Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Stanley Richards Sallis was born in Payneham, South Australia on the 20th of October 1894 son of Ada Sallis. He was a boot maker in Payneham until the 28th of May 1915 where he enlisted for the army at Keswick Barracks South Australia. He was placed into the 32nd battalion that was sent to Gallipoli on the 18th of November. Stanley’s battalion arrived during the failure of the Gallipoli campaign and what was left of the 30th battalion was added to the 32nd battalion and then they proceeded to Egypt for further training where they would prepare for to fight in France.

During Stanley’s services he was a stretcher bearer, the job of a stretcher bearer was to find wounded soldiers and carry them off the battle field to be treated, this meant that the stretcher bearers themselves would have to put them selves at risk to help others. Stanley saved many wounded and he was recognised for his courage when undergoing his duties as a stretcher bearer. He showed courage on several occasions when tending to injured soldiers that were under heavy enemy fire as he risked his life to help those soldiers in need of assistance after they had been injured by constant enemy gun fire which also had them pinned down in a hard position on the battle field either in trenches or in open areas of the hill they fought.

While in the 32nd battalion on the 16th of July 1916 Stanley was put on the front line in the battle of Fromelles in France. His battalion suffered greatly with many casualties within his battalion as they were sent out into open ground where 90% of his battalion’s actual fighting strength were killed. In total Stanley’s battalion suffered 718 casualties this is 75% of his whole battalion and he was lucky as a stretcher bearer to have not been killed. As a stretcher bearer Stanley would have been under heavy fire at all times as he was in open ground when attending to injured and fallen soldiers. The battalion wasn’t involved in any other major offences for the remainder of the year.

The 32nd battalion pushed forward to the second fight at Bullecourt where they fortunately missed the heavy fight. The last fight that that Stanley’s battalion had a major part in was at Polygon woods in Ypres sector in Belgium in September 1917.

Early 1918 Stanley failed to appear at the appointed time given to him, this was a crime but Stanley was later forced to leave the battle due to fatigue and was hospitalized on the the 31st of January, this excused his failure to appear at the appointed time and Stanley was not punished. He was in hospital for 12 days and returned to the battle field on the 11th of February 1918. At this time the 32nd battalion was being held reserve during the German spring offensive in France.

Stanley’s battalion on the 8th of August was placed into the battle of Amiens, the allies had just ordered a spring offensive which the 32nd battalion had involvement in. The offensive pushed enemy Germans back forcing them to retreat and the allies kept pushing forward, was a major part of the war as it secured important areas of France. The 32nd battalion was retraining and resting when the war ended. The 32nd battalion returned to Australia in 1919.