Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Pte Isaac John Cahill  3736

Isaac Cahill signed up as an 18 year old on August 16, 1915 at the Bendigo Town Hall which served as the Enlistment Centre for the district.

At this stage of the war at age 18 he would need his parent’s permission to enlist. His father also Isaac John Cahill and his mother Fanny Cahill signed a Certificate of Consent on August 14, 1915, two days in advance of his enlistment. This would later become an issue in 1917 as the consent form appears to go missing at Army HQ in Melbourne.

The Bendigo Advertiser reports that Isaac along with a dozen or so other local lads pass their medical examinations two days later on August 18. 

Isaac and the other new recruits on this day are assigned to the 12th Reinforcements of the 5th Battalion, which would initially commence training at the Bendigo camp, the current site of the Bendigo Race course in Epsom.  (see photo of the trainees).

Just a few weeks later, the Bendigo Independent newspaper angery reports that on September 10, 1915, one hundred reinforcement troops left the Bendigo camp for the train journey to Melbourne and although fellow troops gave them a hearty farewell from the camp not even a band in the ‘Golden city’ had been engaged to farewell these newly enlisted men.  This was in stark contrast to the farewell for new recruits who had left Bendigo a year earlier in 1914 when war was declared and who were now on the Gallipoli peninsula.

Further training for Isaac and his Bendigo district recruits would have taken place at the Broadmeadows camp and with just two days before Christmas on December 23, 1915 they would embark from Port Melbourne on HMAT Ceramic A40 for Egypt.

It is unlikely Isaac or his fellow recruits would not have known that the AIF forces had been secretly evacuated off the shores of the fateful beaches and cliffs of Gallipoli just a few days earlier. They would probably not have learnt of this news until their arrival in Egypt. Their war would now be on the Western front.  

Sailing to Europe in 1915 on a troop ship was a long and uncomfortable journey, usually between a 2-3 month journey. Isaac and fellow recruits possibly lucked in by being allocated passage onboard HMAT Ceramic A40 as she was a relative new vessel, recently launched in Belfast in December 1912. The Ceramic had also been deployed in the second AIF flotilla to leave Australia in 1914 and had just returned to Melbourne to ferry thousands more AIF troops off to the war. The Ceramic went on to serve in both World Wars being tragically sunk by a German submarine in 1942, leaving only one survivor from the 656 people aboard.

After nearly three months as sea, Isaac arrived in Egypt in late February (26/02/1916) at Alexandria and joined the depleted AIF Battalions recovering from the horrific and devastating Gallipoli campaign. These AIF Battalions were now preparing for a totally new and different theatre of war on the western front.    

The 5th Battalion camp in Egypt was at Serapeum, the site of the ancient and great temple dedicated to the Greek – Egyptian god of Serepis in ancient Alexandria founded around 300 BC. Very little of this ancient momunment remained standing the troops would have pitch tents within sight of the ancient pyramids. (see Photo)

After just a month in Egypt, Isaac and the 5th Battalion would sail for for France landing at Marseilles on March 30, 1916. A welcome journey of just 5 days from the stifling heat of Alexandria.   

Landing in Marsailles would be their first sight of Europe. “The harbour in spring was a beautiful site after our long stay in desolate Egypt” wrote Private Roy Ramsey of the AIF 3rd Field Ambulance. We all hoped for a few days in Marseilles but the authorities were reluctant to let us loose on the city, no doubt on account of our doubtful reputation earned in Egypt.”

The Australians journeyed by troop train up the Rhone valley heading for Calais, then eastwards to the western front in French Flanders, 200 km north of Paris. Estaples, the British and Commonwealth staging depot in Northern France was their destination close to the Belgium border.

Finally at the front, the 5th battalion was heavily involved in operations against the German Army. The battalion's first major action in France was at Pozieres in the Somme valley in July 1916. After Pozieres the battalion fought at Ypres in Flanders then returning to the Somme for winter. 

Isaac was admitted to the Field Ambulance station on December 12, 1916 and returns to his unit on December 19. No reason is provided on his casualty record. His second Christmas away from his home in White Hills would be in the wet and freezing trenches on the French, Belgium border. 

In 1917, the 5th battalion participated in the operations that followed-up the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line, and then returned to Belgium to join the great offensive launched to the east of Ypres. Amazingly, Isaac survives the 1917 year unscathed, as there are no entries on his 'Casualty Form' for the full year.

The following year, on February 2, 1918 Isaac is sent to Battalion Signaling Class. The location of the training is unknown however the training would take 6 weeks. Following this, Isaac was granted a further three weeks leave returning to his Battalion on April 6, 1918.

Just a few days after rejoining his unit in April 1918, the 5th battalion along with other AIF Battaions helped to stop the massive German spring offensive in April and May. The 5th would also go on to participate in the great Allied offensive launched near Amiens on August 8, 1918. The advance by the Commonwealth troops with the British in support was the greatest success in a single day on the Western Front, one that German General Erich Ludendorff described as "the black day of the German Army in this war". 

With the Germans now in retreat, Isaac and the 5th battalion continued operations to late September 1918, when the Australian Corps was withdrawn from the front line for a period of rest and training. A rest they had thoroughly deserved. 

Isaac's army records shows that he spent nearly 3 weeks in rest camp from August 17 till September 7.

When the armistice came into effect on 11 November 1918, the AIF battalions were largely 'out of the line', resting behind the main German front. Their efforts over that 100 day period from late April till early September had changed the course of the whole war. 

Isaac would not leave France for England until January 25, 1919 and would then leave the port of Southampton on the troop ship the ‘City of Poona’ on March 28, arriving home in Australia six weeks later on May 14, 1919.

During the war, a total of 970 members of the 5th battalion were killed, while a further 2,013 were wounded. Issac survived nearly two full years of horrific trench warfare on the western front and was there in the most decisive battles of the war.

Isaac Cahill 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.