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Fate
Numbers
Died before Discharge 60,284
Wounded in Action (includes gassing and shell shock) 155,133
Prisoners of War 4,044
Sickness and non-battle injuries 431,448
Points of Interest.
Roughly 25% of local (Redhead) soldiers were killed in action compared
to the national average of roughly 15%.
The number of wounded covers soldiers who in some cases suffered
multiple woundings at different times and returned to their units and some
who were unable to continue and returned home. A number of our local
soldiers did return home before the end of the war.
The large number of soldiers suffering illness and non-battle injuries were
the result of the poor conditions in the trenches, the close working
conditions of soldiers, social diseases and weather extremes. This
obviously posed serious problems for commanding officers trying to
organize fit fighting units.
Some soldiers even died on the transport ships on the way to the European
battlefields.
Many Prisoners of War survived the war, however, approximately 25% of
Australian prisoners taken by Turkey and approximately 9% of prisoners
taken by German forces died in captivity.
For families back in Australia with their perception of the “evil fritz”, a
son’s capture must have been a worrying experience. However, when an
imprisoned soldier was captured the Prisoner of War Department and the
Red Cross helped to identify missing soldiers and where they were
captured, and worked to provide them with parcel and correspondence
access.
Further Research
Prisoners of war. What happened to them?
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