Leonard Harold Francis Fradd 1898

Leonard Harold Francis Fradd was born on the 21^st of February 1898 in Burra, (Hampton District) South Australia. He was schooled at Copperhouse and was the eldest of 9 children born to Francis and Mary Magdalene Fradd (nee Opitz).

The family moved to Broken Hill sometime after 1907where they resided in Chapple Street, Convent Hill. Leonard was to have a fairly turbulent childhood; as detailed in the following 3 articles.

Recaptured in Broken Hill (Barrier Miner, Tuesday 10 Sep 1912)

Leonard Fradd a troublesome 14 year old boy has been up to mischief more than once.

He was concerned in petty larceny at Broken Hill some months ago and was dealt with in the Children’s Court. He was ordered to be sent to Altona House a reformatory in Sydney. It was he and another boy who broke away from custody some time ago when under escort to Sydney. Fradd had the audacity to return to Broken Hill recently. He was identified in the street on Saturday by a constable and arrested. Under the Neglected Children and Juvenile Detention Act, boys under the age of 16 years are not to be imprisoned. Consequently Fradd was ordered to be held in the shelter at Silverton where he would be detained pertaining an escort to take him to Sydney to serve his term at Altona House Reformatory.

 

Broken Hill (The Register, Adelaide Monday 9 September 1912)
 

Leonard Fradd, aged 15, who escaped from custody in Melbourne early in July, while being conveyed from Broken Hill to Sydney, was rearrested in Broken Hill on Saturday.

Fradd and another lad (Pearson) were convicted here in the Children’s Court for complication in several robberies and were being taken to the Reformatory in Sydney, when they made good their escape. The Melbourne police arrested them a few days later, but they again got away and nothing more was heard of either until Fradd was re-arrested yesterday. He did not like the thought of recapture, and gave the policeman a smart run. Fradd will again be removed to Sydney.

 

Quarter Sessions, Grafton (The Sydney Morning Herald, Thursday 19 November 1914)

 

West Maitland. The Maitland Quarter Sessions were opened at the Courthouse, East Maitland on Tuesday before Judge  Fitzhardinge, Mr A.S. Dawson was Crown Prosecutor. The list of cases was light, and for the first time in the history of the court all the accused pleaded guilty, a proceeding the rendered unnecessary the presence of any jurymen. Frederick Percy (16) and Leonard Fradd (16) for stealing from a dwelling at Telegraph Point were each sentenced to six months imprisonment. His Honour desired one to be imprisoned in Maitland and the other in Goulburn Gaol. (Leonard)

Leonards Prison Record

 

Leonard was listed as a Prisoner Discharged Free in the New South Wales Police Gazette in 1915. One wonders whether the pardon was a way of bolstering the A.I.F. ranks because Leonard soon joined the "colours" on the 11th December 1915 where he received 6 shillings per day.

He was to marry Sylvia May Hall in 1916 and they resided in "Cudgegong", Crimea Street, Parramatta before Leonard enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces.

The Nominal Roll listed Leonard in the 19th Infantry Battalion, 13th Reinforcements when he sailed aboard HMAT Ajana from Sydney on 05 July1915 to go and fight in The Great War.

Leonard was transferred to the 34th Battalion, spent time in the 9th Australian Machine Gun Company and finished with the 36th Battalion.

The 36th Battalion was raised at Broadmeadow Camp, in Newcastle, New South Wales in February 1916. The bulk of the battalion's recruits came from New South Wales rifle clubs and along with the 33rd, 34th and 35th Battalions, it formed the 9th Brigade, attached to the 3rd Division. Upon arrival in England, the battalion spent the next four months in training, before taking up a position on the Western Front on 4 December 1916, in time to sit out an uncomfortable winter in the trenches.

Many soldiers fighting in the First World War suffered from trench foot. Leonard was no different. He was in and out of hospitals in Belgium and France with this condition. The infection of the feet was caused by cold, wet and insanitary conditions where men stood for hours on end in waterlogged trenches without being able to remove wet socks or boots. The feet would gradually go numb and the skin would turn red or blue. If untreated, trench foot could turn gangrenous and result in amputation. Trench foot was a particular problem in the early stages of the war particularly during the winter of 1914-15.

“If you have never had trench feet described to you. I will tell you. Your feet swell to two or three times their normal size and go completely dead. You could stick a bayonet into them and not feel a thing. If you are fortunate enough not to lose your feet and the swelling begins to go down. It is then that the intolerable, indescribable agony begins. I have heard men cry and even scream with the pain and many had to have their feet and legs amputated.” Sergeant Harry Roberts, Lancashire Fusiliers, interviewed after the war.

Enlisted Casula Camp N.S.W.	11 Dec 1915
Embarked Sydney-HMAT A31 Ajana	05 Jul 1916
Disembarked Plymouth, UK	31 Aug 1916
Transferred from 34th Battalion to 19th Battalion (13th reinforcements)	20 Apr  1916
Transferred from 19th Battalion to 36th Battalion	29 Sep 1916
Overseas to France EX Southampton	22 Nov 1916
Admitted To Hospital Belgium-Dilated Heart Transferred to 3 ADRS	20 Jul 1917
Transferred to 10 Reinforcement Camp	21 Jul 1917
Re-joined Unit  ex Hospital France	30 Jul 1917
Re-joined unit from Hospital (Belgium)	02 Aug 1917
Detached to 9th Australian Machinegun Company from 36th Battalion A.I.F.	10 Aug 1917
Detached to 9th  AMGC (Field)	16 Aug 1917
To Hospital Sick from Attachment (Field)	08 Sep 1917
Admitted To Hospital Sick - Sth Ypres	26 Sep 1917
Admission Injury to toe nail to 45 Hos (France)	26 Sep 1917
Admission to 7 Con D	13 Oct 1917
Admission to B/D	02 Nov 1917
In From Hospital	16 Nov 1917
Marched Out To Unit	21 Nov 1917
Re-joined Battalion From S (Belgium)	22 Nov 1917
Re-joined Batt From Hospital Sick	22 Nov  1917
On Leave to UK	16 Jan 1918
Re-joined from Leave (Belgium)	03 Feb 1918
Detached to Tunnelling Company (Belgium)	08 Feb 1918
Re-joined from Tunnelling Company (Belgium)	24 Feb 1918
Admitted To Hospital Sick - France	27 Feb 1918
Re-joined Batt From Sick (France)	07 Mar 1918
Re-joined Batt From Sick- Gingivitis (France)	12 Mar 1918
Re-joined Battalion	16 Mar 1918
Wounded In Action - Gunshot Wound to RH (France)	04 Apr 1918
Invalided to UK- 2 Gen Hos	06 Apr 1918
Admitted to Southern General Hospital Portsmouth England	07 Apr 1918
Re-joined  34th Batt	02 Aug 1918
Proceeded Overseas FRANCE ex Longbridge Deverill via  Folkestone	29 Aug 1918
Marched In ex England (Rouelles, France)	01 Sep 1918
Pte: M(?)/i: A.J.B.D. from UK wounded (Prev: 36th Bn)	01 Sep 1918
Marched Out To Front (Rouelles, France)	03 Sep 1918
T.O.S. H. Reinf 34 Bn x 36 Bn (Field)	05 Sep 1918
Returned Home to Australia Per S.S. Borda	11 May 1919
Retd. ‘Borda’ (TPE)             Disc.  12/8/19	28 Jun 1

 

Leonards War Record

Over the course of the next six months the 36th Battalion was mainly involved in only minor defensive actions and it was not until 7 June 1917 the battalion fought in its first major battle, at Messines.  After this, the battalion participated in the attack on Passchendaele on 12 October 1917. During this battle, the battalion managed to secure its objective, however, as other units had not been able to do so, the battalion had to withdraw as its flanks were exposed to German counter-attacks and there was a lack of effective artillery support.

For the next five months the 36th Battalion alternated between periods of duty manning the line and training or labouring out of the line before it was called upon to blunt the German advance during their last ditched effort to win the war during the Spring Offensive of 1918.

During this time they were deployed around  Villers-Bretonneux  in order to defend the approaches to Amiens, taking part in a counter-attack at Hangard Wood in late March before beating off a concerted German attack on Villers-Bretonneux on 4 April, where the battalion suffered greatly when the Germans attacked with gas.

This was to be the 36th Battalion's last contribution to the war, as it was disbanded on 30 April 1918 in order to reinforce other 9th Brigade units. The earlier campaigns had severely depleted the A.I.F. in France and since 1916 the flow of reinforcements from Australia had slowly been decreasing as the war dragged on and casualties mounted.

The refusal of the Australian public to institute conscription had made this situation even worse, and in late 1918 it became clear that the A.I.F. could not maintain the number of units it had deployed in France and it was decided to disband three battalions—the 36th, 47th and 52nd—in order to reinforce others.

During its service, the battalion suffered 452 killed and 1,253 wounded. Leonard was wounded and listed on the casualty list with a gunshot wound to the right hand on 4th April 1918.

Below the shattered ground that separated the British and German infantry on the Western Front in the First World War, an unseen and largely unknown war was raging, fought by miners, ‘tunnellers’ as they were known. They knew that, at any moment, their lives could be extinguished without warning by hundreds of tonnes of collapsed earth and debris.

Leonard, who was a Miner before joining the AIF, was detached to a Tunnelling Company in Belgium for 3 weeks on the 08 February 1918.

These men were engaged in a desperate duel with their German opponents to destroy their opposing front lines by blowing mines, carefully placed in dark, treacherous tunnels under no man’s land. At the same time, the tunnellers worked to defend their own front lines from the German miners, intent on the same deadly task. It was a war within a war in its most literal sense.

The secret war culminated in the simultaneous blowing of nineteen huge mines, with a combined payload of almost 450,000 tonnes of high explosives, beneath the Messines Ridge.

Over 4,500 Australians served on the Western Front in three Australian tunnelling companies and their unique support unit, the Alphabet Company. Around 330 men did not return. The remains of most lie in carefully tended military cemeteries spread along the entire length of what was the British sector of the front, from the Belgian coast at Nieuport Bains in the north, to Bellicourt in the south.

Some lie on German soil where they died in captivity. Others are lost in the dark, silent embrace of the earth and whose resting place is known unto God.

Australian tunnelling companies took part in the battles of Fromelles, Arras, Messines, Passchendaele, Cambrai, the defence of Amiens, Lys, and the famous last 100 days.

Leonard returned to Australia in December 1918.

Sylvia died in 1925 and a year later Leonard married Mona Estelle Hedges of Waterloo in 1926. They had 5 children. Once again, Leonard was involved with the law; but this time he was an "innocent bystander".

Man Killed In Yard ~ Widows Son Arrested ~ Murder Charge

Sydney Sunday

(The Argus, Melbourne Vic, Mon 28 February 1938)

Albert Hedges, aged 50 years, a relief worker, of Birmingham Street, Merrylands, was shot through the head and killed instantly while in the yard of the home of Mrs Muriel Smith, a widow at Sheffield Street, Merrylands this afternoon.

Hedges had been accompanied to the house by Leonard Fradd, his son-in-law. After Hedges was shot Fradd ran from the yard and two shots were fired at him as he ran up the street. Albert Hedges had been on friendly terms for some years with Mrs. Smith, who has four sons.

When he arrived at the house about 1pm today, an argument arose between him and Eric Smith, aged 20 years, a son of Mrs. Smith.

Quarrel in Yard

After this argument Hedges left the house but returned shortly afterwards with Fradd, and a quarrel took place. Hedges was standing on the path in the yard when a shot was fired, and the bullet struck him on the side of his head and passed through his brain.

Fradd ran out of the gate into the street. Two more shots were fired in his direction, but he was not struck.The Parramatta police visited the scene and took possession of a 22 calibre single-shot rifle.

Eric Alexander Smith was charged tonite with having murdered Hedges and with having attempted to murder Leonard Harold Fradd.

Leonard had further run-ins with the law up until 1943 and was further charged with Stealing, Receiving Stolen Goods, Indecent Language, and Drunk and Disorderly.
Leonard somehow lived until he was 81 when he died in 1980, presumably, in Sydney New South Wales.

 

 

 

 

 

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