Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Daniel John Cavanagh

Daniel John Cavanagh was born in 1895 in Esmond in the Victorian Colony of Australia.   After spending his formative years in school and with his family, Daniel left his education to begin an electrical apprenticeship with the local electrician, Franki Wharburton.  

The period of Daniels apprenticeship was not exclusively electrical training for Daniel was active in military cadets.   Daniel progressed from military cadets to join the Citizens forces when he reached 18 years of age.

Events in Europe saw this growing 19 year old abandon his trade in favour of his military training and enlist in the Australian Imperial Forces in August of 1914.  

Two months after enlisting in October 1914 Daniel was on a dock in Melbourne to farewell Australia and board His Majesty’s Australian Transport Hororata bound for the European theatre.

So it was on the 5 April 1915 that Private No 923 joined 6 Battalion 2 Infantry Brigade Mediterranean Expeditionary Force as a machine gunner in the Gallipoli campaign.  

Daniel’s Gallipoli campaign was to be short lived.    A mere 20 days after his arrival Daniel was wounded.     As a result of his wound and the subsequent septic infection Daniel was evacuated to Malta for medical treatment and then later to England.  

 It was on the Devanah on the 29 of August that Daniel departed Malta to return to England.   Upon arrival on the 12th September 1915 Daniel was admitted to the King George Hospital.    Daniel’s stay in hospital saw his wounds heal and break down and heal again the results of chronic infection.  

After a stay of 178 days Daniel was finally pronounced fit for return to active service.   Thus on the 25 of March 1916 Daniel again embarked from England on the Minnetinka bound to rejoin his fellow 6 Battalion soldiers at Tel El Kebir in Egypt.    

Daniel’s injury saw him in the hands of medical personal on the hospital train and later assessed in the 3rd Auxillary Hospital in Heliopolis, Cario.     In the opinion of the medical staff that the Daniel’s Gallipoli wound and consequential scarring had left him permanently unfit for service.  

A recommendation for discharge was made and approved on the 27 April 1916.

It is clear that the discharge didn’t go through. For the next four months Daniel served with his unit which included return stints to hospital because of his injury.

Daniel left Egypt to return to England on the 27 Aug 1916 onboard the RMS Megantic where he joined 6 Battalion reinforcements in reserve.   It was from this reserve unit  in October of 1916 that Daniel embarked from England to France to join 14 Battalion.   Three months later while in the field in France Daniel received a promotion to Lance Corporal.
 
Final days

As part of the Arras offensive, plans were laid to take Bullecourt on the Hindenburg Line on the 10 April.   Artillery was unavailable being still stuck moving through the quagmire of the Somme, so the decision was made to undertake the attack using Mark 1 tanks.
 
“ Lying in the fresh snow on the night of the 10th of April the Australian troops waited for Dawn and for the roar of the Tanks.”   The tanks were to be used to break down the wire separating the Germans from the Australians.   Held up by bad weather, the tanks did not arrive and the troops were hurried back into cover before the Germans saw them.”  The attack was now ordered for the 11 April.  
 
In the half-light before dawn on the morning of the 11th a queer rhythmical noise rang out across the trenches, the sinister flap-flap of tank tracks.   The stench of exhaust filled the air as the attack advanced, the tanks’ engines changing note to a roar as the bombardment began.   Groups of Australians followed the tanks towards the Hindenburg line.
 
Even in the twilight before dawn the tanks were clearly silhouetted against the white fields of snow and attracted the intense attention of the German field guns.

In the centre of the Bullecourt attack, the first of three tanks was struck by artillery before it was well underway.  A second tank reached the wire of the German Line when it momentarily stalled and was destroyed by shelling and fire. The third tank was within reach of the German trenches when it too was destroyed by shellfire.
 
Against the odds and even with the loss of the tanks some Australian troops fought through to occupy a section of the Hinderburg Line.   For nearly six hours the Australians held this section of German front line at Bullecourt, but eventually the German counter-attack forced them to retreat.
 
In the midst of the Bullecourt battle Daniel was seen by his fellow soldiers to fall wounded. He was later reported missing in action.

Daniel’s status remained Missing in Action for another seven months until a court of inquiry official changed his status to Killed in Action, just one of over 3200 casualties killed on that day.
 
Daniel’s body was never identified and as such his resting place remains unknown.  It is probable that he received a burial with a head stone that reads An Australian Soldier of the Great War, Known only to God.   Or like so many soldiers he may remain within the fields of France where he fell.