"Tasmania's Own"
The Fortieth Battalion
This website commemorates the men of the 40th Battalion who left Tasmania to participate in the conflict they knew as the European War.
The 40th battalion was raised solely within the island state of Tasmania.
The battalion wasn't the only one that Tasmanians made a contribution to, as over 5,000 men enlisted in the 12th, 15th and 26th infantry battalions, and many others sent as general reinforcements would join numerous other battalions and corps.
The battalion embarked for the Western Front in July 1916 and by December was serving in the trenches in Northern France.
In all the battalion underwent a period of active service of just under two years.
Lt General John Monash would afterwards say of the battalion:
" It was a battalion that was in every way an embodiment of the best that was in the A.I.F. It had a notable career and a proud record of achievement...."
This website will endeavour to reveal some of that notable career and record of achievement during what we now know as the Great War.