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O'Neill-H-F-Pte-491 (redirected from O'Neill-H-F-----Pte----491)

Page history last edited by Lenore Frost 2 years, 2 months ago

Volunteers of Essendon and Flemington, 1914-1918

 

Lieutenant Colonel E. E. Herrod CMG DSO (left), and Lieutenant H. F. O'Neill standing

in the doorway at the Headquarters of the 7th Australian Infantry Battalion. This log

cabin was built by Canadian railway troops, who were engaged for a considerable time

in this sector in constructing and operating railways previous to the German advance.

Australian War Memorial Collection.     http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/E02039

 

O'Neill H F     Pte    491    Henry Francis         7 Inf Bn    19    Telephone mechanic    Single    R C

 Address:    Moonee Ponds, Victoria St, 15    (Elect Roll 1914)

Next of Kin:    O'Neill, Hugh Joseph, Court House, Essendon    

Enlisted:    15 Aug 1914        

Embarked:     A20 Hororata 19 Oct 1914    

Prior service:  2 years junior cadets; 2 years senior cadets; 1 year Citizen Forces.

 

Relatives on Active Service

O'Neill G J Pte 5515  brother

 

 

Lieutenant Henry Francis O’Neill

 

Rod Martin

 

The First World War was declared on 4 August 1914.  Vowing to defend the empire ‘to the last man and the last shilling’, the Australian government quickly established recruiting centres in towns and cities across the nation.  In Melbourne, willing young men besieged the first one opened, at Victoria Barracks, as well as other centres.  One of these young men was nineteen year-old Harry O’Neill.  A telephone mechanic by trade, Harry had spent one year in the local 58 Infantry Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Harold ‘Pompey’ Elliott.  When he signed up on 15 August, along with his friends and compatriots, he was assigned to ‘Pompey’s’ newly formed 7 Battalion, and was sent to Broadmeadows to train.

 

165 centimetres tall and weighing seventy kilos, Harry had brown eyes and hair and was obviously ‘foreman material’ from the beginning.  He was appointed lance-corporal on the day of his enlistment.  On 19 October 1914 the battalion sailed in A20 HMAT Hororata as part of the first convoy, headed for Europe and the Western Front.  While the convoy was en route, however, it was diverted to Egypt and the troops included in the planning for an attack on the Dardanelles and, eventually, Constantinople.

 

After training near the Pyramids, 7 Battalion, led by ‘Pompey’ Elliott, went ashore at Gallipoli as part of the second wave on 25 April 1915.

 

 

7 Battalion boats heading for shore, 25 April 1915               (AWM H03546)

 

By 30 April, it had suffered more casualties than any other battalion.  Despite this decimation, it was transferred as part of 2 Brigade to Cape Helles on the southern tip of the peninsula on 5 May to assist in the British attempt to capture the village of Krythia.  In waves of poorly planned and unsuccessful attacks, the brigade lost one-third of its men

               

After a period in well-needed reserve, the battalion returned to Anzac Cove in late May and resumed its defence of the beachhead.  In early July, the men relieved 8 Battalion in the front-line trenches up on the ridges and moved into a new position at Steele’s Post, above Monash Valley, on 8 July.

 

 

Steele’s Post, showing dugouts on the lower slope (AWM A00745)  

http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/A00745

 

There they engaged in skirmishes with the nearby Turkish troops, enduring what Ross McMullin describes as ‘months of indecisive, static conflict and abundant death, horror, disease, lice, and grime'.  In August, the men were moved to Lone Pine to assist in the battle that had been raging there for two days.  This battle was the only (and qualified) success in the general ‘push’ to take the heights of Hill 971, whence the Allies could launch attacks across the peninsula towards the Dardanelles.  Its cost, however – more than 2 000 Australian casualties – was prohibitive, especially given that it was only one of a number of diversions planned for that time.  Les Carlyon describes it as an epic of savagery and sacrifice on both sides.

 

The situation at Gallipoli did not improve over the next few months and the decision was made in December 1915 to evacuate the troops and return them to Egypt. When they arrived there, the Australian forces were bolstered by new recruits, reorganized and retrained before embarking for Europe.  Just before leaving Egypt on 5 March 1916, Harry was promoted to the rank of signalling corporal.  His pre-war occupation as a telephone mechanic may well have been taken into account when he was given this position.                                                                        

 

As part of the newly created 1 Anzac Corps, 7 Battalion sailed for France in March 1916.  Arriving in Marseilles, the men travelled north by train (in cattle trucks) and were deployed in the so-called ‘nursery sector' near Armentières so that they could become acclimatized to conditions on the Western Front.   On 3 May, they entered the front line trenches for the first time, experiencing the irregular bombardments, sniping and occasional forays from the enemy trenches only a short distance away.  In return, they staged their own trench raids, fired back at moving targets and ventured into no man’s land at night, re-laying barbed wire defences torn up by enemy shells.  On 25 May, while on active duty, Harry was promoted to sergeant

 

7 Battalion’s first major action was at Pozières on the Somme in July 1916.  The Battle of the Somme had been launched by the Allies on 1 July, the aim of the British being to draw off German forces from the siege of the French fortress of Verdun, further south. British commander-in-chief Sir Douglas Haig wanted to provide moral support for the hard-pressed French forces by organizing a major assault at a spot where British and French troops could fight together.  The Somme was all about politics: no discernible strategic objective was involved.  Nothing significant would be captured, even if the offensive were successful.

 

As it was, because the French Army had been so decimated by Verdun, few French troops were available for the battle.  In consequence, British and dominion troops bore much of the brunt of a conflict that began with the loss of 60 000 British soldiers on the first day of the attack.  The slaughter then continued through to November 1916, the Allies capturing a small area of land and having no real impact on the strategic situation on the Western Front.  The Germans were still solidly entrenched in France and Belgium.

 

The Australians’ first part in this debacle came in the form of a diversion at Fromelles, north of the Somme, on 19 July.  In a poorly planned and executed attack, 5 Division lost 5533 men in one night: the largest single Australian loss in so short a period.  Hot on the heels of this disaster came the charge at Pozières, beginning on 23 July.  Harry and 7 Battalion were in the forefront of this battle, which lasted for forty-five days and cost 24 139 Australian casualties.  The reward for this enormous cost was the shattered remains of the village of Pozières and the ridge behind it: another small and strategically insignificant gain.

 

 

 The remains of Pozières village, 1916       (AWM EZ 0144)

http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/EZ0144

 

The carnage at Pozières led to Harry being promoted to second lieutenant on 5 August.  In the forty-five days of conflict there, Harry and the other men were involved in nineteen separate attacks.  Official historian Charles Bean tells us that they were made 'in conditions as trying as any experienced in the entire Battle of the Somme'.  The effect upon the battalion was so deleterious that it was rotated out of the battle zone in September and sent to the relatively quiet area around Ypres in Belgium to recuperate and regroup.  By the time this happened, Harry had been evacuated to England, suffering from an infection and scabies.  On 7 November, he was diagnosed with debility and dermatitis, and he did not return to the battalion until early January, 1917. 

 

On arriving back, Harry discovered that 7 Battalion had returned to the Somme and was spending an extremely bitter winter rotating between training, working parties and duty in the muddy trenches.  In February and March, the Germans started a strategic retreat to the heavily fortified Hindenburg Line and 7 Battalion participated in the occupation of the territory left vacant in consequence.  At the end of March, Harry was diagnosed with mumps and hospitalized once more, this time in France.  He did not return to duty until 26 April, by which time an attack at Bullecourt (known as First Bullecourt) was over.  7 Battalion then provided support for the more successful Second Bullecourt in May before withdrawing to a training area and staying there until it moved north to the Ypres area in Belgium once more, to prepare for the offensive planned for September 1917.  During this hiatus Harry was promoted to first lieutenant in late May, took some well-earned leave in July and then spent a short period of time attached to 2 Infantry Brigade as a signals officer.  While he was involved in this activity, 7 Battalion became embroiled in the Third Battle of Ypres (the earlier ones were fought in 1914 and 1915), and distinguished itself in the costly minor victories at Menin Road and Broodseinde Ridge.  It then prepared to spend the winter in the gluey Flanders mud.

 

It was there when Harry arrived back.  He stayed with the battalion until February 1918 when he took two weeks’ leave and went to England.  Soon after he returned, the Germans carried out their last major offensive, hoping to break through the Allies’ defences and reach the coast of northern France.  The battalion was quickly moved back to the scene of the action in the Somme region, and helped in checking the Germans’ advance.  Once the Germans had been halted, the Allies prepared counter-attacks, to begin on 8 August.  7 Battalion participated in successful battles such as Lihon and Herleville Woods before engaging in its last battle in September.  By then, its complement was down to just 410 men. Two months later, the Germans sued for peace.  Harry had survived the whole war.

 

 

Australian trench near Lihon, August 1918       (AWM E02870)

http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/E02870

 

Harry stayed in England after the war ended, taking the opportunity to attend the Marconi School of Wireless in August 1919.  He returned to Australia in the following November.

 

During the Second World War, Harry served as a colonel with army headquarters in Australia.

 

 

Sources

 

Australian War Memorial: collection, war diaries, unit history

Bean, C.E.W.: Anzac to Amiens, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1993

Carlyon, Les: The Great War, Sydney, Macmillan, 2006

McMullin, Ross: Pompey Elliott, Melbourne, Scribe, 2008

National Archives of Australia

Travers, Richard: Diggers in France, Sydney, ABC Books, 2008   

 

Essendon Gazette, 6 May 1915

 

Private Harry O'Neill, eldest son of Mr Hugh J. O'Neill, the local clerk of petty sessions, is a member of the 7th Battalion, now fighting in the Dardanelles. Another son, George, signalised his eighteenth birthday yesterday by enlisting and joining the men at  Broadmeadows.

 

 

BAD LUCK BATTALION

"I am writing' this from my dug-out home — Ginger and I and Ken Hollings*, who got a bullet through his Little Mary on our baptismal day. It went right through him!" writes Harry O'Neill, from the front, on July 21, to his parents and relatives at "Loretto," Wilson street, Moonee Ponds. He is a signaller in the 7th Battalion of the First Expeditionary Force.

 

"We came out of the trenches two days ago after a fortnight of travail. Our old battalion always has bad luck. You wouldn't recognise them now.

 

"I have Just come back from being  inoculated — this time for cholera. We have been inoculated now for cholera, enteric and small pox; so, barring bullets, a chap should live to a ripe old

age.

 

"While being inoculated I called on Stan Larkins. I think he has got a mention in the despatches. He is lucky. Alick Gallad [sic], who has worked like a horse and a hero from the minute we landed, has got one stripe.

 

"When we came down here from the firing line I struck a chicken tied up to a tree. Some of the lads returning from a rest camp on the island had brought it back. I collared it and stewed it, with onions and salt, and it was the best thing I had tasted for many a weary day. We get fresh bread here; but what are the Victorian people doing? The New Zealanders have chocolate, fruit, papers, and all sorts of little comforts sent to them, and we watch 'em, and our mouths water. ....

 

"Don't you worry. I know it is a pretty troublesome time, but think of the millions who are in it."

 

"P.S.—This is the wish-bone of that chicken."

 

BAD LUCK BATTALION. (1915, September 25). Weekly Times (Vic. : 1914 - 1918), p. 8. Retrieved November 11, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article132706547

 

*992 Pte Kenneth Hollings, teacher of Footscray, received a gunshot wound to the thorax at Gallipoli and was evacuated.

 

"DANDIES, BUT BRAVE KIDS"

TRIBUTE PAID TO MIDDIES
Signaller H. O'Neill, of the 7th Battalion, who is a son of Mr H. J. O'Neill, clerk of courts at Essendon, writes to a friend regarding a visit he and some comrades paid to a troopship after the Lone Pine fight, when they had a good dinner, and, metaphorically, took their hats off to a conceited middy, as Australians now admire all British seamen.

"We were given a holiday to get some stores," he writes, "and visited  the vessel. After some trouble we got luncheon passes from the purser. We then strolled into the officers' mess and had soup, roast mutton and baked
potatoes, cold tongue and mashed potatoes, and Snowden pudding and cheese. This, you must remember, after we had been for 24 hours in trenches, where we had 340 killed and wounded.

"We were greatly amused at the awful 'dog' which a middy, aged 17,  put on. The way he walked through about 40 'non-coms., looking over their heads, is hard to describe. He resembled a conceited girl, with his white
shoes and white duck uniform. But we thought of those kids in charge of the pinnaces who ran us ashore that morning at Anzac, and recalled their marvellous coolness under the hot fire. They might be dandies, but you can't beat  those English kids for pluck. Two of them won Victoria Crosses in the Anzac landing."
"DANDIES, BUT BRAVE KIDS" (1916, January 7). The Herald
(Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954), p. 7.  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article242409993

 

 

Essendon Gazette 29 July 1916 


Mr. H. F. O’Neill writing to his father, Mr. H. J. O’Neill, clerk of courts at Essendon, from Gallipoli, under date 9th June, states that he is all right. He says that while in his dug—out he took off his boot and threw it some six feet away. It was immediately struck by a shell, and cut clean in two, and the same shell cut in half a copy of the "World's News", which he had just thrown down. This was rather a close call.

 

NEWSPAPER FRIENDSHIP
CEMENTED IN FIRING LINE
CORRESPONDENCE FRUITFUL
Not all the friendships that are begun through newspapers have, the
happy sequel that is described in a letter from a young Australian soldier in
France.

 
About 10 years ago Sergeant H. O'Neill, eldest son of Mr H. J. O'Neill,
Clerk of Courts, Essendon, answered an advertisement in an English school
boys' journal, seeking correspondents abroad. The letter was received by
Andrew Downey, of Birmingham, and the two boys began a correspondence
that was continued at regular intervals. In a recent letter to his parents, Ser-
geant O'Neill described how he had met Downey for the first time in a trench
in France. Subsequently he was on furlough in England, and visited the
family of his friend.

 

NEWSPAPER FRIENDSHIP CEMENTED IN FIRING LINE (1916, August 2). The Herald

(Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954), p. 1. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article242386542

 

The Argus, Monday 28 August 1916

 

Signaller Henry F. O'Neill, son of Mr H. J. O'Neill, clerk of courts, Essendon and Flemington, has been promoted to lieutenant in France.  He left with the first contingent, and has gone through without a wound.
 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1599137

 

Signaller Henry F. O'Neill, son of Mr. H. J. O'Neill, clerk of courts, Essendon and Flemington, has been promoted to lieutenant in France. He left with the first contingent, and has gone through without a wound. He met his brother in France (after leaving him in Egypt six months previously) the day he received his promotion.

 

No Title. (1916, August 31). The Essendon Gazette and Keilor, Bulla and Broadmeadows Reporter (Moonee Ponds, Vic. : 1914 - 1918), p. 5 Edition: Morning.. Retrieved February 5, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74593986

 

HARRY McNEIL

 

Harry McNeil writes from France that Sergeant E. S. Pitman (Essendon Harriers) is shortly being transferred to the Flying Corps. McNeil mentions that 'H. Fynmore is to run at sports tomorrow in a mile, but he expects to strike a snag in T. N. Vines.'

 

ATHLETES (1916, December 27). Winner (Melbourne, Vic. : 1914 - 1917), , p. 8. Retrieved July 16, 2016, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article154551779

 

One Thousand Days with the AIF

 

Mentioned in this correspondence:

Crapp-H-W-Cpl-58

 

War Service Commemorated

Essendon Town Hall L-R

Patriotic Concert 1914

Essendon Gazette Roll of Honour With the Colours

Regimental Register

“Send off to the Essendon Boys”

 

 

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