History | |
---|---|
United Kingdom | |
Name | Warilda |
Operator | Adelaide Steamship Company |
Builder | William Beardmore and Company, Glasgow |
Yard number | 505 |
Launched | 5 December 1911 |
Maiden voyage | 1912 |
Fate | Torpedoed by German U-boat UC-49 on 3 August 1918. [1] |
General characteristics | |
Tonnage | 7713 tons gross |
Length | 411 feet 3 inches (125.35 m) |
Beam | 56 feet 7 inches (17.25 m) |
Draught | 34 feet 1 inch (10.39 m) |
Installed power | 626 nhp on 6 coal-fired boilers |
Propulsion | Twin quadruple expansion engines |
Speed |
|
HMAT Warilda (His Majesty's Australian Transport) was a 7713-ton vessel, built by William Beardmore and Company in Glasgow as the SS Warilda for the Adelaide Steamship Company. [2] She was designed for the East-West Australian coastal service, but following the start of the First World War, she was converted into a troopship and later, in 1916, she was converted into a hospital ship.
Her identical sister ships, also built by William Beardmore and Company, were SS Wandilla (1912) and SS Willochra (1913).[ citation needed ]
On 3 August 1918, HMAT Warilda was transporting wounded soldiers from Le Havre, France to Southampton when she was torpedoed by the German submarine UC-49. [9] This was despite being marked clearly with the Red Cross; as with a number of other hospital ships torpedoed during the war, Germany claimed the ships were also carrying arms. [10]
The ship sank in about two hours, and of the 801 persons on board, 123 died due to the sinking. [1] The Deputy Chief Controller of the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corp, Mrs Violet Long, lost her life in this action. [11] Among the survivors was her commander, Captain Sim, who was later awarded the OBE by King George V. [12] Her wreck lies in the English Channel. [13]
Marcel Caux, born Harold Katte, was an Australian First World War veteran and the last known survivor of the Battle of Pozières.
Reginald Roy Inwood, VC was an Australian soldier and recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in battle that could be awarded to a member of the Australian armed forces at the time. Inwood enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in August 1914, and along with the rest of the 10th Battalion, he landed at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, on 25 April 1915. He fought at Anzac until being evacuated sick to Egypt in September. He remained there until he rejoined his unit on the Western Front in June 1916. In August, he fought in the Battle of Mouquet Farm.
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The 10th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army that served as part of the all-volunteer Australian Imperial Force during World War I. Among the first units raised in Australia during the war, the battalion was recruited from South Australia in August 1914 and formed part of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division. After basic training, the battalion embarked for Egypt where further training was undertaken until the battalion was committed to the Gallipoli campaign. During the landing at Anzac Cove, it came ashore as part of the initial covering force. Members of the 10th Battalion penetrated the furthest inland of any Australian troops during the initial fighting, before the Allied advance inland was checked. After this, the battalion helped defend the beachhead against a heavy counter-attack in May, before joining the failed August Offensive. Casualties were heavy throughout the campaign and in November 1915, the surviving members were withdrawn from the peninsula. In early 1916, the battalion was reorganised in Egypt at which time it provided a cadre staff to the newly formed 50th Battalion. It was transferred to the Western Front in March 1916, and for the next two-and-a-half years took part in trench warfare in France and Belgium until the Armistice in 1918. The last detachment of men from the 10th Battalion returned to Australia in September 1919.
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The Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train was a unique unit of the Royal Australian Navy. It was active only during the First World War, where it served in the Gallipoli and the Sinai and Palestine Campaigns. The Train was formed in February 1915 and stood down in May 1917. Throughout its existence, it was composed of Royal Australian Naval Reservists under the command of Lieutenant Commander Leighton Bracegirdle. Normally under the command of the British IX Corps, the Train also supported the I ANZAC Corps and Imperial Camel Corps in the defence of the Suez Canal.
They were the only Australian naval unit serving in a European theatre of war. They were therefore bent on proving, both to the Royal Navy and to the British Army, that they could overcome any difficulties.
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The Wallach brothers were a family of eight boys born to Henry and Mary Wallach of Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia toward the end of the 19th century. Six of the brothers all saw active service in World War I. The fourth and eighth brothers, Clarrie and Neville were both top-grade rugby union players before the War. They both saw action at Gallipoli, were promoted on the Western Front as Captains, were both recipients of the Military Cross and each fell within a week of each other in France in fighting at the time of the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux.
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