Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Walter was the son of Henry Ludwig KLOESTER & Mary Jane TAYLOR and was born on the 16th of September 1895 in Oodla Wirra, SA.

His parents were married on the 23rd of December 1882 in the Bible Christian Manse, Snowtown, SA.

His father was the son of August KLOESTER.
His mother was the daughter of Frederick George TAYLOR & Elizabeth Bridget O’BRIEN and was born in 1861 in Currency Creek, SA.

Walter was the sixth child born into the family of 7 children.

His father was a farmer and the family lived in Oodla Wirra.

It appears that his father remained in Oodla Wirra, but his mother and the rest of the family moved to Terowie in the early 1910’s.

Walter then gained employment as a cleaner with the South Australian Railways (SAR), based in Terowie.

His brother Ernest enlisted into the 1st AIF on the 4th of January 1916 and allotted the service number D835 and posted to A Company, 2nd Depot Battalion.
Ernest suffered with Epilepsy and was discharged from the AIF on the 23rd of January.

At the age of 20, Walter enlisted in the 1st AIF on the 25th of April 1916 in Adelaide, SA and was allotted the service number 2044 and posted to B Company, 2nd Depot Battalion.
On the 13th of July 1916 he was transferred to the 48th Battalion, 3rd Reinforcements and embarked the very same day from Adelaide on board HMAT A48 Seang Bee.

He served in France for nearly 3 years and for 4 months before he returned to England in 1919 he volunteered for the Graves Registration Department.
Walter embarked from England on the 5th of September 1919 on board HT Plassy, disembarking in Adelaide on the 23rd of October.

Walter was discharged from the AIF on the 7th of December 1919.

He moved backed to Terowie and lived with his mother in Frederick Street, Terowie and then gained employment on Lilydale Sheep Station.

His mother died in Terowie on the 26th of August 1934 and they buried her in the Terowie Cemetery; Section 3, Row 3, Plot 882.

On Saturday the 10th of February 1940 Walter had been in Terowie for the morning and was on his way back to Lilydale Station, riding a motor cycle, and, when near the north railway crossing, his hat blew off.
Walter turned to see where it had gone, lost his balance and the motor cycle crashed into the wing of the railway crossing at about 2.30pm.

Walter received compound fractures of his arm, a compound fracture of his leg and severe head injuries and was taken in an unconscious state to the Terowie Hospital.
Sadly, Walter never regained consciousness and died in the Terowie Hospital the following night, on Sunday the 11th of February.

Walter was buried the following day in the Terowie Cemetery; Section 3, Row 3, Plot 882, with his mother.

Military

At the age of 20, Walter enlisted in the 1st AIF on the 25th of April 1916 in Adelaide, SA and was allotted the service number 2044 and posted to B Company, 2nd Depot Battalion.
He listed his mother, of Terowie, SA, as his next of kin.

He was then posted to the 10th Battalion, 19th Reinforcements on the 4th of May.

On the 13th of July 1916 he was transferred to the 48th Battalion, 3rd Reinforcements and embarked the very same day from Adelaide on board HMAT A48 Seang Bee. He disembarked in Plymouth on the 9th of September and marched into the 12th Training Battalion in Rollestone and then they moved to Codford on the 2nd of October.

Walter proceeded to France on the 20th of November and marched into the Australian Division Base Depot (ADBD) in Le Havre before being taken on strength with the 48th Battalion on the 4th of December at Dernancourt.

The 48th Battalion became known as the "Joan of Arc" (the Maid of Orleans) battalion because it was "made of all Leanes" - it was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Ray Leane, his brother was the adjutant, and several other relatives were scattered throughout the battalion.

On the 17th of December they entrained for Flesselles and continued training and whilst here on the 22nd of December, Walter suffered from the mumps and was admitted into the 4th Australian Field Ambulance and then transferred to the 39th Casualty Clearing Station at Allonville.

Two days later he was entrained by Ambulance Train and admitted into the 25th Stationary Hospital in Rouen on Christmas Day 1916.
He remained here until the 11th of January when he was discharged to No.2 Command Depot and then rejoined his Battalion at Brazentin Camp A on the 27th of January.

They were then moved to Albury Camp where they were employed on railway and road work before moving into the reserve line on the 9th of February.
On the 15th they were relieved and moved to Townsville Camp and the following day they moved into the front line in Bulls Trench.
They remained here for 10 days before being relieved and moved to Becourt Camp.

They then moved to Henecourt Wood on the 1st of March for training and after 3 weeks here they moved to Shelterwood Camp, near Fricourt.
Five days later they moved to Eaucourt-sur-Somme and then on the 1st of April they moved to Biefvillers-les-Bapaume, where they carried out fatigue work.
Seven days later they relieved the 52nd Battalion in the front line at Noreuil and they were then scheduled to attack Bullecourt on the 10th.
In a hastily planned operation, and for the first time on the Western Front, the assault was to proceed without a supporting artillery bombardment. Instead tanks, being used for the first time by the British 5th Army, including the 4th Australian Division, were to lead the attack.

Two of the 4th Division’s Brigades, the 4th and 12th, were to advance to the right of Bullecourt, turn left along the Hindenburg trench system and advance until they linked up with men of the British 62nd Division attacking from the other side of the town.
Both formations were then to push through to the rear of the German defences.
When the tanks failed to reach their start line on the morning of the 10th of April the attack was postponed, leaving Walter and his Battalion lying in the snow covered no-man’s-land to hurry back to their own lines.
Dawn was breaking as they retreated under the eyes of the enemy.

The attack did go ahead the following morning on the 11th of April. Again some of the tanks failed to arrive. Those that did either broke down or were destroyed; just one reached the enemy’s first trench.
Without armoured support, Walter and the Australian infantry achieved what was, until then, considered an impossible feat; breaking into the German trenches without a protective artillery barrage.
Within hours though, they faced annihilation.

Exposed on both flanks, cut off from reinforcements by German artillery fire and at risk of being trapped by Germans working their way to the Australians’ rear, the survivors made a break for their own lines.
Less than ten hours after it began, the assault had ended in failure. Some 3,000 Australians had been killed or wounded and more than 1,100 were taken prisoner.
The following night they moved to Bapaume and then entrained for Albert on the 12th and marched to Fricourt.
They began training here before moving to Henencourt Wood on the 17th to continue training before moving to billets at Millencourt 5 days later.

They then moved to Bailleul on the 16th of May where they were engaged in unloading ammunitions.
Whilst here on the 23rd Walter was found drunk while on active service and awarded 7 days Confined to Camp and fined 2/6.
By June they had moved to Steenwerck and were engaged in digging assembly trenches before moving to La Creche into the front line.
They were in and out of the front line here until the end of June when they moved to Ploegsteert Wood where they were engaged in cable burying and front line rotation.

August was then spent in the front line near the Wambeke River and by the end of August they were at Zuypeene. Then most of September was spent at Greuppe in training before they moved to Ypres.

Their next major battle came at Westhoek & Passchendale Ridge in October.
With three companies forward and one in reserve, they advanced steadily in their sector, taking over 200 prisoners. As the advance stalled on their left, they were caught in a German counterattack and suffered heavily, losing 369 men killed or wounded, out of the 621 men involved.
After Passchendaele, they were withdrawn out of the line throughout the winter, spending Christmas 1917 at Haut Allaines and on the 7th of January Walter gained 2 weeks leave to England.

When he rejoined his Battalion they had moved to Cavanagh Camp, near La Clytte.
Here they were engaged in working and fatigue parties and whilst here Walter neglected to obey an order and was awarded 7 days Field Punishment No.2.
They relieved the 13th Battalion in Crater Dugouts on the 7th of February and after 7 days here they relieved the 47th Battalion at White Chateau, near Hollebeke.
They were then relieved on the 20th and moved to Murrumbidgee Camp.

In March 1918, following the collapse of Russia, the Germans launched the "Spring Offensive", a major operation on the Western Front. As the Allies were pushed back, the 48th Battalion undertook a defensive role around Dernancourt, blocking the Amiens Road, before joining the final Allied offensive around Amiens in August.

Walter and his Battalion were then withdrawn from the line in mid-September and did not see action again before the war ended on the 11th of November 1918.
When the Armistice was signed they were located at Revelles in training and by the end of November they had moved to Aves-Nelles.
Walters last Christmas away from family and friends was spent at Waulsort before he gained 4 weeks leave to England on the 12th of January 1919.

His Battalion were still at Waulsort when he returned from leave and by the end of February they moved to Nalinnes where they spent March.
With the upcoming disbandment of his Battalion, Walter was detached to the Graves Registration Department on the 24th of March.
The Graves Registration Detachment was formed under the command of Major John Eldred Mott, MC, with Captain George Frederick Gould, MC, Lieutenant Allen Charles Waters Kingston, DSC, MSM and Lieutenant Herbert William Mott. It consisted of a Battalion of 5 Companies of 1,100 men with motor and horse transport. Volunteers were called for work on locating, exhuming, identifying and reburying of Australian war dead, on the Western Front, for an indefinite period and Walter had volunteered.

Over 46,048 Australian servicemen lost their lives fighting on the Western Front and less than half had their locations recorded.
They began their gruesome work of looking for graves and digging trenches for unburied bodies, near Villers-Bretonneux. Exhumed bodies were identified by whatever means available: identity discs, personal effects, letters found in their pockets, or their battalion colour patch.

The bodies were then wrapped in hessian with identification notes, and transported short distances by stretcher, or longer distances by horse-drawn wagon to the cemetery, where they were reburied with a cross over each grave.
Australian Graves Detachment (AGD) personnel photographed all identified graves, which were later sent to the deceased's next of kin, a small comfort for their grief.

Walter and his Battalions accommodation was usually in tents or huts, the battlefields were still littered with barbed wire, shell holes, trenches and unexploded ordnance that 'went off' at unexpected moments. Walter and his mates would periodically set alight a cordite dump and watch 'the fireworks'.

As they worked (weather permitting) they described the heart breaking sight of the arrival of French families returning to their ruined homes. German prisoners were put to work to assist them.
In May they were working in near Hammel, west of Amiens and Villers Bretonneux and during this month orders were received by the GRD to exhume and re-bury French soldiers as well.
They reburied 853 soldiers in the month of May.

The work was exhausting and particularly unpleasant, especially exhuming bodies that had been buried in August 1918. German prisoners were also put to work clearing battlefields and loading salvage (equipment and ordnance) on railway trucks for transportation to dumps elsewhere in France.
In June officials arrived from Australia and England including Australian Prime Minister W. M. Hughes, to formally select a site for an Australian Corps Memorial Cemetery at Villers-Bretonneau.
Shortly thereafter the party left for Paris where they attended the Peace Conference. So many of the missing were never found and so the erection of memorials at Villers-Bretonneux, Menin Gate and Lone Pine (Gallipoli) where their names are recorded in perpetuity.
The total number of bodies exhumed during June was 900.

During the first 2 weeks of July Walter gained another 2 weeks leave to England before returning to Villers-Bretonneux where there was only one or two buildings left standing and the whole town was a mass of ruins, old artillery pieces, ammunition, unexploded bombs and shells.
Amongst this mass of war refuse were numbers of little crosses marking the graves of either British or Australian soldiers.
The total number of bodies re-buried during July was 1854.

With thee impeding demobilization of his Battalion Walter then embarked for England on the 29th of July.
Walter embarked from England on the 5th of September 1919 on board HT Plassy, disembarking in Adelaide on the 23rd of October.

Walter was discharged from the AIF on the 7th of December 1919 and awarded the British War & Victory Medals.