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Category:1st AIF/3rd
Div/11th Bde |
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- 44th Battalion AIF
(Western Australia) [11th Infantry Brigade]
Formed Western Australia February 1916. Departed Fremantle Suevic
6 June 1916.
- 1st Reinforcements departed Fremantle Suevic
6 June 1916,
- 2nd Reinforcements departed Fremantle Miltiades
9 August 1916,
- 3rd Reinforcements departed Fremantle Suffolk
10 October 1916,
- 4th Reinforcements departed Fremantle Port Macquarie 13
October 1916,
- 5th Reinforcements departed Fremantle Argyllshire
9 November 1916,
- 6th Reinforcements departed Fremantle Beltana
6 December 1916, and
- 7th Reinforcements departed Fremantle Miltiades
29 January 1917,
- 8th Reinforcements departed Fremantle Borda
29 June 1917,
- 9th Reinforcements departed Albany Port
Melbourne 24 July 1917.
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Battle Honours:
Messines 1917, Ypres 1917,
Polygon Wood, Broodeseinde, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele,
Somme 1918, Ancre 1918, Amiens, Albert 1918, Mont St Quentin, Hindenburg
Line, St Quentin Canal, France and Flanders 1916-18
by
Ross Mallett (ADFA)
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44th Battalion
The 44th Battalion was raised at
Claremont, Western Australia in February 1916. It formed part of the
11th Brigade of the 3rd Australian Division, and soon became known as
“Old Bill’s Thousand” after its first commanding officer,
Lieutenant Colonel William Mansbridge. The battalion left Australia on 6
June and proceeded to Britain for further training. It arrived in France
on 27 November and entered the front line trenches of the Western Front
for the first time on 29 December.
The 44th spent the bleak winter of
1916–17 alternating between service in the front line, and training
and labouring in the rear areas. This routine was broken by only one
major raid, an ill-fated effort involving almost half the battalion on
13 March 1917. The battalion fought in its first major battle at
Messines, in Belgium, between 7 and 10 June. In the months that followed
it was heavily employed in the Ypres sector, taking part in another
major battle to capture Broodseinde Ridge on 7 June, and participating
in costly defensive operations in horrendous conditions. Of the 992 men
from the battalion who were involved in the Ypres operations, only 158
emerged unwounded when it was relieved for a rest on 21 October.
Belgium remained the focus of the 44th
Battalion’s activities for another five months as it was rotated
between service in the rear areas and the front line. When the German
Army launched its last great offensive in March 1918, the battalion was
rushed south to France and played a role in blunting the drive towards
the vital railway junction of Amiens.
With the Germans’ last effort
defeated the Allies began planning their own great offensive. The 44th
took part in the preparatory battle of Hamel on 4 July 1918, and was
part of the first wave when the offensive itself was launched on 8
August. Its involvement continued during the long advance that followed
throughout August and into September. The 44th’s last major action of
the war was fought between 29 September and 3 October 1918 as part of
the Australian-American operation that breached the formidable defences
of the Hindenburg Line along the St Quentin Canal. By this stage, the
44th was just about spent. It had crossed the Hamel start-line
approximately 600-strong, but just on 80 men were relieved on 3 October.
The battalion was out of the line when the war ended, and was disbanded
in May 1919. Text from AWM
- 437 killed ,1346 wounded (including
gassed)
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Decorations
- 3 DSO
- 1 MBE
- 16 MC, 1 bar
- 13 DCM, 1 bar
- 91 MM, 1 bar
- 5 MSM
- 21 MID
- 11 foreign awards
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