Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Thomas Andrew CARMAN
Unit: 24/15th Battalion
Joined: 26th October 1916
Tom’s story is the story of the majority of Australia’s Troops in WW1. He didn’t win any special medals nor was he promoted but thanks to Mateship he survived after being horrifically wounded and returned home to carry on where he had left.
Tom Carman was born in Mt Perry on 17th November 1893, the 4th child of Jonathan and Mary Carman. He had moved to Bingera in 1901 at the age of 5 as his Father opened a Butcher’s Shop at Bingera Plantation. He enrolled at South Kolan State School on 27th May 1901. After finishing school he did his Butcher’s Apprenticeship in the family Butcher shop at the Plantation.
World War 1 started on 4th August 1914. Australia was quick to respond sending the first troops to seize German possessions in the Pacific in September 1914. In November 1914 the first AIF forces left for Egypt. They were sent to Gallipoli on the 25th of April 1915 until evacuated in December that year. Many boys from Bundaberg Region fought in Gallipoli and Egypt and died or were injured; it was no longer seen as an adventure. In early 1916 Australian forces were sent to France to fight on the Western Front the deaths and casualties of local youth increased. It was now obviously a dreadful War and things looked very bad. The Australian Government decided that conscription was the answer to increase the number of troops and a Referendum was set for 28th October 1916.
Tom Carman was 21 years old. He knew many who had been killed but was angered at the thought of being conscripted to fight; so on 26th October 1916 he enlisted at Bundaberg.
On 23rd November 1916 he was posted to the 11th Depot Battalion at Enoggera Barracks, Brisbane for some basic training. It was here Tom met his great friend and the man who would save his life, Christie Place from Sarina. On 22nd December 1916 Tom was posted to the 19/26th Battalion for training. On the 19th January 1917 he was assigned to his permanent position in the 24th Reinforcements of the 15th Battalion. His Unit embarked from Sydney on 24th January 1917, aboard the HMAT “Ayrshire” A33. Tom and Christie were together on the ship and in the same unit.
Tom disembarked at Devonport, England on the 12th April 1917 to be met with the horrific news that the 15th Battalion had lost over 3,000 in one day in the Battle of Bullecourt. His Unit preceded to the 4th Training Battalion, at Codford, Wiltshire.
On 6th August 1917 with his unit he proceeded overseas to France via Folkestone. Two days later they joined the 4th Australian Divisional Base Depot at Le Havre at the mouth of the River Seine in France. Here he did the further 10 days training presumably at the Training School at Etaples. His mate Christie was also there.
On the 22nd August they marched out with their Unit and 3 days later he was in the trenches of the battlefield. His Battalion spent much of the remainder of 1917 in Belgium, advancing to the Hindenburg Line. The 15th remained in the Ypres sector and subsequently took part in the fighting around Polygon Wood during the Third Battle of Ypres in September. This later was known as Passchendaele. This area of Ypres is very flat and relies on field drains which had been completely destroyed by the bombing during the war. Rain in September and October turned it into a sea of mud which made fighting even more difficult. In this battle they used the “Bite and Hold” tactic which had the soldiers move forward a short distance then dig in. They achieved success but at great cost. The Menin Gate was built in Ypres after the War to remember the dreadful loss of life in the muddy fields of Flanders.
In November 1917, the battalion was withdrawn from the line for a three-month rest, spending the winter around Templeux-la-Fosse. The boy from South Kolan spent the European Winter in tents and huts. He had never even seen snow before. Christmas 1917 at Templeux – la Fosse was freezing, snow and sleet but they still celebrated. The 15th Battalion Band started playing Christmas Carols at 6AM and played until their instruments were frozen. The Church Service was held in a hut. The cold alone must have been a shock over Christmas and New Year.
In early 1918, the collapse of Tsarist Russia enabled the Germans to transfer a significant number of troops to the Western Front and in March, having amassed 192 divisions; they launched an offensive against the British forces in the Somme. Heavily outnumbered, the British and Dominion troops were pushed back by the initial onslaught and the Australian Corps was thrown into the line in an effort to stem the tide.
On 20 February 1918 Tom was taken to Field Hospital with an Injured Leg. Tom told his daughter he had been a message runner as he was short and could run through the trenches and not get shot. Initially he was admitted to the 13th Australian Field Ambulance then on to the 9th Australian Field Ambulance. He went through the 53rd Casualty Clearing Station and then to the 7th Canadian General Hospital in Etaples. It must have been a serious injury as it took about 6 weeks to heal. On the 4th April he was sent to the Number 6 Convalescent Depot Etaples and transferred to the Number 10 Convalescent Depot at Ecault. On the 15th May he marched into Australian Intermediate Base Depot, Le Havre. He proceeded to his Unit on the 30th April. In March and April 1918, his battalion had helped stop the German spring offensive. On the 4th of May 1918, Tom was back in the trenches with his Unit.
The 15th Battalion was moved to Villers-Bretonneux in late April. Following their arrival, they undertook a support role, constructing defences before moving on to Freschencourt on 22 May, remaining there until they marched at the end of the month to Hamelet near Corbie, where they conducted several patrol actions.
In June the Allies began to prepare for their own offensive, conducting a series of small-scale advances which became known as "peaceful penetrations". That month, a number of American troops were assigned to the battalion to gain experience, as the United States began building up forces on the Western Front. The Australian, Lieutenant General John Monash, had taken over as commander of the Australian Corps, the first time they had had an Australian in charge. Tom would have been relieved as he told his daughter the British had made some bad decisions which cost lives. Monash decided to launch a combined arms attack to reduce the salient that had developed in front of Amiens around Hamel and straighten the line.
Before dawn on 4 July (Monash selected the date to honour the Americans), Australian and American forces attacked Hamel. Tom always told his family how important it was to have the Americans there as they were all fresh. Tom’s Battalion was assigned the task of attacking a German strong point designated the "Pear Trench”. The losses began even before the assault, when some of the preparatory barrage dropped short on their forming-up point. In the darkness the three tanks that had been assigned to support their attack temporarily became lost, and as a consequence, the 15th's initial attack went in without armoured support. Coming up against strong resistance from well-sited machine-gun posts, the advance was held up until they were overcome by Lewis gun teams and section-level fire and movement, which allowed the battalion to gain the Pear Trench. The 15th Battalion's sole Victoria Cross recipient, Private Henry Dalziel, received his award for his actions during this time while serving as a "number two" within a Lewis-gun team, rushing a German machine-gun post with a revolver.
It was during the Battle of Hamel on the 4th of July 1918 that Tom was wounded. He received a Gun Shot Wound to the back of his chest. It must have blown a deep hole as my Mother said she could put her fist into the hollow in his back. During this Battle 240 Australians lay dead, Tom was among the bodies but still alive; just. He was initially overlooked due to the severity of his wounds and assumed dead. His mate Christie Place went looking for him amongst the dead on the Battlefield and somehow found him still alive. He got help and talked the stretcher bearers into taking Tom. He was taken to the 4th Field Ambulance, it was assumed he would die as his wounds were so bad but they didn’t give up on him. On the 10th July he was taken to the 47th Casualty Clearing Station and from there the next day to the General Hospital in Rouen. He had surgery to try to repair damage but pieces of shrapnel were lodged so close to his heart the surgeon did not remove them. He was only alive because of his mate, Christie searching for him and the Ambulance workers who didn’t give up. His Aussie fighting spirit, youth and fitness kept him going.
On 27th July 1917 he was stable enough to be transported to Pavilion General Hospital in Brighton. The Pavilion had initially been a hospital for Indian Soldiers but from mid-1916 had specialized in amputations and surgery. Tom slowly recovered and was shifted to the 3rd Auxiliary Hospital in Dartford on 22nd August.
On 28th August, Tom was well enough to be transferred to the No.2 Convalescent Depot at Weymouth. Weymouth became the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) Command Depot No.2 which accommodated those men not expected to be fit for duty within six months, therefore, most of the Diggers repatriated as a result of wounds or sickness passed through Weymouth. During the years 1915-1919 over 120,000 Australian and New Zealand troops passed through Weymouth. In Spring & Summer, Weymouth Esplanade would be full of Anzac soldiers in wheelchairs, being wheeled along by their more able mates. He was here when the War ended on 11 Nov 1918.
On 10th February 1919 Tom was moved to Number 1 Command Depot at Sutton Veny in Wiltshire. Here soldiers were given work-skills training and waited to return home. Christie Place was there too recovering. The mates were back together.
Tom’s Father was born in Surrey, England and his twin brother was still living in Godstone, Surrey. Tom visited his Uncle and Aunt and got on well with their two daughters. They seemed proud of their soldier cousin in the photos. Tom even told his Daughter one of his cousins wanted to marry him but he wasn’t interested. Tom had seen quite a bit of the beautiful country and coastal areas in the South of England.

On the 17th of March 1919 Tom boarded the Troop Ship “Plassy” and said farewell to England. Christie Place was on the ship too. The ship left from Liverpool, England and had an uneventful trip back to Australia apart from a small number of passengers coming down with measles. They docked at Colombo, Ceylon on April 12th and Adelaide, April 27th. Many of those sailing from England were invalids, suffering from a variety of conditions including gunshot wounds, nervous disorders and bronchial complaints. During the First World War the “Plassy” served as a Grand Fleet hospital ship in European waters. Tom disembarked on 30th April 1919 and discharged on the 6th June.
Tom then returned home to Bingera and continued working in his Father’s Butcher Shop where he had left nearly 3 years ago. His sister-law said Tom’s brother Eric found him very changed, “He didn’t care whose clothes he wore and would wear Eric’s clothes. They really had no understanding of what he had lived through in those 3 years.
Christie Place returned to his home in Sarina but he and Tom remained life-long friends. They knew exactly what each of them had been through.
Tom bought local cattle for the Butcher shop. He was buying cattle from a property north of Gin Gin when he met a girl who worked as her Father’s stockman. She must have impressed him as he married Mona Walker on 30th of April 1930. He built a house in Bingera and lived there until his death in October 1961. They had one child, Fay. Mona haemorrhaged during childbirth and nearly died. Tom could not bear to lose her so there were no more children. Tom had seen too much death and lost too many Mates.