McMahon, Joseph John
No.6557 – Private Joseph John McMahon – 16th 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 12th 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 22nd July 1916 he was assigned to the 21st Reinforcements to the 16th Battalion AIF. This group trained in WA until the 13th 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 12th December 1916. Upon being disembarked the men were sent to the 4th Training Battalion at Codford Camp on the Salisbury Plains.
Joe remained in England until the 9th 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 4th Australian Division Base Depot. However he only remained here for a few days as he was taken on strength of the 16th Battalion on the 13th February 1917. The 16th 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 16th Battalion as part of the 4th Brigade had been earmarked for an assault on Bullecourt.
On the 11th April 1917, the 16th Battalion along with the 13th 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 18th 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.



