"At a mile distant their thousand hooves were stuttering thunder, coming at a rate that frightened a man - they were an awe inspiring sight, galloping through the red haze - knee to knee and horse to horse - the dying sun glinting on bayonet points..." Trooper Ion Idriess
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Monday, 4 May 2009
Grobelaar Recht, South Africa, May 15, 1901, Contents Topic: BatzB - Grobelaar
Grobelaar Recht
South Africa, 15May 1901
Contents
Grobelaar Recht, near Carolina in the eastern Transvaal, was the scene of a severe engagement on 15 May 1901 involving Boers and a British column commanded by Lieut.-General Sir Bindon Blood which included the Fifth and Sixth West Australian Mounted Infantry contingents.
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Grobelaar Recht, South Africa, May 15, 1901 Topic: BatzB - Grobelaar
Grobelaar Recht
South Africa, 15May 1901
Grobelaar Recht, near Carolina in the eastern Transvaal, was the scene of a severe engagement on 15 May 1901 involving Boers and a British column commanded by Lieut.-General Sir Bindon Blood which included the Fifth and Sixth West Australian Mounted Infantry contingents. During this action the WAMI lost five men killed (one account says seven) and eight wounded, one of whom later died.
The fighting continued next day near Brakpan, at one stage during which the British right flank was forced to retire. Withdrawing under heavy fire, Lieut. Frederick Bell of the Sixth WAMI contingent noticed a wounded man without a horse and returned to take him up behind him. The horse collapsed under their combined weight, whereupon Bell sent the man back on the horse alone and covered his escape by rifle-fire until he was out of danger. For this action Bell was awarded the Victoria Cross.
Roll of Honour
385 Private Francis Thomas Adam, 6th West Australian Mounted Infantry, Killed in Action, 15 May 1901
111 Sergeant Frederick Francis Edwards, 5th West Australian Mounted Infantry, Killed in Action, 15 May 1901
335 Private Benjamin Fisher, 6th West Australian Mounted Infantry, Killed in Action, 15 May 1901
Lieutenant Anthony Alexander Forrest, 5th West Australian Mounted Infantry, Killed in Action, 15 May 1901
201 Corporal Richard Joseph Furlong, 5th West Australian Mounted Infantry, Killed in Action, 15 May 1901
341 Private Frank Page, 6th West Australian Mounted Infantry, Killed in Action, 15 May 1901
403 Private John Semple, 6th West Australian Mounted Infantry, Killed in Action, 15 May 1901
Lest we forget
Extracted from the book produced by Chris Coulthard-Clark, Where Australians Fought - The Encyclopaedia of Australia's Battles, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1998, pp. 90-92.
Additional References cited by Chris Coulthard-Clark:
R.L. Wallace (1976) The Australians at the Boer War, Canberra: Australian War Memorial & Australian Government Publishing Service.
Emptsa, North Russia, August 29, 1919 Topic: BatzO - Emptsa
Emptsa
North Russia, 29 August 1919
Map of the Northern Russian region detailing the location of the conflict.
[From: The Times, 11 September 1919, p. 10.]
Emptsa, a town in northern Russia about 200 kilometres south of Archangel (now Arkhangel'sk) on the railway line to Vologda, which on 29 August 1919 was the scene of an action between Bolsheviks and British troops and their White Russian allies. The British were part of a two-brigade expedition, the North Russia Relief Force, which had arrived in mid 1919 to cover the withdrawal of a detachment of advisers sent the previous year to train White Russian forces. Among its members were 100-120 ex-AIF men recruited in England and enlisted mainly in the 45th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, and the 201st Machine Gun Battalion. While these volunteers were no longer the responsibility of the Australian government, within their units they still formed a distinctive national group.
Three Australians sitting by a stack of shells.
The attack on Emptsa was undertaken to enable White forces to consolidate their positions before the final British withdrawal, and involved the Australians spearheading the assault with White Russian support. Although the Bolsheviks were taken by surprise, some put up a spirited fight before the defenders fell back across the river and demolished the steel railway bridge behind them. Over 1,000 Bolsheviks were taken prisoner during the day. A highlight of the engagement was the part played by Sergeant Samuel Pearce of the 45th Battalion, a Welsh-born Victorian, in assaulting the enemy batter position north of the town. After cutting his way through barbed-wire obstacles under heavy rifle and machine-gun fire, he saw that fire from a blockhouse was harassing the advance and causing casualties. He accordingly single-handedly charged the blockhouse and killed its occupants with hand grenades, moments before being himself cut down by another enemy machine-gun. For his bravery Pearce was subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross - one of only two such awards for service in northern Russia (and both of which were to ex-AIF soldiers).
Machine gun blockhouse manned by Australians.
Extracted from the book produced by Chris Coulthard-Clark, Where Australians Fought - The Encyclopaedia of Australia's Battles, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1998, p. 165.
Additional References cited by Chris Coulthard-Clark:
Lionel Wigmore (1963) They Dared Mightily, Canberra: Australian War Memorial.
Peter Burness, 'The Forgotten War in North Russia', Defence Force Journal, No. 22, May-June 1980.
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