Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

John Bonner Davis joined the war in the most hectic time. He enlisted in 1915 December and went to the Western Front in 1916 January. He was a medium build person with medium height but wasn’t fat. There has been no real reason as to why he joined the war except that he probably joined because his brother was joining the war. He was a normal person before the war, he was a barman at the Robin Hood Hotel in Adelaide his whole life and he had no children at all. When he was 18 and his brother signed up for war John Bonner Davis did the same thing. He had no relationship at the time and was living with his mother. He enlisted in Adelaide on 10 January and was sent to the Western Front on 9th June 1916. When he got there, he was given a service number, 11124, and his rank and unit. He was assigned to the 3rd Divisional Train, meaning that he was a supply runner. He would’ve brought messages to one outpost to another if the communication was down between outpost. He would transport ammunition, food, and water to the outpost as well. The Third Divisional Train was formed when after the AIF and withdrawn from Gallipoli and went to train in Egypt, and so the Government decided to form the Third Division.

He embarked on the HMAT A19 Africa on 9th June 1916 from Sydney to the Western Front. He probably was stationed at the Third Battle of Ypres also known as the Battle of Passchendaele, which is a small village in Belgium. As a result of John Bonner Davis joining the 3rd Divisional Train after the battle of Messines which only lasted 4 days. The battle of Ypres was a crucial battle that changed the tide of the war. The allies had launched an assault on the German lines in Belgium. The war started in 31st July 1917 to 10th November 1917. After the battle, the Australians had lost 38,000 people but combined with the British the total was 310,000 casualties. This was the last objective/village that the Triple Entente needed to capture for them to win the battle of Ypres. There were many pieces of artillery used that caused a lot of craters and fox holes in the battlefield. Due to the timing of the battle, the weather wasn’t good, there were rain, snow, and ice everywhere. This weather made the battle slow and it also made movement sluggish. Many soldiers had suffered from frostbite and suffered a medical condition called Trench Foot. This condition was a deformity and infection that starts when soldiers haven’t cleaned their feet or when they have used the same shoes and socks for a long time, therefore building up bacteria and causing their foot to be infected, this made soldiers slower in movement and sometimes they would get discharged due to inability to fight. During the trench warfare, no one knew how to prevent or cure trench foot and so this led to the amputation of the foot or if it got too bad the leg.

The second battle that John Bonner Davis that would’ve most likely been in would be the battles of the Somme. There were two battles of the Somme, the first one was in Avre, and Hamel and the second one was in Albert and Bapaume. He would’ve most likely been in the battles due to the placement of these battles and due to several sources outlining these battles. The battle of the Somme started at the beginning of winter and ended at the beginning of a summer. This weather heavily affected the troops with frostbite, infections and the cold weather made it slow to move around. This made it easier for the Germans to shoot them. If my soldier was in this battle he would have had been running a lot because the Germans destroyed copper wires multiple times, disabling long range communication.

 John Bonner Davis survived all these battles and was discharged on 19th of July 1919 due to the war ending. He continued his life as a barman and was awarded two medals, the British war medal for helping the British in battle and the Victory medal for helping win the war. He lived his life until he met an unfortunate death due to old age. His cemetery is unknown as is his marital status after the war.