Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From François Berthout, Australia and NZ in WWI

Today it is with very great respect and very deep gratitude and a grateful heart that I want to pay a very respectful tribute to Private number 5602 Walter Robert Herman who fought in the 26th battalion of Australian infantry and who died of his wounds 102 years ago,on May 25, 1918 at the age of 21.

Walter Robert Herman was born on October 21, 1896 in Lawton, North Coast Line, Queensland and was the son of Jacob and Christina Herman and they lived in Petrie, Queensland. Walter was educated in North Pine and before the war he worked as a labourer.

Enlisted on April 15, 1916 in Brisbane in the 26th Australian infantry battalion, he received his training in Brisbane and embarked with his unit from Brisbane, Queensland on board HMAT A46 Clan Macgillivray on September 7, 1916 and sailed to England where he arrived on November 2, 1916 in Plymouth then he continued his training at Salisbury Plain. He then embarked for France on board SS Arundel from Folkestone, England on February 4, 1917 and he disembarked the same day in Etaples, France before leaving for the Somme front.

Walter fought with very great courage and very great bravery in the Somme but unfortunately, on May 25, 1918 he was wounded near Bonnay, Somme and was evacuated to the 5th Casualty Clearing Station in Bonnay, Somme but he died a few hours later at the age of 21.

Today, Walter Robert Herman rests in peace at Querrieu British Cemetery, Somme, with his comrades and his grave bears the following inscription "Only a boys in years but nobly he played a man's part aged 21 years"

Thank you Walter, only 21 years old, you answered the call of duty with courage for the king, for your family and your friends, joining the muddy trenches of the Somme and the horrors of war that shattered your youth but not your bravery, you have done your duty nobly as a man, with honor and devotion, not only for your country but also for France and the Somme who will never forget you and we will always watch over you with the honors and respects that you deserve, we will be eternally grateful to you and time will never erase your bravery, your sacrifice, the flame of Remembrance will always be maintained with all our respect and gratitude from our heart for you.Thank you Sir, for all that you did and sacrificed for us. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember him, we will remember them. Australia will always have a big place here in our hearts just like you sir and your comrades have a great place in mine and in my life.🌺

HERMAN Walter Robert   #5602 26th Battalion

Walter Herman was 19 years and 6 months old when he presented himself for enlistment on 15th April 1916. He had been born at Lawnton and spent his entire life there, attending the Lawnton State School and then working on the family farm.

Walter named his father, Jacob Herman, as his next of kin. Upon reporting to Enoggera he was placed in a depot battalion before being assigned as a reinforcement for the 26th Battalion. After rudimentary training and a period of home leave, Walter departed Brisbane on 7th September on the “Clan McGillivray” for England.

Plymouth was reached in November and Walter spent the next two months in an Australian training camp at Rolleston before being deployed to France where he was taken on strength by the 26th on 10th February 1917. The 26th at this time had endured enormous casualties at Pozieres and Mouquet Farm the previous August, as well as a bitterly cold winter. Reinforcements were sorely needed.

The spring of 1917 on the Somme saw significant movement by the Germans as they retreated to the heavily fortified Hindenburg Line. Walter and the 26th were thrust into the action at Bullecourt in April 1917. Bullecourt followed the pattern of previous battles on the Somme; poor planning, exposed lines and a strongly entrenched enemy. Casualties were high and the Australians had developed a distinct loathing for the British Generals who kept sending them to “chew barbed wire.”

After Bullecourt, the entire 1st, 2nd and 4th Divisions of the AIF were sent north into Belgian Flanders for the planned summer offensive. Haig as supreme British Commander had given the task of planning and executing the Flanders Campaign to General Plumer, who was far more competent than Gough who had run the Somme offensives the year before. The firing of 19 underground mines under the German lines at Messines in June 1917 was the beginning of what would be termed the Third Battle of Ypres, or more commonly Passchendaele.

Plumer’s strategy was to employ a bite and hold technique, progressing steadily westward from Ypres towards the Passchendaele Ridge. The 7th Brigade of the 2nd Division, which included the 26th, were called into action at Menin Road in September and Broodseinde Ridge in October. Walter would appear to have come through both engagements unscathed. Passchendaele became bogged down in the Flanders mud and the exhausted Australians spent another winter in the rear areas around Ypres.

In March of 1918, the German Commander Ludendorff, launched a huge spring offensive in the Somme valley in France. This was a calculated gamble as he had at his disposal, large numbers of troops recently engaged on the eastern front against the Russians. The October Revolution in St Petersburg, and peace treaty signed by the Bolsheviks meant those divisions could be sent to the western front. Ludendorff’s window of opportunity was short as it was estimated that General Pershing’s huge American Army, which was slowly assembling in France, would be able to tip the balance in favour of the allied powers by the end of 1918.

Operation Michael saw large numbers of German storm troops pour westward from the Hindenburg Line across the old Somme battlefields of 1916. The British 5th Army under General Gough broke and there was real danger that if the Germans could take the strategic rail junction at Amiens, they would win the war.

In attempt to halt the German advance, Haig rushed the available Australian divisions back to the Somme where on 25th April 1918, units of the 4th and 5th Divisions halted the Germans at Villers Bretonneux. Ludendorff’s troops would go no further.

The other Australian divisions also moved back to France, and Walter Herman and the 26th were now holding the line in the triangle formed by the junction of the Ancre and Somme Rivers at Corbie.

On 24th May 1918, Walter was reported to have sustained a penetrating shrapnel wound to his back. He died of his wounds at the 5th Field Ambulance and was buried nearby in the Querrieu British Cemetery just north of Corbie.

Jacob Herman received a package of his son’s personal effects which included a YMCA wallet, letters and cards and photographs. By the time that medals and memorial plaques were distributed in 1922, Frederick Herman, Walter’s brother, had written to the authorities in Melbourne to advise that Jacob Herman was deceased. The medals and plaque were sent to Frederick at Lawnton.