Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

# 575  ZARNKE Albert             9th Battalion
 
Albert Zarnke was born at Hattonvale in the Lockyer Valley in April 1893. He was one of 11 children born to Wilhelm (William) and Katharina (Katharine) Zarnke. It was reported that Albert attended Blenheim State School which probably indicates that the family were living and farming in the district close to Laidley.
 
By the time that Albert presented himself for enlistment in the AIF, the family had moved to Kinleymore, just outside of Proston. Albert enlisted in Maryborough on 2nd September 1914. He stated his age as 21 years and gave his occupation as locomotive fireman. It is possible that Albert worked on the PB 15 locomotives that pulled passengers and freight on the Kingaroy line, passing through Wondai.
 
After being accepted into the AIF, Albert travelled by main line train to Brisbane and on to Enoggera where Queensland recruits were being assembled to form the 9th Battalion, which would go on to be part of the 3rdInfantry brigade of the AIF.
 
 
The 9th Battalion was the first Queensland battalion to be raised in 1914 and recruits came from as far away as Cairns, Charters Towers and Northern New South Wales. Uniforms and equipment were issued and rudimentary training begun. The Brigadier of the 3rd Brigade travelled to Brisbane to inspect the troops in early September. The battalion paraded through the streets of Brisbane prior to boarding the transport “Omrah” at the Pinkenba Wharf on 24th September 1914. The “Omrah” departed Brisbane the next day.
 
From the outbreak of the war, the Australian Government was greatly concerned with the German presence in the Western Pacific; particularly the ships of Admiral Graf von Spee’s China Squadron which has slipped out of the home port of Qingdao and was somewhere in the vastness of the Western Pacific. Until the location of von Spee’s fleet could be established, coastal shipping along the eastern seaboard of Australia was potentially at risk. The Australian convoy containing the AIF would have to wait in southern ports until the location and destination of the German cruisers could be established.
 
The “Omrah” made it into Port Phillip Bay unharmed and the battalion disembarked from their transport in Melbourne and spent from the 1st to the 16th of October in training, with the other battalions of the 3rdBrigade. On the 17th October, the battalion was inspected on the Melbourne Town Pier by Prime Minister Andrew Fisher. The Battalion then re-embarked on the “Omrah” and sailed for King George Sound, Albany, to rendezvous with the rest of the first division transports before sailing for Egypt on 1st November.
 
During the voyage, one of the convoy escorts, HMAS Sydney, encountered theGerman Light Cruiser Emden which had detached itself from von Spee’s squadron and had been creating havoc in the ports of India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Emden was despatched with superior fire power at the Cocos Islands and the convoy continued unmolested. The convoy arrived at Suez on 29th November and sailed through the Suez Canal to Port Said and then on to Alexandria where the battalion disembarked and marched into the Mena Camp on the outskirts of Cairo.
 
The three brigades of the AIF, some 1500 men, set about engaging in a training regime first on company and battalion levels and then brigade manoeuvres.  The work was hot and dusty but one saving grace was that Mena was so close to Cairo that men could easily take a tram into the city, whether they had a pass or not, to sample the delights on offer. Many of the 9th Battalion men were farm boys and Cairo and its exotic environment must have presented a memorable spectacle.
 
As the months at Mena passed, it became obvious that the Australians were being trained to become part of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. On the 1st March 1915, the 9th Battalion and the other three battalions of the 3rd Brigade boarded transport ships for a journey across the Adriatic to the Island of Lemnos where the invasion force for the Dardanelles was being assembled. When the 9th arrived in Mudros Harbour on 7th March, the battalion disembarked and set up camp on the harbour shore from which position, the troops began to practice boat and landing drills. It was discovered that much of the equipment required for the expedition had been incorrectly loaded onto the supply ships with artillery and ammunition in separate ships holds and material required first being in the bottom of the holds. All of the supply ships had to be sent back to Alexandria to be unloaded and repacked. This delay provided the Turks manning the defences of the Dardanelles and the Gallipoli Peninsula, and who knew through intelligence that a vast invasion fleet was being assembled, with an additional three weeks in which to prepare; time which under the direction of the German General Liman von Sanders was put to good use.
 
The command of the entire AIF had been assigned to General William Birdwood (known universally as Birdie). Birdwood’s plan for the landing on the Gallipoli shore just north of Gaba Tepe on the 25th April 1915 was for the 3rd Brigade to be the covering force (first ashore) with the 9th Battalion taking up position on the far right of the line, closest to Gaba Tepe and the Turkish artillery emplaced there. The 9th Battalion men boarded the battleship HMS London late on the 24th April. The ships carrying the covering force slipped silently out of Mudros Harbour and headed for their designated station off the Gallipoli coastline. The men from “A” and “B” companies, who would be in the first wave climbed down the scaling ladders to a destroyer which would take them closer in shore before boarding lifeboats which in turn would be towed by steam launches to within a few hundred yards of the beach. All of this was achieved in complete silence and when the first of the 9th Battalion men waded ashore around 4:30am, there was very little opposition from the Turkish defenders.
 
The 9th had been given the task of advancing as far as a third ridge across the peninsula. No reconnaissance had been possible prior to the landing and the possibility of reaching the first day’s objective was exposed as being a mere folly. To add to the confusion, it appeared that the force had been put ashore in the wrong place. As more troops began to be landed in the full light of the morning, the combination of terrain, chaos on the beach and a breakdown in communication and leadership restricted the advance to precarious positions on the first ridge.
 
The situation at Anzac Cove was serious as the Turks held the high ground above the beachhead and there were few places that were not able to be targeted by the defenders. A number of senior officers pressured Birdwood to evacuate. In the end. The commander of the BEF, Gen Sir Ian Hamilton ordered the men to dig in where they were. The positions that had been reached on the 25th April were as far the Australians would go.
 
The men of the 9th Battalion remained in their position at the far south of the Anzac beachhead at Bolton’s Ridge, just up the slope from where they had first landed. The first weeks at Gallipoli were remarkable for headlong assaults by Australian and New Zealand Infantry which gained no additional ground; the Turks still held the high ground. A week after landing, and no doubt thoroughly exhausted, Albert was found asleep at his post. This was a serious offence and the battalion commander ordered he serve 28 days of Field Punishment #2; one of a range of punishments that could be meted out “in the field.” FP#2 required the offender to spend two hours of each day in shackles. Given the tenuous situation on Bolton’s Ridge and the likelihood of a Turkish attack at any moment, it is unlikely that Albert ever spent time in chains at all; every able bodied man was required to man the parapets.
 
On 19th May, the Turkish forces launched an enormous attack comprising a series of headlong charges against the Australian line. The casualties suffered by the Turks were appalling as the AIF men cut down the bayonet charges with withering rifle and machine gun fire. The 9th Battalion war diary records that there were 7000 Turkish soldiers lying dead or wounded in front of their positions which no one would venture to go out to carry away. The dead and wounded lay there in the sun. The assaults, though lacking some fervour, continued during the next day. 9th Battalion casualties were relatively light but about ten men had been killed, one of whom was Albert Zarnke.
 
Albert and 9 of his comrades were buried on a slope just behind the front line trenches which because it was so exposed to artillery fire was named Shell Green. Shell Green became an almost exclusive 9th Battalion cemetery for the first few months. A photograph of Albert’s grave, marked by a ring of stones, is held by the Australian War Memorial. Katharine Zarnke received a parcel of the few possessions her son had taken to war; cards, a holdall and an identity disc. She was also granted a pension of one pound a week.
 
When the Australians returned to Gallipoli at the end of the war, the Graves Registration Unit workers began to consolidate the scattered burials across the battlefield. The Shell Green cemetery became the resting place of 429 Anzacs. Unlike the cemeteries in France and Belgium, the Anzac Cemeteries have no limestone headstones. Instead, a bronze identification plaque lies at the head of each grave. The Zarnke family chose the following inscription for Alberts grave marker:
REST IN PEACE DEAR SON
FROM FATHER & MOTHER
SISTERS & BROTHERS