Volunteers of Essendon and Flemington, 1914-1918

 

"Yours Sincerely Eric Herman".  His photo is mounted in a frame

displaying the brown over red colours of the 7th Battalion, though

it is not an original mount.   Courtesy of Matt Freckelton.

 

Herman E             Pte    1770    Eric                7 Inf Bn    22    Presser    Single    Jew       

Address:    Ascot Vale, Ormond Rd, 36    

Next of Kin:    Herman, K, Mrs, mother, 36 Ormond Rd, Ascot Vale

                                                                 52 Grosvenor St, East St Kilda  by  2 Sep 1915

Enlisted:    7 Jan 1915        

Embarked:     A18 Wiltshire 14 Apr 1915  

 

Relatives on Active Service:

16165 Pte Albert Herman  brother    4th Field Ambulance

3800 Pte Joseph Herman   brother    8th Bn, later 4th Division Headquarters

Raphael-P-M-Pte-1644  brother-in-law

 

Private Eric Herman

 

By Matt Freckelton

 

Eric was the youngest of 6 children born into a Jewish family. His mother Katie had emigrated from America, his father Abraham was Polish. They ran a store in Hay, NSW and later settled in Melbourne. Abraham travelled to South Africa at the end of the Boer War seeking riches, but died there of Blackwater fever. The family were left very poor. Katie tried to make a living by teaching music and singing, Katie had had formal training in Opera. Her children were taught also. Eric sang and had a fine appreciation of the Operas.

 

Eric enlisted 7 January 1915. He allocated three fifths of his pay to be sent to his mother, the same amount the soldiers were expected to allocate to a wife if they had one. The good pay on offer may have encouraged him to enlist in order to support her. He was accepted into the 4th Reinforcements to 7th Battalion and trained at Broadmeadows Camp. The AWM holds a series of photos taken at Broadmeadows of this group on the day they embarked the A18 Wiltshire, 14/4/1915. Eric is recognisable in two of these photos.

 

4th Reinforcements, 7th Battalion, at Broadmeadows, c 20 May 1915, DAX0395.  [The date should more likely be 13 April, as for the following photo.  Eric embarked on 14 April. ] Eric Herman is standing on the far right. Australian War Memorial Collection DAX0395.

 

 

Portrait of 4th Reinforcements, 7th Battalion Guard, c 13 April 1915.  Eric Herman is identified kneeling on the far right. The 4th Reinforcements embarked the following day. AWM Collection, DAX0386.

 

HMAT A18 Wiltshire, on which Eric Herman embarked.  Courtesy of Matt Freckelton.

 

 

They travelled to Egypt and trained at Mena Camp, before landing at Gallipoli at about 4 pm on 26 May. Of one hundred and twenty-four men landed, two were wounded getting ashore. Eric was posted to 'B" Company under Lt Frederick Tubb. "B" Company went into the firing line that night. The best account of what Eric went through over the coming months can be found in the detailed diaries kept by Tubb, which have been recently digitised by the AWM. 

 

Then came the August Offensive and the Battle for Lone Pine. 

 

This was the scene of some of the most vicious fighting on Gallipoli, much of the fighting at close quarters, in the dark and with many bomb throwing duels. 

 

Eric’s battalion bore the brunt of the most savage counter attacks and 4 VC’s were awarded to his Battalion for this battle. Eric’s B Co had been in the line assisting nearby prior to 7 Bn going into Lone Pine. They were then held in reserve at Brown’s Dip. At about 5 am, 9 August, the situation was so desperate, that a platoon of 7 Bn ‘B’ Company was called for, the rest of the Company followed. Eric went in. They held against all odds. Three men from that Company were awarded the Victoria Cross for this battle. They were Lt Tubb and Cpls Burton and Symonds. The Company strength at that time was about 140 men. 

 

During this battle, he was wounded, his ankle broken and he was buried alive by bomb or shell whilst resisting Turkish counter attacks on the newly taken roofed-in trenches. He was dug out, being the only survivor in his section of trench. He was evacuated to Lemnos, then Alexandria, where he healed and recovered. His foot, though, stuck out at 90 degrees to where it should, so the doctors re-broke his ankle and had another go. 

 

Eric Herman, front left at the Australian & New Zealand Convalescent Hospital, Helouan, Egypt, between 17 September 1915 and 16 Jan 1916.  Courtesy of Matt Freckelton.

 

He was sent to France, on the Somme, fortunately with the 4th Division HQ contingent. His injuries had left him unfit for the front lines and he stayed with this unit for the duration of the War. In 1916 Katie received news that Eric had been wounded again, but he had been confused with another man in the 4th Battalion with the same surname and service number! The mess took months to sort out!

 

His brother, Joseph joined him in 4th Div HQ from 8th Battalion, it is believed that Eric 'claimed his brother' into his new unit. Eric and Joseph spent about 4 weeks in Vignacourt, (recently made famous by the find of "The Lost Digger' photographic plates) in late 1916 to early 1917.

 

In an interesting coincidence, a L Cpl Horace Bair, an 8th Bn Gallipoli first day lander, transferred to 4th Div HQ for a short time, at about this time before being sent home unfit. His niece, Susan Bair became Eric's second wife, many years later. No-one ever knew the connection. The AWM holds a group photo of the 4th Div HQ Contingent outside Allonville Chateau, near Amiens, taken 31 May 1918. Eric and Joseph are featured.  Allonville was about 9 miles from the front line at the time and the night before this photograph was taken, the Germans reached out with their 9” high explosive artillery shells into Allonville. The Chateau was spared, but two barns (Hennessey’s Barns) about 500 yards away suffered direct hits. Men of the 14^th Battalion were sleeping within, the first shell destroyed the main roof beam of one and the shale roof collapsed, resulting in 69 casualties, 13 killed outright and 12 died of wounds, the greatest cost of Australian lives from any one shell during the war. The second barn was hit, causing 17 casualties with at least 4 killed. Eighteen 14^th Battalion graves can be found in the Allonville Cemetery. War correspondents and photographers were camped nearby and went to the site to document the destruction in the morning. Presumably, they stayed, looking for more photographic subjects there after.

 

Another brother, Albert was in the 4th Field Ambulance. 

 

Eric said the worst thing about Gallipoli was the filth. He did not talk much about his experiences, but had some great stories that he told.  For the rest of his long life he would douse his food in Lea & Perrin’s Sauce. He could cope with the bad food during the War by doing this.

 

At the 4th Division HQ offices, he would sit on a back step, awaiting the odd delicacy, meant for the Officers, to be rolled down the slope to him by a mate in the kitchen. In an interesting twist, the actual identity of “the Mate in the Kitchen” may have been discovered. Eric’s brothers, Joseph and Albert were described as Tobacco Workers on their enlistment papers. Lenore Frost recalled that another of the men under her study had similar employment, his name was Thomas Hill. Thomas’s granddaughter, Louise Hill-Coleman was contacted and due to her study, it was noted that, Joseph and Thomas enlisted in the same place, on the same day and embarked on the same ship. Eric, Joseph and then later Thomas were all in the 4^th Division Headquarters contingent, they all appear in the photograph at Allonville...... and Thomas had joined the unit as a cook!

 

4th Division Headquarters Company outside Allonville Chateau, 31 May 1918. Eric Herman is in the

second front row, sixth from the right, and his brother Joseph is seventh.  3798 Pte Thomas Hill of

Moonee Ponds is in the second back row, eighth from the right.  AWM E02466. Courtesy of Matt Freckelton.

 

It's hard to prove absolutely, but it appears that Joseph and Thomas worked together, were mates, enlisted together, trained and travelled to war together and later connived to be in the same small "behind the lines" unit together. On the 19th of January 1918, they were both charged with a crime of "Conduct contrary to good order and military discipline" and each forfeited 2 days pay. The witness to this crime was 3506 CQMS Harold Henry Thompson, he was the man in charge of "supplies" and he himself had joined the unit as a cook. The evidence and the story would appear to suggest that the crime could very well have been, Thomas Hill the Cook rolling Officer's titbits down the back path to his mates.... partners in delicious crime.... Eric not caught out though!

 

CQMS Thompson, photographed the same day at Allonville.

 

The 4^th Division Headquarters Contingent moved around northern France and Belgium frequently. We have counted 66 moves that the unit made from formation in Serapeum in 1916 ‘til the end of the war.

 

In another story, on leave in London, walking by the Thames, Eric and a mate were abused and threatened by an irate British officer for not saluting! They picked him up, threw him in the river and ran like hell! 

 

 

Private Eric Herman wearing a 4th Division Headquarters colour patch, and a wound

stripe on his left sleeve. Possibly taken while on leave in England in September 1918.

Courtesy of Matt Freckelton.

 

 

It is thought that this photo shows the three comrades from the 4th Div HQ - Joseph Herman on the left, Thomas Hill in the centre, and Eric Herman on the right.  The three are enjoying a day rabbiting after the war.  As Eric's grandson Matt says - it is all about tucker!  Courtesy of Louise Hill-Coleman.

 

During WW2, Eric served part time in the Volunteer Defence Corp. He was a Lieutenant and highly regarded by his CO and the men.

 

Eric applied for the Anzac Medallion and badge in 1961, writing from Bexley, Sydney, that he had served on Anzac from the end of April until he was wounded at Lone Pine in August 1915.  He further stated that he was a life member of the Gallipoli Legion of Anzacs, Sydney.

 

Eric and his wife Sue had 3 daughters and 8 grandchildren.

 

Eric lived to 86 years of age. He was a wonderful, kind and gentle man, loved and revered by his family and all who knew him.

 

 

War Service Commemorated 

Essendon Gazette Roll of Honour Wounded

Victorian List of Jews who have Enlisted in the

Australian Imperial Forces.