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Walter Constantine Haager - Information

Walter Constantine Haager was born in Appin c1890. When he was older, he found work as a miner, staying with an A. Huttee on Blair Athol. Walter then enlisted in Townsville, Queensland on the 4th of January 1915, aged 34.

Walter trained as a Private with the 9th Battalion in Queensland. On the 8th of April 1915, he departed Brisbane for service overseas on the HMAT Star of England. He then joined his unit at Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula on the 26th of May. Walter fought throughout the horrendous conditions at Gallipoli, enduring the heat, flies, lice, and later a terrible blizzard and the loss of so many good mates. In 1916, he was back in Egypt where he was transferred to the 49th Battalion at Habeita in February. The following month, he was transferred to the 4th Pioneer Battalion at Tel-el-Kebir. He was then sent to the Western Front for duty, arriving in Marseilles in June. On the 7th of August 1916, while working in the frontlines on the Somme battlefield, Walter was wounded when a shell blast shredded his left hand. He was taken to hospital in Boulogne and evacuated to England. Walter spent lengthy periods of time at various hospitals and convalescence depots. His injury prevented him from returning to active service, and he was subsequently invalided home in 1917.