Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

#2140 CORDWELL John  52nd Infantry Battalion
 
John Cordwell was one of six children born to John and Bridget Cordwell of Gayndah. He along with his siblings attended school in Gayndah. When John left school, he worked as a farm labourer.
 
John presented himself for enlistment in Maryborough on 21st March 1916. John’s younger brother, William had enlisted in 1915 but had died of pneumonia in the Brisbane General Hospital before embarkation. John advised the recruiting officer that he was 27 years old and lived at Gooroolba. He travelled by train to Brisbane where he proceeded to Enoggera where he was taken into a depot battalion.
 
On 16th August 1916, John and about 100 other reinforcements for the 52nd Battalion boarded the “Boorara” in Brisbane for overseas service. John named his eldest sister, Mary Jane, as his next of kin and allocated 2 shillings of his daily pay to her. While John was at sea, his remaining brother Joseph, of the 47th Battalion, was killed at Mouquet Farm in September 1916.
 
The reinforcements landed in Plymouth, England on 13th October and then proceeded to the 13th Training Battalion at Codford. After further training, a group of reinforcements for the 52nd Battalion boarded a cross channel ferry at Folkstone for a night crossing to France on 12th December 1916. The battalion war diary for 19th December notes that 63 partly trained reinforcements were taken on strength while the battalion was in billets around Vignacourt.
 
In the lull in fighting during the winter, the Germans had constructed a 150 kilometre long defensive barrier, which they named the Seigfreid Position but the British labelled the Hindenburg Line. This line was some distance to the east of their previous positions astride the Somme. The purpose of this barrier was to create an even stronger defensive position than the one they had occupied since 1914. German forces began a strategic withdrawal to this new position, and the British forces cautiously followed.
 
The 52nd battalion was part of the 13th Brigade of the 4th Division AIF, and was part of the British 5th Army. Once the weather broke, the battalions of the 13th Brigade moved steadily eastwards from Flers towards the town of Bapaume. In early April the 13th Brigade was engaged in a major action at Noreuil, which would have been John’s first exposure to enemy fire. Later in April, the 5th Army, employing other AIF Brigades, attempted to breech the Hindenburg Line at Bullecourt. The attacks were a disaster and the Australians were withdrawn to rest areas in Belgium near the ruined city of Ypres.
 
The British Field Commander, General Haig, had finally got his wish to conduct a totally British campaign, by which he included Dominion troops, in the Ypres salient in Belgian Flanders aimed at spearing through the German defenders to the Belgian ports on the English Channel. To do so he planned for a series of battles in the summer and autumn of 1917, each of which created a stepping stone to the next objective. The first of these stepping stones was a ridge line which was occupied by the enemy and overlooked the ground that was to be used for the build up of British forces. The ridge ran almost due south from a position just outside Ypres, where spoil from a railway cutting had been dumped (the famous Hill 60) towards the village of Messines and on to Warneton on the French border.
 
The preparations for the Battle of Messines were carefully planned. Large scale models of the terrain to be covered were constructed and all troops who were to take part, which included John and the rest of the 52ndBattalion, were walked through the models to familiarize themselves with their objectives. The general in charge at Messines had three and a half million artillery shells at his disposal which would be fired in the days leading up to the attack. In addition, British and then Australian tunnellers had been undermining the Messines Ridge for almost 18 months and had placed underground charges in tunnels directly underneath the German defences.
 
On the night of 6th June 1917, the men of the 52nd Battalion moved up to the start tapes which had been laid by the intelligence officers in preparation for the signal to commence the advance. At 3:10 am on the 7thJune, 19 of the underground mines beneath the Messines Ridge were fired simultaneously. It was the largest man made explosion in history and the noise could be heard in London.
 
Two Australian Divisions were included in the order of battle for the attack at Messines. The 3rd Division AIF had responsibility for the northern sector of the front while the 4th Division was tasked with attacking the second line of German trenches, the Oosstaverne Line, behind the village of Messines itself. The 3rdDivision’s advance was virtually flawless in its execution but the 4th Division, and particularly the 13thBrigade, encountered difficulties due to the broken ground caused from the mine explosions. The British 33rdBrigade which was supposed to be supporting the 52nd Battalion on its right flank failed to keep up with the advance and the men of the 52nd had to spread out too thinly in an effort to cover the gap in the line. There was confusion as to where the men of the 52nd actually were as they had failed to respond to a signal from a low flying aircraft to fire flares.
 
The British artillery, unaware that there were Australians on the Oosstaverne Line, bombarded the trenches with high explosive. It was probably at this point that John Cordwell received a shrapnel wound to his chest. John was taken by stretcher bearers to the 77th Field Ambulance and then was transported to the 1stCasualty Clearing Station. John was one of 150 men of the 52nd Battalion wounded at Messines on the 7thJune.
 
John remained at the casualty station near Bailleul for almost a month before he finally succumbed to his wounds. He was buried in the Bailleul Communal Cemetery with Catholic Chaplain Fahey in attendance. In early 1918, Mary Jane Cordwell received a parcel of her brother’s personal effects which included cards, letters, photos, a rosary and a wristwatch. The death of John Cordwell left Mary Jane and her two sisters as the last remaining members of the family as by that time both parents were deceased and the war had claimed the three brothers.