McMahon, Joseph John

No.6557 – Private Joseph John McMahon – 16^th Battalion AIF

Joseph John McMahon was born in Kapunda South Australia in 1888 to Mr. and Mrs. McMahon. He was educated in South Australia and later moved to Western Australia where he found work as a labourer and resided in Fremantle. In 1916 he married a Daisy Stabler in Fremantle and they lived at Central Avenue in Beaconsfield. On the 12^th June 1916 Joseph went to the Perth Drill Hall and enlisted in the AIF. He was passed as fit with the medical examiner finding him to be 5 feet 7 inches in height; weight of 136lbs; chest measurement of 33-34 inches; fresh complexion; blue eyes and brown hair. His religious denomination was Roman Catholic.

For the first month of his service Joe was in the Training Depot at Blackboy Hill Camp, but on the 22^nd July 1916 he was assigned to the 21^st Reinforcements to the 16^th Battalion AIF. This group trained in WA until the 13^th October 1916 when they embarked at Fremantle aboard the HMAT Port Macquarie. The journey to England took two months with the ship berthing at Plymouth Harbour on the 12^th December 1916. Upon being disembarked the men were sent to the 4^th Training Battalion at Codford Camp on the Salisbury Plains.

Joe remained in England until the 9^th February 1917 when he went to Folkestone Harbour and boarded a troopship for the journey across the Channel. He arrived at Etaples the same day and was marched into the 4^th Australian Division Base Depot. However he only remained here for a few days as he was taken on strength of the 16^th Battalion on the 13^th February 1917. The 16^th Battalion were then in the Flers region of the Somme battlefield though they would not be here for long as the Germans began a gradual withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line. As a result of the German withdrawal to this position, the 16^th Battalion as part of the 4^th Brigade had been earmarked for an assault on Bullecourt.

On the 11^th April 1917, the 16^th Battalion along with the 13^th Battalion attacked the heavy defences of the Hindenburg Line without artillery support and managed to break through and capture a portion of the line. However being unsupported they were not able to hang on for long and the Germans soon swarmed on the survivors forcing those still alive to make their way across No Man’s Land or to be taken prisoner. Joe was one of the men captured and he would be spending the remainder of the war in German Prison Camps, spending most of his time at Limburg.

Joe saw out the war as a German prisoner however he became ill with influenza and died on the 18^th November 1918, a week after the Armistice. He was initially buried at Dargun Communal Cemetery in Mecklenburg but in the early 1920’s was moved to Berlin South Western Cemetery Stahnsdorf Germany where he lies in plot XIX.A.13.