Info: Australian? Allied Unit,Second Lieutenant ARNOLD WIENHOLT (DSO) (MC) and Bar, MiD

Discussion in 'Australian' started by spidge, Dec 1, 2011.

  1. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

    This extraordinary man has been discussed previously on the Khartoum War Cemetery and Memorial thread.

    His bio has been duplicated here to keep this thread constant in it's entirety.
    http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/north-africa-med/30058-stories-men-remembered-khartoum-war-cemetery.html#post335059



    Any information would be appreciated.

    :poppy:

    Need assistance on Who/Where/What/How for this man who is on the Australian Commemorative Roll which is for those "Australians" who died in other Allied Services. If proved not to be "Australian" their names will not be removed from the Commemorative Roll however their details will be updated accordingly.

    I have researched the Air Force members but there are many more Land and Sea deaths in a myriad of different forces.

    There is not a lot of information on these people that can be accessed easily and I ask your assistance to fill in at least some of the gaps.

    Hopefully some relatives may see this thread and add more.

    I will make a different thread for each along the way as they may tend to get lost if clumped together.

    In Memory of
    Second Lieutenant ARNOLD WIENHOLT
    D S O, M C and Bar, Mentioned in Despatches

    183659, General List
    and 101 Mission (Abyssinian Border)
    who died age 62
    on 10 September 1940
    Son of Edward and Ellen Wienholt; husband of Enid F. Wienholt, of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Also served in the South African and 1914-18 wars. Was elected member for Fassifern in the Queensland Parliament (1909-13 and 1930-35) and Member for Moreton in the Australian Federal Parliament (1919-22).
    Remembered with honour
    KHARTOUM MEMORIAL

    Commemorative Roll - Arnold Wienholt

    Service number: 183659
    Rank: Second Lieutenant
    Unit: Military Mission 101
    Service: Allied Forces
    Conflict: 1939-1945
    Date of death: 10 September 1940
    Place of death: Ethiopia
    Cause of death: Died of wounds
    Cemetery or memorial details: Khartoum Memorial, Sudan



    Khartoum Memorial (Wienholt).jpg

    Wienholt, Arnold. DSO, MC and Bar
    WIENHOLT, ARNOLD (1877-1940), army officer, adventurer, pastoralist, politician and author, was born on 25 November 1877 at Goomburra station, near Allora, Queensland, eldest son of Edward Wienholt, pastoralist, and his Victorian-born wife Ellen, née Williams. Educated in England at Eton, Arnold returned to Australia and gained experience in the pastoral industry. Enlisting in the 4th (Queensland Imperial Bushmen) Contingent, on 18 May 1900 he embarked for South Africa; he was promoted sergeant in June and established a reputation for firmness and fairness. The contingent saw twelve months active service before being disbanded in Brisbane on 10 August 1901.

    In 1908 Wienholt became manager of Wienholt Estates Co. of Australasia Ltd and was responsible for the firm's Queensland properties. He was a good cattleman and published a method of dealing with the ravages of tick. Entering politics in 1909, he was the member for Fassifern in the Legislative Assembly until 1913. That year, having failed to win the Federal seat of Wide Bay, he decided to go on safari to German South-West Africa (Namibia). While hunting, he was mauled by a wounded lion; his wrist was mangled and he lost full use of his right hand.

    Learning of the outbreak of World War I, Wienholt made his way to Rhodesia. His offer to scout for the British was refused and he returned to Brisbane. In March 1915 he sailed for Africa accompanied by Ivan Lewis, a friend. They served briefly on border patrol as special service troopers in the British South African Police, then enlisted in the East Africa Mounted Rifles. Early in 1916 they were seconded to the Intelligence Branch and Wienholt was promoted warrant officer. Leading a patrol into German East Africa (Tanzania), he collected valuable information before being wounded and captured on 1 July. He escaped six months later and spent fifteen days crossing unfamiliar country to regain his own lines. For his gallantry he was awarded the Military Cross. Wienholt performed further successful reconnaissance missions, among them an arduous six-month expedition during which his party was frequently attacked by superior enemy forces. His courage and endurance won him the Distinguished Service Order in October 1918. A bar to his M.C. had been gazetted in September; he had also been promoted captain.

    Two months after arriving home, on 29 April 1919 Wienholt married Enid Frances Sydney Jones at St Philip's Anglican Church, Sydney. They made their home at his property, Washpool Farm, near Kalbar, Queensland. That year he was elected to the House of Representatives as National Party member for Moreton and immediately urged the government to repeal restrictions on German settlers disfranchised during the war. A prudent businessman, he spoke against public indebtedness and state enterprise. He voted in accordance with his conscience on all matters except 'motions of censure or want of confidence'. He did not contest the 1922 election. In 1930 the Fassifern electorate returned him to the assembly. Retaining the seat in 1932, he did not contest the 1935 election. He had published The Story of a Lion Hunt (London, 1922), an account of his adventures on safari and in World War I, and gone lion-hunting on four occasions between 1923 and 1929.

    Following the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, Wienholt arrived in Addis Ababa in December 1935 as war correspondent for the Brisbane Courier Mail. Two months later he joined the Ethiopian Red Cross as a transport officer and left for the front. Impeded by Italian air attacks and hostile tribesmen, he skilfully assisted various philanthropic groups to retreat to the capital. He recorded his experiences in The Africans' Last Stronghold: in Naboth's Vineyard (London, 1938) and continued to promote the Ethiopian cause in Australia and England, but failed to gain official or public support for his stand. On the outbreak of World War II he sailed to Aden; while awaiting Italy's entry into the war, he learned Arabic and Amharic. In anticipation of a commission in the British Army, he was ordered on 31 August 1940 to proceed overland from the Sudan to Ethiopia in charge of a small party of natives. Wienholt's group was a component of Military Mission 101, a force tasked with fostering rebellion against Italy. Ambushed and wounded, probably on the morning of 10 September, he was last seen scrambling into the bush and was presumed to have died.

    Of military bearing, with a moustache and short beard, Wienholt had been alert and restless. At Eton 'he was conspicuous as a straight running, fearless boy of great energy'. The boy was father to the man: he never smoked or drank alcohol, and his physical fitness more than once saved his life. Although taciturn, he liked to tell a good yarn, and to listen to one. As a soldier and scout, he was brave and resourceful, in the style of the heroes in his book, The Work of a Scout (London, 1923). A man of 'ruthless integrity and exacting truthfulness', he abhorred sentimentality and exaggeration. Consequently, his books understated his deeds. An 'uncompromising individualist', he had affection for the peoples of Africa. Wienholt lived much of his life alone, and died alone for a cause which he embraced eagerly and with passion. His wife survived him, as did their only daughter Anne who became a prominent artist. His Queensland estate was sworn for probate at £174,978.
    Select Bibliography

    P. E. von Lettow-Vorbeck, My Reminiscences of East Africa (Lond, 1920); M. J. Fox (compiler), The History of Queensland (Brisb, 1921); A. D. Mickle, Many a Mickle (Melb, 1953); C. G. Grabs, Australian, and a Hero (Toowoomba, Qld, 1987); W. Thesiger, The Life of my Choice (Lond, 1987); Canberra Times, 11 May 1968; R. C. Foot, Arnold Wienholt: A Biography of an Independent Australian (manuscript, privately held); Wienholt collection (University of Queensland Library). More on the resources
    Author: P. J. Greville
    Print Publication Details: P. J. Greville, 'Wienholt, Arnold (1877 - 1940)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 12, Melbourne University Press, 1990, pp 483-484.


    Life Summary [details]

    Birth

    25 November 1877
    Goomburra station, Allora district, Queensland, Australia
    Death

    September 1940
    Ethiopia
    Occupation


     

    Attached Files:

  2. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

    A bit more here from another source as well as a photo!

    The Soldier's Burden

    The last photograph taken of Arnold Wienholt shortly before he was killed.

    Wienholt_Arnold Photo.jpg
     
  3. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

    In reference to this 101 mission, which seemed to be an SOE operation, I translated this from Spanish.

    Foro de Historia Militar el Gran Capitán • Ver Tema - Operaciones Especiales Británicas en el Este de Africa

    Moreover, there are precedents that suggest that the Mission 101 was probably the first of the covert operations of the SOE during the Second World War. Douglas Dodds-Parker, an SOE Mission Commander, described as the Mission 101 had its gestation in intelligence activities in Sudan and Ethiopia during the Ethio-Italian war. Unfortunately, many of the SOE files are not available, as stated by Dodds-Parker in 1984 for the "official" history of SOE:

    "Few records of the organization of the SOE have survived. Instinct and training require few files, which are quickly removed when it comes to activities outside the United Kingdom. Even keeping diaries and journals was strictly regulated. Only field managers and senior officials, judging by his post-war publications, they did so at the risk of a court martial. "

    Here we begin to undo the knot, as secret as Wingate is infiltrated by air in Ethiopia to meet with Sandford in the Gojjam plateau, the November 20, 1940.

    This dangerous flight and subsequent landing on a bush area recently cleared by members of the Mission 101 was piloted by a volunteer, Lieutenant Collis, who was awarded the DFC to undertake this mission.

    In the story "Officer" of the SOE, it is confirmed that the Mission 101 was instigated by MIR (Military Intelligence Research). And then controlled by SOE in London. She also notes that the operation of the RAF in which Wingate flew to Ethiopia to meet with Sandford on November 20, 1940 was "the first operation carried out by the RAF for SOE" and the subsequent collection was "the first operation collection of SOE. "

    3 .- Operation Centers:

    The Mission 101, then, was designed to open a second front in North Africa inciting rebellion against Italian occupiers of Ethiopia in order to reinstall the Emperor Haile Sellaisse in the Ethiopian throne.

    The plan called for several "operational centers" were established under the command of British officers or other Allied countries who together with four non-commissioned officers and a group of approximately thirty infiltrate Ethiopians in Ethiopia. There they would be allocated to the various guerrilla groups operating within that country to act as coordinators and provide arms to the guerrillas and advice. The objective of the mission was to promote popular revolts 101 so that the Emperor was able to return.

    While Australia's involvement in North Africa and the Middle East during WW2 is known, our involvement in East Africa is almost completely forgotten.

    According to the writer of the East African campaign, Michael Glover in "An Improvised War", there were nine Australians involved in the campaign in East Africa. We have already mentioned the so-called "Master Spy" Australian hahora see Arnold Wienholt and five other Australians who formed the Operational Center No. 1.

    This unit called Operational Center No. 1 (Australia) was formed on the principles of the Mission 101, in mid-1940, and was commanded by Lieutenant Allan H. Former member of Brown II / 1 Regiment RAA Campaign, which is why it was called Brown Operational Centre, supported by the sergeants W. R. Howell, R. C. Wood, E. M. Body and J. K. Burke, all Australians.

    The rest of the operational centers began to be infiltrated after November 1940 are as follows:

    Operational Center No. 2 (Royal Artillery), commanded by Captain MacKay of the Canadian Forces. He was wounded (shot in the stomach), and was evacuated on March 18, 1941 and evacuated, being replaced by Lt. Neil L. D. McLean on April 7, 1941. The rest of the team consisted of the sergeants Morrow, Smith, Powell, McLure and King (killed in action).

    NCOs of the team were recruited in Northern Ireland Anti-Aircraft Regiment Egypt.

    Operational Center No. 3 (Beds & Herts), commanded by Lieutenant Gordon Naylor, seconded by Sergeants Cannon, Goode, Lewis and Bartlett

    Operational Center No. 4 (Kings Own) commanded by Lieutenant Bathgate, King's Own. There is no information for NCOs of his team.

    Operational Center No. 5 (13/18 Hussars and Coldstream Guards), commanded by Captain Van der Post, South African Army, and later replaced by Lieutenant W. E. D. Allen, and the sergeants Thornton, MacDonald (13/18 Hussars), Pringle, Harrison and Edge (Cold Guards).

    Operational Center No. 6 (The Buffs) commanded by Lieutenant Welsh and seconded by Sgt Carr's name is not available from other NCOs.

    Operational Center No. 7 (Household Cavalry) commanded by Lieutenant Neil L. D. McLean (Royal Scots Greys) and the sergeants seconded by Bain, Brown, Blakeman, Fairhall and Saunders

    Operational Center No. 8 (Yorks Hussars) led by Lieutenant Stanton. There is no information for NCOs of his team.

    Operational Center No. 9 (North Somerset Yeomanry) commanded by Lieutenant Cope. There is no information for NCOs of his team.

    Operational Center No. 10 (Household Cavalry) commanded by Lieutenant M. L. Pilkington sergeants and seconded by Mills, Strachan, Preedy, Johnston and West
     

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