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| 1st Battalion Lines Mena Camp 1914 |
9th December: Entrain for Cairo. Miles of flat country under cultivation & irrigation. Saw many typical biblical scenes. It is said Egypt has not changed since the time of Christ & I quite believe it. See fields of maize, cotton & vegetables, fruit, etc. Arrive Cairo 1pm. All treated to hot cocoa & a hot roll each. Take tram for Pyramids where we encamp.
Perhaps we should briefly look at how these young Australians came to be in the shadows of the Pyramids almost 100 years ago.
The "History of The First Battalion", published in 1931, opens with these words,
"August 4, 1914. Cable and wireless hurried Britain's declaration of war against Germany to the world. At Victoria Barracks, Sydney, as in all parts of the empire, were enacted the opening scenes of the great drama that was to have the world as its stage and millions of men and women as its actors."
The military was charged with forming the 1st Australian Division. The main components of this Division were to be four infantry brigades, each brigade would have four infantry battalions and each battalion would have eight (later changed to four) infantry companies. In turn each company would be comprised of a number of platoons, usually four. In addition to the infantry component, the 1st Division would also have artillery, engineers, field ambulance, signals, transport and other support elements.
For the purpose of
our story, what we end up with by April 25 1915 is the 1st
Brigade, with battalions 1 to 4,
2nd
Brigade with battalions 5 to 8, 3rd
Brigade (to be the covering force & first ashore at Gallipoli)
with battalions 9 to 12 and the 4th
Brigade (later assigned to the NZ & Australian Division for the
Gallipoli landing) with battalions 13 to 16. Each battalion
consisted of approximately 1000 men.
What follows is a
quote from Chapter 5 of the Official History by CW Bean. While it
doesn't talk specifically of the formation of the 1st
Battalion, it serves to provide a clear guide as to the events taking
place at the time.
At
each Australian Capital, about the middle of August, the infant
regiments began to take shape. In most cases the officer chosen to
command one of them received between the 13th and 17th of August a
telegram informing him of the fact, and instructing him to organise
his unit and choose its officers. The brigadier, who had selected
him, generally helped by suggesting a second-in-command, an adjutant
(always a regular officer or adjutant of militia), and allotted him
four permanent non-commissioned officers-often old British
N.C.O.'s-to form the backbone of the regimental staff. The commanding
officer then began to pick the rest of his staff, mainly from the
militia officers who volunteered in the areas allotted to his unit,
and on or about August 17th, all over Australia, the regiments,
battalions, and companies of the Australian Imperial Force began to
concentrate in some camp near the capital cities of the States. On
Randwick Racecourse and the grassy sandhills of Kensington, both in
the suburbs of Sydney; at Broadmeadows, a bleak, grassy plateau ten
miles from Melbourne; at Morphettville in South Australia; at
Enoggera in Queensland, Blackboy Hill in Western Australia and
Pontville in Tasmania, for the space of one month the army was
growing.
On
August 13th Major A. J. Bennett, who had fought in South Africa, was
ordered by Colonel MacLaurin, the brigadier, to organise the 3rd
battalion of the 1st Infantry Brigade. The next day Major Bennett
conferred with the brigadier, and selected from eight of the training
areas of New South Wales most of the officers of the battalion. At
9a.m.
on August 17th the chosen officers presented themselves, clothed in
their militia uniforms, at the Victoria Barracks, Sydney. There, on
the weather-worn asphalt of the parade ground, they found a swarm of
men in every sort of civilian garb. “Crowds of men,” writes one
of the original officers, “jostling each other, laughing and
talking excitedly, tall men, short men, youngsters just left school,
men in the prime, and even a sprinkling of greyheads. Mostly their
faces were bright, attentive and eager. . . . . . . . Here and there stand men with
quiet resolute faces and trim bodies, with an air of respect and
control-the unmistakable stamp of the old soldier. Mark well the
steady ex-Imperial men will form the nucleus of our N.C.0.’s.”
(The
dissolute ex-Imperial man will be a constant source of trouble to
himself and everybody else.)
“At
length the shuffling, sorting and list-taking ceases. The men have
all presented themselves before the second-in-command. He has seen
each medical certificate of fitness and jerked out a few short
queries. He turns to a knot of officers who represent our regimental
staff so far, and they depart and sort out the men. Markers are
called out. The regiment, so far about 300 strong, is told off into
eight squads, the skeleton of a battalion. They are ‘shunned’
(called to attention), dressed, numbered, formed into fours, formed
two deep, proved and stood at ease. Then steps forward a young
militia captain who is to take charge and march them to Randwick
Racecourse . . . and the 3rd Battalion of Infantry, no longer a name
but a living entity, moves off in column of fours, a long sinuous
serpent, to lunch and glory.”
The
growth of the units may be judged from the instance already
given-that of the 3rd Battalion of Infantry. On Monday, August 17th,
it marched to Randwick Racecourse 330 strong-20 acting-officers and
310 men. On August 18th
three companies were formed; on August 20th they had grown to five.
On that day the issue of clothing began. By the 22nd the battalion
had I8 acting-officers and 503 men. On the 26th its rifles were
issued, and next day five officers and five non-commissioned officers
were sent to Randwick Rifle Range for instruction in musketry, so
that they could teach the rest. On August 29th recruiting for the
battalion in the country districts had commenced, an officer being
sent to meet the trains and conduct the country recruits to
Kensington Racecourse, where the battalion was now camped in tents.
By September 3rd the battalion was complete-32 officers and 991 men.
It was allowed to recruit 75 men over its strength, in order that
unsuitable men could be discharged. On September 14th it marched out
for the first time with its brigade to the heathland overlooking the
sea at Maroubra. It had now some of its wagons, 11 horses, and the
two Maxim machine-guns which were then allotted to every battalion.
On September 16th the brass band held its first daily practice. On
September 20th the men’s paybooks were compiled. By September 23rd,
when the battalion was five weeks old, musketry practice had begun,
the battalion had its horses complete, and the order was issued for
the embarkation of the men in the Aberdeen liner Euripides
in Sydney Harbour, and
for that of the horses and drivers in the Clan
Maccorguodale. On
September 27th
orders were received to defer embarkation. The horses and drivers
already on board the Clan
Maccorgriodole were
taken off the next day. The same history, with variations, would he
true of almost every unit in the young force.
The
units of the 1st
contingent all over Australia were complete and ready to sail by
September 21st.
In his diary entry for April 3 1915, Jack Reilly writes
 |
| SS Minnewaska |
All leave stopped. Went to Cairo to get money from the
bank. Had a tight squeeze to get through on a crook pass. Also had
a job to get money owing to not having my identification disc with
me. Left camp at 6pm to entrain for destination unknown. Arrived
Alexandria 5am (April 4,Ed.). Went aboard “Minnewaska”. Rumoured we are going
to Dardenelles. Loading goods all day. J. Cairns & I got out
and went up town. Got back about an hour before we left the wharf
and anchored in mid stream.
The Battalion History paints the picture for us:
On Easter Sunday, April 4, 1915, the 1st Battalion embarked on Transport A.11, the Minnewaska.......There were no tables, hammocks or other conveniences. The men had to live, sleep and eat on the iron decks in the holds. The troops were put on service rations - bully beef and biscuits. One of the men wrote: "Everything seems to be iron about this business. We are on an iron ship. We sleep on an iron deck. We are fed on iron rations, and now we are told that our Commander is Sir Ian Hamilton." But the fact that something was doing more than atoned for these discomforts.
We had about 1900 men on board, and about 500 horses.........We still had no definite knowledge of our destination, but "the Dardanelles" was on everybody's lips. For the next few days we lay in harbour at Alexandria, and incidentally took on board a quantity of timber with which to construct a wharf. The censorship was in full swing, and very irksome to many...."
The Battalion War Diary blandly describes the next few days:
5/4/15 - Alexandria - Loading ship all day - supplied Divisional Town Piquet at night
6/4/15 - Alexandria - Loading ship - supplied Town Piquet as usual
7/4/15 - Alexandria - Same
8/4/15 - Alexandria - Same
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