Download or read book The Western Front Diaries of Charles Bean written by Peter Burness and published by NewSouth. This book was released on 2018-10 with total page 644 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Australia's official First World War correspondent Charles Bean saw more of the Australian army's activities and battles on the Western Front than anyone. Bean's private wartime diaries, held by the Australian War Memorial, form a unique and personal record of his experiences and observations throughout the war and were the basis of his monumental twelve-volume official war history. While his diaries relating to the Gallipoli campaign have been published in four editions, Bean's Western Front diaries are published here for the first time, edited by esteemed historian Peter Burness, and accompanied by over 500 incredible photographs, sketches and maps.
Download or read book Charles Bean written by Ross Coulthart and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2014-10-01 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joint winner: Prize for Australian History, 2015 Prime Minister's Literary Awards This award-winning biography is a long overdue reassessment of the iconic Australian war correspondent 'The book I have enjoyed most in recent times has been Ross Coulthart's on the great war correspondent Charles Bean' - Peter FitzSimons, Sun Herald 'Fascinating biography ... strongly recommend it' Hon. Malcolm Turnbull via Twitter Charles Bean's wartime reports and photographs mythologised the Australian soldier and helped spawn the notion that the Anzacs achieved something nation-defining on the shores of Gallipoli and the battlefields of western Europe. In his quest to get the truth, Bean often faced death beside the Diggers in the trenches of Gallipoli and the Western Front - and saw more combat than many. But did Bean tell Australia the whole story of what he knew? In this timely new biography, Ross Coulthart investigates the untold story behind Bean's jouralistic dilemma - his struggle to tell Australia the truth but also the pressure he felt to support the war and boost morale at home by suppressing what he'd seen. '[Bean] had an obsession with recording the truth and Coulthart has lived up to his legacy in this superb biography' - Tim Hilferty, Adelaide Advertiser 'This is among the best biographies of an Australian historian available, fittingly released during the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the events Bean meticulously recorded.' - Justin Cahill, Booktopiablog
Download or read book Western Front Diaries written by Jonathan King and published by Kangaroo Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 632 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Exhibiting War written by Jennifer Wellington and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-09-21 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comparative study of how museum exhibitions in Britain, Canada and Australia were used to depict the First World War.
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 The Daughters of Mars written by Thomas Keneally and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-08-20 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In what is perhaps “the best novel of his career” (The Spectator), the acclaimed author of Schindler’s List tells the unforgettable story of two sisters whose lives are transformed by the cataclysm of the first world war. In 1915, Naomi and Sally Durance, two spirited Australian sisters, join the war effort as nurses, escaping the confines of their father’s farm and carrying a guilty secret with them. Amid the carnage, the sisters’ tenuous bond strengthens as they bravely face extreme danger and hostility—sometimes from their own side. There is great humor and compassion, too, and the inspiring example of the incredible women they serve alongside. In France, each meets an exceptional man, the kind for whom she might relinquish her newfound independence—if only they all survive. At once vast in scope and extraordinarily intimate, The Daughters of Mars is a remarkable novel about suffering and transcendence, despair and triumph, and the simple acts of decency that make us human even in a world gone mad.
Download or read book The Unseen Anzac written by Jeff Maynard and published by Scribe Publications. This book was released on 2015-10-21 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2016 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND HISTORY BOOK AWARD The previously untold story of an extraordinary man and a great war photographer. Cameras were banned at the Western Front when the Anzacs arrived in 1916, prompting correspondent Charles Bean to argue continually for Australia to have a dedicated photographer. He was eventually assigned an enigmatic polar explorer — George Hubert Wilkins. Within weeks of arriving at the front, Wilkins’ exploits were legendary. He did what no photographer had previously dared to do. He went ‘over the top’ with the troops and ran forward to photograph the actual fighting. He led soldiers into battle, captured German prisoners, was wounded repeatedly, and was twice awarded the Military Cross — all while he refused to carry a gun and armed himself only with a bulky glass-plate camera. Wilkins ultimately produced the most detailed and accurate collection of World War I photographs in the world, which is now held at the Australian War Memorial. After the war, Wilkins returned to exploring and, during the next 40 years, his life became shrouded in secrecy. His work at the Western Front was forgotten, and others claimed credit for his photographs. Throughout his life, Wilkins wrote detailed diaries and letters, but when he died in 1958 these documents were locked away. Jeff Maynard follows a trail of myth and misinformation to locate Wilkins’ lost records and to reveal the remarkable, true story of Australia’s greatest war photographer. PRAISE FOR JEFF MAYNARD ‘[A] thrilling, wonderfully researched book. Every Australian should read it. Almost every page leaves you astonished.’ The Saturday Age ‘[This] understated, well-honed biography reveals the maverick, eternally restless Wilkins as a man who refused to define his life through war alone.’ The Saturday Paper
Download or read book Gallipoli Correspondent written by Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charles Bean was the Australian who was appointed the official war correspondent with the Australian Imperial Force troops in 1914. He landed at Anzac Cove in 1915 and he remained there for most of the campaign, enduring the same squalid conditions as the soldiers. In this diary we are provided with the innermost thoughts, hopes and criticisms of a man who helped shape the Anzac legend.
Download or read book The Empire on the Western Front written by Geoffrey Jackson and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2019-04-01 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Great Britain and its dominions declared war on Germany in August 1914, they were faced with the formidable challenge of transforming masses of untrained citizen-soldiers at home and abroad into competent, coordinated fighting divisions. The Empire on the Western Front focuses on the development of two units, Britain’s 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division and the Canadian 4th Division, to show how the British Expeditionary Force rose to this challenge. By turning the spotlight on army formation and operations at the divisional level, Jackson calls into question existing accounts that emphasize the differences between the imperial and dominion armies.
Download or read book Anzac to Amiens written by Charles E. W. Bean and published by . This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 567 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paperback reprint of a classic military history of Australia's part in WWI, first published in 1946. The author was an official war correspondent with the Australian Imperial Force and edited the 12-volume official history of Australia's fighting services. This book is a condensation of that official history, and describes major campaigns and strategies, as well as giving a brief political, social and industrial background. Includes maps and an index.
Download or read book Fire in the Sky written by Michael Molkentin and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2010 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book in 90 years dedicated to the daring and courage of the airmen and mechanics of the Australian Flying Corps - a tale of a war fought thousands of feet above the trenches from which only one in two emerged unscathed.
Download or read book Fromelles and Pozi res written by Peter FitzSimons and published by Random House Australia. This book was released on 2016-10-03 with total page 817 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Trenches of Hell On July 19, 1916, 7000 Australian soldiers - in the first major action of the AIF on the Western Front - attacked entrenched German positions at Fromelles in northern France. By the next day, there were over 5500 casualties, including nearly 2000 dead - a bloodbath that the Australian War Memorial describes as 'the worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history. Just days later, three Australian Divisions attacked German positions at nearby Pozières, and over the next six weeks they suffered another 23,000 casualties. Of that bitter battle, the great Australian war correspondent Charles Bean would write, "The field of Pozières is more consecrated by Australian fighting and more hallowed by Australian blood than any field which has ever existed . . ." Yet the sad truth is that, nearly a century on from those battles, Australians know only a fraction of what occurred. This book brings the battles back to life and puts the reader in the moment, illustrating both the heroism displayed and the insanity of the British plan. With his extraordinary vigour and commitment to research, Peter FitzSimons shows why this is a story about which all Australians can be proud. And angry.
Download or read book Expertise Authority and Control written by Alexia Moncrieff and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-11 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Expertise, Authority and Control charts the development of Australian military medicine in the First World War in the first major study of the Australian Army Medical Corp in over seventy years. It examines the provision of medical care to Australian soldiers during the Dardanelles campaign and explores the imperial and medical-military hierarchies that were blended and challenged during the campaign. By the end of 1918, the AAMC was a radically different organisation. Using army orders, unit war diaries and memoranda written to disseminate information within the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) and between British and Australian soldiers, it maps the provision of medical care through casualty clearance and evacuation, rehabilitation, and the prevention and treatment of venereal disease. In doing so, she reassesses Australian military medicine and maps the transition to an infrastructure for the AIF in the field, especially in response to conflicts with traditional imperial, military and medical hierarchies.
Download or read book Guts Glory and Blunder written by Andrew Faulkner and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2024-04-03 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a story of a forgotten battle. Other than in the haunted memories of those who fought there, and the families of those who died there, this battle is a footnote in the history books: a backwater off a side road at the end of a cul-de-sac on the battlefield tour trail. Guts Glory and Blunder reaches into the valley beneath the vaunted Hindenburg Line to draw out the men who fought and died seizing the French village of Noreuil in 1917. It finds hardened Anzacs and raw reinforcements fighting and dying shoulder-to-shoulder, step by bloody step, on the path to victory. Beginning on Gallipoli’s fatal shore, Guts Glory and Blunder follows the Anzacs to the Somme trenches and the race to the Hindenburg Line. This is a story of the 50th Battalion’s uncommon valour in its fiercest battle. How ordinary men performed superhuman feats despite a flawed plan, ‘friendly’ fire, enemy atrocities – a POW massacre and human shield tactics – and a combat mutiny. How a larrikin private was awarded a Victoria Cross for one of the most audacious stunts in the history of the medal. Guts Glory and Blunder is a story of how the diggers prevailed against all odds.
Download or read book Jacka s Mob written by Edgar John Rule and published by . This book was released on 1933 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Duty Nobly Done written by Adam Holloway and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-10-05 with total page 573 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the extraordinary true story of 11 young Australian men from one extended family and their experiences in the great adventure that would change their lives — the Great War. Author Adam Holloway, a direct descendant, takes the reader into the lives of each of these men as they embark on a journey from which they are unlikely to return. These were young, confident men who revelled in the brash optimism of a young nation. They were desperate to prove themselves, eager to assert the justice of their cause and keen for a taste of the excitement and comradeship of battle. They were not expecting to be plunged into a lingering nightmare characterised by the stench of death and putrefaction, overwhelming fear and despair, and the gnawing uncertainty of survival. Holloway uses personal letters, diaries and family memories to deftly recreate the nail-biting tension as each man experiences his own baptism of fire amid the utter horror of the sights and sounds of battle. From the craggy cliffs of Gallipoli to the insatiable maw of the Western Front, these brothers and cousins step forward to take their turn in a procession of courage, each determined to do his duty and to look after his battalion brothers. This is a story that portrays the Great War on a personal level, describing in remarkable detail how it felt to fight in the worst conflict the world had known, a conflict that would change these young men and Australian society forever.
Download or read book Stealth Raiders written by Lucas Jordan and published by Random House Australia. This book was released on 2017-08-28 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1918 a few daring low-ranking Australian infantrymen, alone among all the armies on the Western Front, initiated stealth raids without orders. These stealth raiders killed Germans, captured prisoners and advanced the line, sometimes by thousands of yards. They were held in high regard by other men of the lower ranks and were feared by the Germans facing them. Who were these stealth raiders and why did they do it? What made Australian soldiers take on this independent and personal type of warfare? Using their firsthand accounts, as well as official archives and private records, Lucas Jordan pieces their stories together. A gripping account of the crucial summer on the Western Front, Stealth Raiders: A Few Daring Men in 1918 considers the stealth raiders’ war experience and training, the unprecedented conditions at the front and the morale of the German Army in 1918. Lucas Jordan argues that bush skills, and the bush ethos central to Australian civil society – with its emphasis on resourcefulness and initiative – made stealth raids a distinctively Australian phenomenon. ‘Depressingly often we see books promoted as “the forgotten story” or “the untold story”. Yet Stealth Raiders tells such a story, of a few daring Australian infantry who . . . so demoralised their opponents that they feared to enter the line against them’ – Bill Gammage
