Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

John August Herman GABRIEL #2574 41st and 11th Battalion

John Gabriel came from a large farming family from Mount French near Boonah. His parents, Johann and Louisa had both emigrated from Germany around 1870. Both parents had been previously married and they brought to the marriage several sons and daughters from previous marriages. Johann and Louisa were married in Boonah in 1880. From this second union there was one child; John August Herman.

John Gabriel’s mother when completing the Roll of Honour Circular stated that John had been born at Mount French and attended school there. Upon leaving school, John most probably worked on the family farm.

John presented himself for enlistment at Brisbane on 17th July 1916. He gave his occupation as farmer and gave his age as 27 years. He also claimed he had been previously rejected for military service due to his German parentage. John’s father had died in 1908 and so John named his mother as his next of kin.

After four months of preliminary training at Enoggera, John was taken on as part of the 5th reinforcements for the 41st Infantry Battalion. The reinforcement contingent boarded the “Kyarra” in Brisbane for overseas duty on 17th November 1916. John allocated 3/- of his daily pay to his mother.

Eleven days after departing Brisbane, the “Kyarra” docked at Fremantle to take on Western Australian reinforcements. While in dock, John left the ship on leave, with instructions to be back on board when the “Kyarra” sailed. John’s file carries the notation that he had failed to re-embark at Fremantle. He was apprehended by the Military Police the day after the Kyarra departed, fined five pounds and sentenced to 28 days in the detention barracks at Blackboy Hill. The officers in charge of the reinforcements on the Kyarra, being unaware that John had been apprehended marked his file as “deserter.”

It would seem that while in detention in WA, John re-enlisted into a Western Australian Battalion, the 11th. His second set of attestation papers bear the same information as his Brisbane enrolment, but he had a new reason for being rejected for military service; a broken bone in his hand. His regimental number remained the same but with the addition of the letter A.

Released from detention, John boarded the “Berrima” in Fremantle on 23rd December 1916 as part of the 23rd reinforcements of the 11th Battalion. John disembarked in Devonport on 16th February 1917 and after a few months in a training battalion proceeded to the large English depot at Etaples outside Havre in France. On 28th May, John was taken on strength by the 11th Battalion.

The 11th was part of the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Division AIF. The battalion saw frontline service at Gallipoli and then in France and Belgium during 1916 and early 1917. By the time that John joined the ranks, the battalion was enjoying a well-earned rest out of the line in billets around Hazebrouck in Northern France. British (and consequently Australian) operations moved north from the Somme to the Ypres salient in Belgian Flanders in the spring of 1917. 1916 had been less than satisfactory as far as advances were concerned and the British Government was getting understandably nervous about the high rate of casualties for little geographical gain. Flanders would be a test for the new strategies so bitterly learned in France with a greater reliance on artillery and limiting objectives to what could be reasonably gained within the artillery’s range.

The Flanders campaign (more commonly known as the 3rd Battle of Ypres or Passchendaele) began on 6th June 1917 with the explosion of 19 underground mines under the Messines Ridge. During the next few months, small battles were fought to eliminate bulges in the line and German occupation of higher ground. The 2nd Australian Division was tasked with follow up operations along the Menin Road in early September 1917. The 1st Division, which included John and the 11th Battalion would follow up the 2nd Division success with the opening manoeuvres against the enemy at Polygon Wood.

The 11th Battalion War Diary describes troop movement to get into the starting positions prior to the artillery barrage commencing at 5:40am. Any description of the events of 20th September are missing from both the battalion and brigade diaries, with the exception of one sentence which described casualties as “remarkably light”.

Regrettably, one casualty was John Gabriel who was listed as Killed in Action. There is no notation in his file indicating a burial and the Imperial War Graves Commission when scouring the battlefields at war’s end were unable to locate any remains.

John’s medals were despatched to his mother in 1922. Also despatched was the Memorial Plaque but there was an error in the engraving and John’s second name was inscribed “Augustus”. When Louisa Gabriel wrote to the authorities pointing out the error, she was advised that it would take some time to provide a new one. Around this time Louisa died. The surviving siblings of John Gabriel decided to accept the memorial plaque as first provided.

John Gabriel is commemorated on the sandstone tablets of the Menin Gate Memorial in the city of Ypres (Iper) in company with almost 50,000 British and Dominion soldiers who lost their lives in Belgium and have no known grave. This sacrifice is commemorated each evening with a remembrance ceremony which includes the playing of the last post.