Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Ronald Hartley (Hartley) Gerlach
Ronald Hartley (Hartley) Gerlach, was born in Angaston in South Australia’s Barossa region on the 24th August 1917. His parents were Paul and Louise Gerlach. Hartley was one of four children, including twins, Melva Nita, and Edna and Consie Fay, all of whom attended the local Angaston School. Much was made of Promotion Certificates which Hartley was awarded at the end of Grade II as well as a Regulatory Certificate. At the local Angaston Show he also won a prize for his schoolwork in Grade IV, and V for his maps, pastel work and handwriting. He was obviously a competent scholar as his name was published as being Top of his Grade several times in the local newspaper, the Leader, including success in his Qualifying Exam.
Having just turned 13, Hartley and his family were involved in a tragic accident when their horse and buggy were hit by a car, despite Paul, his father, pulling his horse right onto the left side of the bitumen. The papers reported that “The car struck the offside front wheel of his buggy, which capsized and was smashed. He and the family were all thrown out. He was injured and was taken to Angaston Hospital with ribs broken. Mrs. Gerlach was unhurt ; Edna, aged 11 years, had a cut on the forehead ; Gotthold Hartley, age 13, Melva Nita (11) and Consie Fay (2) were all unhurt. He had two lights on his buggy, and when the car hit, it was going very fast.” The driver of the car was killed instantly.
Being a rural area, orchardists were constantly looking for ways to improve their fruit crop yields. One creative idea was to have a ‘sparrow elimination’ competition. To this end, the Angaston Bureau branch offered a prize of £1 ($2) was offered for collectors of the greatest number of sparrow eggs up till the end of August, 1932. The winners, Stan Scholz (190) and Hartley Gerlach (116) divided the prize money between them.
Hartley was also a highly talented and competitive bike rider. In the late 30’s and early ‘40s he regularly won races at Waikerie over 16, 24, and 50 miles. In the latter, he rode over 30 miles alone—a very good effort. He also won the Angaston Cycle Club's sweepstake road race to Nuriootpa and back from a 1-minute handicap in April of 1940. Then WWII changed his life forever. With close friends and workmates, Jim Mansfield, Jack Duffield, Steve Johnson, Ron Chinner, and Ken Waters, all of Angaston, Hartley and the others passed the preliminary exam for enlistment.
With fellow workers from the Coop, he enlisted on the 2nd July 1940 to become SX7501. Two were later to enlist together on July 2nd 1940 being allocated consecutive enlistment numbers, John Duffield became SX 7499 and Stephen Johnson SX7500. Prior to beginning their training, the three, who worked together at the Angaston Fruitgrowers’ Co-operative, were farewelled by the executive and staff. Two others, Ptes Ron Chinner and Ken Waters from the Coop who had previously enlisted, were also present and wished the best of luck and a safe and speedy return. Hartley then proposed to Joyce Lambert of Eden Valley and the two became engaged at the end of August. It was to be an exceptionally challenging wait for the young couple until their wedding.
Hartley was one of seven Angaston ‘Boys’ who were farewelled at a packed Angaston Institute. Jack Duffield, Steve Johnson, Ron Chinner, Eric Teague, Hartley Gerlach, Geo. Langridge and Colin Weber were led in and congratulated on their enlistment. At the conclusion of the festivities, each soldier was presented with an inscribed gold pencil, plus gifts from the Coop and Glee Club. In the patriotic speeches that followed, Councillor Ninnes praised the “excellent attendance as a fitting honour for their boys who were going to win victory for the nation, with freedom of speech, action and thought.” He hoped they would all soon be back from a victorious campaign. Rather prophetically, the RSL Representative claimed that “Hitler would soon probably endorse Hindenburg's opinion of the Australians as the men most to be feared.”
Mr Farmer, for the Angaston Co-operative Packing House, publicly acknowledge the past services of Steve, Jack, Hartley and Ron. It had been no surprise that they answered the call, and he had no doubt they would worthily acquit themselves on the other side. To each of the men mentioned he handed a wallet as gift from the firm and the staff with their best wishes. Mr Farmer also presented a gift to each of the other soldiers.
Within five months, the local Leader reported that Hartley had sent his old Angaston School a little Union Jack, with a note to the headmaster explaining that “he'd always taken that flag to school on Empire Day, and now that he better understood what it represented, he wished the school to have it while he was away; and that he was mighty proud to have been an old scholar whose privilege it now was to carry on its traditions in a greater sphere. Hartley felt he couldn't take the flag himself, so sister Consie did the job; and all old and present scholars join in the hope that Hartley and his pals over there will be able to join in greater Empire Day celebrations at the school when the big job is done—and with that little flag and a few other souvenirs to bind them more closely together.”
As the war wore on, the community were anxious for and relished any news from overseas, as were those serving. On service in the Middle East, the first Angaston man Ted Hinsley met was Hartley Gerlach, who eagerly sought news of the old town. By November 1942 news the community did not want arrived; his parents were informed that Hartley had has been wounded a second time while fighting in the Middle East. A brief cable in December reported that he was ‘now making favourable progress’. As a result of wounds received in action, Hartley had to have a leg amputated. By January 1943 Hartley was back in SA in hospital and that he was ‘wounded in the thigh in the action that smashed Rommel's forces in Egypt and subsequently had to have his leg amputated.’ The local Lutheran Church held a brief thanksgiving service, including special prayers for the safe return of other members of the forces from the congregation.
How would such an active young man react? He shared his extraordinary ordeal with the local ‘Leader’. Hartley and local, Lance Corporal Ron Chinner, were fighting side by side when Hartley sustained a shrapnel wound through his right calf, but Ron helped him out of the danger zone. That was just before the break-through in Egypt, and a few days later Hartley re-joined his unit. As he went up again to the front lines Hartley met Ron returning with his left arm broken by a gunshot wound. That night Hartley went on patrol behind the enemy's lines and, about midnight, a German mine exploded right under him. His leg was hopelessly smashed, and he was unable to walk back to the linesmen with assistance. His mate went for other help, but it had not arrived when morning dawned.
Raising his head above the bush, Hartley could see German soldiers, moving up and down their lines, so he lay down again, rationing himself to a few biscuits and a cupful of water for that day. The pain in his leg was excruciating, but he waited silently behind the bush all that night and during the second day. That evening Germans found him and took him prisoner. It was at that stage that the enemy lines cracked and the rout started. There was no time to get him to hospital for amputation of the leg, instead, the operation was performed the next day in the convoy of fleeing trucks. A little injection in the neck and Hartley was anaesthetised.
On returning to consciousness, he found the leg was off and he was still on the German truck. There were no sickening after-effects, he said. The havoc wrought on that convoy by British bombers was terrific. Great gaps were being blasted in the lines of trucks, and Hartley considered Rommel certainly was getting "a father of a hiding." In spite of the danger to himself, he was thrilled by the accuracy of our boys' work from the air.
At Mersa Matru he was hospitalised. A German doctor, speaking perfect English, told Hartley he had studied in England and returned to Germany just before the war. "Pretend you are too ill to speak," he whispered. Hartley took the advice and, in his pyjamas, looked just like any German or Italian casualty. The orderlies in consequence gave him good treatment. He had been there only 36 hours when he heard loud explosions and found out that the Germans were blowing up everything that could be of use to the advancing forces; even the hospital water supply. All the nurses and every patient that could be moved were hurried away, and only two German doctors remained with over 200 seriously wounded German and Italian soldiers.
The two doctors, said Hartley, were furious at being left without water and supplies; but they did not know how close the British were. The hospital staff had gone only a few minutes when Australian officers walked in. Hartley sat up and yelled. "Hoy, there." Immediately three other heads popped up and their voices mingled in further “Hoys." They also were Australians, and to each of them the English-speaking German doctor had given the same advice about keeping quiet.
Hartley went back to Cairo in an ambulance—no bombing this time; and after a few days he was transferred to a hospital in Palestine and made splendid progress. Within a few weeks he was on board a hospital ship en route for home. Two hours before he left, he saw Ron Chinner, then getting on well. With him were Stan Morgan, Ross Heggie and Hughie Jungfer, all of Angaston; in fact, they have styled themselves the "Angaston Unit."
Hartley never saw the sea on his way back. He had severe haemorrhage in his leg, and only a prompt operation on the ship, with subsequent blood transfusions, saved his life. Now he is back in South Australia with still more good pals and the best attention.”
When his parents and sisters, Edna, Melva and Consie visited they commented about the camaraderie among the boys, and the way in which they helped one another. A legless soldier in a wheel-chair cheerfully considered he was lucky to be able to hurry around and chase flies away from his armless pal. That spirit, they said, prevailed everywhere. By July 1943 Hartley was fitted with an artificial limb and able to walk with the aid of a stick. In December he married his fiancé Joyce Lambert at the Keyneton Congregational Church. Consie, Hartley’s sister and the twins, Edna and Melva Gerlach were beautifully dressed attendants. Close friend, Mr Ron Chinner, (ex-AIF) with whom Hartley had shared so much while overseas, was best man. The newly-weds then made their home in Adelaide.
He was discharged on the 18th September, 1943 and later became part of a study of WWI and WWII servicemen in South Australia between 1948 and 1951 investigating phantom limbs and pains in amputation stumps.
In the ensuing years, Hartley was to act as best man to Edward Pearce (ex-AIF), who married Melva, one of Hartley’s twin sisters. The ‘Boys’ from Angaston continued to remember those who served with them and did not return, including Raymond George Young who died on May 1st 1941. “YOUNG—In loving remembrance of Raymond George, died in action May 1. Just a token, true and tender, Just to show we still remember. In memory of those of the 2/48 Bn., killed May 1, 1941,—Inserted by Jack Duffield, Ron Chinner, Steve Johnson, Hartley (Dick) Gerlach.’
Of great joy, was the arrival of Hartley’s daughters in 1945, Carmen Marie in May 1949 and Charmaine Joy in May 1953. Aged 54 Hartley died on the 22 October 1971, aged 54 years and his remains are at Centennial Park SA.
Researched and written by Kaye Lee, daughter of Bryan Holmes SX8133 2/48th