Barney Sacklove, a Jewish man, came from Vitebsk Province in Russia, most likely from the township of Rezekne (now in Latvia). His family moved to Scotland when he was young and enlisting in the AIF he tried to pass on as a native of Leeds. He came to Australia when the war had already broken out.
He worked for a few months as a carter and then enlisted in the AIF in Sydney in February 1915. Two weeks later he deserted from the military camp. Probably something went wrong in the camp but he did not lose his aspiration for army service. He travelled to Melbourne and enlisted there two weeks later. With the 24th Battalion he served at Gallipoli and on the Western Front where in August 1916 he was wounded at Mouquet Farm.
After the war he returned to Melbourne and disappeared from the records.
John Henderson, a Finnish labourer from Mariehamn, worked in Australia in Port Pirie.
Enlisting in the AIF he served in the 10th Battalion at Gallipoli and on the Western Front, where he was killed at the battle for Hill 60 in Hollebeke in Belgium.
Wolfe Hoffman was born in Podol Province in Ukraine. He came to Western Australia in 1910 to join his relatives and worked as labourer and mill hand.
He served with the 16th Battalion at Gallipoli where he suffered from severe dysentery. In 1917 he was transferred to Field Ambulance with which he served on the Western Front until he became sick and was returned to Australia serving with the nursing staff on the ‘Somerset’.
Returning to Australia he married and settled in Melbourne, where he opened a knitting factory. During WWII he enlisted in the AIF again and served as a corporal in the Attestation office in Melbourne.
Victor Morris Letman, a seaman from Tammerfors (Tampere) in Finland, came to Australia in 1901 at the age of seventeen.
Enlisting in the AIF in Melbourne he served with the 24th Battalion at Gallipoli and on the Western Front, attaining the rank of corporal. He was wounded in April 1917 at Bullecourt and rejoined his unit after recovery. In October 1917 during another major battle at Broodseinde in Ypres, he, according to his commander, ‘was severely wounded in the arm while going forward to the J.O.T. He refused to leave and went right through the attack. When the objective was attained he used his Lewis gun with great effect on [the] retreating enemy, and did splendid work at keeping down snipers’. He was awarded the Military Medal for his bravery.
Returning to Australia, he married his old sweetheart Ellen (Kathleen) Smith and lived in Melbourne working as a labourer and rigger. In 1936 he was badly wounded when a car hit him from behind while he was on his bicycle. Nevertheless he enlisted in the AIF during WWII and served in Volunteer Defence Corps.
Russian Anzacs