One
of the reasons for setting up this site was to find further info on
the Kyarra and her career.
I recently received an email from Australia. Glenys Rendell sent me
an email looking for information and a picture of the Kyarra as Glenys
is researching her Great Uncle Alexander Brown (Sandy).
Alexander Brown sailed from Brisbane to England on the Kyarra - embarking
on 17 november 1916. he served in the trenches in France and was shot
and died of wounds in June 1918.
This page and the related pages are dedicated to Alexander Brown and
those brave people he served with.
11th Brigade
The 11th Infantry Brigade was formed in early 1916 and consisted of
the 41st Battalion, formed from recruits from Queensland and New South
Wales, the 42nd from Queensland, the 43rd from South Australia, and
the 44th from Western Australia.
41st Battalion
The 41st Battalion was raised at Bell's Paddock Camp in Brisbane in
February 1916 with recruits from Brisbane, northern Queensland and the
northern rivers district of New South Wales. It formed part of the 11th
Brigade of the 3rd Australian Division.
After training in Australia and Britain, the 41st Battalion arrived
in France on 25 November 1916. It entered the front line for the first
time on Christmas Eve and spent the bleak winter of 1916-17 alternating
between service in the front line, and training and labouring in the
rear areas.
Compared to some AIF battalions, the 41st's experience of the battles
in Belgium during 1917 was relatively straightforward. It had a supporting
role at Messines on 7 June, captured its objectives at Broodseinde on
4 October with little difficulty, and was spared the carnage of Passchendaele
on 12 October. It was some of the battalion's more "routine"
tasks that proved its most trying experiences. At the end of June 1917,
the 11th Brigade was ordered to establish a new front line west of Warneton,
in full view of the Germans. Work carried on night and day under heavy
shellfire and the period became known to the battalion as "the
18 days". The start of August found the 41st holding ground captured
by two of its sister battalions in a feint attack on 31 July. Enduring
continual rain, flooded trenches and heavy shelling many of the battalion's
platoons dwindled from 35 men to less than ten.
Belgium remained the focus of the 41st Battalion's activities for the
five months after its action in October 1917 as it was rotated between
service in the rear areas and the front line. When the German Army launched
its last great offensive in March 1918, the battalion was rushed south
to France and played a role in blunting the drive towards the vital
railway junction of Amiens.
The Allies launched their own offensive on 8 August 1918, and the 41st
played an active role both in the initial attack and the long advance
that followed throughout August and into September. The 41st participated
in its last major action of the war between 29 September and 2 October
1918 as part of the Australian-American operation that breached the
formidable defences of the Hindenburg Line along the St Quentin Canal.
The battalion was out of the line when the war ended, and was disbanded
in May 1919.
Glossary
11th Brigade; 1st Australian Imperial Force; 3rd Division; Battle of
Amiens; Battle of Broodseinde Ridge; Battle of Messines; First Battle
for Passchendaele; German Spring Offensive; Hindenburg Line; St Quentin
Canal
Battle honours
• Messines 1917
• Ypres 1917
• Polygon Wood
• Broodseinde
• Poelcappelle
• Passchendaele
• Somme 1918
• Ancre 1918
• Hamel
• Amiens
• Albert 1918
• Mont St Quentin
• Hindenburg Line
• St Quentin Canal
• France and Flanders 1916-1918
Casualties
• 444 killed, 1577 wounded (including gassed)
Commanding Officers
• Board, Frederick Johnson
• Heron, Alexander Robert
Decorations
• 1 VC
• 1 CMG
• 2 DSO
• 13 MC, 3 bars
• 12 DCM
• 82 MM, 2 bars
• 4 MSM
• 26 MID
• 7 foreign awards
Messines
1917
07 June 1917 - 14 June 1917
Acknowledges participation in the assault on, and occupation of, the
Messines Ridge on the Western Front carried out by units of General
Plumer's Second Army. The honour includes the action of Wytschaete.
Broodseinde
04 October 1917 - 04 October 1917
Awarded for involvement in the successful assault and capture, as part
of the Third Battle of Ypres, of the high ground around the village
of Broodseinde. This was a significant defeat for the German forces,
which allowed for the Allied occupation of the entire ridge south of
the Passchendaele sector.
Battle of Messines
07 June 1917 - 14 June 1917
Successful British assault on the Messines-Wytschaete Ridge, a strongly
held strategic position on the Western Front, which had been held by
the Germans since late 1914. The offensive operation was the product
of long preparation, detailed planning and sound training carried out
by General Plumer's Second Army. The initial assault was preceded by
the detonation of 19 mines under the German font line which caused an
estimated 10 000 German casualties. British, Australian and New Zealand
infantry advanced behind a carefully co-ordinated artillery bombardment
and took all their objectives within the first hours of the battle.
German counter attacks the following day failed, and although German
resistance continued until 14 June, British, Australian and New Zealand
forces retained possession of the captured areas. The battle is often
cited as a model for a well planned limited objective attack. Messines
represented a preliminary to the major British offensive in Flanders
in 1917, the Third Battle of Ypres.
First Battle for Passchendaele
12 October 1917 -
As a part of the continuing Third Battle of Ypres on the Western Front,
Australian, New Zealand and British troops were involved in an unsuccessful
attempt to seize the Passchendaele Ridge from the defending Germans
on 12 October 1917. The vicious fighting took place in the most appalling
of waterlogged conditions, which helped render the name Passchendaele
a synonym for slaughter. The 3rd Australian Division's attempts to struggle
forward to their objective with little artillery protection represented
the last major Australian participation in the Third Battle of Ypres.
Passchendaele
12 October 1917 - 12 October 1917
Awarded for participation in the operations mounted against German positions
on Passchendaele Ridge.
Battle of Broodseinde Ridge
04 October 1917 -
The battle of Broodseinde Ridge was the third operation launched by
British general Herbert Plummer as part of the Ypres offensive of 1917.
It was a large operation, involving twelve divisions, including those
of both I and II ANZAC. The attack was planned on the same basis as
its predecessors - the attacking troops' objectives were approximately
1,500 metres deep, the advance would be preceded by a massive artillery
bombardment; and a creeping barrage would lead the troops on to their
objectives and then protect them while they consolidated their positions.
The attack began before dawn on 4 October 1917. The Australian troops
involved were shelled heavily on their start line and a seventh of their
number became casualties even before the attack began. When it did,
the attacking troops were confronted by a line of troops advancing towards
them; the Germans had chosen the same morning to launch an attack of
their own. The Australians forged on through the German assault waves
and gained all their objectives along the ridge. It was not without
cost, however. German pillboxes were characteristically difficult to
subdue, and the Australian divisions suffered 6,500 casualties.
German Spring Offensive
March 1918 - May 1918
This term relates to the three major German attacks on the Western Front
in late March, April and May 1918, known collectively as the "Kaiserschlacht"
(Kaiser's Battle) offensive. Using troops released from the Eastern
Front, following the revolution and collapse of the Russian Armies in
late 1917, the German General Staff attempted to win the war before
the Americans arrived in sufficient force to tip the strategic balance
firmly in favour of the Allies. The first German attack in March was
launched against the British Fifth Army in Arras (Somme area); the second
attack in April centred on Lys in Flanders, and the third offensive
in May focused on the Aisne, where British Divisions recuperating from
the March attacks were again subjected to severe losses. Despite sweeping
early gains in each of their attacks, German forces (which incurred
huge casualties in their all-out attacks) outdistanced their supply
lines and became themselves exhausted by the constant fighting. The
final German advances were repulsed at the Marne in mid-June 1918, and
the scene was set for the Allied counter-offensives of the summer.
Hindenburg Line
In part as a consequence of the tremendous losses incurred during the
Somme Offensive in 1916, German forces on the Western Front between
Cambrai and St Quentin withdrew to a new defensive line during February
and March 1917. Called the "Siegfried Stellung (Line)" by
the Germans, this complex system of defensive fieldworks and mutually
supporting fortifications was named the "Hindenburg Line"
by the Allies. This withdrawal straightened the German line, reducing
its length by 25 miles and releasing 13 Divisions for service in the
reserve.
In fact the near central "Siegfried Stellung" was only one
of a series of highly sophisticated linked defensive trench lines constructed
by the Germans. The entire defensive line from the coast to Verdun comprised:
the "Wotan Stellung", between the Belgian coast and Cambrai;
the "Siegfied Stellung" ("Hindenburg Line", the
oldest and most complex central system) between Cambrai amd St Quentin;
the "Alberich Stellung", between St Quentin and Laon. The
"Brunhilde Stellung" protected the German front in Champagne
and the "Kriemhilde Stellung" between the Argonne Forest and
Metz.
Alexander Brown
Rank Private [Pte]
Service Number 2535
Unit 41 Bn Australian Inf
Service Army
Conflict 1914-1918
Date of Death 3 June 1918
Cause of Death Killed in action
Cemetery or Memorial Details SUSSEX 5 Chichester Cemetery
Place Of Enlistment Archer, QLD
War Grave Register Notes BROWN, Pte. Alexander, 2535. 41st Bn. Australian
Inf. Died of wounds 3rd June, 1918. Son of John and Janet McLeod Brown,
of Warton, Archer, Queensland, Australia. Born at Nelson, Lanes, England.
134. 76.
Location on the Roll of Honour
Alexander Brown's name is located at panel 133 in the Commemorative
Area at the Australian War Memorial
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