TOWNSHEND, Fitzgerald Jack
| Service Number: | 3128 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 23 July 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 51st Infantry Battalion (WW1) |
| Born: | Cue, Western Australia, Australia, 1895 |
| Home Town: | Geraldton, Western Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Carpenter |
| Memorials: | Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 23 Jul 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 3128, 11th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 13 Sep 1915: | Involvement Private, 3128, 11th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '10' embarkation_place: Fremantle embarkation_ship: HMAT Themistocles embarkation_ship_number: A32 public_note: '' | |
| 13 Sep 1915: | Embarked Private, 3128, 11th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Themistocles, Fremantle | |
| 3 Sep 1916: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 3128, 51st Infantry Battalion (WW1), Mouquet Farm |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
Jack Fitzgerald Townshend was one of the three sons of James and Rebecca Townshend of Geraldton, Western Australia who all enlisted in mid-1915.
His brother, 3015 Private Hepburn Townshend 28th Battalion AIF, was killed in action at Flers, France during 1916.
The National Archives holds a file called Prisoner of war statements, 4th Australian Division, 51st Battalion, in which John Fitzgerald Townshend, 51st Battalion, who was captured at Mouquet Farm on 3 September 1916, made the following statement,
“At about 6 a.m. on September 3, 1916, we attacked the German line which was about 300 yards distant; we had our barrage going the whole time. Having captured the front line, we advanced about 100 yards further, but owing to the intensity of our own and the German barrages we were forced to retire to our first objective. Here we bombed the Germans out of dugouts and these were taken prisoners. Then we started bombing machine gun nests on our left. Owing to the heavy casualties inflicted by machine gun fire and our being separated from the main body, the Germans somehow managed to surround us by breaking through gaps on both sides, bombing the whole time. It was during the bombing that I was wounded in the upper leg.”
He was taken prisoner of war by the Germans and seven days later his wound was looked at for the first time. An operation was conducted and a piece of grenade was extracted from Townshend’s thigh.
In 1918 he escaped on foot from a POW camp in Bayreuth, Germany and made his way to Pilsen, Czech Republic, then caught a train to Venice, Italy. He made a voyage to Cherbourg in France, and another to Southampton in England, arriving in December 1918.
Townshend returned to Australia in early 1919, as did his brother 3130 James Leonard Townshend also of the 51st Battalion.