41st Battalion, Royal New South Wales Regiment, (41 RNSWR), is an infantry battalion of the Australian Army.

An Army Reserve unit, it is one of four battalions of the Royal New South Wales Regiment and is attached to the 5th Brigade, 2nd Division.

It is based in northern New South Wales, with its headquarters in Lismore and depots in a number of locations including Tweed Heads, Grafton,  Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour.

 In its present form the battalion was raised in 1965, however, it can trace its lineage back to a couple of Scottish Rifles units formed in the 1800s in Byron Bay and Maclean. It also carries the battle honours and traditions of the 41st Bn AIF, that served on the Western Front during World War I

Earliest militia units

Drawing its lineage from the Byron Scottish Regiment, which had previously existed prior to the Pentropic restructure, 41 RNSWR's predecessor units can trace their history back to the Maclean Company & Byron Company of Scottish Rifles which was formed in 1899.

This unit went through a number of name changes during its early history upon Australia's Federation, eventually becoming the 9th Infantry Australian Military Forces (AMF) in 1912.

41st Battalion Historical Points

 1916

  • Raised at Bell’s Paddock, Qld in January, 1916 (Now Brookside Shopping Centre)
  • Originally to be numbered as 35th Battalion until the reorganisation of the AIF in Egypt after the withdrawal from Gallipoli and renumbered as the 41st Battalion, 11th Brigade, 3rd Division as a result
  • Enoggera Barracks area was just a series of ranges, just like Greenbank today, with Bell, Frazer and Thomson’s Paddocks housing the soldiers
  • Left Brisbane for England on May 15th, 1916
  • Travelled by train to Sydney and boarded HMAT Demosthenes for Europe
  • Travelled, via Cape Town, Cape Verde islands and on to Plymouth before getting to Amesbury, England (near Stone Henge) in July, 1916
  • Initial reinforcements for the 41st Bn were sent to France after the disaster of Pozieres and Fromelles, rebuilding other units instead of the 41st
  • Trained on Salisbury Plains until November 1916
  • Move by ferry from Portsmouth and arrived at Le Havre, France
  • Travelled by train to the French-Belgian border near Armentieres
  • Entered training camps and told to forget everything learnt in England
  • Went into the Front Line at the Mushroom Salient at La Chappelle-D’ Armentieres on Christmas Eve, 1916
  • Germans welcomed the new troops with an artillery barrage and 4 soldiers did not make it to Christmas morning

 

1917

  • Rotated through the frontline for the next 6 months, even when out of the line, work parties were continually sent to work back on the front
  • Numerous trench raids are ordered, often with disastrous results due to inexperience, junior officers get the bad nickname of ‘One Pip, One Stunt’ because of their death rate
  • The Battle of Messines was the first major offensive of the war to feature the 41st Bn in June, 1916, in Belgium
  • The Battalion alone held the entire 11th Brigade sector of the frontline along the southern side of the salient prior to the massive 19 underground mines being set off, such as at Hill 60 on the northern side of the salient
  • Smaller short assaults conducted over the next month to exploit the gains from the Battle of Messines, part of new ‘Bite and Hold’ tactics
  • 41st Bn AIF Battalion Headquarters hit by a direct artillery shell on July 6th, 1917, CO is wounded and sent back to Australia. 7 other officers and men killed
  • The battalion spends “Eighteen Days” holding a series of flooded shell holes in Belgium because the ground is too waterlogged to dig trenches
  • Platoons of 36 men are reduced to 5 to 10 men each, as much by disease and being stuck in water 24/7 rather than being shot or shelled
  • Three Military Medals are awarded just for delivering rations and messages
  • At Warneton, Belgium, the battalion re-attacks a line of outposts linking up to a ruined windmill after relieving British unit failed short of their objective
  • After this, the battalion is moved to the rear areas to be reinforced and rebuilt across northern France
  • By mid-1917, Britain is nearly starved out of the war by German U-Boat attacks stopping nearly all shipping, decision is taken to wipe out the U-Boat ports in northern Belgium, in what becomes the 3rd Battle of Ypres through to the Battle of Passchendaele
  • In October, 1917 the 41st Bn is moved to near Ypres, Belgium to take part in the Battle of Broodseinde, east of the town in horribly muddy conditions
  • The battalion assaults through the leading unit along the Zonnebeke-Rouleurs Railway line to capture the ground near today’s, Tyne Cot Cemetery
  • Further attacks are made to the north towards Passchendaele until relieved by Canadian forces who take that village
  • Christmas 1917 sees the Battalion in the same sector and trenches as Christmas1916
  • Soon moved to north of the flooded Lys River on French-Belgium border, thus was a very quiet time because nobody could cross the flooded waters

 

1918

  • In February, 1918 the 41st Bn is rebuilding again in northern France expecting to be sent back to Belgium again
  • In March 1918, the Germans launch Operation Michael, destroying the British frontline in France and capturing all the ground lost in 1916 and 1917
  • Battalion is sent south, without knowing exactly when and where they were expected to halt the Germans
  • They rest in Doullens, outside the Allied High Command HQ as Marshal Foch of France is appointed to be in charge of all Allied Forces
  • Next they are sent to Authie but enroute to there they hear it is being shelled and that German Armoured Cars have broken through the British lines
  • Thus they form up in all-round defence in open fields for the first time, awaiting the onslaught
  • Roads are crowded with refugees or French civilians pleading with them to stay to protect their home. Retreating British soldiers say that fighting is hopeless as they rush to the rear
  • A 16 kilometre wide gap opens up between the Ancre and Somme Rivers, between the British and French Armies which the Australians are sent to fill
  • The battalion holds a line from the Bray-Corbie Road to the Somme River from the 27th of March until the 5th of May without relief, as the Germans attempt to break through
  • Patrols called ‘Peaceful Penetrations’ by experienced officers and men dominate No Mans’ Land, keeping the Germans on the back foot, unlike the disastrous trench raids of early 2017
  • Red Baron is shot down whilst flying overhead of the Battalion on the 21st of April and he crashes in the Rear Echelon area
  • Artillery is brought up behind BHQ to fire across the Somme River into the rear and flanks of the Germans as they push forward to Villers-Brettoneux
  • After relief, the 3rd Division is reviewed by Field Marshal Haig and King George
  • 41st Battalion holds the line on the southern side of Viller-Brettoneux, where A Coy is totally wiped out by a gas attack
  • As such, American soldiers from the 131st Regiment of the 33rd Division, Illinois National Guard are made part of the Battalion as X Coy
  • Training is conducted in readiness for the Battle of Hamel, with artillery barrage firing in advance of the troops, tanks attacking and transporting gear (1 tank carried the equivalent supplies of 1,200 men in fighting gear) while airplanes parachuted ammunition to forward positions
  • At 21:30, the night before the battle, the Americans are ordered not to take part with much disappointment and cursing
  • However some Yanks are too far committed, some simply disobey the orders or some even dress as Australians in order to join the attack
  • The Battle of Hamel is an overwhelming success, with all objectives captured within 93 minutes, in the first modern coordinated all arms assault
  • On August 8th, 1918, the Battalion begins the 100 Day Advance with what the Germans call the Black Day, capturing kilometres of ground along the south of the Somme River on the first day
  • Fighting is no longer massively trench based but across open fields with shell scrapes and for smaller dug in positions
  • The battalion watch their inexperienced American friends from Hamel get slaughtered as they attack Chipilly on the northern bank of the river, so decide to use captured German field guns to fire on German rear areas
  • Moving to the northern bank of the Somme River themselves, the 41st Bn moves up to Bray-Sur-Somme
  • On August 28th, 1918, at Fargny Wood, PTE B. S. Gordon captures 6 machine guns and captures 2 officers and 61 German soldiers singlehandedly, for which he is awarded the VC
  • The assault and offensive continues until October with an assault on the Hindenburg Line and the Canal de St Quentin Tunnel, which would be like a 6 km wide bridge for tanks to cross over the canal
  • Near Bony, France, the American 27th and 30th Divisions attack and are horribly torn apart. The 41st Bn has to assault through the mess up to the tunnel, which acted as an underground maze of store rooms and fortresses
  • The 41st Battalion is withdrawn from the frontline on October 6th, with only 250 men left from over 1000 soldiers before the 100 Day Advance began
  • The entire remnants of the 42nd Battalion is merged with the 41st Battalion to become B Coy
  • Near Warlus and St Maxent, France, the battalion uses the last of their reinforcements to come back up to strength, ready for more fighting
  • It takes 3 days after the Armistice on November 11th for the Battalion to learn that the war was over
  • Complicated system of repatriation back to Australia begins, based on time spent in the AIF, Gallipoli veterans sent home first for example
  • While small groups of soldiers are slowly sent home over the next 6 months, the battalion runs classes on various subjects (like a modern TAFE) to teach trade skills for their return to civilian life, 41st Bn was famous for their Telegraph School
  • Some soldiers return to the battlefields with cameras to tour where they fought
  • The last group of soldiers from the 41st Battalion was sent home in May 1919, taking 3 months get home

 

1920’s

  • 23rd August 1920 – Kings Colours presented at The Domain, Brisbane
  • April 1921 - 41st Battalion re-raised as militia unit, headquartered in Lismore, NSW
  • January 1927 – Battalion re-designated as 41st Battalion (The Byron Scottish)
  • 1st July 1929 - Battalion is disbanded due to budget cuts

 

1930’s

  • July 1930 - 2nd Battalion is redesignated as 2nd/41st Battalion (City of Newcastle Regiment) in Newcastle, NSW
  • 27th November 1933 - 2nd/41st Battalion reorganised as 41st/33rd Battalion(The New England Regiment), based in Tamworth
  • October 1936 - 41st Battalion (The Byron Scottish) reforms on North Coast of New South Wales, headquartered again in Lismore

 

1940’s

  • 1943 - 41st Battalion becomes a Jungle Warfare Training unit at Frenches Forest, NSW
  • 1943 - Merged with 2nd Battalion once again to form 41st/2nd Battalion
  • December 1945 - 41st/2nd Battalion is disbanded in line with a reorganised army at the end of WW2
  • June 1948 - 41st Battalion reformed in Grafton, Murwillumbah and BHQ in Lismore

 

1960’s

  • 1960 - Battalion is disbanded due to new Army Pentropic structure
  • 1965 - Battalion is reraised as 41st Battalion, Royal New South Wales Regiment (The Byron Scottish) at Lismore, Casino and Murwillumbah

Basic 41st Bn AIF Facts

 

  • Battalion strength was nominally just over 1,000 men in strength, in 4 rifle companies plus BHQ
  • 9 Reinforcement Groups of 300 to 500 men each were sent from Australia for the 41st Battalion between 1916 to 1918
  • Over 4,500 soldiers served in the 41st Bn AIF from Queensland, Northern Territory and Northern NSW during the war, nearly 500 died
  • Battalion had a full brass band and a pipe & drums band, who acted as stretcher bearers for the battalion during battles
  • Battalion was totally horsedrawn, with drivers handling mules and donkeys plus wagons with horses
  • Leather workers and shoemakers were part of the unit for repairing bridles and equipment
  • Normal routine was 3-5 days in frontline, then 3-5 days in a rear communication trench and then the same in reserve close to the front line, then rotated before taken out of the frontline completely
  • Work parties from ‘resting’ troops carried supplies to the front, erected barbed wire, laying phone wires, digging trenches and construct light railway lines (so 1 in 3 days at rest was actually back helping in the frontline)
  • Leave was very limited, especially when the war ended, sent as individuals & would maybe get 2 weeks a year in England, 1 or 2 days local leave in rear areas
  • Many unit sport days and home-brewed concerts were a feature during rear area rest periods, with Australian Rules Football being more dominant
  • 10% of battalion strength was always selected on a rotational basis and kept back from assaulting attacks, in order to be ‘Nucleus’ troops to rebuild the battalion and maintain experience if the attack was wiped out
  • Nearly a third of non-combat casualties were from sexually transmitted diseases, while other soldiers were affected or died from the Spanish Flu epidemic near the end of the war
  • All 3rd Division soldiers were nicknamed ‘Eggs-a-Cook’ by the other divisions because of the oval colour patches and the phrase Egyptian hawkers used to sell eggs to the other older divisions, who dispised the 3rd Division as late comers to the war, unlike themselves who volunteered early in the war
  • Monash originally had the 3rd Division wear their Rising Sun badges on the front of their slouch hats with brim down, rather than the normal sides up until late 1917 when all Australians wore their hats the same
  • 1 Victoria Cross, 3 Distinguished Service Orders, 14 Military Crosses (2 with Bar), 12 Distinguished Conduct Medals, 3 Meritorious Service Medals, 81 Military Medals (2 with Bar), 3 Belgian Croix de Guerre, 13 Mentions In Dispatches
  • March 27th to May 5th, in France, was the longest period spent by any Australian unit on the frontline during the war
  • No soldier was ever captured as a prisoner of war, the only Australian battalion to achieve this

 

‘MORS ANTE PUDOREM’

1916

During World War 1, the battalion was raised as part of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF).

Originally the battalion was to be known as the 35th Battalion[3] but was renumbered when the 4th and 5th Divisions were raised in Egypt prior to the 3rd Division completing its formation in Australia.

Now known as the 41st Battalion, it had been formed in February 1916 at Bell's Paddock (present day site of Brookside Shopping Centre and Mt Maria College) near the current Gallipoli Barracks, Enoggera, in Brisbane, Queensland, with men drawn from Queensland and northern New South Wales.

It was assigned to the 11th Brigade, 3rd Division. Together with the initial raising of the battalion, nine groups of reinforcements were recruited and sent from Brisbane during the course of the war. After initial training, the battalion boarded a train to Sydney in May, 1916 to embark on the HMAT Demosthenes (AT64), to England. They travelled via Cape Town and the Cape Verde Islands, before arriving at Plymouth in July 1916.


The battalion moved with the 3rd Division to training grounds on Salisbury Plain at Larkhill, site of the current Royal School of Artillery.

In November 1916, the battalion sailed for the Western Front from Portsmouth, England to Le Havre, France and moved towards the border area with Belgium near Armentières.

The battalion entered the frontline for the first time on Christmas Eve, 1916 at the Mushroom Salient, just east of La Chapelle-d'Armentières, of which four soldiers were killed by artillery fire on the first night.

1917

The battalion rotated through the frontline around Armentieres in France and across the Lys River in Belgium for most of the first half of 1917.

The first major offensive of the war occurred in June at the Battle of Messines, where the battalion held the entire 11th Brigade frontage before the mines were set off and the assault began. The battalion was then involved in a series of smaller "Bite and Hold" attacks to exploit the gains from the Battle of Messines.

Most notable of these was the assault against the 'Windmill' position of the Germans near Warneton, Belgium.

The previous British battalion has stopped short of their intended objective, due to navigational errors on the churned up battlefield.

The 41st Battalion thus had to assault across a longer than expected area, then hold on to their gains. The wet and saturated soils meant that trenches were nearly impossible to dig, so the position was merely a series of linked up flooded shell craters, from which the battalion repulsed several counter attacks over the next 18 days.

Military Medals were awarded to two soldiers during this action for the heroic and near impossible act of being able to bring rations up to the frontline.

After this action, the battalion was withdrawn from the frontline to the northern France and was brought back up to strength and under went further training.

The next major battle was the participation in the Battle of Broodseinde and Passchendaele in September and October. This saw the battalion leap-frogging the 42nd Bn AIF, to continue the assault, north of the Ypres–Roulers railway. It linked up with the 40th Bn AIF near the present day Tyne Cot Cemetery. The battalion then was used to press home further attacks, until relieved by Canadian forces who went on to capture Passchendaele.

1918

In early 1918, the battalion was resting and refitting in northern France, preparing to return to the Belgian battlefields near Ypres, when the German Spring Offensive occurred and caught the Entente forces off guard.

The battalion was hastily ordered south from their rest camp at Quesques to stop the German advance. In the move south, they encountered thousands of fleeing refugees and disorganised retreating British units. At Doullens, the battalion took up defensive positions whilst the Doullens Conference took place, putting all allied Entente forces under French command.After which, the battalion was sent forward to defend beside the Bray–Corbie Road, near Amiens, remaining in the frontline against constant German attack for 39 days before being relieved.

 It also took part in fighting around Morlancourt at this time.

The battalion then took its turn in manning the frontline, including at Villers-Bretonneux, where 'A' Company was essentially wiped out in a German gas attack. Thus to reinforce the battalion before the Battle of Hamel, it was linked up with the American 131st Regiment of the Illinois National Guard, forming a new 'X' Company. However, General John Pershing forbade any American soldiers to fight under foreign command and they were withdrawn shortly before the battle commenced. The battalion then took part in the Allied Hundred Days Offensive which ultimately brought about an end to the war.

The 41st Battalion's final involvement in the fighting came in early October when they took part in the joint Australian–US operation along the St Quentin Canal.

After finishing the Hundred Days Offensive near Bony, France, near the present Somme American Cemetery and Memorial, the battalion had been reduced to a strength of less than 250 men, from a normal strength of over 1,000. Due to falling recruitment numbers and the failure of the two conscription referendums in Australia, it was decided to merge the 42nd Bn AIF into the 41st. However, this was met with strong resentment and resistance, in a near mutinous atmosphere, it took three attempts for the units to parade as one, with the 42nd Bn becoming 'B' Company of the 41st Bn.

It was out of the line resting when the Armistice was signed in November 1918, yet it took three days for official news of the Armistice to reach them in Saint-Maxent, France.

The unit was slowly sent home in a series of groups and was formally disbanded in May 1919.

Losses during the war totalled 444 killed and 1,577 wounded.

One member of the battalion, Bernard Gordon, received the Victoria Cross see his story under separate section .

Other decorations included:

 1 x Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George

2 x Distinguished Service Orders

13x Military Crosses and three Bars

12 x Distinguished Conduct Medals

82 x Military Medals and two Bars,

4 x Meritorious Service Medals

26 x Mentions in Despatches and

7 x foreign awards.

In 1918, the original militia unit, which did not deploy overseas during World War I, was amalgamated with the 12th (Byron) Infantry AMF to form the 2nd Battalion, 41st Infantry after the Citizens Force was reorganised to form multi-battalion regiments which were numbered after units of the AIF with which they had been associated.

 In 1921, the decision was made to disband the AIF and to perpetuate its battle honours and traditions by reforming the Citizens Force along the same lines as the AIF, with the multi-battalion regiments being redesignated as separate battalions and adopting the unit colour patches and battle honours of the AIF.

Consequently, the 2nd Battalion, 41st Infantry was redesignated as the 41st Battalion.

In 1927, territorial designations were adopted and the battalion adopted the title 41st Battalion (The Byron Regiment). The motto Mors Ante Pudorem was also approved at this time.

In 1929, the compulsory training scheme was suspended by the Scullin Labor government, and this, combined with the economic hardships of the Great Depression led to a decline in the number of recruits.

As a result, the battalion was amalgamated with the 2nd Battalion to form the 2nd/41st Battalion.

 In 1933, these two units were delinked, however, the 41st Battalion was amalgamated with the 33rd Battalion to form the 33rd/41st Battalion. They remained linked until 1936 when tensions in Europe meant that the government decided to double the size of the Militia.

1939During World War II, the battalion served in a garrison role within Australia and did not see active service overseas, even though it was gazetted as an AIF battalion after the majority of its members volunteered to do so.

In 1943, when the Australian Army began reallocating manpower resources, the battalion was amalgamated once more with the 2nd Battalion, forming the 41st/2nd Battalion. They remained linked until December 1945 when the demobilisation process began and the unit was disbanded.

In 1948, the Citizens Military Force was re-raised, albeit on a limited scale. It was in line with the compulsory service introduced after World War II. The 41st Battalion was re-formed at this time, adopting the title 41st Infantry Battalion (The Byron Regiment), however, the following year its title was changed to The Byron Scottish Regiment.

This remained the state of affairs until 1960, when the Pentropic divisional structure was introduced and the battalion became 'E' (Byron Scottish) Company, 1st Battalion, Royal Queensland Regiment.

The unit remained part of that regiment until being reformed as a full battalion within the Royal New South Wales Regiment after 1965.

In 1965 41 RNSWR was formed after the Australian Army ended its experiment with the Pentropic divisional structure which, in 1960, had seen the reorganisation of the previously existing regional Citizens Military Force (CMF) infantry battalions into company-sized elements within six new State-based regiments. The experiment was a failure and by 1965, the Army returned to the triangular divisional structure and the CMF was reorganised once more.

In an effort to reinvigorate the regional ties that had been so important to the CMF, the Pentropic battalions were reduced and new battalions formed by re-raising a number of their subordinate companies to battalion strength and re-adopting historical numerical designations.

As a part of this reorganisation, the Byron Scottish Company, which had been part of the 1st Battalion, Royal Queensland Regiment was expanded to form the 41st Battalion, Royal New South Wales Regiment, headquartered around Lismore on the northern New South Wales coast.

1965 to 2000

is being researched and will be updated soon , the publication "A History of 41 RNSWR 1916-1980 is currently being digitalised to allow update of this information).

 East Timor  - members from the unit (Army reservists) have served their country in recent years this includes INTERFET in East Timor and with the Peace Monitoring Groups in Bougainville.

In 2000, members of the unit took part in providing security to the Sydney Olympic Games through the Operational Search Battalion,  deployed as part of commitments to the Solomon Islands as part of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) and deployed to  Malaysia with Rifle Company Butterworth.

In 2011, members of the battalion served in East Timor as part of the Timor Leste Task Group (TLTG).

Soldiers have also participated in several tours of Operation Relex, serving as boarding parties on Royal Australian Navy vessels in search of illegal immigrants and other border security tasks.

Kilted tradition

Due to its lineage from the Byron Scottish Regiment, 41 RNSWR retains an entitlement to wear a kilt. The battalion was formerly known as the 41st Battalion, The Byron Scottish Regiment.

This is due to the large number of Scots who settled in the north of the state in areas such as Grafton, Byron Bay and Maclean.

41 RNSWR maintains an alliance with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and personnel from the battalion's Grafton depot may wear the kilt of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders on ceremonial occasions.

Unit motto

"Mors Ante Pudorem" which means "Death before Dishonour". This motto was adopted by 41 RNSWR because since its formation in 1916 none of its personnel have been captured in battle.


 

Copyright 41bnassoc