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Allen-J-B-Pte-462 (redirected from Allen-J-Pte-462)

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Volunteers of Essendon and Flemington, 1914-1918

Allen J Pte 462 Jack Brennnon 7 Inf Bn 22 Clerk Single R C

Address: Moonee Ponds, Hudson St, 5

Next of Kin: Allen, H, Mrs, mother, Chiltern

Enlisted: 24 Aug 1914

Embarked: A20 Hororata 19 Oct 1914

Relatives on Active Service:

Pemberton-R-A-Pte-15332 cousin

Allen, Harold, brother, enlisted Wangaratta

Date of death: 24/07/1916

VILLERS-BRETONNEUX MEMORIAL

Private Jack Brennon Allen

by Rod Martin

He was christened with the name ‘John’ by his parents, but he always called himself ‘’Jack’’ and enlisted under that name in Melbourne on 24 August 1914, just twenty days after the British Empire declared war against Germany and Austria-Hungary. At that time, Jack was living at 5 Hudson Street in Moonee Ponds:

(realestate.com.au)

Before that, he had been born in Wodonga and lived in Wangaratta for several years. He was twenty-two years old, stood 175 centimetres tall and weighed sixty-six kilograms.

Jack was assigned to Lieutenant-Colonel‘’Pompey’’ Elliott’s 7 Battalion. Along with every other keen and eager recruit from Victoria, he trained at Broadmeadows army base. Many of these early recruits saw involvement in a war as an adventure, a chance to travel and a chance to fight for king and empire. As a result of their participation in the Gallipoli Campaign, they became known collectively as ‘Dinkum Aussies’ or ‘Anzacs’.

Jack was part of the first contingent of Australian troops to head for Europe and the new war. On 19 October 1914, he and his compatriots boarded A 20 HMAT Hororata at Port Melbourne and sailed for Albany on the southern coast of Western Australia, there to gather with troopships from all parts of the country as well as New Zealand. They would all form the first convoy.

Victorian troops arriving to board HMAT Hororata at Port Melbourne in October 1914

(AWM C02491)

King George Sound, Albany. The diagram shows the locations of the ships of the first convoy.

Hororata was the third ship from the back in the left-hand column. (Rod Martin)

The convoy sailed on 2 November, ostensibly headed for the Suez Canal and then western Europe. While in the Indian Ocean, the men had their first taste of what it was like to be at war. The German raider SMS Emden was reported to be near the Cocos Islands. One of the escorts, the original HMAS Sydney, detached itself from the convoy and headed for the those islands at full speed. Once there, it engaged the Emden, winning the battle and forcing its commander to beach his ship.

While the convoy was still en route, the British government had decided to invade Turkey (a new entrant into the war, on the German side) and knock it out of the contest. It decided to use the Australian and New Zealand contingents as part of an invading force on the Gallipoli Peninsula if the British and French navies could not force their way to Constantinople (now Istanbul) by knocking out the defending forts in the Dardanelles Straits. In consequence, the convoy was ordered to sail to Alexandria, on the north coast of Egypt, and to disembark the troops there. They would then travel to a hastily arranged base at Mena, close to the Pyramids on the edge of Cairo.

The Australian/New Zealand camp at Mena in 1915 (AWM A02117B)

The troops trained there, and many were involved in long marches across the desert.

Most of the troops left Mena on 4 April, headed for Alexandria. Two days earlier, however, while they were still at Mena, many of the men were involved in a riot in Haret al Wassir, the ‘’red light’’ district of Cairo. Up to 2 500 Australians and New Zealanders descended on the district, incensed by the incidence of venereal disease in the brothels there and the poor quality and high price of the alcohol dispensed in the hotels. There was a lot of looting, burning and assaulting before mounted police arrived to disperse the crowd and arrest a number of intoxicated soldiers. One Australian soldier described it as "The greatest bit of fun since we have been in Egypt . . .” When the troops left Mena a couple of days later, many were sporting "war wounds’’ and/or hangovers. Whether Jack had been involved in the riot we do not know. Suffice it to say that he was not kept back in Cairo suffering from venereal disease or awaiting trial for the affray. Quite a few men were.

Damage in the Wassir district after the riot of 2 April 1915 (AWM PS1373)

The misbehaviour by troops in Cairo caused the military authorities to seek out a new campsite, far from areas such as the Wassir. They settled on a place called Tel el Kebir, quite a distance south of the city.

The naval assault on the Dardanelles having failed, the move was made towards a land invasion. When the troops left Alexandria on 5 April, they were headed for the Greek island of Lemnos, there to undergo further training, especially in the art of landing a whaleboat on a shore. The 7 Battalion war diary records that the men arrived at Lemnos on 11 April and were still there on the nineteenth. After that, there are no reports until 25 April, the day of the Gallipoli landing. However, in describing 2 Brigade’s role in the attack (of which 7 Battalion was part), Les Carlyon tells us that it was part of the main body of men - 8000 in all - that would approach the shore at a spot just north of a headland called Gaba Tepe around 5.00 am, land and take the beach. 2 Brigade would then move north and take a hill given the title of 971, and guard the beach north as far as a point called Fisherman’s Hut.

That was the plan, anyway. The reality was that the currents along that stretch of coast were much stronger than anticipated, and moving in a northerly direction. The boats became bunched together and gathered in confusion off a narrow sandy beach, backed by towering cliffs. The men were ordered to get out of the boats quickly (some never made it even that far, being wounded or killed in the boats by Turkish bullets and shrapnel - see my story about Private Ellis Stones). Those who did make it on to the beach were ordered to drop their packs and head up the steep and gorse-covered slopes as fast as they could. The irony of the event is that some of them made it to the tops of the hills that day, getting further inland than they did during the next eight months.

The 7 Battalion diary records that the steamboats supposed to tow the whaleboats full of men ashore at 5.30 am did not arrive on time, so the men were ordered to row the boats themselves. When they did land, they quickly became mixed with others. ‘Pompey’ Elliott, the commander, was shot in the ankle at about 9.30 am, and was evacuated to a hospital ship. The casualties for the day, as recorded in the diary, were eighteen officers (two killed, sixteen wounded). No figure for other ranks was listed, but a note in the margin, obviously added later after head counts, reported that the approximate casualty list was 400 killed, wounded and missing out of a total complement of 1,130 - over one-third. 7 Battalion suffered greater losses on that day than any other battalion. Was it because its men were braver or more foolhardy that those in other units, or was it just bad luck? We shall probably never know.

As for Jack, we know that he made it on to the beach and may have been one of those who headed for the heights. Soldiers from different units were scattered all over the difficult terrain. By the next day, the acting commander of the battalion had established its headquarters on the western slope of what became known as Happy Valley. At that time, he had only located about seventy men. An advance was ordered in the direction of the hill known as Baby 700, but was repulsed in the evening. By 30 April, most of the men had been found, and the battalion survivors were located in trenches at the head of Happy Valley.

On 5-6 May, despite the hold on the territory at Anzac Cove still being precarious, and despite 7 Battalion being very depleted, 2 Brigade, of which it was part, was withdrawn and despatched south to Cape Helles, at the tip of the peninsula. The men had been sent to reinforce British troops assigned to capture the village of Krithia near Cape Helles. The British 29 Division was involved in the initial assault at the cape on 25 April, landing at five beaches. Three landings faced little opposition but the other two came under very heavy fire and casualties were high. Many men were lost when they attempted to land from a deliberately beached vessel called the River Clyde. In broad daylight, they were accurately picked off by Turkish riflemen on the heights as they tried to exit the ship. The remainder stayed on the vessel and disembarked at night.

2 Brigade troops landing at Cape Helles. The River Clyde stands aground

next to the pier. (AWM G00957)

The British troops were commanded by the incompetent Major-General Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston, and their first attempt to take Krithia, on 28 April, was a slaughter, costing 29 Division 3 000 casualties. It was then that the request was made for Australian reinforcements to be sent south from Anzac Cove.

Seemingly devoid of any initiative or common sense, Hunter-Weston decided to try exactly the same attack again, beginning on 6 May, this time involving the Australians as well. After two initially unsuccessful efforts, a third assault was commenced on 8 May. Over the next four days, the fighting waxed and waned before coming to a halt, no territory of any real value gained.

Cape Helles in 1915 (AWM PS1648)

Wheeler, Charles: Charge of the 2^nd Infantry Brigade at Krythia (AWM Art 09558)

After landing at the cape on 6 May, 7 Battalion went into reserve near the beach. That, however, did not stop three men from being wounded by shrapnel. 132 reinforcements arrived on the eighth, the same day that the Australians were given the order to attack the Turks (for the second time), 6 and 7 Battalions forming the firing line. They reached the British firing line, formed after the first attack, soon after. However, they got no further than that, and suffered approximately 250 casualties in the process. These included three officers killed (the acting commander. Lieutenant-Colonel Garside, being among them) and sixteen wounded. Licking lots of wounds, what was left of 7 Battalion remained in those front trenches for another two days before being relieved on the eleventh and finally returning to Anzac Cove on 16 May.

What was happening to Jack all this time? The answer is that we do not really know. All his record indicates is that he was wounded, possibly at Krithia, but more likely at Anzac, and that his injury must have been quite serious (initially reported as a bullet wound, but later reported as being a slight shrapnel wound to one of his arms), for he was evacuated to a hospital ship and then conveyed to Mtarfa Military Hospital in Malta.

(Joan Miro, enwikipedia.org)

Jack arrived on 17 May and remained in Malta until 23 March the following year.

Of interest is the fact that a board of inquiry was conducted on 22 May 1915 about his wound. According to a Bing search, the goal of such boards was to ensure accountability, transparency and fairness in assessing what happened and whether any negligence or misconduct contributed to the outcome. So, what happened with Jack’s injury to justify such an inquiry? Was there a suspicion that it was self-inflicted (if so, it was not the only case of suspected self-inflicted wounds on Gallipoli)? Was there any suspected negligence on the part of an officer or another soldier? We just do not know. Suffice it to say, there is no record of any further action bring taken.

While still at Malta and classified as ‘’unfit’’, Jack was discharged from the hospital on 1 June and sent to Valetta to be employed on pay duties at St. Andrew’s Military Hospital, beginning on 13 September. He remained there until March the following year.

Sometime before 23 March 1916, Jack was probably returned to Alexandria to rejoin 7 Battalion. Its war record indicates that the men sailed from Egypt, headed for Marseilles in southern France on 23 March the date Jack sailed according to his war record. Once at Marseilles, the men entrained and travelled north, probably riding in cattle cars, towards the Western Front. The war diary notes that their destination was unknown but, after delays, they arrived at the town of Godewaersvelde on 3 April. However, even before the men were to leave the train, a tragic accident occurred as the train was shunting to an unloading point. A Canadian soldier tried to cross in front of the engine, but he did not make it, and was run over and killed. This was a sad start to 7 Battalion’s time in France.

At 6 pm on the third, the men were ordered to March nineteen miles (thirty kilometres) to their destination at a place called La Chrèche Le Seau, not far from the town of Bailleul in northern France. There they were housed in billets. They were located in the so-called ‘nursery sector’, an area centred on the town of Armentières, in which the fighting was not so intense, an area where they would have the chance to acclimatise to the realities of the Western Front without being in too much danger. While there, they learned about the effects of different German weapons, especially Chlorine and Phosgene gases, used by the enemy since the Second Battle of Ypres in April-May the previous year.

On 15 April, the battalion marched to new billets at L’Hallabeau, where they continued their training until the twenty-ninth of the month, when they marched to a new base at the town of Fleurbaix - not far from another town called Fromelles. The next day, the men spent a lot of time cleaning their billets, which had been left in a very dirty state. They were also made aware of the fact that they were moving closer to the front line by a warning that gas could be coming towards them However, it proved to be a false alarm.

By 4 May, 7 Battalion was being warned of possible enemy bombardments, and ordered to hide away in their billets when shells were flying about. The unit suffered its first Western Front casualties that same day when a German nose cap from a shell found in the colourfully named Dead Dog Avenue was accidentally dropped, exploding and wounding six men, one of whom died next day and another on the seventh. Real action for 7 Battalion finally came on 13 May, when it was ordered to replace 5 Battalion in the trenches that night. The Germans shelled the area quite heavily for the next few days, and two men were killed and three wounded wounded, on the fifteenth and sixteenth. At this time, the Germans were using high explosive and shrapnel shells, as well as machine guns and rifle grenades. Their aircraft were also harassing the troops, dropping bombs and using their machine guns. The battalion was finally relieved by 5 Battalion on the night of 28 May and returned to the billets in Fleurbaix. The commander recorded that the men had worked very hard during the month, the amount of work done by them, especially in the front line, being ‘’simply wonderful’’. The weather had been mostly fine and the health of the men was generally good.

The front line at Fleurbaix, probably 1916 (AWM P00437.017)

7 Battalion remained in reserve at Fleurbaix until the night of 9 June, when it was relieved and the men marched to Sailly. Once there, the unit underwent further training until the nineteenth of the month, when it moved to a bivouac at Neuve-Eglise, just over the border in southern Belgium. During the next two days, 400 and then 600 men were involved in laying cables to the front line. On 21 June, the summer solstice, 7 Battalion, as part of 2 Brigade, received orders to relieve another battalion at Grande Munque, just east of Bailleul, which it did the next day. After a further move on the twenty-third, it was located at Ploegsteert,south of Ypres. There the men were involved in establishing listening posts out the front of the battalion, very near to the enemy’s trenches. There was sporadic action over the next few days, casualties being suffered on 29 and 30 June. This continued until 4 July, German bombardments causing more casualties, but the Australians giving as good as they received. The battalion was relieved on that date and moved back, in heavy rain, to Neuve-Eglise. It stayed in reserve there until the ninth, when it returned to Bailleul.

On 9 July 1916, 7 Battalion began to move south, towards the area known as the Somme. The greatest battle of the war had begun there on 1 July. The men reached the town of Albert on the twentieth. Their destination was the village of Pozières, just north-east of Albert and on the front line. There, along with the rest of 2 Division, the men took over the front line trenches from 1 Division. The British command was determined to take control of the strategic ridge behind the village, and had attempted to do so unsuccessfully. Capture of the ridge would give the Allies the chance to move forward and hopefully take the German stronghold at nearby Thiepval. Sir Douglas Haig, British commander-in-chief, now decided to use the Australian forces to achieve what his own forces could not. The attack was designed to take the ruined town, located on the ridge, and then the highest point on the ridge, called the Windmill. 1 Division began the attack on 23 July, taking a foothold in the ruins of the village. In two days, it suffered 5 285 casualties. 2 Division took over the front line on 25 July, attacking towards the Windmill. German resistance was extremely heavy, and the men struggled forward very slowly, taking heavy casualties, finally gaining a foothold in the ruined village. 7 Battalion was involved in the move and, at 6.00 pm., was ordered to take over from 1 and 2 Battalions in the village. The commander reported that the enemy shelling was ‘’intense’’. The Germans continued shelling the village throughout the night, destroying any semblance of a building that somehow remained until that time. The commander recorded that

No houses other than smallest portions of same were left in POZIERES as whole area was a mass of broken clods trees and masonry. The making of trenches practically impossible as the earth would not stand, consequently men were occupying crater holes and were continually being buried by shells and having to be dug out. The enemy continuously deluged POZIERES during the period the battalion was in occupation, with H.E. [high explosive] shells of large calibre, sometimes averaging 15 to 20 a minute during which the men maintained a cheerful and resolute spirit which was worthy of the highest admiration, as they had no enemy to retaliate on, could not hear or see the effect of our own guns, but had simply to suffer.

The main street of Pozières village, photographed in late 1916 (AWM A05776)

The commander also added that the bravery and devotion to duty of the men was magnificent.

By the next day, the commander was reporting that 7 Battalion had suffered 376 casualties. He also reported that the men were sticking gamely to their positions, but that a German advance, if one did come, might well be successful. They held out until 27 July, when they were relieved and returned to trenches in nearby ‘Sausage Valley’. The commander recorded that

The men were heartily glad to get into a comparatively safe place so they could have a sleep as they were just about done, they recovered their spirits, wonderfully after a few hours rest and they would not have minded if they were ordered again into POZIERES the same day.

Sadly, Jack was not there express agreement or otherwise with that statement. His war record notes that the date of his death was 24 July. However, given that the battalion was moving into reserve that day, it is perhaps more likely that Jack was killed in Pozières village some time during the previous two days. How he died we do not know as his body was never found. It is probable that he was either blown to pieces by a shell or buried alive by debris from a shell blast. Even after a search that went on until 1921, no trace of him was ever found. Those who fought on never got further than the Windmill.

(Commonwealth War Graves Commission)

As he had no known grave, Jack’s name was recorded on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.

Sources

Australian War Memorial

Bing

Carlyon, Les: Gallipoli, Sydney, Macmillan, 2001

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

en.wikipedia.org

Miro, Joan

National Archives of Australia

realestate.com.au

Travers, Richard: Diggers in France: Australian soldiers on the Western Front,

Sydney, ABC Books, 2008

PRIVATE JACK ALLEN.

Mr. H. S. Allen, of the NE Co operative Store, Wangaratta, has received a letter from his brother, Pte. Jack Allen, who left with the First Australian Contingent. Pte. Allen resided in Wangaratta for several years, while his father, Mr Geo Allen, was licensee of the Royal Hotel. Writing from a hospital at Malta under date of 19th May, Pte. Allen says:-We have just been sent here from Gallipoli, where we have been in three delightful "scraps" with the Turks-with a lot of quiet trench fighting in between for a blow. We got hell the first day, but succeeded in landing from open boats under heavy fire-a task you would have thought impossible. We suffered a bit a few being shot dead in our boat and more wounded. A couple of my best friends were "stopped," I had my coat torn right across my back and received a couple of scratches on my shoulders. Again I had my mess tin shot off my pack-so I was lucky, My luck kept in for a fortnight. On Saturday, 9th, we were charging, amidst a storm of shells and bullets, to take a position when I "stopped" one with my right forearm, while a little piece of lead hit me on the "nut" knocking me silly for a while. The arm has been giving trouble, but is only a bit stiff now, so I will soon be at the Turks again. You do see some awful sights but soon got used to them. All the officers and "heads" were very pleased with us, as we did what we were asked to do. Messages from The King and others cheer us up. The Tommies and the French soldiers think, we're daring devils. The Turks and Germans say we're kangaroos. We are being well treated everywhere. We look some style in the hospital togs of blue and red. It is good fun shooting Turks-better than duck shooting."

Private J. Allen

(wounded), of Moonee Ponds, was a son of the late Geo. J. Allen, of Yarrawonga, and Wangaratta. He joined the post and telegraph service at Yarrawonga as a telegraph messenger, and later was transferred to Central Telephone Exchange, Melbourne, as telephonist. During the last fifteen months he was engaged with Gregory Brothers, salesmen, Melbourne.

CAREERS OF THE FALLEN. (1915, June 28). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), p. 12. Retrieved February 14, 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article154951873

Essendon Gazette 1 July 1915

Private J. Allen (wounded), Moonee Ponds, is the son of the late Geo. J. Allen, of Yarrawonga and Wangaratta.

The Defence Department has received word of the death of Pte Jack Allen, third son of the late Mr, George J. Allen formerly of the Royal Hotel, Wangaratta, and latterly of Yarrawonga. He was a brother of Mr. Harold Allen, who enlisted from the Co-operative Store, Wangaratta. Pte Allen was killed in action in France on 24th July.

PTE CHRIS WILLCOX. (1916, August 30). Wangaratta Chronicle (Vic. : 1914 - 1918), p. 3. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article92005352