Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

FISHER Walde Gerard #1787 42nd Battalion

Walde Fisher (real name Waldemar Gerhard FISCHER) was born at Horsham in Victoria to parents Carl and Rhoda Fischer on 24th August 1894. Carl Fischer, in spite of being born in Germany, was a clergyman in the Church of England and his work took him to various localities throughout the country. By the time Walde attended school, the family were living in Queensland.

Walde gained a scholarship to attend secondary school at Ipswich Grammar in 1908 , perhaps as a boarder, where he was granted a second scholarship in 1913 to attend St John’s College at Kangaroo Point which was part of the newly established University of Queensland. During his senior years at Ipswich, Walde had been in the senior Military Cadets. While studying as an undergraduate, he served three years with the Citizens Military Forces.

Walde presented himself for enlistment in Brisbane on 28th February 1916. He stated his age as 21, occupation as undergraduate and address as St John’s College. Walde named his mother, Rhoda as his next of kin and stated her address as The Rectory, Redcliffe.

Walde initially stated his surname as Fischer and it is recorded as such on the documents in his military file but it appears that at some time he wished to have his surname recorded as Fisher. The “C” had been crossed out. Walde was not alone in attempting to disguise his obvious German heritage and given the level of anti-German sentiment at the time, it is understandable. Sometime during the course of the war, the other members of Walde’s family also adopted the English spelling of Fisher.

Walde was drafted into the 42nd Battalion which was being raised at Enoggera before being sent to England where the battalion would become part of the 11th Brigade of the 3rd Australian Division. The 42nd embarked on the “Boorara” in Brisbane on 16th August 1916. The embarkation roll shows Acting Sergeant Walde Fisher had allocated 3/- of his daily pay to a bank account in Brisbane.

The bulk of the 42nd landed in Plymouth on 12th October and marched into camp at Larkhill where Walde went into hospital with mumps. The entire 3rd Division, under the command of Major General John Monash (who had German heritage and had changed his surname from Monasch!) began to relocate from the camps on Salisbury Plain to the western front in November and December 1916. Walde joined his battalion in the area around the French Belgian border in January. At that time he reverted to the rank of private but was immediately promoted again to Lance Corporal before being posted to the divisional training school where he was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 28th February 1917.

The focus for the British and Dominion Forces in 1917 shifted from the Somme in France to the Ypres salient in Belgium. The 3rd Australian Division, which had initially been trained in England, continued with detailed training and planning for the coming offensive which would begin with an assault on the Messines Ridge south of the city of Ypres. The battle of Messines in June began with the blowing of nineteen underground mines beneath the German positions, followed by an advance by British and Australian Divisions. Messines was Walde’s first exposure to a major action.

Success by the 42nd at Messines was followed by a smaller action at Warneton in July and Broodseinde in early October. On 28th September, Walde was promoted to Lieutenant. The run of successes in Belgian Flanders came to an end with the arrival of heavy and continuous rain in October which turned the low lying fields into a sea of clinging mud which brought the campaign to a halt. The ultimate goal, the village of Passchendaele, remained in enemy hands until the Canadians captured the village at great cost in November.

As the front in Flanders was closed down for the winter, the Australian divisions went into camps around Poperinghe west of Ypres. Unlike the winter of the previous year, the troops were accommodated in warm dry billets due to the erection of hundreds of prefabricated huts invented by a British Army Engineer, Peter Nissen. The Australians took the time in the rest camps to rest, play sport, re-equip and reinforce their losses if possible. For Walde, he took advantage of the lull in the fighting to enjoy a two week furlough in England.

In the spring of 1918, it was fairly evident that the Germans would use the extra resources available as a result of a cessation of fighting on the Eastern Front. The advantage would only last until sufficient numbers of American troops arrived to boost the flagging numbers of the British and French.

General Erich Ludendorff launched Operation Michael on 21st March 1918, with the major thrust along the valley of the Somme which had been taken by the British in 1916 at great cost. Ludendorff’s stormtroopers easily overran the British 5th Army and the vital city of Amiens was threatened. There was a real chance that the German offensive could split the French and British armies and thereby win the war. In a desperate bid to halt the German advance, the British Field Commander Haig ordered elements of the 3rd and 4th Australian Divisions south from Belgium to take up defensive positions between the German armies and Amiens.
The 42nd Battalion travelled for almost 36 hours without rest to take up positions in the triangle formed at the junction of the Somme and Ancre Rivers. There were a few trenches which had been dug by the French earlier in the war but these had mostly collapsed or were overgrown. The battalion’s task was to hold the line until a counterattack could be organised, and given the disarray of the British Forces, that could take some time.

Reports given to the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Service by various witnesses stated that “Mr Fisher was killed outright on 5th April 1918 when a whizz-bang ( 5.9 artillery shell) landed in a shallow trench that he was occupying.” Walde’s body was carried out by men from a platoon of pioneers and he was buried in a cemetery at Heilly with the Rev. Esperson in attendance. His grave was marked with a temporary wooden cross.

Walde had changed his will to name his sister, Dorothy as the beneficiary of his estate. Walde’s belongings, which included his full uniform and underclothes were sealed in a valise to be shipped to his sister, whose address at the time was Girl’s Grammar School, Brisbane.
Unfortunately, all of Walde’s personal effects were lost when the S.S.Barunga, on route from Portsmouth to Melbourne which was carrying many parcels of personal effects as well as some returning servicemen was torpedoed off the Scilly Isles by a U-Boat. All hands on board were saved but the cargo went to the bottom with the ship.

When the Imperial War Graves Commission began its work of constructing war cemeteries, the Heilly Cemetery became the Heilly Station Cemetery. A permanent headstone was erected on Walde’s grave with the inscription chosen by his mother, GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN. The grave registration notes his parents address of The Rectory, Redcliffe, and his birthplace.