ANZAC Officers and Men who landed on 25 April and survived the war

[green_acorn]

Hi Guys,

From the various discussions on this forum, I have become interested in who survived that first day of confusion on 25 April 1915 and what they then did on the Western and Palestinian fronts and whether they went onto survive the war. I know Bryn has done some truly wonderful work on officers at Anzac and would be very much interested to hear from him.

Cheers,

Hendo

[JoMH]

Hendo,

Are you only interested in men who arrived on April 25th? The man I am researching apparently arrived in late May with the Otago Mounted Rifles. He survived Gallipoli and went on the survive France and Flanders too, and I am piecing together some information.

I'll post some details if you are interested. If not, good luck with the project!

Joanna

[1st AIF]

I have done a sample of this. I took A Company 9th Bn from the original embarkation list. There were 120 men.

1 died before Gallipoli.

13 KIA on 25-30Apr1915

Another 36 casualties throughout the Gallipoli campaign that resulted in death or repatriation - there would have been a lot more casualties who subsequently recovered and came back for seconds.

1 shot dead whilst escaping from detention in 1919

Another 27 KIA,DOW,DOD throughout the war (excluding those killed on 25Apr1915 but including killed later at Gallipoli)

8 men were repatratriated in 1919 whilst still serving with the 9th Bn and another 6 serving with other units

A lot of men transferred to other units particularly 49th Bn.

Two men became deserters and were never found. Medals forfeited including one bloke who was WIA twice at Gallipoli.

A total of 41 men died overseas out of 120 = 34% fatalities which is very high.

Therefore only 14 of the 120 men survived the war in one physical piece - and of these 14 some of them may have been wounded. 83% were killed, died, wounded, injured, sickened and a few may have came home on special Anzac leave in 1918. Pretty sad really.

It will be a massive job doing the 10,000 or so that landed on day one.

Len

[green_acorn]

I have done a sample of this. I took A Company 9th Bn from the original embarkation list. There were 120 men.

1 died before Gallipoli.

13 KIA on 25-30Apr1915

Another 36 casualties throughout the Gallipoli campaign that resulted in death or repatriation - there would have been a lot more casualties who subsequently recovered and came back for seconds.

1 shot dead whilst escaping from detention in 1919

Another 27 KIA,DOW,DOD throughout the war (excluding those killed on 25Apr1915 but including killed later at Gallipoli)

8 men were repatratriated in 1919 whilst still serving with the 9th Bn and another 6 serving with other units

A lot of men transferred to other units particularly 49th Bn.

Two men became deserters and were never found. Medals forfeited including one bloke who was WIA twice at Gallipoli.

A total of 41 men died overseas out of 120 = 34% fatalities which is very high.

Therefore only 14 of the 120 men survived the war in one physical piece - and of these 14 some of them may have been wounded. 83% were killed, died, wounded, injured, sickened and a few may have came home on special Anzac leave in 1918. Pretty sad really.

It will be a massive job doing the 10,000 or so that landed on day one.

Len

Len,

That is exactly what I was thinking of, and yes a massive job. Somewhat helped by the early repatriation of many of the first ANZAC veterans. In the context of things the 66% survival rate for A Coy 9 AIB is good considering all of the subsequent battles. As you have done it must be done by sub-unit, otherwise you head would go mushy.

Cheers,

Hendo

[Auimfo]

My grandfather was at the landing on 25th April 1915, survived Gallipoli and went on to survive the Western Front, returning home to Australia in 1919. He eventually died in 1975 at the ripe old age of 85.

One of the very lucky ones.

Cheers,

Tim L.