Patrick Meehan's 7th Battalion

The 7th Battalion was among the first infantry units raised for the AIF during the First World War. Like the 5th, 6th and 8th Battalions, it was recruited from Victoria and, together with these battalions, formed the 2nd Brigade.
After the withdrawal from Gallipoli in December 1915, the battalion returned to Egypt. In March 1916, it sailed for France and the Western Front. From then until 1918 the battalion took part in bloody trench warfare. The battalion’s first major action in France was at Pozières in the Somme valley. After Pozières the battalion fought at Ypres, in Flanders, before returning to the Somme for winter. In 1917 the battalion moved to Belgium for the advance to the Hindenburg Line. During the battle of the Menin Road in September 1917, Major Fred Tubb VC was mortally wounded. In March and April 1918 the battalion helped stop the German spring offensive, later participating in the great allied offensive of 1918 and fought near Amiens on 8 August. The advance by British and empire troops was the greatest success in a single day on the Western Front, one that German General Erich Ludendorff described as, “the black day of the German Army in this war”.
Casualties:
1045 killed, 2076 wounded (including gassed)
Commanding Officers:
Elliott, Harold Edward ‘Pompey’
Jackson, Alfred
Jess, Carl
Herrod, Ernest Edward

The Battle In Which Patrick Meehan was Killed.
On the arrival on April 12 of the 1st Division at Hazebrouck from the Somme, the Germans were already commencing to penetrate the Forest of Nieppe immediately east of the town. The 7th Battalion, with some of the 1st Pioneer Battalion and a company of machine gunners, pushed through Nieppe Forest, north of La Motte Chateau, and dug in on the north-eastern edge, in touch with the British rearguards. The Australian line, when completed, ran down from Strazeele to the Wood, where it linked up with the British Guards and the 29th Division. The Germans attacked in force on the 14th, but were repulsed; they renewed the attack in the evening, but failed. They never attacked again on these positions.Patrick died of wounds received on April 15, 1918, at Hazebrouck.
He was one of fifteen Australian soldiers killed at Hazebrouck and buried in the little cemetery at Nieppe-Bois, along with 55 British soldiers who also died in the battle.