Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

 
#3018  RASMUSSEN Einar  47th Infantry Battalion
 
Einar Rasmussen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, to parents Hans and Christina. He attended public school and then presumably found work. His mother stated his occupation as farmer but it is not known if it was his occupation in Denmark or in Queensland.
 
Einar, and possibly his brother Niels, emigrated to Queensland around 1912/1913. Einar moved to the South Burnett where he was farming at Greenview outside Wondai. He also established a relationship with the Zackeresen family of Kingaroy. At some point, Einar was naturalised as a British subject; as all Australians were at that time.
 
Einar attended the recruiting office at Adelaide Street in Brisbane on 3rd October 1916. This was around the time that there was much discussion in the community concerning conscription and perhaps Einar felt obliged to fight for his newly adopted country. Einar told the recruiting officer he was 27 years old and stated he was a labourer from Greenview, Wondai, Kingaroy Line. He named his mother, Christina Rasmussen of Prinsessegarde, Copenhagen as his next of kin.
 
Einar was taken into the 11th Depot Battalion at Enoggera on 9th October, before being allocated to the 7thReinforcements for the 47th Battalion which was currently in France. With barely enough time to be equipped with his uniform and kit, Einar boarded the “Marathon” in Brisbane on 27th October for the long sea voyage to England via Durban and Sierra Leone in Africa. The reinforcements landed in Plymouth on 9th January 1917 and were taken by train to the 12th brigade training base at Codford on Salisbury Plain. Two months of training was considered sufficient for the reinforcements and on 13th March proceeded to the AIF Depot at Etaples on the French Coast by way of a ferry from Folkstone.
 
On 23rd March 1917, Einar and some other reinforcements marched in to the 47th Battalion camp near Bapaume. With the coming of Spring in March 1917, the German defenders on the Somme began a strategic withdrawal back to a preprepared defensive line which the Germans called the Seigfreid Line but which the British called the Hindenburg Line. As the Germans withdrew, the British armies cautiously followed, until they ran up against the Hindenburg Line at Noreuil, Lagnicourt and Bullecourt.
 
General Gough who was in charge of the 5th British Army was tasked with attacking and capturing parts of the Hindenburg defences at Bullecourt in April 1917. The planning for the attack at Bullecourt by the 12thBrigade which included the 47th was not confirmed until the last minute and confusion over which version of the battle plan was to be followed added to the general fiasco that ensued. The men of the 47th had been ordered up to the start line for the battle to commence on the morning of the 10th April. They had slogged all night through a raging snow storm and were thoroughly soaked by the time they lay down in the snow to await the signal to advance.  Gough had been persuaded that a new super weapon, the tank, could be used to smash through the German wire, and so he dispensed with the usual artillery barrage that would provide advancing troops some protection. All of the tanks either broke down, got lost on the way to the start line or were easy targets for the field artillery. The casualties suffered by the 12th Brigade on 10th April were exacerbated by the fact when the plan did not work on the first day, Gough used the self-same plan the next day. The Australian War Correspondent Charles Bean described 1st Bullecourt having as much chance of success as a plan to capture the moon.
 
When the survivors of 47th’s assault against the Hindenburg Line were assembled in a camp at Fricourt, there was much anger aimed at Gough and his staff over the waste of lives. The 47th Battalion Commander, who was a Gallipoli veteran and had been severely wounded there appeared before a medical board which determined he was medically unfit. He was replaced by the 2nd in command, Major Imlay, who had been given the task of shaping the 47th with a “firm hand.” Bullecourt put an end to the Somme campaign and all of the Australian Forces were withdrawn to the area around the French Belgian border to prepare for the coming campaign in Flanders. The 47th, as part of the 4th Division of the AIF would be involved in the first battle of the campaign at Messines.
 
A major stumbling block to the operations planned for the Flanders campaign was a low ridge which ran roughly north south from near the city of Ypres to the villages of Messines and Warneton. Since quite early in the war, the Germans had occupied the ridge which gave them a commanding view of the British preparations. To counteract this advantage, British and later Australian tunnelling companies had been undermining the German positions on the ridge and by the time the battle was ready to begin, 19 tunnels had been packed with combinations of gun cotton and ammonal. These mines were fired simultaneously at 3:50am on 7th June 1917. Once the dust and smoke cleared, brigades of Australians from the 3rd and 4thDivisions advanced up to the Oosstaverne Ridge and established a new front line. The 47th suffered 76 killed and 326 wounded when they advanced up the ridge towards the village of Messines at 11:00am, reducing the battalion’s strength considerably. Einar was fortunate to have survived the ordeal unscathed. Once the new front line was consolidated, the 47th was relieved and went into billets at Morbecque.
 
For the next two months, the 47th was employed in road maintenance and carrying duties while waiting for reinforcements to bring the battalion up to full strength. During this time, Imlay, who had been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, wrote in the war diary complaining about the lack of paper supplied upon which he had to write his reports, which compared to previous commanders, were always very detailed.
 
After the initial shock of the mine explosions in June which killed many thousands of soldiers, the Germans quickly reorganised. They were unwilling to surrender their previous position on the battlefield without a determined effort and British troops sent in to hold the ground gained were forced to endure heavy artillery barrages and sniping from concealed positions in ruined buildings. At the beginning of August, with numbers close to a full complement, the 47th was ordered back into the line at virtually the same location that they had vacated two months before. On the 8th August, while occupying the reserve trenches at Wytschaete, Einar Rasmussen was killed; probably by an artillery shell. The 47th War Diary recorded that 13 ordinary ranks were killed during the time in the reserve lines and that all 13 were buried together at Derry House, a ruined farmhouse which eventually became the Derry House Cemetery.
 
A member of the Zackeresen family from Kingaroy, wrote to the authorities to confirm what he had seen in the casualty lists of the Courier Mail. Einar’s medals were despatched to his mother who was in England at that time.