Thread: Any Anzac descendants ??

yeah, my grandfather was there. i don't think he was in the first landing, but i have his gallipoli medal out, alongside his fob watch that he "liberated" from a dead german soldier in another campaign during WW1. i also have his diary, which he kept from his first days camped at sydney show grounds around the 11th of august 1914.
he sailed aboard HMAS Berrima to port moresby, did some fighting there adn then on to Rabaul.
he diary doesn't go any further than his time on that campaign.

I had a bit of a find in the middle of last year... my grandmother was going through her cupboards, and pulls out a box with my great uncle's medals... still in their original wrapping!!!

Since my g/uncle was killed in the hospital in Singapore, the medals got posted out after the war, but left untouched until as I said, last year. What I think is strange is that my grandfather didn't get his brother's medals out with his own!

Anyway, I gave them their first parade today... 65 years after my g/uncle died.
My next mystery is to find out how another uncle (private in 6th Light Horse - Gallipoli etc.) managed to get lieutenant's pips in the box with his medals!

just loking over my grandfather's watch. the soldier he took it off had engraved on the rear casing, all of the places he had been. the last entry is Rabaul. my grandfather continued this tradition and went on to engrave all of the places he went.
these include;-
rabaul, gallipoli, jeruselem, egypt, lone pine, bullecourt, dickenbusch, villiers, plyson wood, poziers, malt trench ypres (where ever that is),
belgium, france, alexandria, lemnos, bapaume, bois grenter and it goes on and on. a lot of them i can't read as they are in another language or the metal has worn down,

Yup, maternal grandfather was a Gallipoli Corporal, Charles Clarke (5272) 13 ASC AIF.

GQ

Originally Posted by barney

just loking over my grandfather's watch. the soldier he took it off had engraved on the rear casing, all of the places he had been. the last entry is Rabaul. my grandfather continued this tradition and went on to engrave all of the places he went.
these include;-
rabaul, gallipoli, jeruselem, egypt, lone pine, bullecourt, dickenbusch, villiers, plyson wood, poziers, malt trench ypres (where ever that is),
belgium, france, alexandria, lemnos, bapaume, bois grenter and it goes on and on. a lot of them i can't read as they are in another language or the metal has worn down,

Belgium Matt.

Read this;

Passchendaele (3rd YPRES)
Passchendaele was known for its atrocious conditions and it is a tribute to those who fought at this place. This is one of the reasons why it has been declared the finest feat of the war. Passchendaele was broken up into eight smaller actions. All five Australian divisions were involved in the attacks at Menin Road, Polygon Wood and Broodseinde. The aim was to capture Paschendale which meant numerous fortified ridges along the way need to be taken also. These ridges were strewn with concrete pill-boxes, had a 100 meter wide strip of barbed wire and trenches. It formed the best built-out resistance line of the Germans. Supported in the rear by heavy artillery and protected by inaccessible swamps Hanebeek and Steenbeek it was thought to be invulnerable. The pill-boxes walls were a foot thick. Direct hits from artillery shells could not put a hole or break in the wall only chips. Each pill-box had pre-designated field of fire for the machine guns and with the mud making advancing an impossible task it was amazing how any solider managed to get to the pill-boxes to drop a grenade inside.

Siegfried Sassoon wrote:

"...I died in Hell
(they called it Passchendaele) my wound was slight
and I was hobbling back; and then a shell
burst slick upon the duckboards; so I fell
into the bottomless mud, and lost the light"

The mud was like a death trap within itself as many lives were lost from soldiers either drowning in it or being rescued and having their internal organs crushed as they were pulled out of the mud via rope. Although all battles and actions were a success the bad planning and mud caused a high amount of casualties. The five Australian divisions were in the line for eight weeks and in this time the total casualties amongst all of the divisions was approximately 38 093. Passchendaele was the result of chronic shortage of men in the AIF.

yeah. i read about the battle of the somme last night, none of it sounded like much fun.
but get this, a turkish guy that contacted me thru the LROC wanting to buy some club gear as he is a landy nut sent me an email this morning, although i did ask him to but it really knocked me over that he actualy did it, he sent me a photo of himself laying a sprig of rosemary on the war memorial in instanbul on behalf of my family.
isn't that bloody awesome! what a top bloke!

Yep gotta be chuffed with that.

Given anymore knowledge to Dr Karl lately

nah, missed him today. got stuck on a job during his whole segment