16th Battalion

Shoulder patch

16th Battalion men cleaning out a Gird Trench

Brief History

The 16th Battalion AIF was raised from 16 September 1914, six weeks after the outbreak of the First World War. Three-quarters of the battalion were recruited in Western Australia, and the rest in South Australia. With the 13th, 14th and 15th Battalions it formed the 4th Brigade commanded by Colonel John Monash.

When the 4th Brigade arrived in Egypt it became part of the New Zealand and Australian Division. The 4th Brigade landed at ANZAC late in the afternoon of 25 April 1915.

A week after the landing the 16th was thrown into the attack on Bloody Angle suffering many casualties. From May to August the battalion was heavily involved in establishing and defending the front line of the ANZAC beachhead, and in August the 4th Brigade attacked Hill 971. The hill was taken at great cost, although Turkish reinforcements forced the Australians to withdraw. The battalion served at ANZAC until the evacuation in December.

After the withdrawal from Gallipoli, the battalion returned to Egypt. While there the AIF expanded and was reorganised. The 16th Battalion was split and provided experienced soldiers for the 48th Battalion. The 4th Brigade was combined with the 12th and 13th Brigades to form the 4th Australian Division.

Its first major action in France was at Poziéres in the Somme valley. The battalion spent much of 1917 in Belgium advancing to the Hindenburg Line. The battalion, along with most of the 4th Brigade, suffered heavy losses at Bullecourt in April 1917, when the brigade attacked strong German positions without the promised tank support. In March and April 1918, the battalion helped to stop the German Spring offensive. The battalion participated in the great allied offensive of 1918, fighting near Amiens on 8 August 1918. This advance by British and empire troops was the greatest success in a single day on the Western Front, one that German General Erich Ludendorff described as '..the black day of the German Army in this war'. The battalion continued operations until late September 1918.

Battalion Personnel

A

• † Herbert Wright Aldred 15 Sep 1914 - 10 May 1915 - KIA Quinn's Post, Gallipoli
• Frederick James Allison MM 24 Oct 1917 - 3 Oct 1918
• Leith John Newton Angelo 1 Mar 1916 - 8 Aug 1918 - WIA near Mericourt, Somme region
• † Robert Prior Bailey 7 May 1917 - 8 Aug 1918 - KIA near Mericourt-sur-Somme

B

• † Frank Ball 22 Mar - 2 May 1915 - KIA Bloody Angle, Gallipoli
• † Edward James Bell - 16 Sep 1914 - 25 May 1915 - DOW Gallipoli
• Clement Wilder Benporath - 27 Apr - 7 Aug 1915 - WIA Gallipoli
• Arthur Edward Bingham - 25 Aug 1916 - 10 Apr 1917 - WIA Bullecourt area
• † Austin Henry (Paddy) Bingham 25 - 30 Aug 1916 - KIA Mouquet Farm
• John Blake 6 May 1915 - 11 Apr 1917 - POW 1st Bullecourt
• † Sydney Fenner Blencowe 9 Jan - 2 Mar 1916 - to 48th Battalion
• † Henry Bolton 26 Sep 1914 - 12 Aug 1916 - KIA Pozières

C

• Sidney Herrick Carter 16 Dec 1916 - 1 Apr 1918 - Injured and not able to rejoin unit
• John Thomas Clements 27 Jul 1917 - 11 May 1918 - to 4th Machine Gun Battalion
• † Frederick Lawrence Close 29 Apr -4 May 1915 - KIA 'Baby 700', Gallipoli
• William Francis Cohn 2 Jan 1916 - 11 Apr 1917 - POW 1st Bullecourt
• Victor Thomas Emanuel Compassi 23 Oct - 31 Dec 1915
• Gordon Vidgen Cross 4 Oct 1916 - 11 Apr 1917 - POW 1st Bullecourt

D

• George Chistopher Dalziell DCM 23 Oct 1915 - 27 Feb 1919
• † Thomas Denteith 21 Jan - 11 Apr 1917 - KIA 1st Bullecourt

E

• John James Emery  ?? - 1 May 1915 - KIA Gallipoli as a reinforcement before joining the battalion

F

Charles Fancote 21 Jun - 29 Sep 1917 - WIA near Ploegeteert

• Arthur Thomas Feast

John Edwin Ffoulkes DCM

• George Weston Firns 2 Aug 1915 - 2 Mar 1916 - to 48th Battalion
• † Osborne Fisher 5 Feb - 2 Mar 1916 - to 48th Battalion
• † Walter Stanley Fisher 26 Feb - 2 Apr 1916 - to 48th Battalion

G

• William Henry Gibbs 2 Jan 1917 - 30 Mar 1919
• Eugene Anthony Gillespie 26 Jan - 21 May 1918 -- to 4th Australian Broad Gauge Railway Operating Company

Alfred Gittins Frederick Sidney Gladstone

• Leslie James Godfrey 2 May - 16 Sep 1916 - to 4th Machine Gun Company

Rupert Arthur Kent Goodchild H Edwin Patrick Hanrahan George Harris Phillip (Harry) Harrison William Hart Matthew Harwood Edward Hobson James Owen Horrocks K James Kirk L James Edward Laugher George William Liddington

• William Wilfred Gerald Liddington 13 Oct 1917 - 11 May 1918 - to 4th Machine Gun Battalion

Angus Lindt Ernest Edward Lockhart Samuel Thomas Lowth M Claude Robert Marsh Victor Henry Marshall

• Alfred Arthur Martin 5 Feb - 3 Mar 1916 - to 48th Battalion

George Henry Martin MM MID

• Harold Percival Martin 19 Jan - 6 Feb 1918 - to 32nd Battalion

Benjamin Arthur McEvoy Patrick O'Connell McKenna Albert Tom Milton Thomas William Moore Frank Myales N

• George Emanuel Nettleton 30 Apr 1917 - 11 May 1918

Ernest Clifford Noyce O Patrick Joseph O'Brien Bernard O'Reilly P

• William Plant 17 Jun 1916 - ?? Dec 1918

R Frederick Rawlinson Edwin Lawrence Reed William Edward Reed Egbert Robert Trethowan Reeves John Edmond Rhodes Hartland Wheare Richards James Edward Richardson Alexander Robinson Alfred Arthur (Fred) Rouse S

• † Robert Melville Salter 21 Sep 1914 - 11 Apr 1916

William Thomas Saw

• Frederick William Scott 9 Sep 1914 - 13 Mar 1916 - to 48th Battalion

Joseph Scott Clarence Otto Sladden Albert Squire John Donald Stalker

• James Strachan 13 Feb 1917 (WIA 11 Apr 1917 Bullecourt)

T

• † Albert Thomas Ticklie MM 1 Mar - 1 Apr 1916 - to 48th Battalion
• † Ernest Charles Thomas 21 Jan - 29 Sep 1917 - DOW Polygon Wood (wounded 26 Sep)

Allan Leslie Thomas Aubrey Turner Herbert Winton Turner U John Francis Ullyott W David Dickson Waddell

• Matthew Walsh 27 Jul - 15 Sep 1917 - to 32nd Battalion

Harold Watts Lawrence Hamill White MM

• James Murray Whiteley 8 Jan - 13 Mar 1916 - to 12th Machine Gun Company

Aubrey Jesse Whittington MM James Arthur Williams Douglas Campbell Wills Winning Cyril Arthur Woodland Y George Young

Battle Honours

• Anzac
• Landing at Anzac
• Defence of Anzac
• Suvla
• Sari Bair
• Gallipoli, 1915
• Egypt, 1915-16
• Somme, 1916-18
• Pozières
• Bullecourt
• Messines, 1917
• Ypres, 1917
• Menin Road
• Polygon Wood
• Passchendaele
• Arras, 1918
• Ancre, 1918
• Hamel
• Amiens
• Albert, 1918
• Hindenburg Line
• Epéhy
• France and Flanders, 1916-18

Individual Honours

• 3 Victoria Crosses (Pte Martin O'Meara, LCpl Tom Axford, Lt LD "Fats" McCarthy)
• 2 Companion of the Order of Bath
• 1 Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George
• 12 Distinguished Service Orders and 1 bar
• 25 Military Crosses and 5 bars, one second bar
• 30 Distinguished Service Orders and 1 bar
• 163 Military Medals and 12 bars
• 5 Meritorious Service Medals
• 50 Mentioned in Despatches and
• 7 foreign awards.

Notes

History sourced from the AWM website. Accessed 29 Dec 2017.