Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

 
# 2281  MACKAY Robert Duncan       3rd Field Artillery
 
Robert Mackay was born on 25th February 1886 to Alexander and Elizabeth Mackay in the Brisbane suburb of Coorparoo. The family moved to Beenleigh on the Logan River in time for Robert to attend school there.
 
After leaving school, Robert worked for a time as a station hand and shop assistant before beginning a five year apprenticeship as a carpenter with a Mr Richer of Toowong. It is possible that Robert was working in the Nanango area as a carpenter when war was declared.
 
Robert reported to the recruiting office at Enoggera on 5th September 1914, one month after recruiting began. He informed the lieutenant that he was 28 years old and named his sister, Catherine Guttormsen, as his next of kin. Robert was taken on as a gunner with the 1st Division Artillery, 3rd Field Artillery. The initial draft of enlistments in 1914 comprised 12 battalions making up three brigades. The 3rd Field Artillery was attached to the 3rd Brigade.
 
On 25th September, with barely enough time to be issued with uniforms and kit, the men of the 3rd FAB boarded the “Rangatira” in Brisbane. The voyage was halted in Melbourne due to the possible presence of Admiral Graf von Spee’s cruiser squadron which had sailed from Tsingtao, China, and was believed to be somewhere in the Western Pacific. The gunners and the men of the 9th Battalion (Queensland) disembarked at Port Melbourne and went into camp at Broadmeadows to wait for the German scare to pass. Some of the gunners were incensed that leave was not granted and it was only due to the commanding officer reading out the articles of military law that the situation was dealt with.
 
The men of the 3rd Brigade re-embarked after three weeks and the transports sailed to King George’s Sound where the Australian convoy was being assembled. Once in the Indian Ocean, the war diaries of most battalions recorded the news that one of the convoy escorts, HMAS Sydney, had destroyed the German Light Cruiser Emden at the Cocos Islands. There was also news that the Ottoman Empire had entered the war on the side of the Alliance.
 
The convoy continued west via Columbo and reached Suez on 1st December. During the voyage, Robert was reassigned as a driver to the ammunition column which would have the task of supplying shells and supplies to the three batteries that comprised the 3rd FAB, once the unit went into action. By the end of that month, the AIF was in camp at Mena on the outskirts of Cairo where serious training could begin.
 
For the gunners, there was hard work in coming to grips with the handling of the 18 pounder field guns. The guns were pulled by a team of six horses in three pairs with a driver riding on the left horse in each pair. Between the horse team and the gun was an ammunition limber which contained a limited supply of ammunition. When the gun was in firing position, it required a team of six men, led by a corporal to load, aim and fire. There was also a general service wagon, pulled by a horse or mule team, which carried men, equipment, baggage and more ammunition. The entire affair was predicated on the idea that the field guns, firing in batteries of four to six, would be deployed in open battlefields.
 
The artillery boarded transports in Alexandria Harbour on 4th April and sailed to the island of Lemnos in preparation for the landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 25th April. The 3rd Brigade infantry was to be the first ashore and the plan was to have the artillery to land soon after to provide support as the four battalions moved across the peninsula.
 
The situation on the beach at Anzac Cove presented the artillery command with a difficult task. The steep topography was unsuited to the use of the unwieldy combination of gun, limber and horse teams. Additionally, the 18 pounders had a very limited elevation due to the solid draw bar which prevented the barrel being raised to any great degree. It was decided that only limited numbers of guns would be landed and that to be of any use would need to be sited on the heights close to the Australian front line. The task of getting the guns up the steep slopes fell to the gunners themselves who attached ropes to draw points and man handled the guns. In the heat, this was an exhausting task and the gunners were very soon stripped to the waist.
 
Shortages of ammunition, both high explosive and shrapnel, meant that guns could only fire a few rounds each day. The gunners battled with the unfavourable conditions until December 1915 when a gradual withdrawal of both guns and men began in anticipation of the front being closed down. When the last of the 3rd FAB departed Gallipoli on 21st December, two guns, which were worn out and had been rendered useless, were left behind along with a quantity of buried ammunition and limbers.
 
In January 1916, the Gallipoli veterans returned to the camps in Egypt where they spent time resting and recovering from illness. Acting on a British request, the AIF began a process of expansion which effectively doubled in size from two to four divisions. The increase in the force necessitated a similar increase in artillery units. On 20th February 1916, Robert was promoted to the rank of acting corporal. His new duties would place him in charge of an 18 pounder gun crew. On 23rd March, the 3rd Field Artillery Brigade boarded transports for the crossing of the Mediterranean to the French port of Marseilles where they spent two weeks in camp before moving on to the huge British base at Havre to take delivery of brand new guns, limbers and wagons. After a period of training with the new equipment, the batteries went into the gun lines at Fleurbaix. After the difficulties of Anzac Cove, the deployment to the Western Front would have come as a welcome improvement. The FAB war diary for the month of may records the daily “shoot” figures as to the number of high explosive, shrapnel and smoke shells fired. After a month in the line, the gunners were relieved and retired to rest positions to repair equipment and re-equip.
 
General Douglas Haig, Supreme British Commander on the Western Front planned a big push in the south of the British sector through the Somme River valley for the summer of 1916. It was to be the largest battle of the war so far, and was timed to commence on the 1st of July. The attack was a disaster, with the British suffering 60,000 casualties on the first day, many of whom were the volunteers of the “Pals Battalions” of Kitchener’s New Army. In spite of this setback, Haig was determined to push on and the 1st, 2nd and 4thAustralian Divisions moved south from the Armentieres sector to Albert to take part in the Somme offensive. 
 
The village of Pozieres was of strategic importance. It sat half way between Albert and Bapaume on the highest point of that part of the battlefield. During July and August, successive divisions of the AIF attacked and eventually held Pozieres and the fortified windmill above the village; before moving along the ridgeline to capture Mouquet Farm. The British and Australian artillery were responsible for laying down a protective barrage for the advancing infantry; the so called creeping barrage. The 3rd FAB war diary records that in the four weeks of the Pozieres battle, 22,000 high explosive and 33,000 shrapnel shells were fired.
 
As the Pozieres campaign wound down, the 3rd FAB were relieved and went into billets in Becourt Wood out of enemy artillery range between Albert and Fricourt. At 9:00am on 21st August. A flight of German Taube aircraft flew over the wood and dropped a number of bombs on the wagon lines of the Australian gunners. Nine men were killed in the air-raid and 39 were wounded. One of those killed was Corporal Robert Mackay, aged 30. Survivors of the raid buried those killed 200 yards from where they fell.
 
Robert’s sister Catherine, as his next of kin, received a parcel of Robert’s personal effects which included a razor, strop and shaving brush, damaged wrist watch, a fountain pen and photographs.
 
Catherine had much difficulty convincing the authorities that she was the rightful recipient of Robert’s deferred pay and war gratuity as well as the 1914/15 Star, Empire Medal and Victory Medal. She explained that both of her parents and three siblings were all deceased, leaving her as the sole surviving family member. The money owed and medals were duly despatched.
 
The graves of the nine gunners killed on 21st August were incorporated into the Becourt Military Cemetery. Robert’s headstone simply states his name, unit and rank. There is no family inscription.