Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=123632

'For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He located an enemy post of eight men which had been harassing out line for some days. He led a party and surrounded the post, killing two and capturing three, including the N.C.O. in charge. He then withdrew without any casualties.' Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 185 Recommended 17 Apr 1918 Gazetted : 27 November 1918

37471 Pilot Officer William Keith Bennett

RAAF Fighter Pilots with 56SQN RAF (L to R): Flying Officer Kenneth Watts 420315; Flying Officer Laurence John Henderson 413935; Flying Officer Alexander Stuart Miller 410130

'At NOREUIL on 2nd April, 1917 this Non Commissioned Officer although wounded twice continued to lead his section in the face of heavy Machine Gun and Shell fire, encouraging his men, and continuing to do his duty until receiving his third wound.' Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 174 Date: 11 October 1917

HSSA_Journal_2009_Scarfe.pdf

HSSA_Journal_2009_Scarfe.pdf

Distinguished Conduct Medal 'For conspicuous gallantry at Chuignes, 23 August, 1918, when he took charge of his platoon after its officer was wounded. When held up by a next of machine guns, he showed great skill in the use of his Lewis gun section, under the covering fire of which he charged the post, and captured three machine guns and forty prisoners.' Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 35 Date: 15 April 1920

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1931090

An Australian digger searches for his mate's grave amid the shell-torn landscape that was Pozieres. The fact that so many men have no known grave is unsurprising given field burials like these which could be subsequently obliterated by more fighting and shellfire. After the war these ad hoc burials were concentrated into the cemeteries we know today.

Australians prepare for an attack near Bullecourt, France, May 1917. [AWM E00454]

This is a disturbing image of a destroyed German trench. In the foreground the limp bodies of dead German soldiers lie amidst the rubble. It is difficult to distinguish the soldiers from the chaos around them, but three bodies are clearly visible. One man, wearing a helmet, has been pushed forward by the blast and, although dead, appears to crouch forward. The entire scene is a maelstrom of mud, splintered wood and dead bodies. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Messines_-_destroyed_German_trench.jpg

For the first time since Gallipoli, the New Zealanders attacked alongside the Australians at Messines on 7 June 1917. Here New Zealand troops watch British tanks advance towards Messines Ridge. E01417

Family journey to have Oscar identified. When we heard in 2008 that an archeological dig had recovered the remains of 250 Australian and British servicemen at Pheasant Wood, the family was buoyed with hope that our ‘Uncle Oscar’ might at last have been found. Newspapers in South Australia reported with great anticipation that Oscar and several other soldiers from the State could be among those identified. I’m his great nephew, my grandmother Olga was Oscar’s older sister. And growing up, my generation of his descendants had assumed he might forever be buried somewhere as an ‘Unknown Soldier’. With great expectation a cousin and I registered on the Missing Servicemen Database. Along with more than one thousand other Australians, we became DNA donors. A descendant of Oscar’s brother Walter also gave DNA. In the first few years of the Army’s Fromelles Project, many soldiers were identified from the 250 sets of remains. Unfortunately for us, Oscar Baumann wasn’t among them. The years passed, and we had all but given up hope. Then in 2021 I was approached by an Adelaide journalist who told me he believed that Oscar and two other Australian soldiers were about to be identified. I contacted an officer of the Army’s Fromelles Project, who told me it was likely that Oscar Baumann was among those recovered, but in the absence of one hundred per cent certainty there could not be official identification. The Army needed more DNA information, so I sent them the family trees of Oscar’s siblings. The ’missing link’ turned out to be the daughter of Oscar’s youngest sister- a living niece in Adelaide by the name of Barbara Elsley. She gladly offered her DNA, and on Anzac Day of 2023 the Australian government announced that Oscar, along with five other soldiers of Fromelles, had been officially identified. Barbara was so captivated with events that at the age of 85 she travelled to France for the rededication ceremony at Fromelles on 19th July. She represented the family to unveil a new headstone bearing his name- Oscar was no longer an Unknown Soldier. Oscar’s new headstone notes ‘His Duty Nobly Done’, the words chosen by his parents in the death notice in 1916. His story is poignant given his heritage. Oscar’s father had emigrated from Germany only thirty-seven years before the outbreak of war. While some German immigrants in Australia were interned and others were ‘Anglicising’ their names, Oscar’s parents offered permission for his enlistment- only to have their son killed in action by a German enemy on the battlefields of France. Trevor Bormann 20/9/23

Commemorative Plaque and Scroll signed by King George V, issued to the families of the Fallen