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Sergeant Walter Ernest Brown VC DCM & bar. |
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Sergeant Walter Ernest
Brown VC DCM & bar, of the 20th Battalion.
On 6 July 1918 at Villers-Bretonneux, France on his own initiative, Corporal Brown rushed a machine-gun post, which had been causing great inconvenience by persistent sniping. Despite being fired on by another machine-gun, he continued to his objective and with a Mills grenade in his hand, he stood at the door of the dug-out and called on the occupants to surrender. One of the enemy rushed out and scuffled with him, but was knocked down by the corporal's fist. One officer and 11 men then surrendered and he brought them back as prisoners, again under heavy machine-gun fire. |
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Wally
Brown grew up in New Norfolk and became a grocer in Hobart, but was
working in Sydney when war broke out.
He was serving with the 20th Battalion at Dernancourt on July 6, 1918, when he won his Victoria Cross. A sniper post was holding up the Australians and Corporal Brown made his way alone through the trenches. He was about to bomb the post when a group of Germans started to emerge from another dug-out. Cpl Brown threatened the enemy with his grenade and succeeded in capturing 13 prisoners. A born soldier, Cpl Brown was in Malaya in World War II before the fall of Singapore. He was last seen a few hours before the surrender, walking towards Japanese positions with grenades. |
