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Seven Victoria Crosses |
Spent Shells |
Bootprint |
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BOTCHED LANDING |
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Australia embraced the First World War with innocent eagerness. A few days before war was declared, as the crisis in Europe worsened, the Labour leader Andrew Fischer pledged Australia's support for Britain "to our last man and our last shilling." Constitutionally Australia had no decision to make about entering the war; membership of the British Empire ensured that Australia was automatically involved the moment Britain entered hostilities. Fervently, the Australian people wanted to be part of that war. The government changed hands a month after the declaration in August 14, with Labour taking office, but leaders of both sides of politics were united in their commitment of a contingent of 20,000 soldiers to any destination required by the British War Office. In the streets people sang traditional songs like "Rule Britannia" and "Soldiers of the King", and a new song was written "Australia will be There". The contingent of soldiers was called the Australian Imperial force (AIF), and, although only the biggest and healthiest were chosen, he ranks of the 20,000 volunteers were filled within three weeks. Men came from all over Australia to join, some of them riding hundreds of miles on horseback to enlistment depots in the capital cities. One Queensland grazier rode 460 miles to the nearest railway station to offer himself in Adelaide for the Light Horse; when he found the quote filled, he sailed to Hobart, to find that again there were no vacancies; then he took another boat to Sydney, where he was able to join the army as a private, after a journey of 2000 miles. They were paid five shillings a day (with another shilling after they left Australia), their training was makeshift and it was agreed from the start that Australian brigades would not be incorporated into British divisions, as had been suggested by the British. They would have their own Infantry division, a Brigade of Light Horse, an Australian Commander (Maj.Gen.W.T.Bridges) and their own code of discipline. The first contingent left Australia in 26 troop-ships in late October, and by the end of 1914 another 30,000 had enlisted. This convoy was joined by 10 New Zealand ships to comprise the largest military expedition ever to have sailed across the world. Even before they left there had been action close to home: a shot across the bows stopped a German vessel which tried to escape from Port Philip Bay a few hours after war was declared, and Australian forces captured German New Guinea. In the Indian Ocean, the HMAS Sydney, escorting the troop convoy, broke off to "intercept and sink the German destroyer Emden". The colonial troops were landed in Egypt, where they waited for months and achieved a reputation for insolence, independence of spirit and at times plain larrikinism. They were joined in the desert by a second contingent and formed into two divisions, one all-Australian and one made up of Australians and New Zealanders. A staff officer coined the name Anzacs for those raw, unruly soldiers who made up the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. Weary of training marches over hot sand, many of the Australians involved themselves in drunken brawls, the worst of which was "the battle of the Wozzer" in the brothel district of Cairo. On
May 8th 1915 Australians learned, from a dispatch published in Australian
newspapers by an English war correspondent, that the Australians had
distinguished themselves in the landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula.
"There has been no finer feat in the war than this sudden landing
in the dark and storming the heights" reported the correspondent,
Ernest Ashmead-Bartlett. The Anzacs landed on the eastern side as
part of a larger operation involving 75,000 troops - but something went
horribly wrong. Instead of landing
close to open plain, as planned (see elsewhere in site re wrong maps)
they were disembarked a mile to the north confronted with steeply rising
ridges and gorges. |
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Seven Victoria Crosses |
Spent Shells |
Bootprint |
