Allan John Johnson 2518

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Allan Johnson

Australian War Memorial

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Allan Johnson enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 13 May 1916. He was assigned to the 2nd Reinforcements of the 43rd Battalion and began a short period of training in Australia. Shortly after, he contracted measles and was hospitalised, missing embarkation with his unit. On recovery, he was transferred to the 5th Reinforcements of the 50th Battalion. He embarked with his unit from Adelaide on 21 September 1916, sailing on board the troopship Commonwealth.

Private Johnson arrived in England in mid-November and continued training. He joined his unit on the Western Front in December, just in time to spend the bitterly cold winter of 1916 and 1917 in the trenches. In January, his unit was serving in the front lines when an enemy shell landed in a trench and exploded, wounding Johnson. He was sent to the French city of Rouen for treatment, re-joining his unit in early March as the German army continued their strategic withdrawal to the fortified Hindenburg Line. Johnson’s battalion was among multiple Australian units which followed this withdrawal, seemingly pushing the Germans further back.

To slow the allied advance, the enemy had established multiple rear-guard defences in towns and villages leading up to their new front line. Johnson’s unit was caught in one of these enemy defences at the French village of Noreuil. The 50th and 51st Battalions launched an attack on German defences on the morning of 2 April 1917. Their objective was a sunken road to the east of the village. Johnson’s battalion advanced through the town from the south as their comrades in the 51st Battalion attacked to the north, taking cover in an unoccupied trench. The men encountered fierce resistance from the enemy, which was well prepared and well entrenched. As they pushed forward, the Australians were shelled and caught in a storm of machine-gun bullets, quickly causing mass casualties. Among the dead was Private Allan Johnson who was hit and killed by enemy fire shortly after entering the village.

News of his death reached his family in Australia who remembered him in a memorial notice posted in the Adelaide Express and Telegraph:

“There are griefs that cannot find comfort,

And wounds that cannot be healed.

There are sorrows so deep in a mother’s heart;

That cannot be half revealed.

When alone with my grief the bitter tears flow;

There comes a fond vision of not long ago;

Just as a dream he stands by my side and whispers;

‘Mother dear, death cannot divide.’”

 

Private Allan Johnson was 26 years old.

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