Lance Corporal 547 Andrew Korber “B” Company, 32nd Infantry Battalion AIF was born the 10th of August 1892 at Verdun (Grunthal), South Australia.

Andrew enlisted as a driver, at his home town of Keswick, South Australia, on the 7th July 1915 whilst employed as a carpenter. His medical record states that he was 5ft 10ins tall, with brown hair and that he was a Methodist.

From the 21st August, he spent twenty four days in Keswick Military Hospital before embarking on HMAT Geelong at Adelaide; departing for Egypt on the 18th of November, where the battalion disembarked at Suez on the 18th of December 1915; the following March, Andrew was appointed to Driver at Tel-El-Kebir and promoted to Lance Corporal vice Humphries, who was promoted.

The battalion embarked aboard the Transylvania at Alexandria, on 17th June 1916, bound for Marseilles where it disembarked on the 23rd.

From Marseilles, the 32nd Battalion marched to the Somme, arriving in the trenches on the 16th of July to take part in the Battle of Fromelles. This was the first major battle fought by Australian troops on the Western Front.

The objective was to attack the strong German position known as the Sugar Loaf salient. This was intended as a feint to draw German troops away from the Somme offensive. After a seven-hour preparatory bombardment, which deprived the attack of any element of surprise, and was ineffective against the well entrenched defenders.

Troops of the 5th Australian and 61st British Divisions launched the attack at 6 pm on 19 July 1916, they suffered heavily at the hands of German machine guns. Small gains were made by the Australians Brigades, but lack of support and fierce counter-attacks, prevented these from being held.

The attack was a disaster for the 32nd Battalion and by the time the battle was over, at 8am on the 20th of July 1916, it had suffered seven hundred and eighteen casualties, almost 75 per cent of the battalion's total strength, but closer to 90 per cent of its actual fighting strength.

Although it still spent periods in the front line, the 32nd played no major offensive role for the rest of the year. Private Korber was reported missing on the 20th of July in the vicinity of At Fleurbaux.

A court of enquiry held on the field on the 12th of August, 1917, he was pronounced to have been killed in action. He has no known grave and he is commemorated on the VC Corner Australian Cemetery Memorial, Fromelles.

He is also commemorated on the Adelaide National War Memorial, Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour; Croydon War Memorial; Verdun Roll of Honour; Woodville Kilkenny Church of St. Edward Honour Roll.

The V.C. Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial commemorates 1569 Commonwealth casualties of which1167 are identified. 

As a whole, the 5th Australian Division suffered 5,533 casualties, rendering it incapable of offensive action for many months; the 61st British Division suffered 1,547. These numbers were far greater than the German casualties which were little more than 1,000. 

The complete failure of the attack was compounded by the fact that the Germans realised that it was a diversion from the main offensive on the Somme and therefore did nothing to assist that.