Chambers, Reginald
No.346 – Lance Sergeant Reginald Chambers – 44th Battalion AIF
Reginald Frank Chambers was born in Clapham London England in 1895. Unfortunately his parents died while he was young and he lived with his Aunt, Elizabeth Stevenson, Brewer Cottages, Loose, Maidstone Kent England.
Pre WW1, Reginald travelled to Western Australia, where upon arrival in Fremantle he took up work as a labourer. He found work in the southern Fremantle area and his address was c/o the Spearwood Post Office.
As he was also in the right age group he qualified for service in the 86A Cadets which was based in Fremantle.
On the 27th January 1916, the 21 year old Reginald successfully enlisted into the AIF in Perth. The medical examiner recorded Reg’s details as; height of 5 feet 9 & ½ inches tall, weight of 139 lbs, chest measurement of 34-37 inches, fresh complexion, brown eyes and fair hair. His religious denomination was Wesleyan.
After his successful enlistment Reg was assigned to “B” Company the newly forming 44th Battalion with the regimental number 346. He had a few months of training at Claremont Showgrounds Camp in WA but on the 6th June 1916, the 44th Battalion boarded the transport ship Suevic in Fremantle Harbour and set sail for England. The ship arrived at Plymouth Harbor on the 21st July 1916.
For the next few months the 44th Battalion trained as part of the 3rd Australian Division on the Salisbury Plains. In November 1916 they received their orders to depart for the Western Front and they left Southampton Harbour on the 25th.
In December 1916 they had their first taste of trench life on the Western Front in the Armentieres region.
They served in this area over the next few months and Reg was wounded in a trench raid on the 14th March 1917. Fortunately the wound to the hand was not too severe and he was back with his unit within a few days.
Reginald would serve through the Messines actions in June and July 1917 without being wounded and also came through the Third Battle of Ypres from September to November 1917 unscathed. In October he had been promoted to Lance Corporal and in January 1918 to Corporal.
On the 28th February 1918 he was transferred for duty in England with the 10th Training Battalion. Experienced soldiers were taken from units to give the new recruits the benefit of their experience. While in England he also attended the Gas School and on 30th March 1918 was taken on strength of the 9th Training Battalion. His time in England continued until the 31st August 1918 when he was transferred back to the 44th Battalion. He rejoined them in the field on the 8th September 1918 and served with them for their last actions of the war.
He was promoted to Sergeant but reverted back to being a Lance Sergeant at his own request.
He later wrote about these last actions of the war;
“A deluge of lead seemed to rain down on us. Luckily we were in artillery formation and soon made for cover. About ten of us got into a large shell hole and there waited for the tanks that we had been told were allotted to us, but none came. Then we saw a couple of Germans waving their hands as though they wished to surrender. A Sergeant and a Private jumped up and ran towards them and as they reached the enemy trench line, one was shot dead and the other ran back to us with a bullet clean through him – entering the breast and out the back. The moment we showed our heads a machine gun opened up. We tried to bomb the gun with rifle grenades and this drew fire from another gun over to the right. Len Ferry fired a phosphorous bomb, but too much elevation caused it to explode in the air. This failure excited him and he jumped out of the shell hole shouting “Come on lets rush it”. Hardly had he said the words when he was shot dead, one bullet through his head and another through his chest. Whizz bangs were now coming over and the only thing to do was to get on. By ones and twos we made our way along a slight fold in the ground at the end of which we came to a trench, which we jumped into. A dugout nearby yielded ten Germans, and we sent them to the rear. Leaving the shelter of that trench, we made for another further on. On the way I nearly fell into a shell hole, which had been converted into a snipers post and in which a Fritz stood paralysed with fear. We brought him out and although one of our chaps danced around and wanted to stick him with his bayonet, we declared him a prisoner and sent him on his way with nothing worse than a military boot planted into the seat of his trousers.”
Chambers went on to write some acts of bravery he witnessed.
“As he (Ingvarson) ran along one side of the trench, they flung stick bombs luckily for us about five or six Fifth Division Chaps came up and gave us a hand. The trench was directly in front of Bony. From there we could see Fritz coming and going from different trenches. We found three German machine guns with their crews dead alongside. Our Sergeant got one of those guns on the parapet and let fly. A Lewis Gunner got to work and between them they kept Fritz well below the parapet of his trench. Both these gunners won decorations – Sergeant Yak Ingvarson a bar to his DCM and George Byleveld the Military Medal. A Fifth Divy chap also worked a Fritz gun with good effect. We did not have it all our own way and when we tried to move down the trench, had to be slick as the enemy enfiladed us right along. The Lewis guns were firing incessantly. One of the Fifth Divy chaps was killed and fell across the Fritz gun, two more were wounded. Three of our chaps were knocked and went out. By this time we mustered only five and an officer, Lieutenant D.E. Mitchinson. We hung on here for the rest of the day until orders came.
On the 4th March 1919, Reg was transferred for duty with the Australian Base Depot at Le Havre and he stayed there till June 1919 when he then returned to England.
Reg Chambers returned to Australia on the 8th August 1919 aboard the ship Katoomba.
On the 15th September 1919, he was given a medical examination at No.8 AGH in Fremantle and he was given a clean bill of health and was then discharged from the AIF on the 30th October 1919.