Leslie MCANULTY

MCANULTY, Leslie

Service Numbers: 1387, 2002
Enlisted: 22 October 1914, Bendigo, Victoria
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 23rd Infantry Battalion
Born: Goornong, Victoria, 1890
Home Town: White Hills, Bendigo, Victoria
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Railway employee
Died: 3 June 1975, cause of death not yet discovered, place of death not yet discovered
Cemetery: Not yet discovered
Memorials: Bendigo White Hills Arch of Triumph
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World War 1 Service

22 Oct 1914: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 1387, Bendigo, Victoria
2 Feb 1915: Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 1387, 5th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Clan McGillivray, Melbourne
2 Feb 1915: Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 1387, 5th Infantry Battalion, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '8' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Clan McGillivray embarkation_ship_number: A46 public_note: ''
6 May 1915: Discharged AIF WW1, Private, 1387, 5th Infantry Battalion
29 Jun 1915: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2002, Melbourne, Victoria
26 Aug 1915: Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 2002, 23rd Infantry Battalion, HMAT Anchises, Melbourne
26 Aug 1915: Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 2002, 23rd Infantry Battalion, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '14' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Anchises embarkation_ship_number: A68 public_note: ''
22 Aug 1916: Wounded AIF WW1, Private, 2002, 23rd Infantry Battalion, Mouquet Farm, GSW (left side)
20 Feb 1918: Discharged AIF WW1, Private, 2002, 23rd Infantry Battalion

Help us honour Leslie McAnulty's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Jack Coyne

Private Leslie McAnulty  SN 1387 & 2002

Leslie McAnulty enlisted twice formerly with the Australian Imperial Forces, made two sea voyages to the Middle East, served at Gallipoli, and was then wounded severely in France.

Leslie enlisted formerly on October 22, 1914, just two and half months after war had been declared. However, we read in the Bendigoian Newspaper that he was already a member of the Expeditionary force on August 25, 1914 just a few weeks after war had been declared. His ervice may have started before the formal enlistment process was established. He was certainly one of the earliest lads from the White Hills area to enlist.

Leslie had been born in Goornong a farming community on the Campaspe River, twenty miles north of Bendigo. He was 25 years of age and listed his mother, Bridget as his Nearest of Kin (NOK). He listed his occupation as a railway employee.    

On enlisting he would be appointed to the Second Reinforcements for the Fifth Battalion and he would commence training at the Bendigo depot. He would leave Bendigo, make his way along with other recruits to the Broadmeadows camp January 5, 1915.

After the most basic of training, four weeks later on February 2, he and other recruits would leave for the Middle East on the HMAT Clan McGillivray A46. The Commonwealth had leased the ship from a Glasgow shipping Company and the refit to make her a troopship had only been completed on January 23, 1915.  Ten days later she was carrying soldiers off to war from the Port of Melbourne.

The long voyage to Egypt usually involved calling at the ports
of Albany, Colombo, Suez, Port Said and finally Alexandria. Very hot weather was experienced, resulting in a good deal of sickness on board. On arrival at port the Battalion recruits were entrained forCairo, and went into camp at Heliopolis.

Landing in Egypt in late March would have been quite a sight. Commonwealth and French forces including the AIF forces then known as the ‘British Expeditionary Force’ were in the final stages of preparation for a major attack on the Ottoman forces on the Dardanelles’ Peninsula. The plan was to take the peninsula from the Turks who were now aligned with Germany and allow safe passage of British navy ships into the Turkish capital of Istanbul. 

Unfortunately for Leslie, he develops a rather rare but extremely painful complaint known as ‘Varicoele’ and is adjudged unfit medically to stay with the Expeditionary Force in the Egypt.  
 
Just a month after arriving, on March 23, 1915 he embarks from the Suez on a return sea voyage back to Melbourne on HMAT Ulysses. Leslie would not be alone with hundreds of young men and officers returning on this ship for medical reasons.

Leslie is back in Melbourne mid April for further medical treatment. He would be discharged from the AIF on May 6, 1915.
 
Home just two and half months and obvioulsy recovered, he decides to re-enlist, this time in Melbourne on June 29, 1915. He successfully passes the medical and is appointed to 8th Reinforcements for the 23rd Battalion. Two months later, he again embarks for Egypt, this time on HMAT Anchesis. He would arrive in Egypt just in time to join his battalion in action at Gallipoli.     
 
The 23rd Battalion had been raised in Victoria in March 1915 as the third battalion of the 6th Brigade. After initial training, it left Australia in March and arrived in Egypt, where it would complete its advanced training, in June. 

As part of the 2nd Australian Division, the 6th Brigade landed at ANZAC Cove in early September. AIF troops had been holding on since April of that year, making valiant advances up the treacherous cliffs of the Dardanelles. The 23rd Battalion was soon manning one of the most trying parts of the Anzac front line - Lone Pine. The fighting here was so dangerous and exhausting that battalions were relieved every day. The 23rd manned Lone Pine, alternating with the 24th Battalion, until they left Gallipoli in December 1915.  (Source - https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/U51463 )

In the 'History of the 23rd Battalion' the following is recorded of their landing at Gallipoli -                                                                       ‘On the night of its landing at Anzac the Battalion camped in Rest Gully, and next day drafts from each Company were sent into Lone Pine, and within four days the Battalion as a whole took over the whole Pine trenches, the defence of which was to be its duty until the evacuation. Forty-eight hours in and forty-eight hours out was the routine, the 23rd and 24th alternately relieving each other, and being reinforced by a squadron of the 13th Light Horse Regiment Undoubtedly Lone Pine was a place of honour. It had been taken at great cost, and held at great cost. The defence of it could be described as an active one—or an offensive defensive Improving the trenches, digging dug-outs, and general consolidation was the order, together with mining forward to the Turk, and meeting his operations by counter tunnelling The bombing and sniping were continuous.’(Source - History of the Battalion. L2V4bGlicmlzL2R0bC9kM18xL2FwYWNoZV9tZWRpYS8xNDI4MDY2.pdf )

Following their withdrawal from Gallipoli, the 23rd Battalion was relocated to the Greek island of Lemnos, where they remained until January 1916. From here at Mudros the capital of the island, he would write a letter home to a Master Murray Carter of Lilac street, Bendigo, who had sent a care package of a new billy. This is published in the Bendigo Independent newspaper on March 2, 1915. ‘I can tell you that I spent a very happy Christmas, as I have just come away after doing 10 weeks in the firing line at Gallipoli. You know in a tent away from shell fire is a long way more comfortable than in my little dug-out in the trench. I am glad to think that the people of Australia have not forgotten us over here. I am away from Gallipoli Peninsula now, but I don't suppose it will be long before we will be in action somewhere else. I hope God will spare me to return to Australia, and when I go home to Bendigo’.                              (Source – Trove Bendigo Independent newspaper, March 2, 1915, Page 6-  attached)

The 23rd are transferred back to Egypt in January, as the AIF was in the process of being reorganising and expanding in preparation for their new front, in Belgium and France. 

Having survived shells and bullets on Gallipoli, Leslie would spend twenty days again in an Egyptian hospital, this time suffering from the mumps.

After the sands of the AIF camps in Egypt the AIF soldiers would have been relishing the opportunity to get to Europe. Sailing from Alexandria in late March the troop ships transported the AIF Battalions including the 23rd to Marseilles and then it was long train journeys through the heart of France.

Leslie and the battalion were next "in the line" on 10 April 1916, when it occupied forward trenches of the Armentieres sector in northern France. This relatively gentle introduction to the Western Front was followed in July by the horrific battles of Pozieres and Mouquet Farm, after which it was estimated that the Battalion lost almost 90 per cent of its original members. 

Pozieres, a small village in the Somme valley in France, was the scene of bitter and costly fighting for the 1st, 2nd and 4th Australian Divisions in mid 1916. The village was captured initially by the 1st Division on 23 July 1916. The division clung to its gains despite almost continuous artillery fire and repeated German counter-attacks but suffered heavily. By the time it was relieved on 27 July it had suffered 5,285 casualties.                                                          

The 2nd Division which the 23rd battalion belonged, took over from the 1st and mounted two further attacks - the first, on 29 July, was a costly failure; the second, on 2 August, resulted in the seizure of further German positions beyond the village. Again, the Australians suffered heavily from retaliatory bombardments. They were relieved on 6 August, having suffered 6,848 casualties.

Following the capture of Pozières in late July and early August 1916, the three Australian divisions of I Anzac Corps attacked northwards along the Pozières Heights towards the site known as Mouquet Farm. 

Between 8 August and 3 September 1916, the Australians launched nine separate attacks to capture the heavily defended German position which lay half way between Pozières and Thiepval, with the aim of driving a wedge behind the salient held by the Germans. 

Although the Australians managed to occupy the farm several times, they were forced back each time due to fierce German counterattacks. The site was still in enemy hands by the time I Anzac Corps was withdrawn from the Somme on 5 September. 
The 1st, 2nd, and 4th Australian Divisions suffered around 11,000 casualties in the fighting.  (Source - Wikipedia -the 6th battalion AIF) 

Leslie is wounded in action on August 22, receiving a ‘Gun Shot Wound’ (GSW) to his left side at the fighting at Mouquet Farm.

We can read in the war diary entry of Bandmaster John A Reid of HQ Company of the 23rd battalion how tough conditions were on August 22 the day Leslie is wounded-                                                         ‘Moved into trenches at 2pm. Took up on advanced position ahead of the second line we took. The communication trenches are very shallow. We had heavy casualties as soon as we got in. 12 men wounded with one shell’.  (Source – War diary J A Reid https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C2134709?image=1)

Leslie would have been initially treated behind the lines in a Field Ambulance unit, then as the wound Leslie was adjudged more serious, he would have been sent to a Stationary hospital belonging to the various Commonwealth forces.

His mother Bridget McAnulty would be advised by telegram on September 13 that he is seriously ill with GSW to left side. It is nearly a month after being wounded on September 23 when he is transferred to England for treatment on the Hospital Ship Jan Breydell, which is constantly ferrying the wounded from the channel port of Boulonge to England.  

Leslie is admitted to the 3rd London General Hospital at Wandsworth where he is treated for 5 weeks. On the 17th of October, his mother is provided better news via telegram that he is ‘Convalescent’  and that he is being transferred to the No 2 Australian Auxiliary Hospital at Southall.

A week later he is well enough to be discharged from here to the Weymouth, on the South coast of England. The Number 2 AIF Command depot camp at Weymouth, was in the Dorset seaside town. Here Australian soldiers deemed no longer fit for active service and waiting for repatriation to Australia were accommodated. It is estimated that during the years 1915-1919 over 120,000 Australian and New Zealand troops passed through the seaside town of Weymouth. (Source - https://anzac-22nd-battalion.com/training-camps-england/)

Leslie would spend a further eleven months in various AIF treatment and depot facilities on the south coast of England.

On November 1, 1917 Leslie would embark on HMAT Anchises A68, the same vessel that bought him to Egypt two years earlier. Joining him was fellow White Hill’s soldier Private Arthur Preston who also wounded at Mouquet Farm  two weeks after Leslie. After two months at sea, they would disembark at Melbourne on January 3, 1918 and return to Bendigo.

Private Leslie McAnulty is remembered by the people of White Hills. The names of the local lads who sacrificed their lives and those that were fortunate to return from the Great War are shown on the embossed copper plaques on the White Hills Arch of Triumph, at the entrance to the Botanic Gardens.

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