18th Battalion (Australia)

The 18th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the 1st Australian Imperial Force, attached to the 5th Brigade, of the 2nd Division, which served during the First World War. The battalion was raised in 1915 and sent initially to Gallipoli, where it suffered a large number of casualties before it was withdrawn from the line and sent to France, where it served at the Western Front as part of the Australian Corps and took part in most of the major battles between 1916 and 1918. The battalion's last engagement of the war was at Montbrehain in October 1918 and it was disbanded in April 1919.

History

Raised in March 1915, the 18th Battalion was initially sent to Gallipoli in August 1915 where it participated in the costly August Offensive, suffering over fifty percent casualties in the process. Following that, the battalion played a mainly defensive role in the campaign until they were withdrawn in December 1915. The battalion was then sent to France, arriving there in March 1916 and for the next two and half years they participated in most of the main battles fought on the Western Front during this time, seeing action at Pozieres, Warlencourt, Menin Road and Poelcappelle. In the final months of the war it helped blunt the German spring offensive, before being involved in the last Allied offensive that eventually brought about the Armistice. During this offensive, the battalion fought at Amiens, Mont St Quentin, and then participated in the assault on the "Beaurevoir Line" where, at Montbrehain on 3 October 1918, Lieutenant Joseph Maxwell earned the battalion's first and only Victoria Cross in what was ultimately to prove their last engagement of the war. Following the end of hostilities the battalion was finally disbanded on 11 April 1919, while it was still in Belgium.

Throughout the course of the war, the battalion suffered 3,513 casualties, of which 1,060 were killed.

Battle honours

World War I: Suvla, Gallipoli 1915–1916, Somme 1916, Pozieres, Bapaume 1917, Bullecourt, Ypres 1917, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Broodseinde, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Hamel, Amiens, Albert 1918, Mont St Quentin, Hindenburg Line, Beaurevoir, France and Flanders 1916–1918, Somme 1918.

Commanding Officers

LTCOL Alfred Ernest Chapman;
LTCOL Evan Alexander Wisdom, DSO;
LTCOL George Francis Murphy.

Decorations

Members of the 18th Battalion received the following decorations for service during the war: