Topic: Diary - Schramm
Diaries of AIF Servicemen
Bert Schramm
During part of the course of his military service with the AIF, 2823 Private Herbert Leslie Schramm, a farmer from White's River, near Tumby Bay on the Eyre Peninsular, kept a diary of his life. Bert was not a man of letters so this diary was produced with great effort on his behalf. Bert made a promise to his sweetheart, Lucy Solley, that he would do so after he received the blank pocket notebook wherein these entries are found. As a Brigade Scout since September 1918, he took a lead part in the September 1918 breakout by the Allied forces in Palestine. Bert's diary entries are placed alongside those of the 9th Light Horse Regiment to which he belonged and to the 3rd Light Horse Brigade to which the 9th LHR was attached. On this basis we can follow Bert in the context of his formation.
Bert Schramm's Diary, 15 March 1919
Bert Schramm's Handwritten Diary, 12 - 16 March 1919
[Click on page for a larger print version.]
Diaries
Bert Schramm
Saturday, March 15, 1919
Bert Schramm's Location - Moascar, Egypt.
Bert Schramm's Diary - Trouble has begun again in Cairo and all communication between here and Cairo have been cut. Natives attacked a hospital train coming through today and some damage done but haven't heard anything definite. One hundred men were called up out of this Brigade and left this evening. Their destination unknown. Anyhow if this is any serious trouble and we are all called out I guess someone will suffer. What annoys one most is the possibility of us being kept here a few months longer. I think I shall be inclined to desert if we are kept here much longer.
9th Light Horse Regiment War Diary
9th Light Horse Regiment Location - Moascar, Egypt.
9th Light Horse Regiment War Diary - 0900 General Officer in Command Australian Mounted Division [Ryrie, Brigadier General G de L, CB CMG VD] addressed the 3rd Light Horse Brigade reference discipline.
Captain Parry Regimental Medical Officer proceeded by train to Kantara to embark on HMT Euripides. Information received that inhabitants had attacked a train travelling between Cairo and Kantara. Disturbances at Zagazig extending.
1945 three Officers 50 Other Ranks each from 8th and 10th Light Horse Regiments proceeded by train to Zagazig. Telegraphic communication with Cairo cut.
10th Australian Light Horse Regiment War Diary - Lieutenants Macgregor MC and Doig MC with 50% were sent to Minet Quam out duty.
General Ryrie held a mass parade and addressed the Brigade.
Extract from Vincent, Phoebe, My darling Mick: the life of Granville Ryrie, 1865 - 1937, p. 191 although first appeared in the Brisbane Daily Telegraph 18 April 1927 -
'On 15 March Granville was at Moascar, where a minor incident took place which, if anyone had doubted it, would have been ample proof of the respect his men had for him and for the understanding he had shown them throughout the last five arduous years.
The men of the brigade, exhausted after all the campaigning only just behind them, were thinking of nothing but rest, a ship home, when one day out of the blue a Moascar 'brass hat' popped up and ordered that they perform recruit drill out under the blazing Egyptian sun. The bugle call to fall in after breakfast was ignored by the entire brigade. The order was repeated and the rumblings of complaint began to build until atmosphere in the camp was mutinous. At this point Granville ordered them out on parade. Not a man refused. Out in the heat of the parade ground he addressed them briefly but sympathetically on the subject of discipline, then gave them strict orders, instead of attending recruit drill, to get their towels a 'go for a swimming parade in Lake Timsah'. Having been the only man of his rank in the Australian Army to command the same brigade for the full duration of the war, it could be said with little doubt that no senior officer knew his men better than 'the Old Brigadier'.
Darley
Darley, TH, With the Ninth Light Horse in the Great War, Adelaide, Hassell Press, 1924.
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Further Reading:
9th Light Horse Regiment AIF War Diary - Complete day by day list
Bert Schramm Diary - Complete day by day list
Additional Reading:
Darley, TH, With the Ninth Light Horse in the Great War, Adelaide, Hassell Press, 1924.
Citation: Bert Schramm's Diary, 15 March 1919
