POMEROY, Herbert John
| Service Number: | VX57880 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 17 June 1941 |
| Last Rank: | Sergeant |
| Last Unit: | 1st Royal Australian Engineers Training Battalion |
| Born: | Reading, Berkshire, England, 21 May 1914 |
| Home Town: | Port Melbourne, Port Phillip, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Munition worker |
| Died: | Injuries, Kapooka, New South Wales, Australia, 21 May 1945, aged 31 years |
| Cemetery: |
Wagga Wagga War Cemetery Plot A Row C Grave 8 |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Terang RSL Wall of Remembrance, Terang War Memorial |
World War 2 Service
| 3 Sep 1939: | Involvement VX57880 | |
|---|---|---|
| 17 Jun 1941: | Enlisted Private, VX57880 | |
| 17 Jun 1941: | Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Sergeant, VX57880 | |
| 21 May 1945: | Involvement Sergeant, VX57880, 1st Royal Australian Engineers Training Battalion |
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It was around 2.30 in the afternoon on Monday 21 May 1945 when a squad of Royal Australian Engineers (Sappers) entered an underground dugout to learn about explosives and detonators. In one corner of the dugout was a box containing 50kg of high explosives.
Instructor Sergeant Herbert John 'Jack' Pomeroy and his young trainees were gathered in the dugout leaning about demolition work. A few minutes later Corporal William Barclay 'Bill' Cousins entered with the detonators, when the unthinkable happened, when the detonators somehow sparked and set off the box of explosives.
The blast so massive that it was felt in Wagga's main street, eight kilometres away. The toll was terrible. The dugout collapsed, and 26 lives were tragically lost. Just one Sapper survived - Allan Bartlett - who was admitted to hospital, but recovered, only to return to an empty six-man tent he had shared with his now-deceased comrades.
‘It was the Australian Army’s worst accident, a tragedy so grim and gruesome it tore the heart out of a country town’
Three days later, on Wednesday 23 May, Australia's largest military funeral took place in Wagga Wagga, with four flat bed trucks carrying 26 flagged draped coffins to the Wagga Wagga War Cemetery.
Approximately half the town (7000 men, women and children) turned out, lining the streets and paying their respects to the fallen, and 200 returned servicemen formed a guard of honour.
The service had a profound and lasting impact on the region and emotion overcame a number of people during the service as the coffins were simultaneously lowered to the sound of buglers playing the Last Post.
We will remember them.
Sergeant Ronald Irwin LINTHORNE
Sergeant Herbert John POMEROY
Corporal William Barclay COUSINS
Corporal Alfred Edward WOODS
Sapper Colin Francis BOYD
Sapper Joseph James COLLINS
Sapper Norman Rourke John DILLEY
Sapper Joseph William FAULL
Sapper Allan FLOOD
Sapper Denby Eric GRASBY
Sapper Colin Leslie HURLEY
Sapper Kevin Alexander HURST
Sapper Leslie John MATHER
Sapper Ivan Walter Thomas MERRITT
Sapper Terrence Ronald MOORE
Sapper Stanley Robert MORPHY
Sapper Jack Clinton NIXON
Sapper Geoffery Wilton PARTRIDGE
Sapper Kevin Francis PIERCE
Sapper Frank Wilfred PLATT
Sapper Ernest Frederick POSCHALK
Sapper William REID
Sapper Edward Charles ROBSON
Sapper Stanley Ernest ROSS
Sapper Alfred George WITT
Sapper Thomas WOODS
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