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at a distinct disadvantage against well entrenched German forces
supported by machine guns located in concrete block houses.
Machine guns could fire 500 rounds a minute while a normal rifle fired 9
rounds. Evidence of the importance of the machine gun is demonstrated
by the fact that while each battalion had a few at the beginning of the war,
by the war’s end, each battalion carried many machine guns.
Most information on the local soldiers and their war participation has
been obtained from each soldier’s medical and service records, which
have been digitalised, where found, through the Australian War Memorial
and then directed to the National Archives. However, in the case of
Herbert Bradley I thank Herbert’s ancestors for their assistance with this
information.
The original source of this photo is Delma Tisdell, a descendant of
Herbert.
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