infantry Battalion (New South Wales) 2/8th Australian Infantry Battalion (Victoria) 2/11th Australian Infantry Battalion (Western Australia) 20th Australian Infantry Brigade - Transferred to 9th InfantryDivision after reorganization 2/13th Australian Infantry Battalion (New South Wale) 2/15th Australian Infantry Battalion (Queensland) 2/17th Australian Infantry Battalion (New South Wales) 21st Australian Infantry Brigade 2/14th Australian Infantry Battalion (Victoria) 2/16th Australian Infantry Battalion (Western Australia) 2/27th Australian Infantry Battalion (South Australia) 18th Infantry Brigade: 2/9th Battalion 2/10th Battalion 2/12th Battalion 21st Infantry Brigade: 2/14th Battalion 2/16th Battalion 2/27th Battalion 25th Infantry Brigade: 2/25th Battalion 2/31st Battalion 2/33rd Battalion 9th Australian Infantry Division 2/7th Field Regiment, RAA - Originally formed as 2/7th Army FieldRegiment 2/8th Field Regiment, RAA - Originally formed as 2/8th Army FieldRegiment 2/12th Field Regiment, RAA - Converted from 2/2nd MediumRegiment of Corps Artillery 2/3rd Anti-Tank Regiment, RAA - Originally formed for 8thDivision 2/3rd Australian Machine-Gun Regiment (Victoria) 2/4th Australian Pioneer Battalion 9th Australian Divisional Cavalry - From 8th Infantry Division inMay 1941 2/3rd Field Company, RAE - Tasmania/Western Australia/SouthAustralia - From 6th Infantry Division 2/13th Field Company, RAE - Queensland - Ex 2/1st Field ParkCompany 2/7th Field Company, RAE - Queensland - Ex Corps Troops 2/4th Field Park Company, RAE - Western Australia - Ex

6th Australian Infantry Division 2/1st Field Regiment, RAA (New South Wales) 2/2nd Field Regiment, RAA (Victoria) 2/3rd Field Regiment, RAA (South Australia, WesternAustralia, Darwin and NSW) 2/5th Field Regiment, RAA (Queensland and Tasmania) -Converted to 2/1st Anti-Tank Regiment 2/1st Australian Machine-Gun Regiment 2/1st Australian Pioneer Battalion 6th Australian Divisional Cavalry 2/1st Field Company, RAE - Sydney, New South Wales 2/2nd Field Company, RAE - Melbourne, Victoria 2/3rd Field Company, RAE Tasmania/WesternAustralia/South Australia 2/1st Field Park Company, RAE - Queensland 16th Australian Infantry Brigade 2/1st Australian Infantry Battalion (New South Wales) 2/2nd Australian Infantry Battalion (New South Wales) 2/3rd Australian Infantry Battalion (New South Wales) 2/4th Australian Infantry Battalion (New South Wales) to 19Bde after reorganisation 17th Australian Infantry Brigade 2/5th Australian Infantry Battalion (Victoria) 2/6th Australian Infantry Battalion (Victoria) 2/7th Australian Infantry Battalion (Victoria) 2/8th Australian Infantry Battalion (Victoria) to 19 Bde afterreorganisation 18th Australian Infantry Brigade - transferred to 7th Divisionafter reorganization 2/9th Australian Infantry Battalion (Queensland) 2/10th Australian Infantry Battalion (South Australia) 2/11th Australian Infantry Battalion (Western Australia) to 19Bde after reorganisation 2/12th Australian Infantry Battalion (Queensland/Tasmania) 19th Australian Infantry Brigade 2/4th Australian Infantry Battalion (New South Wales) 2/8th Australian Infantry Battalion (Victoria) 2/11th Australian Infantry Battalion (Western Australia) 8th Australian Infantry Division 2/10th Field Regiment, RAA 2/14th Field Regiment, RAA - Formed to replace 2/9th FieldRegiment, RAA 2/15th Field Regiment, RAA - Formed to replace 2/11th FieldRegiment, RAA 2/4th Anti-Tank Regiment, RAA - Replaced 2/3rd AntiTankRegiment, RAA 2/4th Australian Machine-Gun Regiment (Western Australia) 2/3rd Australian Pioneer Battalion 8th Australian Divisional Cavalry - To 9th Infantry Division as 9thDivisional Cavalry in May 1941 2/10th Field Company, RAE - Victoria 2/11th Field Company, RAE - Queensland 2/12th Field Company, RAE - New South Wales 2/14th Field Park Company, RAE - Western Australia 22nd Australian Infantry Brigade 2/18th Australian Infantry Battalion (New South Wales) 2/19th Australian Infantry Battalion (New South Wales)

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2/20th Australian Infantry Battalion (New South Wales) 2/23rd Australian Infantry Brigade 2/21st Australian Infantry Battalion (Victoria) 2/22nd Australian Infantry Battalion (Victoria) 2/40th Australian Infantry Battalion (Tasmania) 24th Australian Infantry Brigade - To 9th Infantry Division 2/25th Australian Infantry Battalion (Queensland) - To 25th InfantryBrigade 2/28th Australian Infantry Battalion (Western Australia) 2/43rd Australian Infantry Battalion (South Austral ia)

8thInfantry Division 25th Australian Infantry Brigade - Formed in the United Kingdom -To 7th Division 2/31st Australian Infantry Battalion (Queensland) 2/32nd Australian Infantry Battalion (Victoria) - To 24th InfantryBrigade 2/33rd Australian Infantry Battalion (New South Wales) 26th Australian Infantry Brigade 2/23rd Australian Infantry Battalion (Victoria) 2/24th Australian Infantry Battalion (Victoria) 2/48th Australian Infantry Battalion (South Australia) 27th Australian Infantry Brigade - To 8th Infantry Division 2/26th Australian Infantry Battalion (Queensland) 2/29th Australian Infantry Battalion (Victoria) 2/30th Australian Infantry Battalion (New South Wales) 1st Armoured Division 2/11th Armoured Car Regiment (New South Wales) 16th Field Regiment, RAA (Royal Australian Artillery) 108th Anti-Tank Regiment, RAA 2/3rd Field Squadron, RAE (Royal AustralianEngineers) 4th Field Squadron, RAE 2/1st Field Park Squadron, RAE 1st Australian Armoured Brigade 2/5th Armoured Regiment (Queensland) 2/6th Armoured Regiment (New South Wales) 2/7th Armoured Regiment (New South Wales) 2nd Australian Armoured Brigade 2/8th Armoured Regiment (Victoria) 2/9th Armoured Regiment (South Australia/Tasmania) 2/10th Armoured Regiment (Western Australia)

Australian Army Catering Corps Australian Army Legal Corps Australian Army Veterinary Corps Australian Intelligence Corps Australian Staff Corps Australian Women's Army Service Corps of Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Corps of Royal Australian Engineers The Far North Queensland Regiment The New South Wales Scottish Regiment The Pilbara Regiment Queensland Scottish Volunteer Corps Royal Australian Air Force Airfield Defence Guards Royal Australian Armoured Corps Royal Australian Army Chaplains Department

Royal Australian Army Dental Corps Royal Australian Army Educational Corps Royal Australian Army Medical Corps Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps Royal Australian Army Ordnance Corps Royal Australian Army Pay Corps Royal Australian Army Service Corps Royal Australian Corps of Military Police Royal Australian Corps of Signals Royal Australian Corps of Transport Royal Australian Infantry Corps Royal Australian Pay Corps Royal Australian Survey Corps Royal Regiment of Australian Artillery The Volunteer Defence Corps

Almost a million Australians, both men and women, served in the Second World War. They fought in campaigns against Germany and Italy in Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa, as well as against Japan in south-east Asia and other parts of the Pacific. The Australian mainland came under direct attack for the first time, as Japanese aircraft bombed towns in north-west Australia and Japanese midget submarines attacked Sydney harbour. The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) participated in operations against Italy after its entry into the war in June 1940. A few Australians flew in the Battle of Britain in August and September but the Australian Army was not engaged in combat until 1941, when the 6th, 7th, and 9th Divisions joined Allied operations in the Mediterranean and North Africa.

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Following early successes against Italian forces, the Australians suffered defeat with the Allies at the hands of the Germans in Greece, Crete, and North Africa. In June and July 1941 Australians participated in the successful Allied invasion of Syria, a mandate of France and the Vichy government. Up to 14,000 Australians held out against repeated German attacks in the Libyan port of Tobruk, where they were besieged between April and August 1941. After being relieved at Tobruk, the 6th and 7th Divisions departed from the Mediterranean theatre for the war against Japan. The 9th Division remained to play an important role in the Allied victory at El Alamein in October 1942 before it also left for the Pacific. By the end of 1942 the only Australians remaining in the Mediterranean theatre were airmen serving either with 3 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) or in the Royal Air Force (RAF).

North Africa, 6 January 1941: Australian troops advance into Bardia. AWM 069221 Japan entered the war in December 1941 and swiftly achieved a series of victories, resulting in the occupation of most of south-east Asia and large areas of the Pacific by the end of March 1942. Singapore fell in February, with the loss of an entire Australian division. After the bombing of Darwin that same month, all RAN ships in the Mediterranean theatre, as well as the 6th and 7th Divisions, returned to defend Australia. In response to the heightened threat, the Australian government also expanded the army and air force and called for an overhaul of economic, domestic, and industrial policies to give the government special authority to mount a total war effort at home. In March 1942, after the defeat of the Netherlands East Indies, Japan's southward advance began to lose strength, easing fears of an imminent invasion of Australia. Further relief came when the first AIF veterans of the Mediterranean campaigns began to come home, and when the United States assumed responsibility for the country's defence, providing reinforcements and equipment. The threat of invasion receded further as the Allies won a series of decisive battles: in the Coral Sea, at Midway, on Imita Ridge and the Kokoda Trail, and at Milne Bay and Buna.

Milne Bay, Papua, September 1942: a Bofors gun position manned by the 2/9th Light Anti-Aircraft Battery, Royal Australian Artillery, at Gili-Gili airfield. In the background a Kittyhawk is about to land. AWM 026629

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Further Allied victories against the Japanese followed in 1943. Australian troops were mainly engaged in land battles in New Guinea, the defeat of the Japanese at Wau, and clearing Japanese soldiers from the Huon Peninsula. This was Australia's largest and most complex offensive of the war and was not completed until April 1944. The Australian Army also began a new series of campaigns in 1944 against isolated Japanese garrisons stretching from Borneo to Bougainville, involving more Australian troops than at any other time in the war. The first of these campaigns was fought on Bougainville in New Britain and at Aitape. The value of the second campaign, fought in Borneo in 1945, to the overall war effort remains the subject of continuing debate. Australian troops were still fighting in Borneo when the war ended in August 1945. While Australia's major effort from 1942 onwards was directed at defeating Japan, thousands of Australians continued to serve with the RAAF in Europe and the Middle East. Athough more Australian airmen fought against the Japanese, losses among those flying against Germany were far higher. Australians were particularly prominent in Bomber Command's offensive against occupied Europe. Some 3,500 Australians were killed in this campaign, making it the costliest of the war. Over 30,000 Australian servicemen were taken prisoner in the Second World War and 39,000 gave their lives. Two-thirds of those taken prisoner were captured by the Japanese during their advance through south-east Asia within the first weeks of 1942. While those who became prisoners of the Germans had a strong chance of returning home at the end of the war, 36 per cent of prisoners of the Japanese died in captivity.

Singapore Straits Settlements, 19 September 1945: members of 2/18th Australian Infantry Battalion, prisoners of war of the Japanese, in Changi prison. AWM 117022 Nurses had gone overseas with the AIF in 1940. However, during the early years of the war women were generally unable to make a significant contribution to the war effort in any official capacity. Labour shortages forced the government to allow women to take a more active role in war work and, in February 1941, the RAAF received cabinet approval to establish the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). At the same time, the navy also began employing female telegraphists, a breakthrough that eventually led to the establishment of the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS) in 1942. The Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS) was established in October 1941, with the aim of releasing men from certain military duties in base units in Australia for assignment with fighting units overseas. Outside the armed services, the Women's Land Army (WLA) was established to encourage women to work in rural industries. Other women in urban areas took up employment in industries, such as munitions production.

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WILLIAM STEWART HEARD - Unknown Battalion BATTALION Royal Australian Engineers)

(Likely 2 / 13th

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Reginald, a friend and William somewhere in the Middle East.

FREDERICK WALTER HEARD - 2 / 13th BATTALION Royal Australian Engineers

Frederick died in the arms of his brother and is buried at El Alemein

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Grave of Sapper F. W., Heard

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This picture is from the Aust. National Archives Collection, details as follows: ID Number: MEC2509
Maker: Date made: Physical description: Summary: Le Guay, Laurence Craddock 11 November 1943 Black & white El Alamein, Egypt. 11 November 1943. Adorned with sprays of gum leaves for Armistice Day 1943, the grave of Sapper F. W. Heard who fell in the Battle of Alamein is typical of the AIF graves arranged in neat, orderly rows at Alamein Cemetery.

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Cemetery Details
El Alamein War Cemetery, Egypt
Location Information: Historical Information:
Alamein is a village, bypassed by the main coast road, approximately 130 kilometres west of Alexandria on the road to Mersa Matruh.. The Cross of Sacrifice feature may be seen from the road. The campaign in the Western Desert was fought between the Commonwealth forces (with, later, the addition of two brigades of Free French and one each of Polish and Greek troops) all based in Egypt, and the Axis forces (German and Italian) based in Libya. The battlefield, across which the fighting surged back and forth between 1940 and 1942, was the 1,000 kilometres of desert between Alexandria in Egypt and Benghazi in Libya. It was a campaign of manoeuvre and movement, the objectives being the control of the Mediterranean, the link with the east through the Suez Canal, the Middle East oil supplies and the supply route to Russia through Persia. EL ALAMEIN WAR CEMETERY contains the graves of men who died at all stages of the Western Desert campaigns, brought in from a wide area, but especially those who died in the Battle of El Alamein at the end of October 1942 and in the period immediately before that. The cemetery now contains 7,240 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, of which 815 are unidentified. There are also 102 war graves of other nationalities. The ALAMEIN CREMATION MEMORIAL, which stands in the south-eastern part of El Alamein War Cemetery, commemorates more than 600 men whose remains were cremated in Egypt and Libya during the war, in accordance with their faith. The entrance to the cemetery is formed by the ALAMEIN MEMORIAL. The Land Forces panels commemorate more than 8,500 soldiers of the Commonwealth who died in the campaigns in Egypt and Libya, and in the operations of the Eighth Army in Tunisia up to 19 February 1943, who have no known grave. It also commemorates those who served and died in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Persia. The Air Forces panels commemorate more than 3,000 airmen of the Commonwealth who died in the campaigns in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Greece, Crete and the Aegean, Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Somalilands, the Sudan, East Africa, Aden and Madagascar, who have no known grave. Those who served with the Rhodesian and South African Air Training Scheme and have no known grave are also commemorated here. The cemetery was designed by Sir Hubert Worthington.

No. of Identified Casualties:

6547

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Roll of Honour

Frederick Walter Heard

Rank Sapper [Spr] Service Number NX11166 Unit 2/13 FD COY RAE Service Army Conflict 1939-1945 Date of Death 1 September 1942 Place of Death Egypt Cause of Death Killed In Action Source AWM147 Roll of Honour cards, 1939-1945 War, 2nd AIF (Australian
Imperial Force) and CMF (Citizen Military Force)

Location on the Roll of Honour

Frederick Walter Heard's name is located at panel 23 in the Commemorative Area at the Australian Australian War Memorial (as indicated by the poppy on the plan).

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Roll of Honour Cards

For the Second World War these were forms completed by the Directorate of the War Graves Services. They form the basis of the card indexes from which the original Roll of Honour was compiled.

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REGINALD ERNEST HEARD 2/11 Field Company

History of the Corps of Royal Australian Engineers - World War 2

World War 2 was another turning point in the history of the Corps. From a very small pre-war size: Page 82

233 regular troops and 1750 militia, it expanded to a total of 32, 984 men in 1945. Some of the many and varied tasks undertaken by sappers in the Middle East theatre of war were: Clearing the way for the advance in the First Libyan Campaign. Keeping the roads open in Greece in spite of German dive bombers. Carrying out major demolitions during the withdrawal from Greece. Vietnam. Although an Australian Engineer unit was not deployed to Korea, many saw service with the 1st Commonwealth Division. Laying minefields and constructing defences at Tobruk.. Clearing minefields during the El Alamein offensive. Construction of the Haifa-Tripoli railway. The entry of Japan into the war in 1941 presented the Corps with new, and in many ways, more difficult problems. The redeployment of the AIF to the South West Pacific not only required adaptation to new techniques and different problems, but also demanded the creation of expanded control elements for the Corps. The appointment of the Engineer-in-Chief with the rank of MajorGeneral, and the Directors of Engineer Stores, Fortifications and Works, and Transportation, was the result. The terrain, climate and general lack of communications facilities in Malaya, New Guinea and Borneo created problems which were to confront the Corps continuously until the end of the war. Roads, airfields, ports and bases had to be constructed almost everywhere and, as a consequence, by far the greater part of sapper effort was spent on construction tasks. On the combat engineering side, new techniques had to be developed and mastered for breaching obstacles during assault landings and cleaning tunnels and bunkers. As in the Middle East, the tasks undertaken by Sappers were extremely varied. The Seria oil installations in Borneo provide an excellent example of this. Left a blazing wreck by the Japanese, this oilfield was reconstructed and put into production again by the 9th Division Engineers. The Corps of Royal Australian Engineers has come a long way since its humble beginnings in 1860. It has behind it a wealth of experience, and today, through its connections with major civil engineering companies, and its affiliations with several State Statutory Authorities who foster specialist Army Reserve Engineer units, it maintains in peacetime, its proud right to its motto of UBIQUE or EVERYWHERE: a motto that it shares not only with its great parent corps the Royal Engineers, but also with Engineers from many other Commonwealth nations

What is a Sapper?
It is the correct title for an engineer private. It is also the generic term now given to all members of the Royal Australian Engineer. Many other armies of British descent have also adopted the term to describe military engineers. The word "sapper" was conferred by Queen Victoria as a distinction because of the gallant assault operation carried out by the British Engineers in the Crimean War. The term originally comes from the term "to sap". This was the art of digging trenches, particularly during sieges to enable the infantry to get close enough to the fortified position to conduct an assault. The diggers were known as sappers.

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EDWARD JOHN CLARK- 6th DIVISION -2/1st Battalion

The 2/1st Battalion was raised at Victoria Barracks, Sydney, on 16 October 1939 as part of the 16th Brigade of the 6th Australian Division. It relocated to the newly-opened Ingleburn Camp on 2 November and, after conducting basic training there, embarked for overseas service on 10 January 1940. Disembarking in Egypt on 13 February 1940, the 2/1st moved to Palestine, where it was concentrated with the rest of the 16th Brigade at Julis near Gaza. The brigade trained in Palestine until the end of August, when it moved to Egypt to carry out its final preparations for active service with the 6th Division. The 2/1st Battalion's first campaign of the Second World War was the advance from Egypt into eastern Libya in January and February 1941. The battalion was involved in the attacks to capture Bardia (3-5 January) and Tobruk (21-22 January), and was left to garrison Tobruk as the advance continued. It left Tobruk on 7 March, ultimately bound for Greece with the rest of the 6th Division. The 2/1st Battalion arrived in Greece on 22 March and was soon deployed north to resist the anticipated German invasion. The battalion occupied positions at Veria on 7 April but, in the face of superior German force, it began a long withdrawal south on 12 April and was evacuated by sea from Megara on 25 April. The battalion landed on Crete the next day and was subsequently deployed with the 2/11th Battalion to defend the critical airfield at Retimo. The German airborne invasion of Crete began on 20 May but a tenacious defence denied them Retimo airfield until 30 May. German victories elsewhere on Crete, however, allowed them to concentrate overwhelming force against Retimo and, short of rations and ammunition, the 2/1st surrendered and became prisoners of war. The battalion was rebuilt in Palestine and subsequently manned defences in northern Syria between October 1941 and January 1942. It left the Middle East, heading for the war against Japan, on 10 March 1942. The 16th and 17th Brigades, however, were diverted on the voyage home. Between 26 Page 84

March and 13 July they defended Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) from possible Japanese attack. The 2/1st finally disembarked in Australia, at Melbourne, on 7 August 1942; less than 100 of the men who had originally sailed with it in January 1940 remained with the battalion. In the South-West Pacific theatre the 2/1st Battalion fought in two campaigns - the advance along the Kokoda Trail to the Japanese beachheads between September 1942 and January 1943, and the drive to clear the Japanese from the Aitape-Wewak region of New Guinea between December 1944 and August 1945. The period in between was occupied with training in northern Queensland. The Kokoda Trail fighting, involving major battles at Eora Creek (20 -29 October), Gorari (9-12 November 1942) and Sanananda (20-21 November) was particularly costly, with over two-thirds of the battalion killed, wounded, or evacuated sick. The 2/1st Battalion disbanded in December 1945.

Colour Patch

WONDECLA, QLD. 1944-04-16. GROUP PHOTOGRAPH OF HEADQUARTERS COMPANY, 2/1ST INFANTRY BATTALION (APPROXIMATELY 212 PERSONNEL) ON COMPANY PARADE GROUND.

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7 th Division 2/16th Battalion

The Regimental Colours of the 16th Battalion

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The 2/16th Battalion was formed in Perth, Western Australia, on 20 April 1940 and conducted its basic training at Northam Camp. A large number of the battalion's original recruits were men from the Western Australian goldfields who gave the battalion a hard and rough character. It embarked for overseas at Fremantle on 25 October, and after a brief stop in India en-route, arrived in Egypt on 25 November. After disembarkation, the battalion moved straight to Palestine to complete its training. As part of the 21st Brigade of the 7th Australian Division, the 2/16th's first operational assignment of war was to bolster the defences along the Egypt-Libya frontier against an expected German attack. It occupied positions at Maaten Bagush and Mersa Matruh throughout much of April and May 1941, before returning to Palestine in preparation for its first offensive operation - the invasion of Syria and Lebanon. For the 2/16th Battalion the Syria and Lebabnon Campaign, beginning on June 8, was characterised by difficult and costly actions against well-entrenched Vichy French troops. The 2/16th suffered the most casualties (264) of any of the Australian battalions involved. Its major battles were the crossing the Litani River on 9 June, the unsuccessful attempt to capture Sidon on 13 June, and the seizure of El Atiqa Ridge, as part of the battle of Damour, on 6 July. The 2/16th remained in Lebabnon after the armistice of 12 July as part of the Allied garrison force. After sailing from Egypt on 30 January 1942, most of the 2/16th - over 350 members of the battalion had absented themselves without leave when their transport had called briefly at Fremantle disembarked at Adelaide on 25 March 1942. The battalion's stay in Australia was brief. On 12 August it arrived at Port Moresby in Papua, and by 29 August was in action against the Japanese at Abuari on the Kokoda Trail. Forced to withdraw, the 2/16th fought a series of desperate actions back along the Trail. It suffered particularly heavily at Mission Ridge on 8 September when it had to fight its way out of a Japanese encirclement. The 2/16th's ordeal on the Trail ended with its relief at Imita Ridge on 16 September. By this time the battalion was so weak that it had been amalgamated with the 2/14th to form a composite battalion. After a short rest, the 2/16th, once again functioning as a separate battalion, joined the operations at Gona on 26 November. Consisting of only two companies when it entered the fighting, the 2/16th left Gona, on 7 January 1943, only 56 strong. The 2/16th returned to Australian in mid-January but was back in Papua by early August. It spent a month training near Port Moresby before moving to New Guinea to play a minor role in the Lae operations in mid-September. Soon after it was moved by air to Kiapit, in the Ramu Valley and subsequently advanced to Dumpu, between 29 September and 4 October. In the ensuing months it was involved in patrol actions in the upper reaches of the Ramu Valley and into the Finsterre Mountains. Its greatest achievement, and only major attack, during these operations was the capture of Shaggy Ridge between 27 and 28 December. The battalion returned Port Moresby on 4 January 1944 and Australia on 20 March. The 2/16th's left Australia for its last operation of the war on 3 June 1945. It landed at Balikpapan on 1 July and encountered its heaviest fighting of the campaign that day, but was involved in patrol operations until the end of the war on 15 August. From mid-October to late January 1946 the 2/16th formed part of the occupation force in the Celebes. It sailed for home for the last time on 2 February and was disbanded in Brisbane later that month.

Colour Patch

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RONALD PERCY CLARK - 7 th Division - 2/16th Battalion

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RONS SERVICE PHOTOS

LANDING AT BALIKPAPAN, BORNEO.

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BALIKPAPAN, BORNEO, 1945-07-01. THE VIEW LOOKING ALONG YELLOW BEACH SOON AFTER THE OBOE 2 OPERATION LANDING AT BALIKPAPAN BY TROOPS OF 7 DIVISION. DUKW AND ALLIGATOR AMPHIBIOUS VEHICLES ARE IN FOREGROUND

Japanese Prisoners of war, Balikpapan.

Australian Soldiers at work, Balikpapan

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Page 91

RAAF World War Two

When war against Germany was declared approximately 450 Australian pilots were serving with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the United Kingdom (UK). Personnel from No 10 Squadron were also en route to the UK to take delivery of nine Short Sunderland flying boats. They remained in Britain for the duration of the War operating with RAF Coastal Command, earning an outstanding reputation. Representatives of Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand reached agreement at Ottawa, Canada, on 27 November 1939 to participate in the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS). This scheme was to train aircrew for service with the Royal Air Force. Basic training was completed in Australia before undertaking advanced training in Canada (674 personnel also received training in Rhodesia) before service with the RAF. The first 34 Australians graduated from RAAF Service Flying Training Schools on 18 November 1940, with a further 37,000 aircrew eventually trained in Australia. To meet this commitment, the RAAF established 2 Air Navigation Schools, 3 Air Observers Schools, 3 Bombing and Gunnery Schools, 12 Elementary Flying Training Schools, 6 Initial Flying Training Schools and 8 Service Flying Training Schools. In addition, 7 Schools of Technical Training and other specialised technical schools were established to train ground crews in the maintenance of aircraft and equipment. The duration of World War II saw 15,746 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners and engineers sent to British squadrons and 11,641 to Australian squadrons. These men exemplified themselves in every major campaign front from the Battle of France, Battle of Britain, Normandy invasion, Egypt, the Middle East, Germany, Battle of the Atlantic, the defence of Malta, liberation of Italy, the Battles of the Coral and Bismarck Seas, Defence of Australia, to fighting in India, Burma, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Pacific. When the armistice with Japan was signed on 15 August 1945, the RAAF in the Pacific had a total strength of 131,662 personnel and 3,187 front line aircraft. First Tactical Air Force, the major operational formation, had grown to 18,894 men in April 1945 and operated 20 operational squadrons. In addition to its execution of numerous air operations, the RAAF had also pioneered the development and operation of radar and operated its own shipping in the South West Pacific Area. The RAAF legacy of the Second World War is a proud one, with it now the world's 4th largest Air Force.

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RAAF in WW2

JAMES WILLIAM COLYER - 24TH Squadron , RAAF

-

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From the National Archives

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Page 95

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A Note about WW2

The effect of World War 2 on the family was great. Firstly we lost Uncle Fred, who was very close to my mother, Sylvia Clark (nee Heard). It was hard for her to lose her favorite and oldest brother, and she missed him until the day she died. Both Ronald Clark and James Colyer were affected by what they saw and did during the war. My dad Ron suffered from post-traumatic stress and depression. He often thought he was going to die, an effect of seeing his best friend die in front of him. He was hurt during the war and suffered a slight speech impediment from there on in. He had so much penicillin during the war that he ended up with an allergy to penicillin that nearly killed him around 1968. James Colyer came back from the war with gambling and alcohol problems, most likely due to depression or stress, and this ended his marriage. Many of the men who came back had gone away children and come back men, but damaged men who then battled on to make lives and families back home in Australia. They succeeded, but did pay a price for that freedom. Barbara Kernos (Nee Clark)

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The Ode
The Ode comes from For the Fallen, a poem by the English poet and writer Laurence Binyon and was published in London in the Winnowing Fan; Poems of the Great War in 1914. The verse, which became the League Ode was already used in association with commemoration services in Australia in 1921 FOR THE FALLEN With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children England mourns for her dead across the sea, Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit, Fallen in the cause of the free. Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres, There is music in the midst of desolation And glory that shines upon our tears. They went with songs to the battle, they were young, Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow, They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted, They fell with their faces to the foe. They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them. They mingle not with their laughing comrades again, They sit no more at familiar tables of home, They have no lot in our labour of the daytime, They sleep beyond Englands foam. But where our desires and hopes profound, Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight, To the innermost heart of their own land they are known As the stars are known to the night. As the stars shall be bright when we are dust, Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain, As the stars that are stary in the time of our darkness, To the end, to the end, they remain.

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