Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

#4187  KERR Victor Vzander               13th Field Company Engineers
Victor Kerr was born in Laidley in the Lockyer Valley to parents Lauritz and Marie Kerr. Victor attended school at Woodlands near Gatton and then probably worked on the family farm. The family moved to Kingaroy living in Haley Street where Victor presumably took up an apprenticeship as a carpenter.
Victor journeyed by train to Gympie and then on to Brisbane where he presented himself for enlistment on 7th September 1915. He stated he had just turned 21 and gave his occupation as carpenter. He also named his father as his next of kin. Victor spent two months in a depot battalion at Enoggera before being allocated to the 13th reinforcements of the 15th Battalion. The reinforcements boarded the “Kyarra” in Brisbane on 3rdJanuary 1916. The embarkation roll shows that Victor had allocated 4/- of his 5/- daily pay to his parents. The reinforcements arrived at the Egyptian Port of Alexandria on 19th February and the proceeded to the large AIF base at Zeitoun. During the early months of 1916, the AIF underwent a huge expansion which effectively doubled the size of the force. Additionally, support units such as artillery, transport and engineers were expanded to meet the expected demand when the AIF was relocated to the western front in France.
Victor with his skills of carpentry behind him was an ideal candidate to be transferred to the Engineers and he was formally taken on strength by the 13th Field Company Engineers, a brand new unit, on the 26thMarch. On 6th June, the sappers boarded a transport in Alexandria for the 7 day voyage across the Mediterranean to Marseilles. The engineers went into billets in the rear areas around Amiens to begin construction work on huts, cookhouses and bathhouses for the expected arrival of Australian troops. Although the engineers were technically a construction corps, they did have a tactical role; trench construction and repair. The war diary of the 13th FCE had many sketches outlining the correct method of digging trenches and placement of fire positions. The engineers soon discovered that the practical aspect of trench digging was a lot more difficult and dangerous than they had practised in camp.
On 1st July 1916, General Douglas Haig, Commander of the British Forces in France and Belgium launched his big push with the opening of the Battle of the Somme. The battalions of Kitchener’s new army, mostly conscripts, suffered appalling losses; 60 000 casualties on the first day of whom 20,000 were killed. The gains of the offensive were minimal but Haig was committed to pushing on. By the middle of July, Haig committed three of the four Australian divisions in France to the Somme where they would be thrust against the might of the German Armies. The primary objective was the high ridge on which nestled the village of Pozieres. The 1st Australian Division successfully took the village on the 24th July. The 2nd Division was charged with taking two lines of trenches and a blockhouse on the crest of the ridge above the village. The assembled battalions charged uphill to their objective but the German wire remained uncut as the German artillery poured enormous amounts of high explosive and shrapnel on the advance blasting what little remained of the old German trench line. The engineers, supported by pioneer battalions pushed up to the front to dig new positions. Each man carried a pick or shovel as well as 10 sandbags, a rifle and 50 rounds of ammunition. The Australians held the position for three weeks, in which time hundreds of men were killed or wounded.
 
The artillery barrage was described by veterans as the worst of the war and many of those killed had been literally blown to pieces. When the engineers withdrew from the front at Pozieres, a roll call established that Sapper Victor Kerr had been killed in action on 14th August 1916, location of his body unknown.
Victor’s parents received a small parcel of their son’s effects which included an identity disc, cards and photos. Lauritz Kerr was granted a war pension of two pounds a fortnight.
In 1938, some 20 years after the end of the First World War, the Australian Government constructed the Australian National Memorial at Villers Bretonneux. The memorial was dedicated by the newly crowned King George VI. The memorial records the names of over 10,000 Australian soldiers who lost their lives in France and have no known grave; Victor Kerr among them.
 
On the site of the Pozieres windmill today is a commemorative stone which reads:
“The ruin of the Pozieres windmill which lies here was the centre of the struggle on this part of the Somme Battlefield in July and August 1916. It was captured by Australian troops who fell more thickly on this ridge than on any other battlefields of the war.”