"The Forty-First" is the official unit history of the 41st Battalion, Australian Imperial Force (AIF), compiled by members of the battalion's own Intelligence Staff and originally published in 1919. It's a 157-page quarto volume, illustrated throughout by Thomas Cross — a member of the battalion — and includes a folding Honour Roll listing the battalion's casualties.
The 41st Battalion AIF was raised in Brisbane in February 1916 from recruits across Queensland and northern New South Wales, trained in Australia and Britain, and reached the Western Front in late November 1916, entering the line for the first time on Christmas Eve. Through 1917 it served in Belgium, taking a supporting role at Messines, capturing its objectives at Broodseinde with relative ease, and avoiding the worst of Passchendaele—though its toughest trial came not in a named battle but in weeks of digging new front-line trenches under constant shellfire and, later, holding flooded positions through relentless rain that whittled platoons down to a handful of men. When Germany's spring 1918 offensive threatened Amiens, the battalion was rushed south to help stop the advance, then took part in the Allied counter-offensive from August 1918, advancing steadily through to its final major engagement at the end of September—breaching the Hindenburg Line along the St Quentin Canal alongside American troops, one of the war's last great Allied victories before the Armistice.
John Burridge Facsimile Edition
Published: 1990
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 157
Indexed
Illustrations: Black & White
Condition: Used, Very Good |
