Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Berthal Victor Fester #2420 49th Battalion

Bert Fester enlisted on 19th April 1916. He stated he had been born at Mount Cotton but by the time of his enlistment he was living at Mount Kilcoy with his mother Fredricka, who he had nominated as his next of kin. Bert gave his age as 19 years and his occupation as farm labourer.

Bert was originally placed into the 11th Depot Battalion at Enoggera before being drafted as a reinforcement for the 49th Battalion on 30th May. The 49th Battalion had been raised in Egypt in February 1916 with half of the strength being Gallipoli veterans from the 9th Battalion and the remainder recruits in camps in Egypt.

While Bert was still in camp at Enoggera, the newly constituted 49th Battalion crossed from Alexandria to France where it would see its first major action at Mouquet Farm in September 1916. Bert and the rest of his reinforcement echelon, comprising two officers and about 100 men, boarded the transport “Seang Choon” in Brisbane on 19th September. The ship docked in Plymouth on 9th December and the men marched out to the 13th Training Battalion camp at Dartford.

On the western front, the 49th Battalion and the rest of the 4th Division AIF had to endure the coldest winter for 40 years. There was little fighting taking place and the reinforcements in England remained in warm dry barracks. The coming of spring brought about a change in the tactics employed on the western front. The British Commander Douglas Haig switched his attention from the Somme in Northern France to the Ypres salient in Belgium.

The third battle of Ypres, often referred to as the Battle of Passchendaele, was timed to begin in the first week of June 1917. Bert and the rest of the 5th reinforcements crossed the channel and made their way to the assembly areas behind the lines at Warneton in early May 1917. The 49th Battalion, as part of the 13th Brigade of the 4th Division was preparing to go into the offensive on the 7th June at Messines.

For almost 18 months prior to the opening of the Battle of Messines, British and Australian tunnelling companies had been digging galleries under the Messines Ridge, which was held in force by the Germans. By June of 1917, there were 19 underground mines under the German lines. At 4:30 am on 7th June, the mines were blown. It was the largest man made explosion in history up until the nuclear age and was felt in English coastal towns and even London. Many of the craters created on that day can still be seen.

By the afternoon of the 7th June, the plan called for the 13th brigade of the 4th Division to advance through the new trench lines that had been established earlier in the day by the 3rd Division troops. By that time the German defenders had recovered from the initial shock of the explosions and had begun to repel the Australian advance with artillery and machine gun fire.

During the advance by the 49th Battalion on 7th June, Bert Fester received multiple gunshot wounds to his right arm. Bert had been with his battalion less than a month and this was his first action. He was taken initially to a Field Ambulance and from there to a Casualty Clearing Station at Poperinghe. Bert was transferred by ambulance train to the Australian General Hospital at Rouen on the French coast and on 14th June was placed on the Hospital Ship “St George” and admitted to the 3rd London General Hospital at Wandsworth where his right arm was amputated above the elbow.

Bert spent the next two and a half months in hospitals and convalescent wards. On 30th August, he was granted a two week furlough and on 1st November 1917 he boarded the “Anchises” for a return to Australia where he was discharged from the AIF on 9th February 1918.

Bert returned to Kilcoy where he received a disability pension of three pounds a fortnight. For a young man (he was still only 20) who had been used to working with his hands on the farm, he must have found adjusting to his new circumstances difficult.

A request was made for Repatriation support in 1954 and Bert died on 3rd May 1962.