Among the 15th Battalion as it made its attack upon the heights of Abdel Rahman Bair, better known as Hill 971, was Private Edward Brockman, a 22 year old labourer from Glenlusk, a small farming community in the foothills behind Glenorchy. Edward Brockman had enlisted on 15 January 1915 and was allotted to the 15th Battalion.
It was the object of the 15th Battalion to capture Hill 971 as part of the breakout at Anzac. Like the rest of the August offensive of 1915, the capture of Hill 971 was doomed to failure at and an enormous human cost. According to the historian David Cameron, to capture Hill 971 and Hill Q was too back a task. Fit troops with accurate maps and with local knowledge in broad daylight with no enemy shooting at them would have found this an impossible task in the time allocated. These men, not only had to complete the march with no maps and no idea of what lay ahead, but they also had to undertake it heavily laden with ammunition, machine-guns, shovels, picks, wire and all manner of stores and do this in near total darkness. Additionally, the men were battle weary, fatigued and disease ridden having fought in the cramped beachhead for the last four months. The expectations were simply too high.
Private Brockman sustained a bullet wound to his shoulder as well as a hand wound which rendered him useless in the firing line. He was evacuated to Malta for treatment some ten days later. From there he was transferred to England for further treatment. By late November 1915 he was sufficiently recovered from his wounds to report to base at Abbey Wood. In March 1916 he re-joined his battalion which was now at Ghezireh waiting for orders to move to the Western Front.
In August 1916, twelve months to the day since being wounded, Private Brockman was again in the thick of action – this time at Mouquet Farm, a strong point between Pozieres and Thiepval. Again the battalion suffered heavy casualties and once again Brockman found himself on the receiving end of a bullet sustaining a gunshot wound to his right thigh. Several days later he was evacuated to England for treatment, this injury being serious enough to see him sent home to Australia for a change and eventual discharge in February 1917.
In June 1919 Edward Albert Brockman married Beatrice Corilee McDevitt. The couple had two children. Edward Brockman died on 27 August 1957 at St. Johns Park Nursing Home.
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