Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Victor Williams was born at Woodville, a tiny rural community nestled between Paterson and Maitland on the Paterson River in the Hunter Valley of NSW. Before the war, in 1911, the town had a population of around 366 people and was little more than a village. The people of Woodville would see many of their sons enlist for overseas service.

Victor was the fifth of seven children born to John and Esther Williams. Victor barely knew his mother, sadly he was just five years old when she passed away after giving birth to a little girl also named Esther.

Victor, like so many other men was swept up in the wave of imperial enthusiasm gripping the nation. The papers were full of stories of the rush to enlist, selection for this first contingent of the AIF was rigorous, with around twenty percent of volunteers being rejected. The Army preferred recruiting men from the rural areas with previous military training. On 17 August 1914, he presented himself to Victoria Barracks to enlist in the first contingent of the AIF. While Victor came from the bush, his lack of military experience meant he would have done some swift talking to get past the recruiting officer. He listed his calling as a farm labourer and obviously impressed the recruiting officer who sent him off to join the 1200 new recruits at the Sydney showground. He was placed in C Company of the 2nd Battalion, the same company to which Eric Solling from Maitland would be commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant a few weeks later.

Along with the other recruits selected that day, he would have been assembled into squads to form the basis of the battalion and marched away to Randwick racecourse. For the first arrivals there were no tents waiting to greet them. The men spend many cold winter nights covered only by their clothes, a blanket and their own coat, sleeping on the terraced steps in the grandstand.

It appears that Victor took well to army life with no disciplinary issues on his record. On 18 October 1914 Victor’s adventure was about to get underway as he embarked aboard A23 ‘Suffolk’ as part of the great convoy that transported the first contingent of the AIF. Before leaving Australia, Victor thoughtfully made out his will leaving all his property to his young niece, Molly Williams, daughter of his older brother Ernest.

For a boy from Woodville the journey must have been exciting as they gained news of HMAS Sydney sinking the Emden, the hijinks of crossing the equator and stopping in at Colombo. Of course, the soldiers believed that they were heading for England but due to the Salisbury Plain camp not being ready in time and it being winter in England the fleet was diverted to Egypt arriving there 8 December 1914.

After heavy training in the Egyptian desert and experiencing its social and cultural pleasures Victor and his new formed mates sailed from Alexandria bound for the Gallipoli peninsular

In the predawn light of 25 April 1915 Victor was aboard the ‘Derfflinger’ as part of C Company of the 2nd Battalion. Crowded together he and his mates saw a sudden flash of light. Then the rifle shots, followed by bursts of machine-gun fire, which finally developed into sustained fire.

Orders had arrived the previous evening that the 1st Brigade were to be held as Divisional Reserve. They would be committed as required, by the circumstances of the 3rd Brigade.

The 2nd Battalion would land with strength, of 31 officers and 937 other ranks. Orders were given that every man would carry a full pack, including firewood. Packs by this time weighed about 70 pounds (approx. 32kg).

A and D companies were the first to disembark followed by B and C. Victor clambered down the rope ladder to the waiting destroyer ‘Usk’. By this stage they were under continuous fire from the heavy batteries on shore. About 500 yards (457m) the 2nd battalion were transferred to small boats which had been drawn alongside. The small craft were now towed by naval pinnacles, three boats to a tow, and forty men to each boat. The small boats became slow moving targets to the heavy shrapnel and machine-gun fire. Fortunately, most of the boats reached the beach with few casualties.

The whole of the 2nd battalion were landed by 9.30am. However, they waited on the beach until 11.00am for their orders to arrive. During this period of inactivity they had to endure the constant shelling and sniper fire crashing and zinging around them. While the dead and the injured of the 3rd Brigade laid all around them.

By Wednesday 28th April the 2nd Battalion had reached the limits of human endurance. For three days and nights they had carried on an epic battle against the might of Mustapha Kemal’s (Ataturk) 19th Division, the main reserve of the Turkish Fifth Army. Much of it hand to hand combat without sleep and with little water, they held a key position on the front and effectively stemmed the tide of the main Turkish attack. They were finally relieved in the early hours of 29th April. The now depleted C company blood stained, filthy and tattered straggled back to the beach to meet those of their mates that had come through. The 2nd battalion had landed with 31 officers and 937 other ranks. During the three days of fighting the battalion had lost 16 officer and 434 soldiers either killed or wounded and had experienced the heaviest casualties of the landing.

Victor survived the battle with no reported physical injury but the reality of war, death and suffering of mates and the fierce hand to hand combat would have taken their toll emotionally on him.

For the next few days the Battalion rested and recuperated on the beach.
By 2nd May 1915 C Company and the rest of the 2nd battalion were back in the trenches. For the next two weeks the Battalion was involved in rotating the companies through the fire trenches, resting in reserve or digging and fatigue parties to widen and strengthen the approaches to their fire and communication trenches. During this time there were no formal attacks but Victor and the rest of the battalion still had to endure intermittent heavy shelling and the danger of snipers. On most days the Battalion was still expending around 600 rounds of ammunition per day.

On the 18th May 1915, it was recorded in the unit diary of the 2nd Battalion that it was exactly 7 months since the battalion had sailed from Sydney. During the day there came a lull in the shelling. Around 5.00pm in the early evening heavy artillery shelling commenced. This was some of the heaviest firings the battalion had encountered. For over three hours 10” shells dropped all around them showering them with earth and deadly shrapnel. Then at 8.10 pm the shelling stopped. The Battalion was already on alert and were waiting for a Turkish attack as they had received intelligence reports of the Turks being heavily reinforced during the day. Between 9pm and 12 midnight the enemy attacked in force and were repulsed by the Australians. In many cases the Turks came right up to the parapets of the trenches hurling had grenades into the trenches. Between 1.30am and 8 am the enemy again made three more attempts to take the trenches and each time were repelled with heavy loses.

On the morning of 19th May 1915 hundred of bodies were lying quite close to the battalion’s trenches. It was estimated that the 2nd battalion alone had killed between 250-300 Turks. During the attacks 2 officers and 18 other ranks were killed the battalion had expended 5,000 rounds of ammunition.

Victor was also part of the Armistice that was called on the 24th May to bury the hundreds of dead and recover the wounded that lay on the battlefield. The burial parties of the 2nd battalion were recorded as fraternising with the Turks, exchanging cigarettes and conversing when possible to make themselves understood. At 4.30pm both sides were back in their trenches waiting for the hostilities to recommence. Although they began slowly with just the odd rifle shot by 6.00pm the enemy shelling was again underway.

On the evening of 27th May the 2nd battalion were given orders to “make demonstrations and fire on the enemy occasionally so as to lead them to believe we intend attacking them” This was obviously a tactic to draw the Turks attention away from another area of Gallipoli where an attack was planned. During the night the battalion expended approximately 1,350 rounds on the Turks. The casualties for the night were, one soldier killed, one missing and two wounded. One of those wounded was Victor Williams.

Victor sustained a bullet wound to his face. The bullet entered through his right eye and into his brain. Unbelievably he was not killed instantly. Bullets kill by impact and energy transfer creating a shockwave that disrupts and damages soft tissue and bone. The bullet that struck Victor was obviously out of energy when it hit him or he would have died instantly.

Victor was taken by stretcher bearer down to the beach where he was loaded onto a boat and taken on board the hospital ship HMHS Galeka. Despite their best efforts, he died later that day and was buried at sea.

His father was informed of his death on the 3rd June 1915, Victor had been away from Australia a little less than eight months. The family however would have to wait until March 1916 to learn the nature of Victor’s death and receive home his personal effects that he had with him at the time of his death. As per the instructions of his will, his elder brother signed for these on behalf of Victor’s niece Molly. The package contained his identity disc, a wristlet watch, a cloth wallet, photos and letters. These, along with his medals became the mementos of her lost uncle for little Molly Williams.

Victor is remembered by the community of Woodville. His name appears on the honour roll in the Woodville School of Arts Hall. His name appears on the Lone Pine Memorial as he has no known grave and on memorial panel 35 of the Australian War Memorial.

Written by John Gillam and researched by Yvonne Fletcher