Download or read book German Anzacs and the First World War written by John Williams and published by UNSW Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The War with Germany written by Robert C. Stevenson and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For most Australians the Great War begins with the Gallipoli dawn on 25 April 1915; few appreciate the significance of Australia's first action that occurred seven months earlier on the island of New Britain to Australia's near north. Nor did Australia's war with Germany end with the Armistice in Europe on 11 November 1918 since it was nearly two months after the guns fell silent in France before a lone German officer emerged from the jungles of New Guinea to finally surrender. Between those two pivotal events Australia's soldiers fought in some of the most intense and protracted battles of the Great War. They ended the trial with a reputation of being among the finest soldiers produced by that conflict. The War With Germany examines the performance of the Australian Army in the two theatres where it confronted the German Army during the First World War: German New Guinea and the Western Front. With a blend of narrative and theme the book charts the rise and fall of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force in the Pacific and the Australian Imperial Force on the Western Front. Deeply researched and drawing on previously untapped primary sources and recent scholarship, this study adopts a fresh approach, rejecting unsubstantiated assumptions of natural Australian superiority. Rather it critically examines those traits that set Australias soldiers apart and those factors they shared in common with other soldiers. It concludes that Australias forces earned their reputation for battlefield virtuosity for characteristics that were neither innate nor unique. Instead they only gradually and painfully became a great fighting force for the very same reasons that other contingents earned a place among the foremost ranks of the British Empires best.
Download or read book The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914 1918 The story of Anzac from 4 May 1915 to the evacuation of the Gallipoli peninsula by C E W Bean written by and published by . This book was released on 1924 with total page 1126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The First Ashore written by Peter R. Burgess and published by Peter Burgess. This book was released on 2021-11-27 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book recounts the life stories of a small group of Queensland 9th Battalion Anzacs who hold the unique honour of being the first soldiers ashore at the Gallipoli landing in 1915. For World War 1 Diggers, their identity was a serious and sometimes contentious matter of battalion pride. Over the decades, these first Anzacs have gained a significant place in the Anzac Legend. Extensive research has confidently identified 26 of the approximate 30 Anzacs who were in this first boat ashore. Their life stories are retold to intimately reveal the war experiences of ordinary Australians. Heroic actions and horrendous ordeals are highlighted. Mateship, self-sacrifice, dedication to duty and changing identity are recurring themes. While many of those who survived returned home to broken lives, for some, the unique and proud identity as first ashore, 'original' Anzacs inspired strength and leadership. Important contributions were made to the post-war community and veteran affairs.
Download or read book Mutiny On The Western Front written by Greg Raffin and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-09-05 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Anzacs the Media and the Great War written by John Frank Williams and published by UNSW Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historian and photographer Williams (Germanic studies, U. of New South Wales) looks at how the media during World War I glorified the prowess and exaggerated the successes of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp as part of the country's war effort, and how later historians and the public have mistaken the propaganda for journalism. US distribution by ISBS. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book Victory at Villers Bretonneux written by Peter FitzSimons and published by Random House Australia. This book was released on 2017 with total page 786 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Across a 45-mile front, no fewer than two million German soldiers hurl themselves at the Allied lines, with the specific intention of splitting the British and French forces, and driving all the way through to the town of Villers-Bretonneux, at which point their artillery will be able to rain down shells on the key train-hub town of Amiens, thus throttling the Allied supply lines. For nigh on two weeks, the plan works brilliantly, and the Germans are able to advance without check, as the exhausted British troops flee before them, together with tens of thousands of French refugees. In desperation, the British commander, General Douglas Haig, calls upon the Australian soldiers to stop the German advance, and save Villers-Bretonneux. If the Australians can hold this, the very gate to Amiens, then the Germans will not win the war. 'It's up to us, then, ' one of the Diggers writes in his diary. .
Download or read book The Anzacs written by Peter Andreas Pedersen and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 over 300 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.
Download or read book Australians on the Western Front 1918 Volume I written by David W. Cameron and published by Random House Australia. This book was released on 2018-02-26 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: InAustralians on the Western Front, David Cameron tells the extraordinary story of Australian troops at Villers-Bretonneux in World War I. The Anzacs had one of their greatest victories at Villers-Bretonneux, defeating the Germans there in an attack later described by a British general as 'perhaps the greatest individual feat of the war'.
Download or read book At Any Price written by Craig Deayton and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-05-05 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The enemy must not get the Messines Ridge at any price… So read the orders to German troops defending the vital high ground south of Ypres. On 7 June 1917, the British Second Army launched its attack with an opening like no other. In the largest secret operation of the First World War, British and Commonwealth mining companies placed over a million pounds of explosive beneath the German front-line positions in 19 giant mines which erupted like a volcano. This was just the beginning. By the end of that brilliant summer’s day, one of the strongest positions on the Western Front had fallen in the greatest British victory in three long years of war. For the ANZACs, who comprised one third of the triumphant Second Army, it was their most significant achievement to that point; for the men of the New Zealand Division, it would be their finest hour. It is difficult to overstate the importance of Messines for the Australians, whose first two years of war had represented an almost unending catalogue of disaster. This was both the first real victory for the AIF and the first test in senior command for Major General John Monash, who commanded the newly formed 3rd Division. Messines was a baptism of fire for the 3rd Division which came into the line alongside the battle-scarred 4th Australian Division, badly mauled at Bullecourt just six weeks earlier. The fighting at Messines would descend into unimaginable savagery, a lethal and sometimes hand-to-hand affair of bayonets, clubs, bombs and incessant machine-gun fire, described by one Australian as ‘72 hours of Hell’. After their string of bloody defeats over 1915 and 1916, Messines would prove the ultimate test for the Australians.
Download or read book Kaiserschlacht 1918 written by Randal Gray and published by Greenwood. This book was released on 2004 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title describes how, using new "Storm Trooper" units and high-mobility tactics, the German Operation Kaiserschlacht shattered the front line, broke into open country and came within a hair's breadth of winning the First World War.
Download or read book Messines 1917 written by Craig Deayton and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2018-06-30 with total page 453 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The enemy must not get the Messines Ridge at any price So read the orders to German troops defending the vital high ground south of Ypres. On 7 June 1917, the British Second Army launched its attack with an opening like no other. In the largest secret operation of the First World War, British and Commonwealth mining companies placed over a million pounds of explosive beneath the German front-line positions in 19 giant mines which erupted like a volcano. This was just the beginning. By the end of that brilliant summers day, one of the strongest positions on the Western Front had fallen in the greatest British victory in three long years of war. For the Anzacs, who comprised one third of the triumphant Second Army, it was their most significant achievement to that point; for the men of the New Zealand Division, it would be their finest hour.It is difficult to overstate the importance of Messines for the Australians, whose first two years of war had represented an almost unending catalogue of disaster. This was both the first real victory for the AIF and the first test in senior command for Major General John Monash, who commanded the newly formed 3rd Division. Messines was a baptism of fire for the 3rd Division which came into the line alongside the battle-scarred 4th Australian Division, badly mauled at Bullecourt just six weeks earlier. The fighting at Messines would descend into unimaginable savagery, a lethal and sometimes hand-to-hand affair of bayonets, clubs, bombs and incessant machine-gun fire, described by one Australian as 72 hours of Hell. After their string of bloody defeats over 1915 and 1916, Messines would prove the ultimate test for the Australians
Download or read book Australian Heroines of World War One written by Susanna de Vries and published by Pirgos Press. This book was released on 2018-10-01 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Australian Heroines of World War One tells the story of eight courageous women through diaries, letters, original photos, paintings and specially drawn maps. These women had the courage and strength for which the Anzacs are renowned and the compassion and tenderness that only a woman can bring. Sister Hilda Samsing from Melbourne became a whistleblower when nursing aboard the hospital ship Gascon, outraged by the bungled evacuation of wounded Anzacs. She defied censorship and kept a very frank diary, reproduced here for the first time.In 1914, Louise Creed, a Sydney journalist, was caught in the besieged city of Antwerp and made a hair-raising escape from a German firing squad.Brisbane's Grace Wilson, ordered to establish an emergency hospital on drought ridden Lemnos Island, arrived there to find suffering Anzacs but no drinking water, tents or medical supplies. Grace and her nurses saved the lives of thousands who had been wounded at Lone Pine and the Nek.In France, Florence James-Wallace, Anne Donnell and Elsie Tranter nursed near the front line in Casualty Clearing Stations, treating soldiers with hideous wounds or blinded by mustard gas. In 1918 they had to deal with an epidemic of Spanish flu, killing some nurses. These brave women returned to Australia but their heroism was quickly forgotten. Two of these women received such meagre pensions they died destitute. Publication of this book with its numerous illustrations has been facilitated by a generous donation from Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, keen that these stories become known to Australians of all ages. This is an updated editon with additional information on some of the nurses supplied by their relatives after they read the first edition.
Download or read book Our Corner of the Somme written by Romain Fathi and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-28 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the time of the Armistice, Villers-Bretonneux - once a lively and flourishing French town - had been largely destroyed, and half its population had fled or died. From March to August 1918, Villers-Bretonneux formed part of an active front line, at which Australian troops were heavily involved. As a result, it holds a significant place in Australian history. Villers-Bretonneux has since become an open-air memorial to Australia's participation in the First World War. Successive Australian governments have valourised the Australian engagement, contributing to an evolving Anzac narrative that has become entrenched in Australia's national identity. Our Corner of the Somme provides an eye-opening analysis of the memorialisation of Australia's role on the Western Front and the Anzac mythology that so heavily contributes to Australians' understanding of themselves. In this rigorous and richly detailed study, Romain Fathi challenges accepted historiography by examining the assembly, projection and performance of Australia's national identity in northern France.
Download or read book Creforce written by Stella Tzobanakis and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the first parachute drop of World War II, the Germans invaded Crete on 20 May, 1941. Australian, New Zealand and British troops, alongside Greek soldiers and the people of Crete, formed a crucial bond as they defended the tiny island.
Download or read book Battle on 42nd Street written by Peter Monteath and published by NewSouth. This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At what point does the will to survive on the battlefield give way to bloodlust? The Battle of Crete was one of the most spectacular military campaigns of the twentieth century. For the first time in history, German forces carried out an invasion entirely from the air while poorly equipped Anzac and British forces, and local Cretans, defended the island. During the campaign, one battle stands out for its viciousness. When the Germans approached the Allies' defensive line--known as 42nd Street--on 27 May 1941, men from the Australian 2/7 and 2/8 Battalions, New Zealanders from several battalions, and British soldiers counter-attacked with fixed bayonets. By the end, bodies were strewn across the battlefield. Later, a German doctor reported that many of the bodies of the German soldiers had been mutilated. Acclaimed historian Peter Monteath draws on records and recollections of Australian, New Zealand, British, and German forces and local Cretans to reveal the truth behind one of the most gruesome battles of the Second World War.
Download or read book Victory at Villers Bretonneux written by Peter FitzSimons and published by William Heinemann. This book was released on 2017-10-16 with total page 784 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's early 1918, and after four brutal years, the fate of the Great War hangs in the balance. On the one hand, the fact that Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks have seized power in Russia - immediately suing for peace with Germany - means that no fewer than one million of the Kaiser's soldiers can now be transferred from there to the Western Front. On the other, now that America has entered the war, it means that two million American soldiers are also on their way, to tip the scales of war to the Allies. The Germans, realising that their only hope is striking at the Allied lines first, do exactly that, and on the morning of 21 March 1918, the Kaiserschlacht, the Kaiser's battle, is launched - the biggest set-piece battle the world has ever seen. Across a 45-mile front, no fewer than two million German soldiers hurl themselves at the Allied lines, with the specific intention of splitting the British and French forces, and driving all the way through to the town of Villers-Bretonneux, at which point their artillery will be able to rain down shells on the key train-hub town of Amiens, thus throttling the Allied supply lines. For nigh on two weeks, the plan works brilliantly, and the Germans are able to advance without check, as the exhausted British troops flee before them, together with tens of thousands of French refugees. In desperation, the British commander, General Douglas Haig, calls upon the Australian soldiers to stop the German advance, and save Villers-Bretonneux. If the Australians can hold this, the very gate to Amiens, then the Germans will not win the war. 'It's up to us, then,' one of the Diggers writes in his diary. Arriving at Villers-Bretonneux just in time, the Australians are indeed able to hold off the Germans, launching a vicious counterattack that hurls the Germans back the first time. And then, on Anzac Day 1918, when the town falls after all to the British defenders, it is again the Australians who are called on to save the day, the town, and the entire battle. Not for nothing does the primary school at Villers-Bretonneux have above every blackboard, to this day, 'N'oublions jamais, l'Australie.' Never forget Australia. And they never have.
