• 25th Battalion AIF (Queensland) [7th Infantry Brigade]
  Formed Queensland April 1915. Departed Brisbane Aeneas 29 June 1915. 
  • 1st Reinforcements departed Brisbane Aeneas 29 June 1915,  
  • 2nd  Reinforcements departed Sydney Shropshire 20 August 1915, 
  • 3rd Reinforcements departed Brisbane Kyarra 16 August 1915,   
  • 4th Reinforcements departed Brisbane Armadale 20 September 1915,  
  • 5th Reinforcements departed Brisbane Warilda 5 October 1915, 
  • 6th Reinforcements departed Brisbane Seang Bee 21 October 1915, 
  • 7th Reinforcements departed Brisbane Itonus 30 December 1915, 
  • 8th Reinforcements departed Brisbane Kyarra 3 January 1916, 
  • 9th Reinforcements departed Brisbane Wandilla 31 January 1916, 
  • 10th Reinforcements departed Brisbane Commonwealth 28 March 1916, 
  • 11th Reinforcements departed Sydney Star of Victoria 31 March 1916, 
  • 12th Reinforcements departed Sydney Mooltan 12 April 1916, 
  • 13th Reinforcements departed Seang Choon 4 May 1916, 
  • 14th Reinforcements departed Brisbane Itonus 8 August 1916, 
  • 15th Reinforcements departed Brisbane Clan Macgillivray 7 September 1916, 
  • 16th Reinforcements departed Brisbane Boonah 21 October 1916, 
  • 17th Reinforcements departed Brisbane Marathon 27 October 1916, 
  • 18th Reinforcements departed Sydney Demosthenes 22 December 1916, 
  • 19th Reinforcements departed Sydney Wiltshire 7 February 1917, 
  • 20th Reinforcements departed Sydney  Hororata 16 June 1917, 
  • 21st Reinforcements departed Sydney Canberra 16 November 1917. 
• Disbanded 12 October 1918.

• Battle Honours: Suvla, Gallipoli 1915,  Egypt 1915-16, Somme 1916-18, Pozieres, Bapaume 1917, Bullecourt, Ypres 1917, Menin Road, Polygon Wood,  Broodeseinde, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Ancre 1918, Amiens, Albert 1918, Mont St Quentin, Hindenburg Line, Beaurevoir, France and Flanders 1916-18

• Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

by Ross Mallett (ADFA)

25th Australian Infantry Battalion

The Battalion sailed at 11am on 29 June aboard the S.S. Aeneas. This ship belonged to the Blue Funnel Line. Of the 1,700 men on board, 29 officers and 976 men belong to the 25th Battalion. The S.S. Aeneas arrived off Sydney on 1 July and berthed at Woolloomooloo. The Battalion spent the next few days billeted at the Sydney Showground before sailing from Sydney on 7 July aboard the S.S. Aeneas.

The Battalion arrived at the Suez on 29 July and on the 4th August 1915 (the anniversary of the start of the war) the battalion finally stepped ashore onto foreign soil. During the voyage the Battalion's records show the deaths of four men due to illness.

On the 24th August the Battalion's corps letters and numerals were withdrawn and replaced with the colour patches. The patch for the 25th Battalion is black over blue in the diamond shape of the 2nd Division. This patch was worn in WW2 by the 2/25th Battalion and is currently worn by 25th Battalion, Royal Queensland Regiment.

The Battalion arrived and landed at Gallipoli on 11 September 1915. During the landing only one man was injured, Pte Walter Fulcher was hit in the knee by a stray bullet.

The first officer killed was Lt Archibald Auchterlonie on 20 October when he was shot through the head. Lt Auchterlonie was a 23-year-old civil servant from Gympie, Queensland

Upon receiving their order to disband in 1918, and to merge with other battalions, the men of the 25th Battalion asked for the most dangerous task in the next battle. After the fighting, they said, there would either be no 25th Battalion left or they would create such a legend that no one would ever dare to disband it.

At the conclusion of the war, the Battalion returned home and was redesignated a Citizen Military Forces Unit.

25th Battalion

The 25th Battalion was raised at Enoggera in Queensland in March 1915 as part of the 7th Brigade. Although predominantly composed of men recruited in Queensland, the battalion also included a small contingent of men from Darwin. The battalion left Australia in early July, trained in Egypt during August, and by early September was manning trenches at Gallipoli.

At Gallipoli the 7th Brigade reinforced the depleted New Zealand and Australian Division. The 25th Battalion, however, had a relatively quiet time because the last major Allied offensive had been launched, and turned back, in the previous month. It left the peninsular on 18 December 1915.

After further training in Egypt, the 25th Battalion proceeded to France. Landing on 19 March 1916, it was the first AIF battalion to arrive there. Now fighting as part of the 2nd Division, it took part in its first major battle at Pozières between 25 July and 7 August in the course of which it suffered 785 casualties. After a spell in a quieter sector of the front in Belgium, the 2nd Division came south in October to attack again in the Somme Valley. The 25th Battalion took part in two attacks to the east of Flers, both of which floundered in the mud.

Although it acted in a supporting role at the second battle of Bullecourt, the 25th Battalion did not carry out a major offensive role again until 20 September 1917, when it was part of the 2nd Division’s first wave at the battle of Menin Road in Belgium. Victory here was followed up with the capture of Broodseinde Ridge on 4 October. The 25th reprised its role from Menin Road, in what was its last large-scale offensive action for the year.

1918 was an exhausting year for the 25th Battalion. It fought to turn back the German spring offensive in April, and then participated in battles at Morlancourt, Hamel, Amiens and along the Somme Valley as the German Army was pushed ever closer to defeat. These actions sapped the strength of the AIF, already terribly weak due to earlier casualties and lack of reinforcements. In September, the 25th was one of several battalions ordered to disband to reinforce others. Its troops mutinied, winning the Battalion a temporary reprieve.

The battalion went into the line one last time on 3 October 1918 and took part in a successful attack to break through the German defences around Beaurevoir. It was disbanded nine days later. Text from AWM

• 1026 killed, 2821 wounded (including gassed)

• Decorations

  • 1 CB
  • 6 DSO
  • 19 MC, 3 bars
  • 17 DCM
  • 78 MM, 3 bars
  • 4 MSM
  • 18 MID
  • 5 foreign awards