Tag: Australian Infantry

Bullecourt and Beyond: The Life of William Raines

Private William Henry Raines (service number 3145) served with the Australian Imperial Force, initially with the 10th Reinforcements of the 14th Battalion and later with the 46th Battalion, Australian Infantry, A.I.F. He died of wounds in France on 20 April 1917, following the First Battle of Bullecourt.[file:179][web:183][web:188]

He is buried at St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, in Plot O. IX. G. 3, one of thousands of soldiers who died in the great hospital centre at Rouen and were laid to rest there.[file:179][web:182][web:189]



Early Life and Family

William Henry Raines was born on 1 February 1896 in Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia, his birth registered under number 27776. He was the son of Henry Hammond Raines and Margaret Elizabeth (née Morrison), and was raised in North Fitzroy, a suburb of Melbourne.[file:179][web:180]

At the time of his enlistment he was single, working as a labourer, and recorded as Presbyterian. His next of kin was his mother, Mrs M. Raines, of 66 Scotchmer Street, North Fitzroy, Melbourne—an address later repeated in Australian embarkation and Roll of Honour records.[file:179][web:183]

The Virtual War Memorial Australia entry for his father notes that William was the eldest son of Henry Hammond Raines and confirms that he died of wounds at the age of twenty‑one, and is buried at St Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen. This reinforces the family’s personal loss and the fact that the Raines family story spans both Australia and the Western Front.[web:180][file:179]

From Scotchmer Street, North Fitzroy, William Raines went from labourer to infantryman, joining the AIF at just twenty years of age.

Reconstructed from AIF enlistment and family records



Enlistment and the 14th Battalion

William enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 5 July 1915 at North Fitzroy, Victoria. His attestation papers record him as twenty years old, a labourer, single, with blue eyes, fair hair, and a height of 5 feet 7¾ inches.[file:179]

He was posted to the 10th Reinforcements of the 14th Infantry Battalion, part of the 4th Infantry Brigade. He embarked from Melbourne on 16 October 1915 aboard HMAT A17 Port Lincoln, bound for overseas service with the AIF.[file:179][web:184]

By the time he completed training and arrived in the theatre of war, the AIF was undergoing a major reorganisation in Egypt. Experienced men from Gallipoli units, including the 14th Battalion, were used to form new battalions for service on the Western Front, and William was among those transferred into the newly created 46th Battalion.[file:179][web:188]

Originally a reinforcement for the 14th Battalion, Raines became one of the 46th Battalion’s original ranks when the AIF doubled its strength in Egypt.

Based on AIF reorganisation in early 1916



The 46th Battalion on the Western Front

The 46th Battalion was formed in Egypt on 24 February 1916 as part of the expansion of the AIF. It drew experienced men from the 14th Battalion and new recruits from Victoria, with additional drafts from New South Wales and Western Australia.[file:179][web:188]

The battalion arrived in France on 8 June 1916 and soon entered the fighting on the Somme. Its first major battle came at Pozières in August, initially carrying ammunition for the 2nd Division’s attack and later holding captured positions under heavy bombardment. The 46th then rotated through front‑line, support, and reserve positions through the winter of 1916–17.[web:188][web:185]

The battalion later took part in major engagements at Bullecourt, Messines, and Passchendaele, and in 1918 fought at Dernancourt, Amiens, and in the Hindenburg outpost line battles. For William, however, the crucial episode was the First Battle of Bullecourt in April 1917, during which he suffered the wounds that led to his death.[file:179][web:185][web:188]

The 46th Battalion’s path from Pozières to Bullecourt was typical of the AIF on the Western Front: hard fighting, heavy losses, and long months in the trenches.

Summary from battalion and AWM unit histories



Bullecourt and the Wounding of Private Raines

The First Battle of Bullecourt on 11 April 1917 formed part of the wider Arras offensive and the British and Dominion attempts to breach the Hindenburg Line. The 46th Battalion, as part of the 12th Brigade, 4th Australian Division, was committed to this attack against heavily fortified German positions near the village of Bullecourt.[file:179][web:188][web:194]

The battalion initially achieved some success, breaking into sections of the Hindenburg Line, but came under intense artillery and machine‑gun fire and suffered very heavy casualties. Tanks failed to provide the expected support, wire was not fully cut, and German counter‑attacks eventually forced a withdrawal.[web:188][web:191]

The individual report states that Private Raines “died of multiple gunshot wounds received in action in France,” and the timing of his death—nine days after the battle—strongly suggests that his injuries were sustained during the Bullecourt fighting or associated actions in mid‑April 1917. He was evacuated to No. 6 General Hospital at Rouen, where he died on 20 April 1917.[file:179][web:183]

Badly wounded in the costly First Battle of Bullecourt, Raines was evacuated to Rouen, where he succumbed to his wounds nine days later.

Derived from casualty details and battalion timelines



Burial at St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen

William was buried in St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, in Plot O. IX. G. 3. Rouen was a major Allied hospital centre throughout the war, with multiple general, stationary, and convalescent hospitals. As these hospitals filled the original St. Sever Cemetery, an extension was opened in September 1916 and used until 1920.[file:179][web:189][web:192]

The cemetery extension contains 8,348 Commonwealth burials from the First World War (ten unidentified), many of them men who died of wounds or illness after evacuation from the front. St. Sever Cemetery Extension later received further burials from the Second World War, including prisoners of war who died in German captivity.[web:189][web:186]

The Australian War Memorial’s Roll of Honour confirms his service details and burial: “Private 3145, 46th Australian Infantry Battalion, AIF; died of wounds 20 April 1917; cemetery or memorial details: St Sever Cemetery Extension, Haute‑Normandie, France; place of association: North Fitzroy, Melbourne.”[web:183]

His CWGC entry can be viewed at CWGC casualty details for Private W. H. Raines. There is also a memorial entry at Find a Grave memorial 56264810, which may include photographs and additional notes.[file:179][web:181]



Medals and Recognition

The individual report records that William was entitled to the British War Medal and Victory Medal, standard awards for AIF soldiers who served overseas in the First World War, and his family also received the Memorial Plaque and Scroll issued to the next of kin of those who died.[file:179]

His name appears on the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour and is referenced in the Virtual War Memorial Australia entry for his father, ensuring that his service and sacrifice remain part of the documented story of Australian involvement on the Western Front.[web:180][web:183]



Family and Legacy

William did not marry and left no children. His loss fell most directly on his parents, Henry Hammond and Margaret Elizabeth Raines, and on his siblings in North Fitzroy. For them, his grave in distant Rouen and his inclusion on honour rolls served as the primary public markers of his short life.[file:179][web:180]

His story exemplifies the experience of many young Australians who left suburban lives and labouring work to enlist, train, and serve in the AIF’s battalions on the Western Front. For genealogists and family historians, resources such as the AIF Project, the Australian War Memorial, Virtual War Memorial Australia, and commercial sites like Ancestry allow his journey—from Fitzroy to Bullecourt and finally to Rouen—to be traced in detail and placed within the broader narrative of the 46th Battalion’s service.[file:179][web:183][web:188]

Sources

  • Individual report for Private William Henry Raines (family tree compilation, including birth in Fitzroy, Victoria; parents Henry Hammond Raines and Margaret Elizabeth Morrison; enlistment and embarkation details; service with 10th Reinforcements, 14th Battalion and later 46th Battalion, AIF; cause of death – died of multiple gunshot wounds; death at No. 6 General Hospital, Rouen, on 20 April 1917; and burial at St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, Plot O. IX. G. 3).[file:179]
  • Commonwealth War Graves Commission – casualty record for “RAINES, WILLIAM HENRY”, Private 3145, 46th Bn., Australian Infantry, A.I.F., who died on 20 April 1917, aged 21, buried at St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen: CWGC casualty details.[file:179]
  • Find a Grave – memorial for William Henry Raines (St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, with scope for headstone photographs and biographical notes): Find a Grave memorial 56264810.[web:181][file:179]
  • Australian War Memorial – Roll of Honour entry for Private William Henry Raines, 46th Australian Infantry Battalion, confirming service number, unit, date of death, and burial at St. Sever Cemetery Extension, and listing North Fitzroy as place of association: AWM Roll of Honour: William Henry Raines.[web:183]
  • The AIF Project – unit and reinforcement details for the 10th Reinforcements, 14th Battalion, and subsequent service with the 46th Battalion, including embarkation on HMAT A17 Port Lincoln from Melbourne on 16 October 1915 and later Western Front service: The AIF Project – 46th Battalion.[web:184]
  • 46th Battalion histories – Australian War Memorial unit history and Wikipedia article giving formation in Egypt on 24 February 1916, composition from 14th Battalion veterans and new recruits, and service at Pozières, Bullecourt, Messines, Passchendaele and later battles: AWM – 46th Australian Infantry Battalion; 46th Battalion (Australia).[web:185][web:188]
  • St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen – cemetery descriptions and history, confirming its role as a major burial ground for casualties who died in the Rouen hospitals, with over 8,300 First World War burials: St. Sever Cemetery Extension – Remembering the Fallen and Veterans Affairs Canada description: St. Sever Cemetery Extension.[web:189][web:186]
  • Virtual War Memorial Australia – entry relating to the Raines family, confirming William Henry as the eldest son of Henry Hammond Raines and recording that he died of wounds and is buried at St. Sever Cemetery Extension: VWMA – Raines family context.[web:180]
  • Bullecourt campaign context – analyses of the First Battle of Bullecourt, highlighting the 4th Australian Division’s attack on 11 April 1917, heavy casualties, difficulties with uncut wire and tank support, and subsequent withdrawal, used to contextualise the wounding of Private Raines: Bullecourt April 1917; Bullecourt: AIF Divisions.[web:194][web:191]

Lance Sergeant Hope Albert Kaufmann 2/22 Battalion AIF Soldier Killed at Rabaul, New Britain 1942

Geelong-born Lance Sergeant Hope Albert Kaufmann VX24108, 2/22 Battalion AIF, died on New Britain after the fall of Rabaul in February 1942. This article traces his family roots, marriage, war service and commemoration at Rabaul War Cemetery and Memorial in Papua New Guinea.

Hope Albert Kaufmann: A Detailed Biography

Early Life and Family

Hope Albert Kaufmann was born on 28 August 1909 in Geelong, Victoria, Australia, the younger son of Albert Isaac Louis Kaufmann and Mabel Fanny (Mabella Fanny) Johnston. [1] He grew up in a close-knit family with at least one older brother, Louis Robert Ernest “Lou” Kaufmann, who was born in Geelong in 1901. [1][2] The Kaufmann family had strong roots in the Geelong district, and this local connection would remain important throughout Hope’s life.

Hope’s mother, Mabel, died before his marriage, and his father continued to be described as “of Geelong” in later newspaper reports. [1] The family’s background was solidly middle-class, and the brothers’ later military service suggests a strong sense of duty and patriotism. Louis would also enlist in the Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF), serving as a Staff Sergeant in an Australian Port Detachment, indicating a family tradition of wartime service. [1][2]

As a young adult, Hope resided in the Newtown and Chilwell area of Corio, Victoria, close to central Geelong. [1] Electoral and residence data place him in Newtown and Chilwell in 1931 and again in 1942, showing continuity of residence and suggesting that he remained closely tied to his home district until he enlisted and embarked for overseas service. [1]

Early Life and Family (Marriage and Social Life)

On 19 August 1939, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, Hope married Gloria Nancy Wallace at St Joseph’s Church, Malvern, Victoria. [1] A contemporary newspaper report described the wedding as being “quietly celebrated,” with the Reverend Father O’Hea officiating and Mr Douglas Wallace acting as best man. [1][3] Gloria was the youngest daughter of Mrs C. A. Wallace and the late Mr Wallace of Elwood, indicating that she too came from a respectable urban Melbourne family. [1]

The report gives a rare glimpse of the couple’s social world. Gloria wore an ensemble of magnolia fine wool with matching accessories and a single mauve orchid fastened to her coat, while the reception at the Hotel Windsor was decorated with pink carnations and pastel-shaded flowers. [1] This description suggests a tasteful, if modest, middle-class celebration on the eve of war. No children are recorded from the marriage, and the couple’s domestic life together appears to have been tragically brief, curtailed by Hope’s military service and subsequent death. [1]

Hope’s brother Louis followed a different wartime path, enlisting in 1940 while living at Skipton, Victoria, and later being discharged in April 1943 as a Staff Sergeant with an Australian Port Detachment in the 2nd AIF. [1][2] Louis returned to civilian life, dying at Geelong in 1974, and his wife Una Mary Allard died in 1984, underlining the contrast between the surviving brother’s post-war family life and Hope’s early death in 1942. [1][2]

Military Service

During the Second World War, Hope Albert Kaufmann enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force and served in the Australian Infantry. [1] His military rank was Lance Sergeant and his service number was VX24108, indicating enlistment in Victoria. [1] He was posted to the 2/22 Battalion, Second AIF, part of the Australian Army’s 8th Division units allocated to the defence of Australia’s northern approaches.

The 2/22 Battalion formed the bulk of “Lark Force,” a composite garrison sent to Rabaul, on the island of New Britain, then part of the Australian-mandated Territory of New Guinea. [4][5] The battalion, about 900 men strong, arrived in Rabaul around Anzac Day 1941 and was combined with local New Guinea Volunteer Rifles units, coastal and anti-aircraft batteries, and elements of the 2/10th Field Ambulance and 17th Anti-Tank Battery to form Lark Force. [6][7] Their role was to protect the key airfields at Lakunai and Vunakanau and the seaplane base at Simpson Harbour, providing early warning of Japanese movements through the islands to Australia’s north. [4][8]

Lark Force, including the 2/22 Battalion, was chronically under-resourced and significantly outnumbered by the Japanese forces that would confront them. [4][5] By December 1941, as war with Japan commenced, Rabaul’s garrison of roughly 1,400 Australian troops faced the prospect of a major enemy landing. [6] Nevertheless, the 2/22 Battalion spent months constructing defensive positions and acclimatising to tropical conditions, preparing as best they could for an anticipated Japanese assault. [7] As a Lance Sergeant in the battalion, Hope would have borne responsibility for leading and managing a small group of men under increasingly difficult and dangerous conditions.

Circumstances of Death

The Japanese invasion of Rabaul began on 23 January 1942, when some 5,000 Japanese troops landed, overwhelming Lark Force, which was outnumbered by nearly five to one. [5][8] In the face of overwhelming air and ground attacks, resistance collapsed, and the garrison commander, Colonel Scanlan, is recorded as issuing an “every man for himself” order. [5] The fall of Rabaul was one of the worst Australian defeats of the war, resulting in extensive casualties, mass surrender, and, over subsequent months, deaths in captivity and at sea. [9][10]

On 4 February 1942, groups of Australian soldiers and civilians from Rabaul who had been attempting to escape or had surrendered were captured by Japanese forces at Tol and Waitavalo plantations on New Britain. [11][9] Contemporary and later accounts describe how between 123 and 150 Australian soldiers and civilians were bayoneted, shot, or both, after surrendering, in what became known as the Tol and Waitavalo massacres. [11][9] Many of these victims were from 2/22 Battalion and attached units who had fled south from Rabaul following the invasion. [9][5]

The official record for Lance Sergeant Hope Albert Kaufmann gives his date of death as 4 February 1942 in Papua New Guinea, which aligns with the date of the Tol-Waitavalo massacres during the chaotic retreat from Rabaul. [1][3] While his exact fate is not individually documented in surviving records, it is highly likely that he died during or as a result of these massacres, along with many comrades from the 2/22 Battalion and associated units. [11][9] Overall, it is estimated that around 1,400 of the 1,700 Australian men present at Rabaul at the time of invasion died through combat, massacre, sinking (notably on the Montevideo Maru), disease, or hardship while attempting to escape. [9]

Burial and Commemoration

Hope Albert Kaufmann is commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) as a Lance Sergeant in the Australian Infantry, 2/22 Battalion, Second AIF, with service number VX24108. [1][4] His place of commemoration is the Rabaul (Bita Paka) War Cemetery and Rabaul Memorial, located near Kokopo, East New Britain, Papua New Guinea. [1] Within this cemetery and memorial complex, his name appears on Panel 16 of the Rabaul Memorial, which honours those who have no known grave but who died in the New Britain and New Ireland campaigns. [1][4]

The CWGC record confirms his date of death as 4 February 1942 and records him as the son of Albert Isaac Louis Kaufmann and Mabel Fanny Kaufmann, and the husband of Gloria Nancy Kaufmann of Elwood, Victoria. [1] This matches the family details found in genealogical and newspaper sources, linking the official commemoration to the personal story of his family in Geelong and Melbourne. [1][3] In addition to his CWGC commemoration, Hope is also remembered on a Find a Grave memorial (ID 23808242), which further records his service and sacrifice and provides a focal point for family and researchers unable to visit Papua New Guinea. [1]

The Rabaul (Bita Paka) War Cemetery and Rabaul Memorial collectively commemorate hundreds of Australian soldiers and airmen who died during the defence of New Britain and in subsequent captivity. [4][8] In this setting, Hope’s name stands among many of his comrades from the 2/22 Battalion and other elements of Lark Force, reflecting the scale of the losses suffered by this small garrison in early 1942. [9][5]

Legacy

Within his extended family, Hope Albert Kaufmann’s memory has been preserved through genealogical research and local historical work. The Mundarra and Mundarra Park Soldier Settlement history notes that his elder brother Louis’s younger brother “died on Rabaul in 1942 with the 2/22 Infantry Battalion, 2nd AIF,” explicitly linking Hope’s death to the Rabaul campaign. [1][2] This family-level remembrance keeps his story alive alongside that of Louis, who survived the war and returned to Geelong. [1]

More broadly, Hope’s service and death form part of the collective memory of Lark Force and the 2/22 Battalion. Modern accounts of the fall of Rabaul, the Tol and Waitavalo massacres, and the sinking of the Montevideo Maru stress the heavy price paid by Australian forces in New Britain, with casualty estimates suggesting an 82 per cent death rate among the 1,700 Australian men present at the time of the Japanese invasion. [9][10] The 2/22 Battalion is often described as having been “sacrificed” as part of a flawed strategy of deploying small, isolated forces (“penny packeting”) in the path of a far stronger enemy. [5] In this context, Lance Sergeant Hope Albert Kaufmann’s story illustrates both the courage and the vulnerability of those sent to defend Australia’s northern approaches in 1941–42.

Today, Hope is remembered not only on official memorials but also within online communities and local histories that honour the men of the 2/22 Battalion and Lark Force. [5][12] His life story—rooted in Geelong and Newtown and Chilwell, crowned by marriage to Gloria Nancy Wallace in Malvern, and cut short in the desperate retreat from Rabaul—embodies the personal cost of a campaign that remains one of the most tragic chapters in Australia’s wartime history. [1][4]

Sources
[1] Individual-Report-for-Hope-Albert-Kaufmann.pdf
[2] Mundarra & Mundarra Park Soldier Settlement (WW2), Edenhope https://www.swvic.au/casterton/mundarra-soldier-settlement-WW2.htm
[3] 18 Mar 1946 – Family Notices – Trove – National Library of Australia https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/22234835
[4] Fall of Rabaul – Australian War Memorial https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/blog/fallofrabaul
[5] 2nd/22nd Infantry Battalion – Virtual War Memorial Australia https://vwma.org.au/explore/units/542
[6] Fall of Rabaul – Anzac Portal – DVA https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/world-war-ii-1939-1945/events/japanese-advance-december-1941-march-1942/fall-rabaul
[7] A R Tolmer – 22nd Battalion (Lark Force) https://www.soldierspng.com/?page_id=5505
[8] Battle for Australia Association Fall of Rabaul – January 1942 https://www.battleforaustralia.asn.au/Rabaul.php
[9] Montevideo Maru – pngvr https://pngvr.weebly.com/montevideo-maru1.html
[10] Antimalarial Drug Supply Issues during the Second World War – JMVH https://jmvh.org/article/antimalarial-drug-supply-issues-during-world-war-ii/
[11] ARTHUR GULLIDGE & THE BAND OF THE 2/22ND BATTALION https://rusinsw.org.au/Monographs/Monograph10.pdf
[12] 2/22nd Battalion 2nd AIF – Facebook https://www.facebook.com/222ndBattalion2ndAif/
[13] Japanese march on Rabaul, New Britain 1942 – Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/492497106546332/posts/854514700344569/
[14] [PDF] Memorial News 18 https://montevideo-maru.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/18September10.pdf
[15] 2/2nd Battalion (Australia) – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2/2nd_Battalion_(Australia)
[16] https://artilleryocshistory.org/uploads/1/4/5/9/145902858/faocs_ww_ii_kia_a-e_book_1.pdf
[17] A Regiment in Action https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/234781277.pdf
[18] On this day 23 January 1942 Rabaul was invaded by Japanese … https://www.facebook.com/SalvosMuseums/posts/on-this-day-23-january-1942-rabaul-was-invaded-by-japanese-military-forces-the-2/2363945240464709/
[19] [PDF] Homages from Monthly Meetings AUSTRALIAN MILITARY HISTORY https://northbeach-rsl.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/HOMAGE-History-Book-V2-2024-08-12.pdf
[20] What’s the story? [49th Armored Infantry Battalion] https://worldwartwoveterans.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Whats-the-story-Company-B-49th-Armored-Infantry-Battalion.pdf
[21] HEADQUARTERS https://29thdivisionassociation.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/AAR-42-Historical-Record-1942.pdf