a u s t r a l i a & n e w z e a l a n d a r m y c o r p s |
Photo as it appeared in the Sydney Mail newspaper September 1, 1915 page 42. |
The following e-mail was received from Bryn Dolan on Anzac Day, 2000. I had visited his website that day and wrote him with the hope that he may know something about Norman - he did: |
"It's my assumption that your great-uncle died in heavy Turkish shellfire which was directed against Courtney's Post - Steele's Post - MacLaurin's Hill section of the Anzac front line on 13th July 1915. There were no attacks by either side that day, and very few at all during the month of July, yet 20 men were killed outright in this area, and others later died of the wounds they received. From this area the bodies would have been carried straight down from those mountain-side posts, through Shrapnel Valley and to the cemetery there. Below is an extract from a Chaplain's diary for this day: |
'Burial party report at 10pm - did not finish until 3am. A sickening job. Bodies in bits and pieces & arms separate & all in the dark. Enough.' (Diary, Rev. George Green, Anglican Chaplain to 1st Light Horse Brigade, 13 Jul 1915). [Though Chaplain Green was attached to the Light Horse, he specifically names a few of the infantry who died. These men are also buried in Shrapnel Valley cemetery close to Pte Sohier]." |
