Forster, John Leslie Bruce.
ASC 1905-6
Joined up just a few days after the war started. Note one of the first enlistment
numbers 30! Participated with the ANMEF “to seize German New Guinea and
surrounding areas.” the first excursion of the war.
With new number 4964, as staff on A. M.C. Hospital Transports No.1 Hospital
Ship, “Karoola.” To Egypt.
Infected with Malaria, Gallipoli Nov. ’15. Returned home. Treated at Royal
Prince Alfred and No.4 Aust., Gen. Hosp. Randwick discharged medically
unfit, 8/7/16
Read above, “Distinctive Marks!”
Roll title: Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (Tropical Unit) (1 Battalion) (August
1914)
Date of embarkation: 19 August 1914
Ship embarked on: HMAT Berrima A35
Service Number: 4964
Rank: Corporal
Roll title: Hospital Transport Corps (May 1915 - September 1918)
Conflict: First World War, 1914-1918
Date of embarkation: 14 July 1915
Place of embarkation: Sydney
Ship embarked on: HMAT Orsova A67
Service Number: 4964
Rank: Corporal
Roll title: Army Medical Corps - Hospital Transports (No 1 Hospital Ship A63,
Karoola.
At the battle of Bitapaka, the ANMEF were the first Australians in combat.
At the start of the First World War, Australia faced the threat of German naval power
operating on its doorstep. From 1884, Germany had successfully annexed territories in
New Guinea and surrounding islands such as New Britain; bought the Pelew, Marshall
and Caroline Islands; and wrested the port of Tsingtao from China. A series of powerful
wireless and telegraph stations were built and coaling facilities established between
Tsingtao and Rabaul on New Britain. This gave freedom of movement to German
shipping and the ability to communicate rapidly over vast distances. By 1914, the
German East Asia Squadron, which included heavy cruisers Scharnhorst and Gniesenau
and the light cruiser Emden, were operating out of Tsingtao. The Germans also had a
flourishing trade network in the region, which posed a serious threat to British interests.
With Britain’s declaration of war on Germany on 4 August, the Australian government
was asked to raise a force of 20,000 men to defend the Empire, the Australian Imperial
Force (AIF). A second force was to be raised and deployed with haste to seize German
New Guinea and surrounding territories, and destroy the wireless stations there. This
force, the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (ANMEF), would consist of
an infantry battalion, a naval brigade of 500 men, two machine-gun sections, a signals
section and a medical section. This had to be done urgently.
The SS Berrima had called into military service on 12 August. Given the title HMAS, she
was employed as an “armed merchantman”, and as she was neither armed nor had room
for 1,500 men, she was hurriedly taken to the dry dock facility at Cockatoo Island for a
rapid fit-out.
Embarkation of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) for New
Guinea. At the request of the British Government a special force, the Australian Navy and
Military Expeditionary Force, was raised between 10 August 1914 and 18 August 1914,
and despatched against the neighbouring German colonies. It was a volunteer force,
enlisted partly from the naval reserves in the various states and partly from the militia. A
portion of the military contingent is shown, being ferried down Sydney Harbour in course
of embarkation. These were the first infantry to leave Australia.
Michael Kelly is an historian in the Military History Section of the Australian War
Memorial.
This article first appeared in the Winter 2014 issue (No. 67) of the Memorial’s magazine,
Wartime
The fighting was over and the radio station occupied by 7 pm. The ANMEF had suffered
six men killed or died of wounds and four wounded. The Germans suffered one killed and
one wounded and the New Guineans, 30 killed and 11 wounded. Surviving prisoners
were locked up, and the German reservists were secured on the second floor of the radio
station building, with the New Guinean troops in a nearby outbuilding.
Berrima steamed to Rabaul that night and troops were landed there the following
morning. The Imperial German flag was hauled down and replaced with the Union Jack
SS Berrima
The liner SS Berrima was requisitioned from the Peninsula and Orient Steam Navigation
Company in August 1914 and commissioned into the RAN as the auxiliary cruiser HMAS
Berrima.
Berrima left Sydney on 19 August 1914 carrying men of the Australian Naval and Military
Expeditionary Force for operations against the German New Guinea colonies. Troops
were landed at Herbertshöhe and Rabaul on 11 and 12 September respectively, and on
the New Guinea mainland on 24 September. Berrima subsequently returned to Sydney
and, despite plans to employ her as an armed merchant cruiser, she was paid off in
October for conversion to a troop transport.
In her new role, SS Berrima sailed for the Middle East in December 1914 as part of the
second troop convoy, carrying Australian and New Zealand troops and towing the
submarine AE2. Berrima continued to work as a trooper until 18 February 1917, when
she was torpedoed in the English Channel off Portland and beached.
No 1 Australian Hospital Ship A63 Karoola, docked at Alexandria.
Note, document below. “Debility following Malaria.”
Note document below, that he contracted Malaria at Gallipoli.
Divorce papers Zelma Eileen Forster - John Leslie Bruce Forster.
Mentioned in Trove search. SMH reference to the matter 29/11/40 P.5
Believed, died.12/12/40.