Lance Corporal Robert Herman Herweg
by Lenore Frost

Lance Corporal Robert Herman Herweg. Photo courtesy of the
Gilbert Family collection.
Robert Herweg was an imposing six feet tall, blue-eyed and handsome, and 22 years old when he enlisted on 9 September 1914, among the very first of the enlistees for the Australian Imperial Force. He was employed as a blacksmith’s striker, probably in his father’s business. His father, Frederick Herweg, born in Germany in 1853, was a blacksmith and coachbuilder in Ascot Vale Rd, Moonee Ponds, the business operating from 555 Mt Alexander Rd, Moonee Ponds. It is likely that the family bore many taunts about Frederick’s German background, but his size probably prevented Robert being unduly harassed. Robert had 18 months prior training with the cadets, and with his athletic build and height would have been earmarked for early promotion, and he embarked on the Ulysses with the 14 Infantry Battalion in ‘A’ Company as a Lance Corporal.

Troops line the decks of HMT Ulysses at it pulls out from the wharf at Port Melbourne on 1 March 1916. Australian War Memorial Collection. The HMAT A38 Ulysses weighed 14,499 tons with an average cruise speed of 14 knots or 25.92 kmph. It was owned by the China Mutual SN Co, London, and leased by the Commonwealth until 15 August 1917.
http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/PB1095
The 14 Bn avoided the day of carnage at the landing on the 25 April. On this day the 14 Bn troops, on board the Seang Choon, were engaged in bringing on board wounded from the landing, and trying to care for them. The decks were described as being awash with blood. On the 26 April they landed under shrapnel fire, but few casulaties were suffered.
“The battalion (less Platoons 2 and 3) remained all day on the beach as a reserve, near the northern point of Anzac Cove at Ari Burnu… There was shrapnel fire in the vicinity during the day, but it was too high and did little damage. The time was utilised by the men in collecting the arms, equipment and packs, which were strewn all over the beach, and in the water where they had been thrown off on the previous day by the men of the 1st Division on landing as they advanced on their whirlwind assault. The battalion bivouacked under the cliffs during the night”. (Wanliss, p20)
“The 1st Division, which had been fighting continuously for two days, was now in a state of complete exhaustion, and urgently in need of reinforcements. About 8.15 a.m. on that date [27 April] the battalion received orders to march up Shrapnel Gully (Nos. 2 and 3 Platoons having been instructed to rejoin the main body), and, taking such cover as was available, the advance was made under an intermittent shrapnel fire…..” (Wanliss, p21)
“The whole of A Company, with portions of other companies, under Major Rankine, reinforced the garrison at Quinn's”. (Wanliss, p 21)
Quinn’s post was the most dangerous one in the Australian sector, being at the crest of a steep hill, and with very little cover for the troops. Early in the occupation the 14Bn suffered many casualties from machine gun fire and snipers, and it was difficult to evacuate the wounded. Robert was “reported wounded” on 30 April. A form in his B2455 file on his admission to a convalescent hospital in England described the injury as “Gunshot wound (grenade) rt arm”.

This map showing the positions of the Turkish snipers shows why Quinn's Post was so dangerous. Troops were pinned down for days before trenches could be dug for shelter
and were much exposed to sniper fire and enfilade from machine guns. (Wanliss)
On 7 May he was put on a transport for England, having probably spent the intervening days on a hospital ship off the shores of Gallipoli. After a period of convalescence at a hospital in Woodcote Park, Epsom, he was invalided to Australia on 8 October 1915, and received his discharge in Melbourne on 12 Apr 1916.
The injury to his right arm probably had an impact on Robert’s capacity to return to his pre-war occupation of blacksmith’s striker, and in the 1919 Electoral Roll he was working as a postman. By 1924 he had returned to work as a blacksmith, and was residing in Brunswick. By 1934 the Electoral Rolls show that he had moved to 151 Durham Rd, Sunshine and was working as a labourer. By 1954 he had had a sea-change, and was living at Foster in Gippsland and working as a cleaner at the local high school.
Sources:
Australian Electoral Rolls
Australian War Memorial - Embarkation Nominal Roll
Gilbert, John - family records
National Archives of Australia – B2455
Wanliss, Newton, The History of the 14th Battalion: being the story of the vicissitudes of an Australian unit during the Great War. The Arrow Printery: 1929.
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