Walter Phillip Fradd 1891

Walter Phillip Fradd was born on the 17th of February 1891 in Burra, South Australia.

He was one of seven siblings and the second eldest child to William Phillip and Hannah Tasker Fradd of Laura, South Australia. Walter and younger brother Melville Wesley Fradd joined the A.I.F. in 1916.

Walter was also a member of the 17th Australian Light horse Regiment before the Great War; also known as The South Australian Mounted Rifles which existed from1903 to 1912.

The Australian Imperial Force (A.I.F.) was the name given to the expeditionary forces raised by Australia in the First World War. Under the provision of the Defence Act 1903, enlistment for service overseas was voluntary. Walter joined up in 1916.

Oath Taken By Walter Upon Enlistment

I, Walter Phillip Fradd swear that I will well and truly serve our Sovereign Lord the King in the Australian Imperial Force from May 23 1916 until the end of the War, and a further period of four months thereafter unless sooner lawfully discharged, dismissed or removed therefrom; and that I will resist His Majesty’s enemies and cause peace o be kept and maintained; and I will in all matters appertaining to my service faithfully discharge my duty according to law.

So Help Me God

Honouring Soldiers

Beetaloo Valley, August 1st

Last night nearly all the residents of the neighbourhood assembled at the house of Mr. Fradd to bid farewell to Private Walter Fradd. Another of Mr. Fradds sons that joined the colours with Walter, recently died in camp (Melville)

Speeches were made by Messer’s A. Jacobi, P. Curtin and J.Murphy and the guest presented with a wristlet watch and trench candlestick. The visitors also requested the parents to accept a beautiful wreath to be placed upon the grave of their late son.
The Advertiser, 04 August 1916

The Nominal Roll listed Walter in the 10th Infantry Battalion, 20th Reinforcements when he sailed aboard HMAT Anchises from Adelaide on 28 August 1916 to go and fight in The Great War.
From Australia, his trip took a little under a month arriving at Plymouth, England before transferring to Folkestone; also in England, on the 11^th of November 1916 where he stayed for close to 2 months before shipping out to France and the Western front.

Folkestone was the embarkation harbour for troops crossing the channel to Boulogne or Calais and included a training establishment where drill and tactical exercises were carried out to ready the men for what be a gruelling war.

The men of the A.I.F. spent the winter of 1916–17, after the end of the Battle of the Somme, garrisoning the front line near the villages of Flers and Gueudecourt west of Bapaume.

This ‘Somme Winter’ experience was miserable, cold, dangerous and monotonous.

During this period the Germans began constructing a new line further east, which became known to the British as the 'Hindenburg Line' after the enemy commander in chief, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg. The Germans planned to have it ready in early 1917, and then they would withdraw to these new trenches.
This move would straighten their front and eliminate two major bulges or ‘salients’ out into the Allied lines between Soissons in the south and Arras in the north. The new line would be straighter and shorter requiring fewer divisions to man it and allowing more men to be rested in rear areas.
The general German plan for 1917 was defensive. They would hold fast on the Western Front but engage in unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic against British and Allied shipping which was bringing essential war material to Great Britain. They hoped that this strategy would bring the British to their knees within six months.

In late February 1917, the Germans began their withdrawal back to the Hindenburg Line. As these new fortifications were still not complete, they left strong rear-guards across the countryside they were about to relinquish in order to hold up Allied troops as they followed the enemy.

Between the 24^th of February and 9^th of  April 1917, the Australians fought a series of actions across the countryside (e.g. Malt Trench) west of Bapaume until they reached the Hindenburg Line.

During the course of the war, a number of soldiers transferred to other units during their service and this was the case with Walter when he transferred from the 10th to the 27th Battalion on the 17^th of December 1916.

Walter spent his entire front line service with the 27th Battalion A.I.F.
He was on the front line with the 27th Battalion from the 01^st of February 1917 until his wounding in action on the 02^nd of March 1917.
Walter was wounded during an assault on Malt Trench, Warlencourt, Northern France where the 27th Battalion suffered 22 Killed and 95 wounded during the attack.

¹ Walter was severely wounded with a gunshot wound/s to the abdomen; his record mentions that he also received wounds to the mouth and shoulder at the same time. This was possibly from machinegun fire that strafed the fields to hinder Allied advance as the Germans began their planned retreat.
Walter lay out in the battlefield for a long time and apparently there were badly wounded people all around him many of whom were screaming from pain. He found the noise almost unbearable and when the stretcher bearers came, he urged them to take those people first just so the noise would stop.

When Walter was finally taken back to the first aid post someone moved down the ranks of the wounded assessing their condition and attaching some sort of marker (I’m not sure what - a piece of paper or coloured cloth perhaps) which gave guidance as to their chances of survival. Walter was apparently "tagged" as "won't live until morning" and as a result wasn't given any treatment. Obviously when he was still alive in the morning treatment was begun! ¹

 

 

Walters mate  (Father of Jack Wallis, 91 of Laura ,SA gave me this citation on 24/05/2015; 1 day before ANZAC Day) where he remarked that when he called in to see him, Walter was lying on one stretcher and his insides were lying on another stretcher adjacent.

Walter was evacuated aboard the hospital ship HMHS Gloucester Castle.

Incidentally, this ship was torpedoed by the German U-boat UB-32 off the Isle of Wight a few weeks later on 31 March 1917.
Surely a lucky man, he survived not only the assault on Malt Trench but also avoided this sinking to eventually return to Australia in late August 1917.

The following excerpt was taken from The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918 Volume IV – The Australian Imperial Force in France, 1917 (11th edition, 1941)  which outlines The Battle of Malt Trench.

 “Meanwhile, in response to the urgency of General Gellibrand, and assuming that it was possible to penetrate between the separate posts holding the high sector of Malt Trench, General Wisdom of the 7th Brigade endeavoured to affect this by sending strong bombing parties up Gamp Trench on the left and the sunken roads on the right.

After many changes in orders, the attempt was made shortly before midnight of February 27^th by five parties of the 28^th Battalion organised by Captain A. Brown. But Gamp Trench, up which one party worked, was found to be blocked near the hilltop with impassable wire. Lieutenant Ahnal therefore led this party over the open towards the supposed junction of Gamp and Malt, where the chief enemy strong-post lay.

Here, faced by dense wire, he was mortally wounded by a machine-gun, and, after a bomb-fight, the attack was driven back. On the right, parties of the 27^th Battalion found the sunken roads blocked with wire, and held by parties with bombs and machine-guns, of which Captain Devonshire located six firing from the sector attacked by the brigade.

Still under pressure from Gellibrand, Brigadier-General Wisdom brought up his 26th Battalion to attack before daylight. As it arrived late, and both the 27^th and 28^th Battalions reported the German wire impassable, the order was cancelled.
Nevertheless, at 2.30am on February 28th a party of the 27^th Battalion made still another attempt to work up one of the sunken roads, but after a sharp bomb fight was driven back by machineguns firing from both sides of it. That night one of Captain Brown's officers, who had all day lain out in a shell-hole close to the German strong-point, confirmed the opinion already sent to headquarters by Brown: “We shall not do any good till the wire is cut by artillery."

German records state that heavy fighting was necessary in order to stop the Australian thrust northwards. On February 28^th no less than seven attacks were made on the Bastion-that is, up Layton Alley and on Malt Trench-but all were bombed back with heavy loss, not only to the Australians but to the parts of the 1^st  Guard Reserve Division (German) engaged. The division was given freedom to decide how long it should hold Malt Trench.
On the British side at midday on the 28^th  the commander of the Fifth Army, Sir Hubert Gough, visited the forward area of I Anzac and explained his plan of attacking Loupart Wood. The 2^nd Australian Division must first swing almost at right angles to the front of the 1 Corps, so as to attack north-west, while the 1 Corps struck north-east. Nothing, however, could be done till Malt Trench was captured. Brigadier-General Wisdom at once undertook that the 7^th Brigade would take that trench, but only if the wire was first cut by artillery bombardment, which would require two days.

Gough agreed to this and the bombardment began at once. Through shortage both of time and of guns, it was decided merely to cut “lanes” through the wire. At the time of Pozieres this used to be done by field artillery battering down the entanglements with low-burst shrapnel, but high explosive shells had recently been fitted with the new “ 106 ” percussion fuse, a device so sensitive that their burst occurred immediately on striking any surface and was not smothered by several feet of earth. Such shells made no crater, but their fragments scarred the ground for yards around the point of impact (The infantry called them “daisy-cutters” or ground shrapnel ) and could kill a man 800 yards away.

Heavy shells fitted with this fuse were now used against the Malt Trench entanglement, but its situation on a height rendered it difficult to see, and, although artillery observers stationed themselves in the sunken roads nearby, as well as on the Butte, and high on the British side of the valley, the fire was inaccurate.
If the wire was sufficiently cut, the place was to be attacked before daybreak on March 2^nd , but at midday on the 1st the infantry reported that the entanglement was unbroken on the left.

By 7 p.m., however, 4,000 shells had been fired by the field-guns and 40 “ plum-pudding bombs ” by two medium trench-mortars, taken up one of the sunken roads by Lieutenant Ralph and  midnight patrols, in spite of the thickness, were able to report that sufficient openings had been made. (The patrols of the 27^th gave the measurements of the “lanes.” One man had paced the distance while another wrote down the notes)

Not without a lingering doubt, General Wisdom decided that the attack should go forward.
Portions of three infantry battalions-the 27^th, 26^th, and 28^th were to take part, assembling on the hill above Warlencourt. Assembly tapes were hurriedly laid 250 yards from the trench to be attacked; the troops, as they climbed the slope, were covered by the bend of the hill and by the mist. A few minutes before 3 a.m. they were in position-three companies of the 26^th  between the sunken roads and “Emma Alley,” a company and a “raiding party” of the 28^th  west of Gamp Trench, and a company of the 27^th  in the sunken road (“ Loos Cut ”) behind the right flank of the 26^th . This company was to enter Malt Trench on the right of the road, and bomb down it towards the 17^th Battalion (5^th Brigade), which held the trench lower down as far as its junction with Layton Alley.

At 3 a.m. the allotted field artillery six batteries of eighteen-pounders and two of field-howitzers - laid down a barrage which for three minutes, while the infantry was moving forward from its tapes, fell fifty yards short of the German trench. (The rate for each field-gun was three rounds per minute and for the howitzers two rounds)

From 3.03am to 3.10am the barrage lay on Malt Trench, and was then thrown 300 yards farther back, and for ten more minutes continued gradually to advance, but with diminishing intensity. The Stokes mortars of the 7^th Brigade (Two emplaced in Emma Alley and one in Loos Cut) joined in from 3.00am to 3.10am.
At 3.10am the infantry, which had crept very close to the barrage, attacked.
On the left, the 28^th, which had assembled on the western slope of the prominence and attacked the sector west of Gamp Trench, found itself faced by a completely unbroken entanglement, down which were playing two machine-guns from right and left respectively, making a band of sparks along the wire. (Only one small passage was found, evidently left for the exit of patrols. The scouts who had reported the wire cut had probably by mistake examined the wire between the heads of Emma and Gamp Trenches, where a lane had been cut.)
After six or seven men were killed and hung caught in the meshes, Lieutenant Allen first ordered his troops to take cover in shell-holes, of which there were plenty, and subsequently, as the Germans were throwing flares and bombing them with a trench-mortar, withdrew them down the hill to shelter.
On the main front of attack, between Emma Alley and the Loupart road, the left company of the 26^th found a gap and entered the trench. The centre company could find no break, and its commander, Captain Cherry, after having moved along the wire searching for one while the barrage was on the trench, led his men in single file through a gap in the right company's sector.

He was here wounded, but continued to lead the fight for his company's objective. He personally captured one German machine-gun and his men captured another. Finally, the opposing Germans, finding themselves pressed between his company and that on the left, broke from the trench and fled to their rear, and the two companies joined.

On the front of the right company the wire, being within easy range of the trench-mortars, had been well cut, and the company commander, Captain Woods, led his men through it with the last shell--  so impetuously, indeed, that he was hit in the thigh by a shell from the Australian guns. Lieutenant Ward on his heels, took his place. In spite of the speed of the attack the Germans stood their ground, but gave in after ten minutes of fierce bomb-fighting. The trench from Loupart road to near the head of Emma Alley was thus captured.
Meanwhile the company of the 27^th had forced its way into the sector of Malt Trench east of the Loupart road, Lieutenant Botten, who led the bombers, being wounded but continuing to lead until he was killed. The company commander, Captain Julge, also was seriously hit, but Lieutenant Coombe, on whom the command devolved, speedily worked with his bombers down 130 yards of trench. Here the 27^th was to stop and look out for the 5^th Brigade which would be bombing from the other direction. As, however, it did not appear, leave was obtained to send a bombing squad farther. This presently found itself faced by a barrier behind which were Germans who resisted stoutly.

Meanwhile a party of reinforcing Germans had filed in behind the bombing squad, through a side alley which had been overlooked. The bombers were thus cut off, and it was with difficulty that two survivors, leaving the trench and creeping past the intruders, returned to their mates. These had been surprised by the appearance of the Germans, who counter-attacked and drove the 27^th back to the Loupart road. The reverse seriously threatened the right flank of the 26^th, whose nearest company commander, Lieutenant Ward, was then placing his posts, as ordered, far in advance of Malt Trench in front of the Grevillers line.

"The pass-word and countersign of the 5^th and 7^th Brigades this day were the names of the two brigadiers "Smith and Wisdom." It was reported that, as Cherry’s company and the left company bombed towards one another, the Germans between them were heard crying "Wisdom!" Any sceptically-minded outsider would naturally suspect that what the men of each company really heard was the men of the other shouting the pass-word as they approached Some of those present however, were definite in their report that the shouts were in a strong German (accent-" Visden! Visden!" It is possible that the Germans heard the pass-word shouted, and repeated it in order to stop the Australian bombers. From that time forward the 7^th  Brigade, in choosing passwords, exercised a preference for those which the average German could not pronounce, such as Through" and "Thorough."

Australia’s sons who went to the War were not wounded or did not die in vain. Their lives are not to be reckoned by length of years, but by greatness of achievement. They did not fight for personal betterment or national advantage, but to free the world from military despotism.

Years after the war, Walter went to the dentist for a problem and the dentist found a piece of shrapnel embedded in a tooth. He spent time down at the Daws Road Repatriation Hospital after he'd had another bit of shrapnel removed from his stomach.

Walter married Laura Agnes Borrett on the 07^th of September 1923 in Laura, South Australia. Walter and Laura had one child, a son, Melville Borrett Fradd.

 

Walter is circled left whilst Melville is on the right.

GONE INTO CAMP.

The Express and Telegraph Tuesday 23 May 1916

The following men went into camp on Tuesday: —F. S. Houghton, T. H. Floyd, J. E. Fahey, L. Wenzel, W. P. Fradd. F. J. Kenny. T. Jackson, P. S. Cameron, A. F. Daniell, G. H. Weidenhofer, E. Fahy, G. A. Watson, P. H. Thompson, D. J. O'Dea, T. F. Potts, L. G. Strother, D. W. A. Considine, H.E. Johnson. F. J. Bailey, M. W. Fradd, J. Dopson, A. G. Winch.

 

Walter died on the 29^th of April in 1964. Lest We Forget.

¹ Details kindly provided by Walters grandaughter Judith Fradd