Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Wilfred Mapon CHAILLE was born on 7th August, 1891 in Esk, Queensland

His parents were James Mapon CHAILLE and Charlotte Ann WOOLLETT

Medals:  1914-15 Star, British War Medal & the Victory Medal

Sergeant Wilfred Mapon Chaille, better known in Esk and district as "Pat'' Chaille, was the youngest son of Mr and Mrs. J. M. Chaille, Esk, and waa 36 years of age last August. He  enlisted early in September, 1914, and landed with the Light Horse at Gallipoli where he was wounded He returned to the Front, however, and was present at the evacuation.  Enlisting as a trooper, he was promoted in the field to corporal, and later to sergeant. Prior to the war he was a member of the Legion of Frontiersmen.

# 530 CHAILLE Wilfred (Pat) Mapon                                      5th Light Horse Regiment
 
Wilfred Chaille, who preferred to be known as Pat, was born on 7th August 1891. He was the youngest of six children born to James and Charlotte Chaille at Esk. James Chaille had various business interests in the Esk district, principally involving grazing. There were also residences in Toowoomba and Brisbane. When Pat was old enough, he attended Esk State School and then at the age of 15 attended Toowoomba Grammar School. The Chaille family had a residence in Toowoomba and Pat probably lived there while attending TGS as a day boy. He finished his education at TGS in December 1908 and returned to the family property at Esk.
 
Pat joined the Legion of Frontiersmen soon after the organisation was established in 1910. The legion was a patriotic paramilitary organisation that had grown out of the sentiments of empire at the end of the Boer War. It espoused the ideals of outdoor skills being fostered to aid in the event of war. The Legion had a parallel with the establishment of the Boy Scouts. Perhaps Pat’s association with the Legion was the catalyst for him applying to be a special constable during the general strike of 1912. The strike grew out of a labour dispute between tramway employees and operators over the right to wear the badge of the Tramways Union and snowballed into a period of community disruption. The Queensland Government of the time legislated for the introduction of a special force to maintain law and order. There is a photograph in Queensland State Library collection that shows Pat and another man mounted and armed. They wear the armband of the “specials.” It is unlikely that there was any call for the special constables in the Esk district.
 
Given Pat’s enthusiasm for things paramilitary, it is not surprising that at the outbreak of war, he resolved to enlist. Pat was not alone; within the ranks of “A” Squadron of the 5th Light Horse, there are at least 12 others from Esk and the surrounding districts and in letters sent home from the war, Pat often makes a comment about the “Esk Boys”. Pat eventually presented himself for enlistment at Enoggera on 7th November 1914. He told the officer he was 22 years and 3 months old and gave his occupation as grazier. Pat named his father as next of Kin. He was accepted into the AIF and after passing the riding tests, was added to the roll of “A” Squadron of the 5th Light Horse Regiment. The 5th Light Horse was a totally Queensland regiment and the unit’s nominal roll lists men with bush skills such as farriers, horse breakers and stockmen amongst the initial enlistments. The Light Horse was organised along the lines of British cavalry units using terms such as regiment instead of battalion, squadron instead of company and troop instead of platoon. Four days after being placed on the Roll of the 5th LHR, the regiment with accompanying horses boarded trains at nearby Newmarket Station bound for Liverpool in Sydney.
 
The regimental war diary for this period describes the trains being unloaded at Wallangarra (due the difference in rail gauges, all goods and passengers had to change trains at the Qld/NSW border) and all the horses had to be dipped. The diary records a number of horses dying due to the dipping as well as a number being transferred to the vet hospital. Obviously, the dipping process must have been rather toxic and it is interesting to note that the same diary as the years progressed became more blasé about casualties, both human and equine. The regiment proceeded to Liverpool for a short period of reorganisation before entraining for Woolloomooloo docks where the regiment boarded the Transport Ship “Persic” on the 20th and 21st December. The embarkation roll shows Wilfred Chaille had made an allotment of 3 shillings a day pay to his mother. This left Pat with 2 shillings a day pay as well as one shilling a day deferred (payable on discharge or death).
 
Christmas 1914 was spent at sea in the Great Australian Bight and the “Persic” arrived in the harbour of Albany, WA on 28th December where other ships of the 2nd Expeditionary Force were assembled. The convoy sailed across the Indian Ocean without incident, although the regimental diary records a number of soldier’s deaths due to common diseases such as measles and mumps. Also, on the voyage more horses died due to the effects of the dip at Wallangarra.
 
The regiment disembarked in Alexandria in Egypt on 1st February 1915 and moved by train to the Light Horse Camps on the outskirts of Cairo. Finally, some serious training could be undertaken as there had been precious little time for this back in Australia. One manoeuvre that was practised was “Cossack Defence” where a party of three men would take up defensive positions while a fourth man held the horses in the rear. After firing a few rounds, all would mount up and gallop away. Patrolling and intelligence gathering became routine, although there was no sign of the enemy. Meanwhile the AIF infantry was practicing for the anticipated landings on the Gallipoli Peninsula in April.
 
When the landings at ANZAC did not go according to plan, the role of the Light Horse, which would have been given the task of wide-ranging patrols and attack across the peninsula changed. By early May, the new plan would see the Light Horse Brigades land at Gallipoli as infantry (something they had not trained for) and without their horses. The 5th Light Horse as part of the 2nd Light Horse Brigade landed at ANZAC on 20thMay and began fatigue duties on the beach carrying water and supplies up to the forward positions on the heights.
 
Pat would have witnessed an unusual sight on the 24th May when an armistice was declared across the front so that both Australians and Turks could cross into no man’s land to collect their dead for both humanitarian and sanitary reasons. Fighting resumed at 5:00pm that afternoon.
 
In early June the 5th LHR moved into the frontline at Chatham’s Post. The regimental diary records numerous casualties from Turkish artillery. On the 26th June, “A” Squadron was the spearhead for an attack on Turkish lines named the Balkan Pits. The regimental diary records that the men moved forward gallantly but fire from two British warships offshore fell short of the Turkish positions and amongst the Australians, and this plus artillery fire from the Turkish side contributed to casualties that ran to three pages in the war diary. During the attack, Pat received gunshot wounds to his right hand and chest. He was carried down to the beach at Anzac Cove and then ferried out to the Hospital Ship “Sicilia” to be conveyed to the #2 Australian General Hospital at Heliopolis in Cairo. Pat’s wounds healed well and after a period in the convalescent hospital at Mena he proceeded back to the front, being taken on strength by the 5th LHR on 2nd October 1915.
 
The war diary records that by this time there were only 154 men from the original regiment (660) which had landed back in May still on the Peninsula. In November the weather turned. Flooding rain washed out trenches and dugouts; then it snowed. During the summer, the Australians had discarded most of their uniforms or they had simply disintegrated through lack of washing. The cold brought exposure and frostbite. In November, a visit by the British Minister for War, Lord Kitchener, to the Gallipoli peninsula was the catalyst for plans to abandon the entire Dardanelles Campaign. The Commander at Gallipoli was sacked and preparations were made to evacuate the Australians. Pat departed Anzac on 25th December and by the 28thDecember, the 5th LHR was in camp at Maadi.
 
After the withdrawal from Gallipoli, there were concerns that the Turks would make a move to capture the Suez Canal by moving across the Sinai from Palestine. The Light Horse were actively engaged in patrolling east of the canal. In April, Pat was promoted to Lance Corporal. The bulk of the AIF was reorganised and sent to the Western Front while the Light Horse remained in Egypt to meet a possible Turkish advance from Palestine across the Sinai Peninsula. At the beginning of August, the ANZAC Mounted Division and British Infantry units met a combined Turkish and German force at the town of Romani on the Mediterranean coast in the Sinai. The 2nd Light Horse Brigade; of which the 5th LHR was part mounted a bayonet charge on foot, capturing many enemy soldiers and equipment. This signalled the end of the Sinai Desert campaign and the threat to the canal.
 
The ANZAC Mounted Division now began to plan for offensive operations that would force the Ottoman Forces back across the Sinai Desert towards the Palestinian border. To aid operations in the sandy terrain, the Imperial Camel Corps was added to the Mounted Division and a number of Light Horse reinforcements were trained in the handling of these beasts. The division was used mainly for long range patrolling and intelligence gathering but did take part in a number of small skirmishes around El Arish on the Mediterranean Coast. Once El Arish fell, the freshwater pipeline and rail line from the Canal were extended to El Arish which became a major supply point being resupplied via rail and also by ship. In December 1916, the forces of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force had reached the border with Palestine. The Ottoman forces had established a strong defensive line that stretched from Rafa on the Mediterranean coast south east to Beersheba. Rafa occupied a strategic position on the route from Egypt to the Levant and Jerusalem and no progress could be made by the EEF without taking Rafa.
 
On 26th March 1917, the EEF made the first of three attempts to capture Rafa when the Anzac Mounted Division took advantage of thick fog to break through the Ottoman lines to cut off the lines of retreat from Rafa while British and Indian infantry attacked the defences head on. Fearing that the mounted units would be over run by Turkish reinforcements, the British commander called off the attack which infuriated the Light Horse who claimed that they were in excellent position to take the town. Thus ended the first Battle of Gaza.
 
In April, a second attempt was made to take Rafa with infantry supported by artillery, tanks and even warships firing from out at sea. The Turks had learnt their lesson from the previous battle and the defences had been strengthened. The frontal assault was repulsed and the attack called off. At this point the British Commander was replaced by the highly competent General Allenby.
 
On 24th September, Pat was granted a month’s stay at a rest camp at Port Said after which he was posted back to the remounts camp at Moascar. On 21st November, Pat was promoted to Sergeant. He remained at Moascar, probably working as a training instructor until May 1918. While Pat had been away from the fighting, things had taken a dramatic turn. After the third battle of Gaza at the end of October 1917 (where the 4th and 12th Light Horse charged at Beersheba), the township of Rafa capitulated and Gaza itself surrendered on 7th November. Allenby marched at the head of a column of soldiers into the city of Jerusalem on 9th December which the Turks had relinquished without a fight. The 5th LHR spent several months in rest camps in Gaza before preparing for the final campaign of 1918 that would lead to the Ottoman surrender.
 
Allenby’s plan for 1918 was to proceed along the coastal strip into the Levant (Lebanon) with his infantry and artillery while the Anzac Mounted Division crossed the Jordan River and moved up the Jordan Valley towards Damascus in Syria. Pat was sent to school of instruction for cavalry in June and then made his way back to his unit which was at that time holding a defensive position on the west bank of the Jordan River. The regimental war diary records that outposts were manned while men were also engaged in mosquito eradication. Malaria was endemic in the Jordan Valley and it accounted for more casualties than the enemy. On 14th November, just ten days after rejoining the regiment, Pat was part of a small party which had gone out to engage enemy snipers when he was fatally shot. He was buried by a burial party under the direction of Captain Spencer at Wadi Manahan somewhere near the Jordanian city of Amman and a wooden cross was erected there.
 
Fortunately, the grave and marker survived the extremes of weather long enough for the graves registration teams to locate and exhume Pat’s remains to be buried permanently in the Jerusalem Military Cemetery. His father chose the following inscription for his headstone: A HAPPY CHEERFUL SOUL WAS OUR BOY, BELOVED BY ALL WHO KNEW HIM. A comprehensive collection of photographs taken by Pat in the Middle East is now in the care of the State Library of Queensland.