Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

R.I.P.
 
#3560  McFARLANE  Wallace Askew  26th Infantry Battalion
 
Wal McFarlane was born to Joseph and Emily McFarlane in Marton NZ; a small farming town between Palmerston North and Whanganui. Douglas attended school in Marton and then went on to workfor the New Zealand Post Office as a telegraphist. The family moved to Queensland around 1912 and to take up farming in the North Burnett, settling at Gooroolba.
 
Wal travelled to Brisbane by train to present himself to the recruiting office at Enoggera on 25th September 1915. He stated his age as just one month shy of his 23rd birthday and his occupation as dairy farmer from Gooroolba. Although Wal’s father was still alive, Wal named his elder brother Douglas as his next of kin.
 
Wal was allocated to the 8th reinforcements of the 26th Battalion, which was comprised of three companies of Queenslanders and one company of men from Tasmania. At the time of Wal’s enlistment, the 26th had sailed from Queensland earlier in the year and was about to land as support at Anzac. The 8threinforcements boarded the “Kyarra” in Brisbane on 3rd January 1916 and disembarked in Egypt in early February, by which time all the Australian troops on Gallipoli had been evacuated back to Egypt as well.
 
Wal spent some time in a reinforcements camp at Ismailia on the banks of the Suez Canal before being formally taken on strength by the 26th Battalion on 14th March. The 26th Battalion, as part of the 7th brigade of the 2nd Division AIF was one of the first units to be sent to the Western Front. The reinforced battalion boarded a ship at Alexandria for the six day crossing of the Mediterranean on 15th March and on arrival at Marseilles boarded trains for the assembly areas near Hazebrouck in Northern France.
 
The part of the Western Front near Hazebrouck was often referred to as the “nursery trenches” as it presented an excellent opportunity for newly arrived troops to become accustomed to trench warfare, although the ground was too boggy for trenches. Instead, there were extensive breastworks constructed. The nature of the swampy ground also precluded large scale infantry assaults by either side and as a consequence, fighting there was far less intense, being reduced to artillery duels and occasional trench raids.
 
For the whole of the first month that the 26th spent in the front line, the battalion only sustained 8 casualties, all of whom were wounded. Unfortunately for Wal, he was one of the wounded having received a minor shrapnel wound to his leg. By May he was back with his battalion.
Soon after Wal rejoined his battalion, the British forces launched the ill-fated Somme campaign on 1st July 1916 and despite horrendous losses almost from the first day; continued to feed more and more men into the slaughter. Two weeks after the beginning of the campaign, the front had not progressed very far, and the advance was being held up by heavy defence from a ridge which bisected the old Roman road between Albert and Bapaume. The British Commander, Haig, ordered three of the fresh AIF Divisions to the assembly areas for an attack to capture the ridge and the village of Pozieres which was positioned at the intersection of the ridge and the old Roman road.
 
The 1st Division AIF successfully advanced and captured part of the village. It was then the task of the 2ndDivision, which included the men of the 26th Battalion, to push on through the village to capture two lines of trenches and a blockhouse built on the ruins of an old windmill. The first assault by the men of the 7thBrigade on 29th July was repulsed producing many casualties. Successive attacks launched over the next week eventually took the objectives but again with significant losses.
 
One of the casualties on the 7th August was Wal McFarlane, receiving a gun-shot wound to his back. Wal was taken to a casualty clearing station and then sent to one of the many hospitals in Boulogne. He was then transferred to a hospital ship and taken to England where he was admitted to the Wharncliffe War Hospital in Sheffield.
 
Wal was eventually discharged from Wharncliffe after three months in hospital. On discharge, he was granted a furlough of two weeks with orders to report to the 7th Training Battalion at Rollestone. Early in the new year, Wal was shipped back to France and rejoined his battalion on 12th February 1917.
 
In the lull in fighting during the winter of 1916/17, the Germans had constructed a 150 kilometre long defensive barrier, which they named the Seigfreid Position but the British labelled the Hindenburg Line. This line was some distance to the east of their previous positions astride the Somme. The purpose of this barrier was to create an even stronger defensive position than the one they had occupied since 1914. German forces began a strategic withdrawal to this new position.
 
Once the weather broke, the battalions of the 7th Brigade moved cautiously eastwards from Flers towards the town of Bapaume, in an effort to maintain contact with the retreating enemy. In early April the Brigade was engaged in a major action at Noreuil. Later in April, the 5th Army, employing other AIF Brigades, attempted to breech the Hindenburg Line at Bullecourt. The attacks were a disaster and the Australians were withdrawn to rest areas in Belgium near the ruined city of Ypres.
 
The battalions of the 2nd Division had been in almost constant combat for ten months by the spring of 1917 and were in desperate need of rest, reorganisation and reinforcements. On 18th May, Wal was promoted to Lance Corporal and in July was sent to the Corps Signal School for six weeks. Someone in authority may have finally decided that Wal’s experience with the telegraph in NZ might be useful.
 
The Flanders campaign began in June 1917 with the Battle of Messines removing the enemy from a ridge of high ground that overlooked the assembly areas of the British Forces. With the obstacle of Messines dispensed with, General Plumer was able to instigate his plan to advance from the ruined city of Ypres in a series of steps towards the Broodseinde Ridge and the village of Passchendaele. The first step of the advance was to secure the northern flank adjacent to the Menin Road, which ran eastwards from Ypres towards Passchendaele. For this task, the recently refreshed 2nd Division were to be called back into the line.
 
For its part in the Battle of Menin Road, the 26th Battalion and the other three battalions that made up the 7thBrigade attacked along the line of the Westhoek Ridge on 20th September. The German defenders were surprised as the Australians appeared out of the mist and smoke of the artillery barrage and many defenders surrendered. The Westhoek Ridge was securely in British hands before the Germans could organise a counter attack. The 26th Battalion men consolidated their position by occupying the old German defences.
 
A copy of a “To whom in may concern” report in Wal McFarlane’s file states that Corporal Sawyer, Lance Corporal McFarlane and Private Bar were all killed instantaneously on 20th September 1917 when a shell landed in the trench they were occupying. The three men were buried in the same grave (probably a shell hole) and a rough wooden cross was erected.
 
In the first months of 1918, several packages of Wal’s personal effects were sent to his brother Douglas; which included wallets, letters photos, cards, a balaclava, a pair of sandshoes, three razors and a strop, and an embroidered silk table centrepiece.
 
Once the war ended, the Empire’s grave registration units began the task of searching the battlefields for the remains of those buried in isolated graves. In the case of the three 26th battalion men buried together on Westhoek Ridge, there was no trace. All three are commemorated on the memorial tablets of the Menin Gate memorial at Ypres. They are among 50,000 men from Britain and the Dominions who were killed in Belgium and have no known grave.
 
To honour the sacrifice of those 50,000, the citizens of Ypres conduct a memorial service every evening under the arches of the Menin Gate. The service concludes with the recitation of the ode and the playing of the last post. The Australian war artist, Will Longstaff, was so moved by the Menin Gate Memorial that he painted “The Menin Gate at Midnight”. This painting, perhaps more than any other, has become a reminder of the sacrifice by the Australians in Belgium. The painting is a national treasure and takes pride of place in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.