When Australia throws its support behind Britain in its fight against Germany, young teacher Stan Moore is one of the first to join up, swapping the classroom for adventure in Europe. But the 11th Battalion is sent with the newly formed Anzac Corps to Gallipoli, where Stan is confronted by the hard lessons of war.
The silence was eerie. In the darkness I could just see the mist that swirled around the rowboat. The men in the boat seemed lost in their own thoughts. No-one spoke, no-one made a sound. Somewhere ahead a loud report. A shot? Rifle fire, from the beach, which was only dimly coming into view. This was it. When Australia throws its support behind Britain in its fight against Germany, young teacher Stan Moore is one of the first to join up, swapping the classroom for adventure in Europe. But the 11th Battalion is sent with the newly formed Anzac Corp to Gallipoli where Stan is confronted by the hard lessons of war. Though conditions are dismal and death is everywhere, so is the humour and bravery that is the true spirit of Anzac.
The Great War was, for the majority of Australians, one that was fought at home. As casualties of this monstrous war mounted, they triggered a political crisis of unprecedented ferocity in Australian history. The fault-lines that emerged in 1916-18 around
The importance of the Australian contribution to the Allied war effort during World War I should never be underestimated. Some 400,000 Australians volunteered for active duty, an astonishing 13 per cent of the entire (white) male population, a number so great that the Australian government was never forced to rely on conscription. Casualties were an astonishing 52 per cent of all those who served, ensuring that the effects of the war would be felt long after the armistice. In particular, their epic endeavour at Gallipoli in 1915 was the nation's founding legend, and the ANZACs went on to distinguish themselves both on the Western Front and in General Allenby's great cavalry campaign against the Turks in the Middle East. Their uniforms and insignia were also significantly different from those of the British Army and provide the basis for a unique set of artwork plates.
Australian civilians worked for decades supporting the survivors and orphans of the Armenian Genocide. 24 April 1915 marks the beginning of two great epics of the First World War. It was the day the allied invasion forces set out for Gallipoli; and it marked the beginning of what became the Genocide of the Ottoman Empire's Armenians. For the first time, this book tells the powerful, and until now neglected, story of how Australian humanitarians helped people they had barely heard of and never met, amid one of the twentieth century's most terrible human calamities. With 50 000 Armenian - Australians sharing direct family links with the Genocide, this has become truly an Australian story. Australians' responses to the wider world have a complex history but the humanitarian strand is deeply entrenched. Babkenian and Stanley have done a great service in casting light on this little - known but fascinating story.
Australian and New Zealand volunteers were already in Serbia, treating wounded Serbian soldiers and fighting a typhus epidemic, before the ANZACs landed at Gallipoli in 1915. The Gallipoli Campaign sealed Serbia’s fate, however, as Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria moved to secure a land supply corridor to Turkey through Serbia. Australians and New Zealanders accompanied the Serbian Army on a deadly retreat over wintry mountains to the Adriatic coast. When the fighting shifted to the Salonika or ‘Macedonian’ Front, many served there with the British Army, the Royal Flying Corps, two AIF units and six Royal Australian Navy destroyers in the Adriatic and Aegean Seas. Some died in action, others from disease. Several hundred doctors, nurses and orderlies treated the wounded and sick in an Australian-led volunteer hospital and in British and New Zealand Army hospitals. The author Miles Franklin was a medical orderly supporting the Serbian Army; her little-known memoir is quoted extensively in this book. Fifteen hundred Australians and New Zealanders served on this little known yet crucial battlefront. Now for the first time we have an engaging and comprehensive account of what they experienced and achieved in the Great War.
In June 1914, Louis and his brother Thomas are enjoying the European summer in a small town near Sarajevo. In the shadow of the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne, the world erupts into war and Louis' life changes forever. Old Europe is torn apart and Louis finds himself in the midst of his own battle – as fighting for the truth means that sometimes even your own side is against you.
Winner of the inaugural Prime Minister's Prize for History, 2007The Great War is Les Carlyon's extraordinary account of the Anzacs on the Western Front from 1916 to 1918. This new Picador edition is designed to sit alongside a matching edition of Gallipoli, his other classic work on Australia's involvement in the First World War.Destined to become an Australian classic... "The Great War is a deeply moving monument to a generation and what they endured. Read this book and weep." (West Australian)"A remarkably lucid and powerful narrative... This is a seasoned writer at the height of his powers." (Courier Mail)"Monumental... An emotional journey back to the Western Front that is at times almost unbearably poignant... In The Great War Carlyon has succeeded triumphantly in bringing back to life the essential character of the men of the First AIF in France. The Australians who fought long ago at Mouquet Farm, Messines, Polygon Wood and Passchendaele have gone, but, thanks to Carlyon, they are still with us. To paraphrase Bean, The Great War will stand as a lasting monument to that body of great-hearted men." (The Australian)
The second in a series of five titles, which will cover each year of the war graphically. Countless thousands of pictures were taken by photographers on all sides during the First World War. These pictures appeared in the magazines, journals and newspapers of the time. Some illustrations went on to become part of post-war archives and have appeared, and continue to appear, in present-day publications and TV documentary programmes many did not. The Great War Illustrated series will include in its pages many rarely seen images with individual numbers allocated and subsequently they will be lodged with the Taylor Library Archive for use by editors and authors.The Great War Illustrated 1915 covers the 1915 Gallipoli campaign and the battles that commenced on the Western Front that year. Some images will be familiar many will be seen for the first time by a new generation interested in the war that changed the world forever. With over 1,000 painstakingly restored images, this will be a definitive picture reference book on 1915 and will appeal to enthusiasts, collectors and student of the period alike.