kittypoo80
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Ducky
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| 8 years ago. Rating: 5 | |
terryfossil 1
unveiling of Brisbane cemetery monument
Posted <time class="relative " title="Tue 19 May 2015, 6:53pm" datetime="Tue May 19 2015 18:53:06 GMT+1000 (E. Australia Standard Time)" data-format="l">yesterday at 6:53pm</time>
A young Queensland man who became a deadly sniper in Gallipoli has been honoured with a Brisbane memorial.
Trooper William Edward "Billy" Sing was known as the "Gallipoli sniper" and is thought to have killed at least 200 enemy soldiers.
A service was held on Tuesday at Lutwyche Cemetery in northern Brisbane, almost 100 years to the day since Trooper Sing arrived on the shores of Anzac Cove with the 31st Infantry Battalion.
The battalion's Brisbane branch president, Ray Fogg, said on Tuesday the skills of the young man from the central Queensland town of Clermont soon became apparent.
"When he started to pick off the Turks, it was maybe three or four weeks to a month before they recognised his accuracy when they started the count," he said.
"So the official count is 200, but his commanding officer said it must be closer to 300.
"In those days, sniping was considered to be sneaking and illegal, so they called him the murderer and the assassin, which seems very critical, but that's the way it was in those days."
The Turks feared him and enlisted their best sniper in an effort to take him out, but failed in their efforts.
Trooper Sing was wounded three times in battle in the Middle East and Europe, and earned three military awards.
At the memorial service, Major General Darryl Low Choy paid tribute to his bravery.
"Today's ceremony is to acknowledge and pay tribute to the bloke from the Queensland bush who enlisted against the odds, to go off to war, to serve his country, to distinguish himself on the battlefield on numerous occasions," he said.
Trooper Sing was born to Chinese and English parents. His last known surviving relative, Don Smith, said he honed his shooting skills in the bush.
"I guess his training was living in the bush and shooting pigs and kangaroos and whatever," he said.
"They reckon his eyesight was like binoculars. He could see anything."
Mr Smith said he was proud to see a memorial to a man who never spoke much about the war, despite his achievements.
"I don't know whether hero is a great word, because he's killed so many people, but that was the work in those days I guess. That was his job," he said.
"People on both sides lost lives and we're lucky Billy was on our side I think."
Trooper Sing returned from the war to try his hand at farming and gold mining, but died a poor and troubled man in 1943, aged 57.
"He obviously was suffering post-traumatic stress, but in those days there was no medical or psychological treatment, so you just fended for yourself," Mr Fogg said.
He had so little money that he lay in an unmarked grave for 50 years until historians discovered his resting place.
| 8 years ago. Rating: 2 | |
mycatsmom
