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A lavishly illustrated account of the ANZACs involvement in the Western Front--complete with walking and driving tours of 28 battlefields With rare photographs and documents from the Australian War Memorial archive and extensive travel information, this is the most comprehensive guide to the battlefields of the Western Front on the market. Every chapter covers not just the battles, but the often larger-than-life personalities who took part in them. Following a chronological order from 1916 through 1918, the book leads readers through every major engagement the Australian and New Zealanders fought in and includes tactical considerations and extracts from the personal diaries of soldiers. This is the perfect book for anyone who wants to explore the battlefields of the Western Front, either in-person or from the comfort of home.
The First World War was only meant to last six months. When the Australians and New Zealanders arrived at the Western Front in 1916, the fighting had been going for a year and a half and there was no end in sight. The men took their place in a line of trenches that spread through Belgium and France from the North Sea to the Swiss Alps. Beyond the trenches was no-man's land, an eerie wasteland where rats lived in the ribs of the dead and the wounded cried for help. Beyond that was the German Army. The Anzacs had sailed for France to fight a war the whole world was talking about. Few who came home ever spoke about it again. Zero Hour is the third book by Leon Davidson, author of the best-selling and multi-award-winning Scarecrow Army: the Anzacs at Gallipoli and Red Haze: Australians & New Zealanders in Vietnam.
After their retreat from Gallipoli, and recuperation in Egypt, among the first AIF troops to be posted to the Western Front were the ANZACs of the 26th & 28th Battalions/ 7th Brigade. Two months after their arrival, volunteers were selected to engage the Germans in a night-time trench raid. This unique book covers the story of the AIFs first action in Europe in June 1916 and the 73 soldiers involved. It tells the story of that raid and of each of the 73 soldiers who were subsequently dubbed ?The Black ANZACs? by the newspapers of the day. The raid was an action of firsts:
Hidden under the shadow of Gallipoli for decades, the breathtaking story of what really happened on the Western Front has finally been brought into the bright light of day. Five times greater than Gallipoli, the Western Front had: five times more soldiers (250 000 rather than 50 000), more than five times the amount of men killed (46 000 compared to 8709), more than five times as many battles, with troops serving there for four times longer, and five times the sum of Victoria Crosses earned (a total of 53). Thankfully, the diggers serving in this first Australian Army Corps and under an Australian commander for the first time, actually helped win the war. Using hundreds of brutally honest and extraordinary eyewitness accounts of the diggers in the muddy and bloody trenches, Western Front Diaries reproduces their private diaries, letters and postcards to tell of their heart-rending experiences, battle by bloody battle. With its gallery of unpublished photographs, Western Front Diaries tells without embellishment the stories of the Australian soldiers and finally puts the Western Front on the map.
On 21 September 1918, with retreating German forces on their last legs, the 1st Battalion of the AIF was ordered to return to the front just as they were being relieved and preparing for a well-earnt rest. It wasn’t just the Germans who were on their last legs; the Australians were depleted and exhausted. In what was the largest such instance of mass ‘combat refusal’ in the AIF’s history, the men of one company in the 1st Battalion defied the order. The ‘mutiny’ spread to other companies, and when the battalion did eventually comply with the order, over 100 men were absent. The circumstances surrounding this mutiny have long been a matter of embarrassment for the AIF, and of fascination for military historians. While historians have approached the issue in purely military terms – the men as soldiers, over-extended service, rates of wounding, promotions, and so on – this book approaches these 100 plus men as human beings. Mutiny on the Western Front traces how these events played out in the context of the exhausting demands placed upon a unit that had seen practically continuous front-line action for weeks, if not months, in the war’s final, decisive stages. Author Greg Raffin considers what happens to men’s hearts and minds in the course of a prolonged conflict like the Great War. This story, which will surprise readers – is not just about a group of exhausted and war weary Australian soldiers in 1918, it is a story about humanity in war: about what men do in war, and what war does to men.
The Battlefield of Imperishable Memory by Matthew Haultain-Gall Pdf
The Ypres salient 'was the favourite battle ground of the devil and his minions' wrote one returned serviceman after the First World War. Few who fought in the infamous third battle of Ypres - now known as Passchendaele - in 1917 would have disagreed. All five of the Australian Imperial Force's (AIF) infantry divisions were engaged in this bloody campaign. Despite early successes, their attacks floundered when autumn rains drenched the battlefield, turning it into an immense quagmire. By the time the AIF withdrew, it had suffered over 38,000 casualties, including 10,000 dead, far outweighing Australian losses in any other Great War campaign. Given the extent of their sacrifices, the Australians' exploits in Belgium ought to be well known in a nation that has fervently commemorated its involvement in the First World War. Yet, Passchendaele occupies an ambiguous place in Australian collective memory. Tracing the commemorative work of official and non-official agents, The Battlefield of Imperishable Memory explores why these battles became, and still remain, peripheral to the dominant First World War narrative in Australia: the Anzac legend.
German Anzacs and the First World War by John Williams Pdf
By 1914, Australia's German immigrants were well-regarded in their communities and made up (after Irish and Scots) the fourth-largest white ethnic community in Australia. This history traces the experience of the immigrants who enlisted for service in World War I and the difficulties they faced.
For all the significance attached to the brave, doomed heroism at Gallipoli, the Western Front was the single greatest wartime tragedy that elicited the greatest sacrifice. Of the 60 000 who died in the course of the war, 45 000 were lost at the Western Front. In a matter of weeks, more Australians were slain in one or two battles than in the entire eight months at Gallipoli. those terrible years represent the whole panoply of modern warfare. there exists a substantial photographic record of life and death at the Front. Not all the photographs were taken by official war photographers. At the time, Kodak was marketing a pocket camera for soldiers. Although it was against military orders, many soldiers smuggled camera & film out of the battle zone. they were a new kind of macabre tourist, keen to capture something of their experiences. the result is a powerful visual record of Anzacs at the Western Front. Using these photos, the Western Front looks at the major battles of the campaign, the grim conditions endured by the soldiers, the workers of the massive support system, the heroic efforts of stretcher-bearers and medical workers and, finally, the run of victories under Monash in which Australian soldiers distinguished themselves beyond their numerical presence.
1918 on the Western Front. At no other time has Australia so influenced the course of world history. In the worst crisis of World War I the Germans had a cut a wide swathe through the British line. The Australians knew their hour had come. 'Fini retreat', they boldly announced as they marched to a halt the Germans at Amiens. Then it was their turn to advance, driving the enemy remorselessly before them, as the shock troops of the British Army. This important book traces the evolution of the Australian Imperial Force from the enthusiastic amateurs of Gallipoli to the skilled warriors of the Western Front, where fighting in conditions of unspeakable horror and brutality they won their legendary reputation as 'the best infantrymen of the war and perhaps of all time'. By war's end the Australian Corps - a mere 9 per cent of the total British force - accounted for 22 per cent of total captures: a massive, and disproportionate, contribution to victory. Combining detailed battle narratives with soldiers' accounts, Peter Pedersen moves from Gallipoli through Palestine to the Western Front, graphically re-creating the campaigns of a war in which over 200 000 Australians - two out of every three combatants - were killed or wounded. Including the New Zealanders at every stage, he also covers the war in the air and at sea, in dressing posts and hospitals, and on a home front devastated by casualty rates and riven over conscription. Illustrated with photographs and artworks, this epic work recalls to memory the forgotten heroes, and the bloody campaigns, of a war that brought glory to the Australian nation but tragedy to every Australian family. 'This book brings a vivid reality to a war that is etched in Australian history.' Daily Advertiser 'Fit to become the standard modern work on the AIF in World War I.' The Age 'The Anzacs is a significant and successful attempt to bring a turbulent period in Australian history into context.' Townsville Bulletin 'Peter Pedersen's contribution is on an epic scale. His is a staggering, wonderful, terrifying book.' Weekend Gold Coast Bulletin
Surviving the Great War is the first detailed analysis of Australians in German captivity in WW1. By placing the hardships of prisoners of war in a broader social and military content, this book adds a new dimension to the national wartime experience and challenges popular representations of Australia's involvement in the First World War.
Intended as a diversion from the Somme, Fromelles was was the worst-ever military disaster in Australian history, and is recognised as one of the bloodiest and most useless battles of the First World War. With the recent discovery of a mass grave and the disinterment of many diggers, it has now entered national consciousness in the same way as Gallipoli. In one night, British and Australian soldiers suffered casualties equivalent to the total toll of the Boer War, Korean War and Vietnam War combined. Barton's research has revealed that the Australian frontline troops gave away critical Allied secrets to the Germans... which not only led directly to the Fromelles slaughter - but also contributed to the failure of the Somme offensive as a whole. The Lost Legions of Fromelles is the most authoritative book on this staggering disaster, combining new scholarship on the battle with an account of recent events to dispel many myths in a rich and compelling history.
An Anzac on the Western Front by H.R. Williams Pdf
“A remarkably candid and graphic account” of the World War I service of a member of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Britain at War Magazine). Having enlisted in 1915 and serving in the 56th Battalion Australian Imperial Force, Harold Roy Williams arrived in France, from Egypt, on June 30, 1916. He describes the horrors of the Fromelles battlefield in shocking clarity and the conditions the troops had to endure are revealed in disturbing detail. Surviving a later gas attack, Harold Williams’s subsequent postings read like a tour of the Western Front. Following the Somme, there was the mud and squalor of the line south of Ypres, the German Spring Offensive of 1918, the Battle of Amiens—frequently described as the most decisive battle against the Germans in France and Flanders—the capture of Villers-Bretonneux and, finally, the assault on Péronne. Injured at Péronne and invalided back to the United Kingdom, Williams survived the war to return to Australia in 1919. An Anzac on the Western Front is his vivid description of his service in the First World War—an account that was described as “the best soldier’s story . . . yet read in Australia” when it was first published. “Williams’ experience was defined by his rise from private soldier to platoon commander and he confined his writing to it. This is a story of cold, hunger, injury, fear, humour, friendship and death . . . So bloody good.” —War History Online
Russian Anzacs in Australian History by Elena Govor Pdf
Extraordinarily, it was men born in the former Russian Empire that constituted the most numerous group in the First Australian Imperial Force, after those of Anglo-Celtic background. This book, a history of Russin multiethnic communities in Australia, follows the hidden lives of these Anzacs through and beyond the war.
