2.

1
7.1 One line heading

7 World War I
It is now nearly 100 years since
World War I began. People called it
‘the Great War’ and ‘the war to end
all wars’. British war poet Siegfried
Sassoon described it as ‘hell’s last
horror’.
When war broke out in August
1914, Australia committed itself
to support Britain ‘to the last man
and the last shilling’. Australian
involvement brought pride in
the efforts and sacrifices of our
soldiers, demands for independence
from Britain, and conflict and
division over the conscription issue.
Today, people remember
Australia’s role in World War I as
an important turning point in the
growth of Australia’s national
identity and towards independence
from Great Britain. We remember
and honour the sacrifices of those
who served.

Recruitment poster entitled ‘Fall-in!’ by the

Australian artist Norman Lindsay, 1918
ARTV00027

264 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

 DEPTH STUDY 3: WORLD WAR I

© Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority 2012

HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE AND
UNDERSTANDING — WORLD WAR I
(1914–1918)
An overview of the causes of World War I
and the reasons why men enlisted to
fight in the war  7.1, 7.2
The places where Australians fought and
the nature of warfare during World War I,
including the Gallipoli campaign
7.2, 7.3, 7.4
The impact of World War I, with a
particular emphasis on Australia (such
as the use of propaganda to influence
the civilian population, the changing role
of women, the conscription debate) 7.5,
7.6
The commemoration of World War I,
including debates about the nature and
significance of the Anzac legend  7.7, 7.8

eBook plus
Interactivities
World War I timeline
Download this interactivity to create a visual
timeline of key events in World War I from 1914 to
1918.
Searchlight ID: INT-2968

Time Out: Allies and Central Powers

Download this exciting interactivity to test your
knowledge of the major players in World War I
and identify countries as allies, central powers or
neutral states.
Searchlight ID: INT-1415

Learning object
Australia and World War I
Download this interactive learning object to
test your knowledge of World War I. Answer all
15 questions and receive instant feedback.
Searchlight ID: T0299

ProjectsPLUS
Anzac Day memorials
You are a reporter for Australia’s Now Channel. It is
before dawn on 25 April 2015 and you have been
posted at Anzac Cove to cover the memorial service
marking the 100th anniversary of the landing of
troops for the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign of 1915.
Searchlight ID: PRO-0045
 7.1 The origins of World War I
World War I had its origins in rival alliances, national competitiveness, an arms race
and a climate of tension in which any issue among them that the major powers
(Austria–Hungary, Britain, France, Germany and Russia) could not resolve could lead
to war. The European powers had spent years preparing for war and their peoples had
come to think of war as a normal and likely occurrence.

Nationalism, war and adventure

nationalism: a sense of In the late nineteenth century, many Europeans had come to think of war as a heroic
national identity, and a
adventure in which they might one day have the chance to participate. Newspaper
desire to work with others
to achieve common national articles, cartoons, novels and songs presented a romantic image of war and the
goals, at times regardless of adventurous life of a man in uniform.
how this might affect other Governments encouraged feelings of nationalism and patriotism as a way of
countries unifying people who often still felt more loyal to their local area than to their nation.
patriotism: devotion to and Countries promoted involvement in war as evidence of their nation’s maturity. Education
support for one’s country encouraged and focused students’ attention on past wrongs and current threats that
other European powers had or were supposedly inflicting on their nation. History
teachers reinforced this idea through their lessons.
People took pride in all things military. Parents dressed their young children in sailors’
suits and gave their sons toy soldiers to play with. In England, children eagerly awaited
Source 1 the fortnightly instalments of Robert Baden-Powell’s Scouting for Boys, which helped
Photo showing boys in boys (and girls) learn many of the skills of resourcefulness, which he had previously
sailor suits, c.1900 used in training soldiers.

Tensions and rivalries

People saw war as the likely outcome of the
rivalries among the great powers in the areas of:
• competition to take advantage of trading
opportunities
• competition to control territory and resources
in Africa that would give nations access to raw
materials that weren’t available in Europe
• the development of weapons and ships that
nations could use to protect their interests
• the size and strength of armies and navies and
the arms race (especially between Britain and
Germany) that resulted from this
• individual power and status.

War plans and the arms

race
One nation’s attempts to protect its interests led
others to fear its power. In 1898, Germany set out
to create a navy twice the size of Britain’s. In 1906,
Britain launched the HMS Dreadnought, considered
to be the most powerful ship afloat. German
engineers were soon copying this design, leading to
Jacaranda World further tension:
History Atlas • Britain feared Germany’s navy and the possibility of such a navy cutting Britain off
3.27 Europe on the eve of from the rest of its empire.
war
• Germany argued that its navy was essential to protect its trade.

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 Increased tensions among the major powers led them to prepare strategies to be
used if war broke out. Germany developed a plan known as the Schlieffen Plan; France
developed the war plan known as Plan 17.

Source 2
Map showing the main features of the Schlieffen Plan and Plan 17

Key Schlieffen Plan:

The advance of troops • based on the idea that Germany would eventually have to fight France
according to the Schlieffen Plan and Russia but should avoid fighting both at once
The advance of troops • France would expect Germany to invade from the east, so would
according to Plan 17 not be prepared for invasion from the north
Areas France lost to Germany
• Germany would defeat France in the six weeks it would supposedly
in 1871 take for Russian troops to mobilise. Then Germany would attack Russia.

Rh
r

ine
ve
Do
of
BELGIUM GERMANY
it
ra
St

Ri
ve
k
Source question ac

r
f a tt
no
Use source 2 to answer io
ct
re
the following. di
d
ne

(a) What benefits could Plan 17:

an

LUXEMBOURG
Pl

Germany gain from • French troops would

quickly recapture Alsace
the Schlieffen Plan? and Lorraine
(b) What route did • troops would then move
Li into German territory
the Schlieffen ne
o
Plan indicate for Verdun
fF

Sei
ne
Mar
ne LORRAINE
re

capturing Paris?
nc

ALSACE
h

(c) Why did Plan 17

fo

Paris
rtr

focus on attacking
es

River
se

Germany through
s

r
R ive
Alsace and FRANCE
Lorraine? GERMANY

0 50 100 150

kilometres SWITZERLAND

Following his 1990s research in German archives, historian Terence Zuber has argued that
German officers invented the Schlieffen Plan in the 1920s as a means of excusing their failed
war strategies. Other historians argue that the Schlieffen Plan existed pre World War I and that
the Germans implemented a modified version of it when war broke out. Debate continues with,
as yet, no consensus.

The alliance system

Increasing national rivalries within and beyond Europe resulted in nations forming
alliance: an agreement
two rival alliances. From 1907 onwards, the major powers were all members of one of
between nations to work
together to protect or these two rival and armed power blocs. Britain had joined with Russia and France in an
advance the interests they alliance known as the Triple Entente, while Germany was linked with Austria–Hungary
share and Italy in the Triple Alliance.

CHAPTER 7 | World War I 267

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 These agreements increased nations’ sense of strength and protection and fostered
the fear and mistrust of the nations that did not belong to them. They reflected the
threat that the powers sensed from one another, and the desire to avenge past ‘wrongs’:
• Russia and Austria–Hungary competed with each other to extend their power in the
Balkans: the name for area of south-eastern Europe known as the Balkans.
some of the countries
• France feared Germany’s army and sought revanche (revenge) for Germany taking the
(Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria
and Montenegro) of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine from France in 1871.
Balkan peninsula in south- Between 1905 and 1913, tensions among the great powers increased as a result of
eastern Europe in the early crises in northern Africa and the Balkans. The great powers resolved these crises,
twentieth century although hostility generally increased among those involved.

Source 3 NORWAY
Key
Map showing the

SEA
Triple Entente SWEDEN
great powers and their
Triple Alliance
alliances in 1907. Italy

LT I C
NORTH
declared itself neutral
SEA 0 250 500 750

BA
DENMARK
when war broke out and, kilometres
in April 1915, signed UNITED
the Treaty of London KINGDOM RUSSIAN
committing it to fight EMPIRE
NETHERLANDS Berlin
in support of the Triple London GERMANY
Entente. BELGIUM

AUSTRO-
FRANCE
HUNGARIAN
AT L A N T I C SWITZERLAND EMPIRE
OCEAN
ITALY ROMANIA
Sarajevo
SERBIA
MONTENEGRO BULGARIA

ALBANIA
PORTUGAL SPAIN
OTTOMAN
MEDITERRAN GREECE EMPIRE
EAN

SE
A
AFRICA

Source question
Use source 3 to work out which members of the Triple Entente Germany would feel most
threatened by and why.

When war broke out the Entente powers called in military support from their empires and also
gained support from Italy in 1915 and the United States in 1917. This group was called the
Allies. Germany, Austria–Hungary and their supporters (Germany’s colonies plus Turkey from
October 1914 and Bulgaria from 1915) were called the Central Powers.

Assassination in Sarajevo
On 28 June 1914, at Sarajevo in Bosnia, 23-year-old Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist,
assassination: the murder shot dead the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Sophie. Franz Ferdinand was the
of an important political or heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. His assassination provided an excuse for Austria–
religious figure Hungary to attempt to punish and weaken its long-time enemy, Serbia.

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 The ‘July crisis’ that developed from the assassination involved, through their
alliances, all the major European powers and it ignited the tensions among them. Their
failure to resolve the July crisis demonstrated nations’ desires to exercise their power
and also their fears of one another (see source 5). By 4 August 1914, Europe was at war.

Source 4
The Archduke Franz
Ferdinand and his wife
Sophie lie in state in
Vienna, Austria, after
their assassination.
Source question
What would be the likely
attitude of the Austro-
Hungarian government
to this photo?

Source 5
A timeline showing
how the assassination
of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand led to the
outbreak of a European
war
28 June Source questions
Archduke Franz Ferdinand is 1 Identify the event in source 5 described as the ‘blank
assassinated at Sarajevo in Bosnia.
cheque’. Why do you think it was given this name?
29 June 2 Which event do you think was the turning point that led to
Austria–Hungary asks Germany to help it deal
with Serbia. Austria wanted to weaken the crisis becoming a war? Why?
5 July Serbia, which was trying to 3 Identify the European power that was not involved in the
Germany offers to support undermine Austrian control over war in 1914. What was the reason for this? (Hint: See
Austria–Hungary in any way the many nationalities within source 3.)
required. This is known as the its empire.
‘blank cheque’. 23 July
Austria–Hungary threatens war activities
against Serbia if Serbia fails to
agree to a long list of demands
25 July within 24 hours.
Check knowledge and understanding
Serbia agrees to all but one of 24 July 1 List the names and members of Europe’s two rival
Austria–Hungary’s demands. Russia decides to help Serbia power blocs in early 1914.
in the hope of weakening 2 List the main forms of competition among the great
30 July Austro-Hungarian influence
powers in the early twentieth century.
Russia mobilises and 28 July in the Balkans.
Germany threatens Austria–Hungary declares war 3 Explain why France sought revenge against Germany.
war if Russia does on Serbia. 4 Explain why there was tension between Austria–
not withdraw its 1 August
mobilisation order.
Hungary and Russia in the early 1900s.
Germany declares war on Russia. France,
seeing an opportunity for revenge against 5 Use sources 1–5 and your own knowledge to
Germany, mobilises to support Russia. create a mind map identifying the reasons why the
3 August European powers went to war in 1914. Write the
Germany, hurrying to implement
its Schlieffen Plan and avoid war on long-term factors in one colour and the short-term
two fronts, declares war on France. factors in another.
Use the Was Germany to blame
eBook plus
4 August for World War I weblink to explore a
Germany invades neutral Belgium as simulation on the causes of the war.
part of the Schlieffen Plan. Britain, supporting
its allies and honouring its promise to defend
STUDENT WORKBOOK 7.1 War: When? Where?
Belgian neutrality, declares war on Germany. Why? Who?

Chapter 7  |  World War I 269

 7.2 Australia’s involvement: ‘to our
last man and our last shilling’
As Britain readied itself to declare war on Germany in August 1914, future Australian
Prime Minister Andrew Fisher promised that ‘Australia will stand behind our Mother
Country to help and defend her to our last man and our last shilling’.
Great Britain’s war became Australia’s war too. Fisher’s comment reflected the
attitudes of many Australians, who assumed Britain’s war to be a just and noble cause in
which Australians could demonstrate their loyalty to the ‘mother country’. Like people
of all nations, they believed that the war would be short, with the victorious troops home
by Christmas, recounting tales of their glorious exploits.

Enthusiasm for war

Pro-British war fever was the dominant emotion in most Australian cities following
Britain’s declaration of war on Germany on 4 August 1914. Newspapers, competing with
one another to demonstrate their loyalty to the mother country, forecast countless heroic
deeds against the hated enemy.
This enthusiasm was especially significant because the Defence Act 1903 (Cwlth)
limited the Australian Army to service in defence of Australia and only on Australian
territory. Australia needed to attract volunteers to serve in an army outside Australia.
This restriction did not apply to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), which participated in
Light Horse: troops on
war under the command of Britain’s Royal Navy.
horseback; they fought
on the ground and used Recruitment began on 10 August 1914. Within days, 40 000 men had volunteered. This
their horses to get to the was double the number the government had offered to send to Britain. By November,
battlefield the first group of volunteers, including a large group of the Light Horse, had left for
training in Egypt.
By December 1914, 52 000 men had
volunteered to serve in the army, to be known
as the Australian Imperial Force (the AIF),
which, when combined with New Zealanders,
would form the Australian and New Zealand
Army Corps (the Anzacs). Three thousand
men served with the Australian Flying Corps
(AFC). With troops off to the battlefront,
the Australian government reinforced its
commitment to compulsory military training
for all males between the ages of 12 and 25.
Initially, with plenty of volunteers, the
Army could set high physical standards.
Many men who would normally have been
considered fit and healthy failed to meet
AWM A03406 those standards and were turned away. In
1914, the minimum height for acceptance
into the AIF was 168 centimetres. By late
1914, recruitment officials had reduced
this to 163 centimetres and by 1917 to
Source 1 152 centimetres.
A photograph of men Source questions
queuing outside a 1 Why do you think this photograph was taken?
recruiting office in 2 Create three thought bubbles to indicate what some of the men in the photograph might have
Melbourne, March 1916 been thinking about their decision to volunteer. See page 271 for ideas.

270 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

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 Source 2
It is nice in the surf but what about the men in the
trenches, a recruitment poster, c.1915, by David
Henry Souter. It was published by the Win the War
League.

Reasons for enlistment

Support for the ‘mother’ country was not the
only reason for Australian men’s rush to enlist.
Other reasons included:
• fear that the opportunity for ‘adventure’
would pass them by if they did not enlist
quickly
• the desire to avoid the disapproval of peers
and young women. Some women showed their
disapproval of men who were not in uniform
by giving them a white feather, a symbol of
cowardice.
• the chance to earn higher wages (six shillings
a day compared to one shilling a day for
British soldiers)
• men’s feeling that it was their ‘duty’ to enlist
• hatred of the ‘Hun’ (insulting name for
Germans).

Source questions
1 Who is the audience for source 2?
2 What message does the poster artist want to
convey?
3 What feelings is the artist trying to evoke through
the words on the poster?
AWM ARTV00141

Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders

It is only from the late twentieth century onwards that people have begun to
systematically research the wartime experiences of Indigenous Australians. Consequently,
we don’t know much about how their experiences might have differed from those of other
soldiers or the extent to which war offered them benefits unavailable to them in their
everyday lives in Australia.
Over 400 Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, out of a population of about 80  000,
served in World War I. This was despite their poor and racist treatment under British-
inspired law and culture, and despite the fact that officially the federal government
did not classify its Indigenous peoples as citizens, acted to deny them a vote in federal
elections and officially did not allow them to enlist.
Some got around this by saying they were Maori or Indian; some found other ways of
concealing their origins. Others joined up from 1917, when, with declining enlistment
numbers and unable to introduce conscription, the government allowed Indigenous
peoples to enlist if they had one parent of European origin.
People hypothesise that Indigenous Australians enlisted largely as a means to escape
the racism, discrimination and poor living and working conditions that characterised
their ordinary lives. Other reasons may have been patriotism, a desire for adventure, and
the attraction of much better wages than they could obtain elsewhere. For some, wartime
service may have seemed a good way to show their abilities and to work for greater
recognition of their rights.

Chapter 7  |  World War I 271

 Five brothers — Alfred, Edward, Leonard, Herbert and Frederick — from the Lovett family of the
Gunditijmara people in western Victoria served in the war. All survived.

Wartime experiences
The war provided opportunities for Aboriginal soldiers to move outside of Australia
and outside the confines of their lives on mission stations; share knowledge with other
people of a similar background; share common experiences with other Australian
soldiers; obtain regular food supplies; be judged on their abilities more than on their
race; and increase their knowledge of the world. They received equal pay — six shillings
a day (sixty cents) — and, as far as we know, equal treatment to their white counterparts.

Opposition to war
conscientious objector: A minority of Australians opposed the war. These included conscientious objectors
someone whose conscience from religious groups such as the Society of Friends (Quakers) and pacifists who were
prevents them from against the taking of human life (see source 3). Some trade unionists were against the
participating in military
war because they believed its burden would be carried by working-class people in every
service
country rather than by the middle and upper classes who had more influence in the
decision to go to war.

Source 3
An extract from a letter written by F. J. Roberts on 10 June 1914. Roberts’ son was imprisoned
under the Defence Act 1903 (Cwlth).
Motive
Dear Sir,
Finding I am unable to obtain justice from the Defence Department, I write earnestly appealing
Purpose
to you to kindly use your influence in connexion with the unjust treatment of our lad, who,
through loyalty to his parents’ views of Christian teaching, is undergoing solitary confinement
in the cells at Queenscliff fortress.
Tom is a lad of 16, and was sent to Queenscliff on Wednesday last for 21 days, for refusing
to train under the Defence Act. My wife and I are members of the Society of Friends, and hold
strong convictions on this matter of militarism .  .  . He is locked in a cell 10 foot by 10 foot .  .  .
It has no window, the light coming through a grating. He has a wooden stretcher, the mattress
and blankets are taken away in the morning, and not brought back until dark. He has half an
hour’s exercise in the morning .  .  . is on half diet, has not been allowed to read, nor to write to
his parents .  .  .
Creator of source
A letter written by F. J. Roberts, 10 June 1914.
Letter taken from Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, vol. 74, pp. 2338–9.

Source questions
1 Who wrote source 3 and why?
2 What message did the writer want to get across? Which parts of the letter would have helped
achieve this?
3 When was the letter written? What difference might the outbreak of war have made to the kind
of reply the writer might have received?
4 Write an answer to the letter. Your answer should reflect the likely attitude of government officials
in mid 1914. Use a word processing program to present this as an official communication.

Where Australians fought

While Australia’s involvement in the Gallipoli campaign (see unit 7.3) is the one
most often linked with its participation in World War I, it was only part of Australia’s
contribution to the war effort. Australian soldiers, sailors and airmen served in the

272 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

 oceans around Australia, and in New Guinea, Egypt, Palestine, the Gallipoli Peninsula
and, most significantly, on the Western Front. The following table summarises their main
contributions.

Date Group Military involvement

October 1914 Australian Naval Took possession of German New Guinea and nearby islands
and Military
Expeditionary Force
November 1914 Royal Australian HMAS Sydney destroyed the German raider SMS Emden near the Cocos Islands in the
Navy Indian Ocean
1914–18 Patrolled and protected Australia’s coastline and trading routes
Engaged in actions against the German navy
April–Dec 1915 Australian Imperial Gallipoli campaign in Turkey
1916–18 Force (AIF) Served on the Western Front in Belgium and northern France in battles at Fromelles, the
Somme, Bullecourt, Messines, Passchendaele, Dernancourt and Villers-Bretonneux
1916–18 Light Horsemen Fought in Middle East against the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). Campaigns included:
• defence of Egypt and the Suez Canal
• participation in Allied fighting to regain control of the Sinai Peninsula
1917 • participation in the Allied advance into Palestine and the capture of Gaza and Jerusalem
• the Battle of Beersheba (October), the last mounted charge in history
1918 • participation in the Allied occupation of Lebanon and Syria.
1916–18 Australian Flying Observation, reconnaissance and artillery spotting in the Middle East and on the
Corps (AFC) Western Front
1918 Transport of troops
Provision of infantry support
Aerial fights
Fighters
Bombing inside enemy territory

Source 4
Photo showing two Bristol Fighters of the Australian Flying Source question
Corps, c.1918 Use source 4 and the information eBook plus
available at the Australian military
units weblink to devise a presentation highlighting
the value of these planes during World War I.

activities
Check knowledge and understanding
1 What do the letters of the word Anzac stand
for?
2 List the factors that encouraged men to
enlist.
3 Describe Indigenous Australians’
experience of World War I. Why do we know
so little about this?
4 Which groups opposed Australia’s
involvement in World War I and what were
their reasons?
5 How and why did height requirements
change as the war went on?
AWM B02209

STUDENT WORKBOOK 7.2 Britain calls,

Australia answers

Chapter 7  |  World War I 273

 7.3 The Gallipoli campaign
Stalemate on the Western Front
War began with Austro-Hungarian troops fighting Russian and Serbian troops in
eastern Europe, and German troops fighting France, Belgium, Britain and their allies
in western Europe. By late 1914, all armies had begun to build trenches to protect their
soldiers from the enemy and from the winter cold. Eventually, a line of trenches, known
as the Western Front, stretched almost continuously from south-west Belgium across
north-eastern France to the Swiss border.
No side could make progress without breaking through its enemy’s trench system.
casualties: those killed, Attempts to do so resulted in a huge number of casualties as men went ‘over the top’
wounded or captured to face their enemies’ machine guns, rifles and artillery. Trench warfare, using these
during wartime weapons so well suited to defence, meant that what had begun as a war of movement
stalemate: a situation developed into a stalemate. The Gallipoli campaign, in which Australian soldiers first
in war where there is no saw active duty, was part of an attempt to break the stalemate and resume a war of
movement on either side movement.

Source 1
Modern artist’s 8
interpretation of a
typical trench system

Source questions
Use source 1 and your
own knowledge to
answer the following.
1 List the hardships
and dangers soldiers
experienced.
2 Identify the
provisions planners
made for the soldiers’
comfort and safety.
3 Complete this
sentence: ‘The
thing I would have
found hardest
about this life
was . . . because . . . ’

274 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

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 1 Trenches generally formed a
zigzag pattern to help protect the
trench against enemy attack.
2 Fire steps and scaling ladders
enabled troops to go ‘over
9 the top’, i.e. to go out into no-
man’s-land (the area between
the opposing armies) to attack
enemy trenches.
3 Machine guns, one of the most
deadly weapons, could fire
400 – 500 bullets every minute.
4 Earth-filled sandbags helped
to shore up the edges of the
trenches and absorb bullets and
shell fragments.
5 Duckboards were wooden planks
placed across the bottom of
trenches and other muddy
ground. They helped protect men
from trench foot and from sinking
deep into the mud. Trench foot
was a painful and dangerous
1 condition resulting from days
spent standing in freezing water
and muddy trenches; gangrene
could set in and result in the
amputation of a man’s foot.
6 Owing to the use of mustard gas
and other chemical weapons,
all soldiers needed gas masks.
Mustard gas was almost
4 odourless and took 12 hours to
take effect.
7 Each soldier had a kit containing
nearly 30 kilograms of
equipment. This included a rifle,
two grenades, ammunition, a
steel helmet, wire cutters, a field
dressing, a spade, a heavy coat,
two sandbags, a ground sheet, a
water bottle, a haversack, a mess
tin, a towel, a shaving kit, socks
and rations of preserved food.
8 Barbed wire helped protect the
trenches and also made it very
7 difficult to attack the opposing
trench. Before an attack, soldiers
went out at night to cut sections
of wire to make it easier for the
soldiers in morning raids. Minor
cuts and grazes caused by
the barbed wire often became
infected in the unsanitary
conditions of the trenches.
9 Snow, rain and freezing
temperatures drastically slowed
5 combat during the winter months.
In hot, dry summers, lack of
fresh water, scorching sun, and
the stench of dead bodies and
rubbish made trench life equally
difficult.

Chapter 7  |  World War I 275

 The British plan to break the stalemate
By Christmas 1914, one million Allied soldiers had died on the Western Front. The British
government had begun searching for a way to break the stalemate. This meant relieving
Turkish pressure on Russia, who, having lost access to its supply route through the
Dardanelles, was threatening to surrender. If that happened, Germany would be able to
transfer its troops from the Eastern to the Western Front and possibly defeat the Allies.
Winston Churchill, the civilian head of the British Navy, believed the Allies could win
the war by using warships to attack and defeat Germany’s new ally, Turkey. The goals
were to:
• force Turkey out of the war
• re-open the supply route to Russia
• open up a new front from which to attack Germany’s other main ally, Austria–Hungary
• move on to defeat Germany on the Western Front.

Source 2
Goals of naval route
Map showing the 1 Open sea access to send N
IA
S
RU
supplies to Russia
proposed route of the E
IR
P
EM
2 British and French
naval campaign in the battleships to gain control of AUS
R
T O-
the 61 km long Dardanelles IHU
R
A
G
N
Dardanelles and the and Constantinople and E
IR
P
EM
force Turkey to withdraw
benefits the Allies hoped from the war
to gain from it 3 Use infantry to destroy land-
based guns protecting the
Dardanelles
4 Gain control of land from
which to open a new front ROMANIA
against Austria–Hungary

BLACK SEA
SERBIA
R
G
E
T
N
O MONTENEGRO
M
MONTENEGR
BULGARIA

le
ip
sta
n
o C
Constantinople
ALBANIA
ALB SEA OF
Gallipoli 0 100 200 300
MARMARA
Peninsula
Peninsula
kilometres

Dardanelles
GREECE
AEGEAN
OTTOM
N
A
E
IR
P
EM
Key SEA
Proposed route via the
Dardanelles to Constantinople

Triple Entente supporters

Triple Alliance supporters

Source question
Outline the steps the Allies would need to take to achieve the goals indicated in source 2. Describe
the action you think the Turks would have taken to protect their territory.

The first plan was to move British and French battleships through the Dardanelles,
and capture Turkey’s capital, Istanbul (which Westerners called Constantinople). The
naval assaults in February and March 1915 failed as mines and shellfire inflicted severe
damage on British and French ships.
British military authorities then decided to instead attempt a series of land invasions
at various points along the Gallipoli Peninsula. The attackers would comprise British,
Anzac and French troops. They would use infantry (ground troops) to destroy the forts
and mobile artillery that protected the Dardanelles Strait and threatened the British and
French fleets.

276 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

5_61_38746_Retro9_07.03.indd 276 14/05/13 2:29 PM

 Landing at Gallipoli
The invasion began on 25 April 1915 with British and French forces landing at five
beaches (named S, V, W, X and Y) around Cape Helles and also on the opposite shore
of the Dardanelles. The Anzacs were to land at Gaba Tepe and Ari Burnu and prevent
Turkish troops retreating from the south and Turkish reinforcements arriving from the
north. The campaign began badly because:
• the failure of the naval bombardment had alerted the Turks to the likelihood of a land
attack
• the Turks then had six weeks’ advance warning to prepare their defences
• by the time British and Anzac troops landed on the beaches of the Gallipoli
Source 3 Peninsula in April 1915, the Turks, under German General Liman von Sanders, had
Map showing the organised reinforcements, strengthened defences, laid mines, constructed trenches
southern section of the and established themselves on the high ground around both sides of the Gallipoli
Gallipoli Peninsula and Peninsula and further inland
the main locations of • Allied leaders missed opportunities and underestimated the Turks’ military
the Gallipoli campaign to capabilities and determination.
August 1915
ANAFA R T A R

e
ep
hT
etc
Kir
IDGE

British landings at Suvla Bay

Suvla Bay August 1915 Salt
Lake
GE

D
RI
IR Boghali s
BA Hill 971 e
ll
FIRST RIDGE I
R Chunuk Bair
SA
Anzac landings Ari Burnu
259 m
e
April 1915 Anzac Cove The Nek Mal Tepe n
Lone Pine 162 m a
rd
SECOND RIDGE
GE E
I D ID G

a
)

D
R

D
Gaba Tepe IR R
TH UN
(G

AEGEAN SEA Maidos

0 5 10 15
Kilid Bahr
ows

KILID kilometres
B A H R PL A
TEAU Cannakkale
Narr

Key
The

Krithia The Allied line in August 1915

The Turkish line in August 1915

Y BEACH
First day objective
British and French
landings at First day actual
April 1915
Territory held by Allies
X BEACH May−August 1915

August−December 1915
W BEACH S BEACH
Cape Helles May 1915 / January 1916

H Turkish positions
E AC Coast battery (principal)
VB
Kum Kale Mobile howitzer battery

Source question
Use source 3 to complete the following sentences: In April 1915, British and French troops landed
at ___, ___, ___, ___ and ___ beaches in the area known as __________ __________. Anzac troops landed in the area
known as __________ __________. In August 1915, British troops landed at __________ __________.

Chapter 7  |  World War I 277

 Contestability: myth and reality at Anzac Cove
At 4.30 am on 25 April 1915, 16 000 Anzac troops began landing under cover of darkness
at a tiny beach, later known as Anzac Cove. They were two kilometres north of the
original intended position at Gaba Tepe.
Australian letters and diary entries from the time, and secondary accounts in the
nearly 100 years since, record troops leaving their landing craft to face an unrelenting
barrage of Turkish machine-gun fire. They describe Turkish forces at both ends of the
beach and at the top of its steep cliffs ready and waiting to gun down the invaders.
The increased availability of Turkish sources (such as messages, signals and military
reports) in the last few years is providing information that supports a different version
of events. In particular, Turkish sources indicate that it was unlikely that Turkish troops
were either expecting invaders to land at Anzac Cove or that, at the time of the landing,
they were retaliating with machine guns:
• Turkish forces were deployed in small numbers at posts along the 60-kilometre
coastline of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Their role was to report landings and delay
invaders as long as possible. Reserves waited in central locations inland, ready to
move once the landing spots were known, but could not arrive until some hours later.
• There were only somewhere between 90 and 250 Turkish troops at the cove itself.
• There was a severe shortage of machine guns throughout the Turkish army.
• It was only when reinforcements arrived, around 7.30–8.30 am, that the Turks began
using machine guns against their Anzac enemies.
No Australian accounts mention anyone seeing a Turkish machine gun, and there are
no records of Australian troops capturing any when they gained higher ground later
in the day. Some military historians believe that Australian casualties would have been
much higher had the Turks been using machine guns early in the day.
Historians have come up with a number of hypotheses to explain why Australians
might have incorrectly recorded being under enemy machine-gun fire:
• Some may have purposely tried to increase the sense of danger and threat that they
encountered in their first experience of enemy fire.
• Some may have repeated rumours that what they heard was machine-gun fire.
• Even experienced soldiers cannot always tell the difference between heavy and rapid
rifle fire and machine-gun fire.
• Any machine guns they did actually hear may have been their own.
As this example shows, Turkish sources have already led historians to question
traditional accounts of the Gallipoli landing. Increased efforts to access and translate
more of these in the lead-up to the 2015 Gallipoli centenary should open up more areas
of debate and lead to a greater depth of understanding of all aspects of the Gallipoli
campaign.

Australian experiences
The Anzacs initially began to head for the cliffs and their first-day objectives — Hill 971,
the Third Ridge and Mal Tepe hill. Possibly as early as 6 am, Australian commanders
ordered the Second Brigade to abandon this offensive and instead to provide support
for troops on the right flank, who were supposedly under threat from Turkish
reinforcements. Troops then began to dig in at the Second Ridge.
As more and more Turkish reserves arrived, the Anzacs lost the opportunity that had
existed for them to make significant advances into Turkish territory in the first three or
four hours after their arrival. By digging in instead of continuing to advance against the
vastly outnumbered Turks, the Anzacs ended up on the defensive.
By nightfall of the first day, the Anzacs had failed to reach their first-day objectives.
They had advanced only about 900 metres at a cost of about 2000 casualties, including
621 dead. Over the next week, another 27  000 soldiers landed at Anzac Cove, where they

278 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

 tried to maintain control of the beach and construct trenches — all under the constant
barrage of Turkish fire from distances as close as 30 metres and with little chance of
regaining the initiative lost on the first day.

Source 4
A photograph showing
troops landing at Anzac
Cove during the Gallipoli
campaign

Source question
Use sources 3 and 4
to identify and list the
features that would
have:
(a) made fighting
difficult for the
invading forces and
(b) advantaged the
Turkish defenders.

Soldiers armed with entrenching tools and sandbags hastily constructed the trenches
and dugouts that would provide them with some protection. The task was difficult because
the men mainly had to lie on their stomachs, using the entrenching tool without its handle.
Standing up to dig normally would have made them easy targets for the Turks.
Over the following weeks, dugouts appeared all over the hillsides above Anzac Cove.
These were the places where the Anzacs ate, slept, wrote letters home, darned holes in
their socks, smoked cigarettes and waited until they were called to active duty.

May 1915
On 19 May 1915, 42  000 Turks advanced in an attempt to break through Anzac lines. They
were unsuccessful and both sides paid a huge toll in the number of dead and wounded.
The Turks and the Anzacs agreed to stop fighting for a few hours so they could bury
their dead and collect the wounded from no-man’s land.

Source 5
An extract from the recollections of James Donaldson

The dead were that thick, thousands right along there, and the place smelled terrible. There
were big rats . . . squeaking and fighting over the corpses. Both sides were getting riddled with
disease . . . The armistice was signed, and the Ninth was elected to go out, right along the line
carrying a little white flag . . . So we went out . . . and as I went, a Turk came out, we were
about ten feet or so from each other, and he followed along with me . . . The chaps came out
of the trenches, and pulled what was left of our dead over to our side, and the Turks did the
same. We just hooked a pick into their belts and dragged what was left of them away. And that
lasted all day and by that time we were all well and truly sick . . . So then the bugle sounded (to
end the armistice) and I had to run up a stiff hill, and just before I jumped in (to the trench)
I gave a wave back, and the Turks waved back too . . . A few minutes after that, two flares were
fired . . . The war was on again.
Recollections of James Donaldson, quoted in T. Matthews, Crosses: Australian Soldiers
in the First War 1914–18, Boolarong Publications, Brisbane, 1987.

Chapter 7  |  World War I 279

 Source 6
A photograph taken at Gallipoli on 24 May 1915 showing burial parties burying Australian and
Turkish dead during the armistice (agreement to stop fighting)

AWM H00240
Source questions
1 On which of the following subjects do sources 5 and 6 provide useful information?
(a) The results of the battle
(b) Leaders’ attitudes
(c) Health issues
(d) Soldiers’ attitudes
(e) The nature of trench warfare
(f) Reasons for deaths
2 Use source 5 and your own knowledge to answer the following.
(a) Who created this source and what was the purpose of the armistice to which he refers?
(b) Where did the soldiers ‘go out’ to?
(c) In what ways is the source useful for giving us an understanding of the realities of war?
(d) What does ‘.  .  .’ indicate in a source? How might this affect our understanding of it?

In June and July 1915, the main fighting involved British attacks — for limited gains
— and Turkish counter attacks in the Cape Helles area. Both sides suffered the high
casualties that were a feature of trench warfare.

Living conditions
Conditions at Gallipoli tested everyone’s endurance. By mid-year, the weather had
become hot and there were plagues of disease-carrying flies and fleas. Supply ships
brought in water from Egypt, but there was never enough. By October, soldiers were
beginning to experience the bitter cold, mud and ice that were characteristic of a
Turkish winter.

Source 7
An extract from the writings of author Ion Idriess, describing life at Gallipoli

I wrapped my overcoat over the tin and gouged out the flies, then spread the biscuit, held my
hand over it and drew the biscuit out of the coat. But a lot of flies flew into my mouth and beat
about inside. I nearly howled with rage.
Quoted in B. Gammage, The Broken Years: Australian Soldiers in the Great War, ANU, Canberra, 1974.

280 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

 Troops who had arrived in peak physical condition soon suffered dysentery,
diarrhoea, gastroenteritis and infestations of lice. It was virtually impossible to keep
clean. Toilets were open pits. Corpses lay rotting in no-man’s land between the
opposing trenches because it was unsafe to try to retrieve them for burial. Wounded
men lay for hours awaiting medical attention. During some weeks in the Gallipoli
campaign, as many as 20 per cent of the men were sick from diseases relating to poor
hygiene.
Turkish soldiers, as close as 30 metres in some places, kept the Anzacs under constant
threat with hand grenades, sniper fire, mortar bombs and shell blasts. The casualty rate
was generally 23 per cent. It was difficult to escape either physically or psychologically
from the war.

August 1915: Lone Pine and the Nek

Lone Pine
In August, the British, under regional commander Sir Ian Hamilton, decided to try a
new tactic to break the deadlock. Anzac troops were to attack the Turkish strongholds at
Lone Pine and the Nek in the hope of distracting attention from Allied troops landing
at Suvla Bay and Allied attacks at Sari Bair. The aim was for them to gain control of Sari
Bair and link the Anzac front with Suvla Bay.
At Lone Pine, the Australians surprised the Turks by emerging from underground
tunnels that extended to about half-way between their own lines and the Turkish lines.
However, they became easy targets for Turkish gunfire until they found a way into the
Turkish trenches, which were covered with logs and earth.
The Anzacs succeeded in taking Lone Pine but at a huge cost to both sides. Over four
days of bitter hand-to-hand fighting, from 6 August to 10 August, the Anzacs suffered
Victoria Cross: named 2300 casualties and the Turks suffered 6000. Seven Australians gained Victoria Crosses
after Queen Victoria, this as a result of this action.
was the highest military
decoration awarded to The Nek
soldiers within the British
The attack at the Nek was even worse. In the early hours of 7 August 1915, hundreds
Empire. Australia created its
own VC in 1991. of men from the 3rd Light Horse Brigade went ‘over the top’ of their trenches in four
effectively suicidal charges against the Turkish trenches at ‘Baby 700’, only 27 metres
away. The attack failed for a number of reasons:
• New Zealand troops were meant to attack at the same time from Chunuk Bair, which
leaders believed they could capture the night before. This would mean they would
be attacking from the rear of Turkish troops at Baby 700. However, it was 8 August,
24 hours later, before the New Zealanders even got to Chunuk Bair.
• Allied artillery shells from a preliminary bombardment overshot their targets.
• A seven-minute gap between the end of the artillery bombardment and the beginning
of the infantry attack meant that the Turks had both warning of what was to come and
enough time to prepare for it.
With the New Zealanders unable to attack from behind Turkish lines, there was
no reason to begin what would become a frontal attack on heavily defended Turkish
positions. Not having received any counter-instructions, the first and second waves of
the Light Horse went ‘over the top’ and faced relentless machine-gun and rifle fire from
the Turkish trenches.
Major Antill, second in charge of the Brigade, was convinced that some Australians
had reached the Turkish trenches. He insisted, despite protests from another of the
Light Horse commanders, that a third wave go over the top as well. This had better
results only because the soldiers knew to hit the ground as quickly as possible.
Colonel Hughes, commander in charge of the 3rd Light Horse, then cancelled the
attack. This was too late for the fourth wave, who had already left their trenches. In a
45 minute period, there were 372 casualties among the Light Horse, of whom 234 died.

Chapter 7  |  World War I 281

 Source 8
Detail from George Lambert’s 1924 painting, The charge of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade at the Nek, 7 August 1915

AWM ART07965
Source 9
An extract from historian Bill Gammage’s The Broken Years, in which the author describes the
consecutive charges of the Light Horse regiments at the Nek on 7 August 1915

The most tragic feint attack, at once the most awful fire broke upon them. Many were shot, but
gallant and the most hopeless, was made by the a line started forward. It crumpled and vanished
8th and 10th Light Horse Regiments against the within five yards .  .  .
Turkish trenches at The Nek. The Nek was a The second line saw the fate of their friends.
ridge 50 yards wide at the Anzac line, narrowing Over their heads the Turk fire thundered
to about 30 at the Turkish front. The opposing undiminished, drowning out any verbal order
trenches on it were about 20 yards apart, and .  .  . Beside them lay dead and wounded of the
at least five Turkish machine guns covered the first line, hit before they cleared the trench. But
intervening ground. Four lines of the light horse, they waited two minutes as ordered, then sprang
each of about 150 men, were to seize the enemy forward. They were shot down. The 10th Light
front line and the maze of trenches and saps Horse filed into the vacant places in the trench.
behind it, on Baby 700. They would be preceded They could hardly have doubted their fate .  .  . and
by a naval and artillery bombardment, and were they determined to die bravely, by running swiftly
to attack at two minute intervals. The light at the enemy. ‘Boys, you have ten minutes to live,’
horsemen were eager and confident, for this was their commanding officer told them, ‘and I am
their first great battle, and they expected to break going to lead you.’ Men shook hands with their
from the interminable trenches into the open. mates, took position, and when the order came,
Sick men hid or escaped from their doctors to be charged into the open. The bullets .  .  . tumbled
in the charge .  .  . them into the dust beside their comrades. Moves
At four in the afternoon of 6 August the artillery were made to halt the fourth line, but too late, and
began a gentle bombardment. It intensified early these men, too, climbed out to be killed.
on the 7th, but at four twenty three a.m., seven It was now a little after five fifteen a.m. Two
minutes before time, it ceased .  .  . In the enemy hundred and thirty-four dead light horsemen lay
trenches soldiers cautiously emerged from shelter, in an area little larger than a tennis court .  .  . One
lined their front two deep, fired short bursts to hundred and thirty-eight others were wounded .  .  .
clear their machine guns, levelled their rifles, ‘It was heroic,’ wrote one who watched them,
and waited. At four thirty precisely the first line ‘it was marvellous .  .  . yet it was murder.’
of the 8th Light Horse leapt from their trenches. Bill Gammage, The Broken Years, ANU, Canberra,
As their helmets appeared above the parapet, an 1974, pp. 73–5.

282 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

 Source questions
1 What aspects of the assault at the Nek can you recognise in source 8?
2 Use source 9 to answer the following.
(a) What was the attitude of the men prior to the battle and what was the reason for this?
(b) What language does the writer use to portray the Anzacs in a positive way?
(c) Why did the observer describe this event as both ‘heroic’ and ‘murder’?

Hugo Throssell (1884–1933), a member of the 10th Light Horse Regiment, was awarded the
Victoria Cross (VC) for his bravery at Hill 60 Gallipoli on 29–30 August 1915 when, despite
being wounded, he refused to abandon his post. He became a socialist and an outspoken
opponent of war. His views angered many people who thought them inappropriate, especially
for a ‘war hero’ and the son of a former premier of Western Australia. A victim of both the war
and the Depression, he committed suicide on 13 November 1933.

By late August 1915, some British military strategists were beginning to think that they
had little chance of defeating Turkish troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula. At the same
time, campaign leader Sir Ian Hamilton’s largely optimistic reports failed to indicate
just how bad the situation was. This changed when Australian journalist Keith Murdoch
arrived in London from Gallipoli in mid September.
Murdoch smuggled out of Gallipoli a letter that English journalist Ellis Ashmead-
Bartlett had written to inform the British Prime Minister, H.H. Asquith, of his concerns
about the continuation of the campaign and especially about Hamilton’s performance.
When military officials confiscated Ashmead-Bartlett’s letter, Murdoch recorded his own
version of it. Asquith and his ministers read this account, accepted it unquestioningly
and in mid October dismissed Hamilton.
The new commander, General Sir Charles Munro, advised evacuation rather than
continue with what he predicted would be a 30–40 per cent casualty rate.
Allied troops began withdrawing from Anzac Cove and Suvla Bay in early December
1915. They devised a number of tricks to try to camouflage their withdrawal:
• Australian troops kept silent for long periods of time and then, when the Turks
appeared to find out what was happening, they opened fire.
• They also organised a method whereby water dripped into a pan attached to a trigger
would make a rifle fire itself.
By 19 December, the evacuation was complete, with only two casualties. By this time,
there were 26  000 casualties among the Anzac troops, including about 10  000 deaths.

activities
Check knowledge and understanding
1 Explain the purpose of the trenches.
2 Describe the location of the Western Front.
3 Account for the high casualty rate from trench warfare.
4 Explain why a war of movement became a stalemate.
5 Outline the purpose of the Gallipoli campaign.
6 Identify the purpose of the land invasion and the problems with it.
7 How have Turkish sources led us to question our understanding of the Gallipoli campaign?
8 Create mind maps summarising the Battles of Lone Pine and the Nek.
9 Explain when and why leaders abandoned the Gallipoli campaign.
Use the Gallipoli: the first day weblink to explore a 3D documentary site
Jacaranda World eBook plus
History Atlas
about the World War I Anzacs landing at Gallipoli.
3.29 Gallipoli campaign STUDENT WORKBOOK 7.3 In the trenches

Chapter 7  |  World War I 283

 7.4 Australians on the
Western Front
After the Gallipoli campaign, the Australian infantry divisions went on to fight some
Source 1 of the worst battles of the war in France and Belgium. Between 1916 and late 1918,
295  000 Australian soldiers served in this area of the Western Front. The Battle of the
A map showing the
Somme in France in 1916 and the Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium in 1917 are the
location of the area
two battles that most represent the needless slaughter of young Australian men on the
known as the Western
World War I battlefields.
Front
Source question
Use source 1 to describe the area known as
N O RTH
SE A the Western Front.
ENGLAND

The Somme in
NETHERLANDS

BELGIUM
GERMANY
northern France
The Battle of the Somme (July to
WE November 1916) was another doomed
STE LUXEMBOURG
RN F
RON T attempt at breaking the stalemate on
the Western Front. The British plan,
coordinated by General Sir Douglas
Haig, was to launch a major attack
SWITZERLAND on German lines in the Somme River
FRANCE
valley. The assault would begin with
an intense artillery bombardment of
German defences. Then, 1.2 million
ITALY soldiers would advance in wave
Key formations along a 40-kilometre front.
Western Front
The aim was to cut the Germans
Central Powers attack 0 200 400 600
kilometres
off from behind and make them so
Allied attack
demoralised that they would surrender.

Source 2 Source question

A photograph showing the British artillery bombardment of German Identify the weapon shown in source 2 and
defences on the Somme in July 1916 one potential problem associated with its
use.

The Germans had weeks of

forewarning through:
• overheard field telephone messages
• the movements of British
reconnaissance aircraft
• the observations of their own pilots.
When the attack began on 1 July 1916:
• German defences were well prepared
• British mines went off too early and
alerted the Germans that the attack
was due to start
• British artillery fire failed to destroy
the barbed wire protecting the
German trenches.

284 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

 When the soldiers advanced into no-man’s land, they advanced into a non-stop
barrage of German machine-gun fire. They became easy targets as their attempts to pass
through the German barbed wire only made them become more entangled in it. The
• Corporal Adolf
Allied troops did not have the machine-gun power needed to respond effectively. On the
Hitler was probably
among the German first day, the Germans killed over 20  000 Allied troops and wounded 40  000.
soldiers fighting at The attack failed to achieve a large-scale breakthrough, and tactics focused instead on
Fromelles. raids on specific enemy targets such as those at Fromelles and Pozières.
• The Germans had
buried dead Allied Fromelles
soldiers in mass Australian soldiers’ first battle on the Western Front was the ill-fated Battle of Fromelles
graves. These on 19–20 July 1916. Their goal was to divert German attention from the main action to
were discovered the south and prevent them sending reinforcements there.
in 2008. The Planning was rushed, the soldiers lacked experience and the distance across no-man’s
Commonwealth War land was as much as 400 metres in some sections. After seven hours of Allied artillery fire,
Graves Commission German machine gunners, with the added advantage of being on higher ground, were well
(CWGC) has and truly ready when British and Australian troops began their attack in the evening of
since exhumed
19 July. By the early hours of 20 July, the 5th Australian Division had 5533 casualties and
and reburied the
one of the greatest losses of Australian lives ever within a 24-hour period.
bodies in individual
graves at the new
Fromelles Military Pozières and Bullecourt
Cemetery. A few days later, the First Australian Division had the task of capturing the German-held
town of Pozières. This was achieved in a few hours on 23 July 1916, but it took another
seven weeks of horrific fighting against ongoing German artillery fire to consolidate the
gain. By this time, three more Australian divisions had become involved.

Source 3
The assault at Pozières, continued the London officer, was one of the most difficult essayed
A news report on the since the offensive began. The Germans set their heart on retaining the village. Sir Douglas
attack on Pozières from Haig’s order was that Pozières must be taken. When the word was given to charge the
the Sydney Morning Australians swept across the approaches to the German lines. There was no shouting or battle-
Herald, 28 July 1916 crying. Each Tom, Dick and Harry with teeth set firmly, went forth to slay in silence. When
the German machine guns opened fire, the bullets whizzed in all directions . . .
Source question Some crack German regiments were employed, but the Anzacs went for their men, and put
What is the author’s in terrible bayonet work. After a fierce contest the Australians and New Zealanders obtained
attitude towards the the upper hand . . . It was the most horrible night any soldiers ever experienced. By daybreak
Australians? Identify on Monday we had a firm footing in the village. ‘The fighting at Pozières,’ continued the
London officer, ‘has proved that the Anzacs would face a wall of iron and go through it.’
words and phrases that
provide evidence of
this. In July 1916, there were 90  000 AIF soldiers serving on the Western Front. By the end
of August 1916, there were 23  000 Australian casualties from the Somme battlefields —
nearly as many as for the entire eight months at Gallipoli. All this was for a gain of about
1.5 kilometres.
By the end of the Somme campaign, the AIF had lost more than 32  000 soldiers, with
an overall gain in land of about 10.5 kilometres. Neither the average Australian soldier
nor the average British soldier had much faith in their military leaders after this.
In April 1917 the 2nd Australian Division at Bullecourt (France) captured two lines of
German trenches, and later succeeded in establishing a new allied position nearby —
despite the failure of the promised tank support. There were 3289 casualties.

Passchendaele in Belgium
From mid to late 1917, two Anzac divisions took part in fighting in and around Ieper
(Ypres) in Belgium. This was the third battle of Ieper, also known as the Battle of
Passchendaele. The battle was part of a British attempt to break through the German
lines towards the North Sea ports, where the German U-boats were berthed. There
were 7000 Australian casualties during the initial attack in June.

Chapter 7  |  World War I 285

 In July 1917, the British resumed
artillery shelling of German defences.
The Germans had the advantage of
higher ground and a wide view of
their attackers’ movements. Over the
next fourteen weeks, Allied troops
made ten attempts to break through
to Passchendaele. Men and equipment
became bogged down in mud and
flooded fields. General Haig insisted
that the attack proceed. When his
chief of staff visited the battlefield, he
reportedly had tears in his eyes as he
said, ‘Good God, did we really send
men to fight in that?’ Overall, the Allied
forces suffered 300  000 casualties;
38  000 were Australian.

Source question
AWM E04599
What does source 4 show of:
Source 4 (a) the problems experienced by troops on
A photograph showing an Australian soldier attempting to rescue a the Belgian battlefields
comrade in Chateau Wood, Hooge, Belgium in October 1917 (b) the impact of war on the landscape?

Working historically
Source 5
Frank Hurley’s composite photos Frank Hurley’s 1917 composite photo depicting An episode after the Battle
of Zonnebeke (near Passchendaele, Flanders), made from the layering of
/// In a 1911 article in Australian
Photo-Review, photographer Frank
Hurley (1885–1962) described his
multiple negatives

attitude towards photography:

‘  .  .  .  [it is] not an exact representation
of nature, and a picture is not a record of
things in view  .  .  .  Regard your camera as
an artist does his brush. Think that you
hold a piece of apparatus worthy of the
same possibilities as the artist  .  .  .  Your
camera is but a piece of mechanical
apparatus. You are its intellect.’
In 1917, as one of the AIF’s official war
photographers in France and Belgium,
Hurley took great risks to record the
nature and impact of trench warfare.
Frustrated that any one photograph could
not convey the entirety of an event, he
began to merge several negatives and
create composite photos. In his view, ‘It To gain an idea of how this might have been done, AWM E05988B
eBook plus
is impossible to secure full effects of this use the State Library of New South Wales weblink.
bloody war without composite pictures.
It’s unfair to our soldiers’. Source questions
War correspondent and historian C.E.W. 1 What do you think was Frank Hurley’s goal in source 5?
Bean (1879–1968) labelled these ‘fakes’. 2 How would you judge composite photos like that shown in source 5 — as
Others were prepared to accept them as ‘fakes’ or as a depiction of reality? Give reasons for your answer.
long as they had captions explaining that 3 What can we learn from Frank Hurley’s methods about the usefulness
they were composites. and reliability of photographs as historical sources?

286 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

 Source 6 Weaponry and its effectiveness
Table showing the main War on the Western Front was a war of attrition (trying to break down the enemy) rather
weapons of trench than breakthrough. It was much easier to defend a trench than to attack an enemy
warfare, their uses and trench. This was partly because weaponry was more suited to effective defence than to
effectiveness attack.

Weapon Use Effectiveness

Artillery Both armies used artillery Artillery bombardments caused 60 per cent of all
bombardments for both attack Western Front casualties. Bombardments preceded
and defence. Gunners fired and warned of a major attack. They often failed to
shells from behind their own destroy enemy barbed wire and trench positions and
lines. also severely damaged the no-man’s land area over
which their own soldiers had to advance. Initially,
bombardiers wounded/killed some of their own
soldiers; by 1918, artillery fire was more accurate.
Bayonets Available to both sides In close combat, the bayonet was safer to use than
throughout the war, the trench a bullet that might move through the enemy’s body
warfare provided limited to hit one of the shooter’s fellow soldiers. Soldiers
opportunities to use them. feared bayonet wounds so the bayonet did have
psychological impact.
Flame throwers The Germans used flame Soldiers feared becoming victims of the flame
throwers from 1914 against thrower’s burning fuel. It was effective as a short-
soldiers in front-line trenches. range weapon, but the possibility of its cylinder
The British and French later used exploding accidentally meant that it could also
similar weapons. endanger its user.

Grenades All armies had grenadiers For obvious reasons, grenadiers preferred grenades
formed into bombing groups with timed fuses to percussion grenades that
that let off grenades along detonated when they hit something and so
enemy trenches in advance of could explode prematurely. Initially unsafe and
occupying them. unreliable, by 1917 the British ‘Mills bomb’ grenade
had become a popular and effective means of
destroying enemy pillboxes.
Machine The Belgians and Germans used With a firing power of eight bullets per second,
guns these in 1914. From 1915, the machine guns could take casualties very quickly
British produced Lewis guns and so were a good defensive weapon against
capable of firing 500–600 advancing enemy infantry. Their heavy weight
rounds per minute, and became (30–60 kg) made them difficult to transport. Early
very skilful in their use. versions needed water to keep them cool and they
often jammed.
Poison gas, The French used tear gas Men feared blindness and the slow and painful
including grenades in August 1914; the death gas could cause. Although they failed to have
chlorine gas, Germans used chlorine gas in a significant impact on battle outcomes, gas attacks
mustard cylinders in 1915 at the second lowered troop morale. They also initially had the
gas and Battle of Ieper. All the Allied problem that if the wind changed the gas might blow
diphosgene armies subsequently adopted back to injure those who had fired. The development
poison gas weaponry. of gas shells to be used with artillery helped to
overcome this problem. Gas attacks became
less effective with the development of improved
protective devices.
Rifles The main weapon used by British rifle fire at the 1915 Battle of Mons was
infantrymen and snipers of so fast (15 rounds per minute) that the Germans
all armies throughout the thought they were using machine guns. This level
war. The British preferred the of skill and accuracy could not be maintained as
Lee Enfield rifle; the French, the armies became reliant on non-professional soldiers.
slow-loading Lebel rifle; and the The Lee Enfield rifle, with rapid fire of 12 shots per
Germans, the Mauser. minute, was the most effective rifle.

Chapter 7  |  World War I 287

 Tactics became more offensive with the development of tanks — combat vehicles
armed with machine guns and cannon, and with tracks to help them move over difficult
terrain. Early tanks were slow, poorly ventilated, unable to withstand artillery fire and
mortar shells, could move in only one direction, and were liable to break down. Crews
had to endure 50-degree heat and exposure to carbon monoxide.
Technological improvements from mid 1917 enabled tanks to be used in offensive
tactics. After effective use at the Battle of Cambrai in late 1917, tanks were contributing
to breakthroughs on the Western Front in 1918, which enabled leaders to end the
stalemate and resume a war of movement.

1918: towards victory

1917 was a year of horrific conditions and huge casualties. In early 1918 soldiers had
little reason to think that the war was in its final year.
Following Russian surrender in late 1917, Germany transferred more divisions to
the Western Front. In anticipation of the arrival of US troops to fight on the Allied side,
Germany launched a Spring Offensive in the Somme. After initial success, war-weary
and poorly supplied German forces, facing sustained and well-coordinated Allied
defence, failed to achieve a breakthrough.
On 8 August 1918, British, Canadian and Australian soldiers launched a massive
offensive resulting in what German General Erich Ludendorff called der schwarze Tag
— ‘the black day’ of the German army. Over the next ‘100 days’, Allied forces relentlessly
attacked German forces and, by early October, had broken through the entire depth of
the defence system the Germans called the Hindenburg Line. With its army in retreat
and its soldiers’ morale low, the German High Command asked the German government
armistice: an agreement to obtain an armistice.
between opposing sides to The armistice and ceasefire that ended the war came into effect at 11 am on
stop fighting as a prelude to 11 November 1918 — over four years after the war had started.
making peace

activities
Check knowledge and understanding
1 Where and in what ways did Australians serve during World War I?
2 Outline the goal and plan of the Somme offensive. List the reasons for its failure.
3 Why did the third battle of Ieper fail?
4 Write a paragraph explaining the role of Australian troops in battles on the Somme and
around Ieper in 1916 and 1917.
5 Outline the role of the German Spring Offensive and the Allied ‘100 Days’ in bringing an end
to the war in 1918.
Research and communicate
6 Use internet sources to obtain:
a figures for the number of people who served in the Australian military during World War I
b figures for military deaths among the Allies and Central Powers during World War I.
7 Use your information to work out the percentage of the Australian servicemen who died
during World War I compared with those of other nations. Graph the results.

eBook plus
Download the World War I timeline interactivity to create a visual timeline of
key events in World War I from 1914 to 1918. INT-2968
Download the Time Out: Allies and Central Powers interactivity to test your
eBook plus
knowledge of the major players in World War I. INT-1415
Jacaranda World Download the Australia and World War I interactive learning object to test
History Atlas eBook plus
3.28 World War I
your knowledge of World War I. T0229
3.30 The world after World
War I STUDENT WORKBOOK 7.4 Gallipoli and the Western Front

288 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

7.5 War’s impact on the
home front
Remoteness from fighting shielded Australia from many of the effects of warfare — the
destruction of the landscape, the creation of refugees, the movement of armies and
supplies, and the requisitioning of buildings and property. Australians’ understanding
of the day-to-day impact of war came from information about loved ones serving in
the military, changed economic conditions, what they could learn from newspaper
accounts of the war’s progress and, significantly, from increased government controls
on daily life.

The War Precautions Act

On 29 October 1914, federal Parliament passed the War Precautions Act 1914 (Cwlth).
This greatly increased the powers of the Commonwealth Government, enabling it to
make laws:
• about anything related to Australia’s war effort
• in areas outside its usual powers under the Constitution.
The government created laws and regulations that imposed strict censorship of
information, increased its control of ‘enemy aliens’, limited hotel trading hours,
prevented trade with enemy countries and began taxing incomes.

Source 1
Selling badges without authority.
Some examples of
Attempting to transmit letters from the Commonwealth otherwise than through the post.
81 possible wartime
offences for which Selling goods issued by the Red Cross Society.
the government could Collecting for patriotic purposes without authority.
prosecute someone Spreading reports likely to cause alarm.
under the War Publishing and printing matter which had not been previously submitted to the Censor.
Precautions Act 1914 Failing to notify change of address (about 750 cases).
Failing to report at new place of abode (about 250 cases).
Trespassing on railways.
Refusing to supply a foodstuff in the quantity demanded on tender of payment at fixed price.
Wrongfully dyeing military overcoats.
Ernest Scott, Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, 1936, pages 144–7.

propaganda: information, Through the Department of Defence, the government produced propaganda posters
ideas or argument used to reflecting its pro-war attitudes.
further a cause or damage
an opponent’s cause
A changing economy
In 1914 the Australian economy was based on the primary products obtained through
farming and its natural resources. War disrupted international trade and ended
Australia’s trade with Germany and Austria–Hungary. This encouraged Australia to
manufacture goods for itself that it could no longer easily obtain as imports. During the
war years, employment in manufacturing increased by 11 per cent and by 1919, Australia
was producing 400 items that had previously been available only as imports.
One company, Broken Hill Proprietary Company (BHP), had already purchased
land in Newcastle, New South Wales, and had begun building a steelworks there.
On 2 June 1915, BHP officially opened these works and by the end of the war was
producing large quantities of the pig iron needed for steel production. This was part of
a marked increase in BHP’s metals production and a significant step towards Australia’s
development as an industrialised nation.

Chapter 7  |  World War I 289

 With the priority on producing supplies for the military, civilians had to cope
with price rises for many domestic goods. Even with government price fixing and
8–12 per cent increases to average wages, people struggled to keep up with inflation
and increased taxes. In 1916 and 1917, trade unions organised strikes for workers’ rights,
but the government acted to end these.

Working historically
Understanding propaganda

/// Propaganda is information, ideas or argument used to further a cause or damage an

opponent’s cause. Its purpose is to influence the audience to adopt a certain attitude
or take a certain action.
Propaganda expresses information that supports a particular point of view — often a
political idea — and does this in a way that will encourage an emotional response, rather
than an objective or intellectual response.
In World War I, the Australian government used propaganda to gain and maintain support
for the war and to encourage enlistment. Groups from both sides of the conscription debate
(see unit 7.6) used propaganda posters to influence people’s vote.
Posters were a common means of
spreading propaganda. Techniques
included:
• portraying the enemy as barbaric,
non-human and incapable of justice or
compassion, often through the use of
stereotyping to make everything about
the enemy unacceptable
• giving people a direct order, such as
‘Join Up today!’, so that people felt that
someone in authority was telling them
what to do
• appealing to feelings of nationalism
and patriotism
• suggesting negative/unacceptable
ideas in which opponents supposedly
believed
• simplifying an idea to make it
attractive or acceptable
• projecting a positive image and
suggesting that the target audience
can acquire this image by following the
order the poster provides
• choosing words and phrases that
convey positive concepts, such as
‘support’.

Source 2
H.M. Burton’s 1915 recruitment poster
‘A Call from the Dardanelles’
AWM ARTV05167
Source questions
1 To whom is the soldier calling?
2 What is his message? Which words describe the action he wants his audience to take?
3 What emotions does the poster appeal to and how does the artist achieve this?
4 What aspects of the poster emphasise links with Australia?
5 Draw a mind map to summarise the propaganda techniques the artist used in this poster.

290 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

 The experiences of people of German descent
The 1911 census identified nearly 36  000 people of German origin living in Australia. By
1914, out of a total population of about 4.5 million, the number was higher again. War
made many Australians suspicious of those who did not share their British heritage.
Government propaganda created fear, suspicion and a sense of being ‘at war’. These
in turn created anti-German feelings and actions that could overcome common sense,
transcend pre-war friendships and deny civil rights and liberties to many within the
Australian community.
For people far removed from the action of battlegrounds, being on the watch for spies
and traitorous behaviour made the war ‘real’. The watchful eyes of governments and
civilians began to focus on:
• people of German origin
• those with German-sounding names or ‘appearance’
• those who spoke German.
Anyone who was different from the Anglo-Australian view of what was ‘normal’ was
at risk. Spy-mania and anti-Germanism became features of Australian life.

Source 3
It’s no joke for us Germans here in the enemy’s country. The English treat us shabbily  .  .  .  We
An extract from German Germans have to report to the police every week  .  .  .  Many are out of work  .  .  .  people imagine
resident Otto Schafer’s that the Germans in Australia are all spies.
letter to his mother in R. Evans, Loyalty and Disloyalty: Social Conflict on the Queensland Home Front, 1914–1918,
Germany in September Queensland University Press, Brisbane 1987.
1914
Source question Enemy aliens
Describe the Following the outbreak of war, the Commonwealth Government acted quickly to oversee
perspective of the and control the behaviour of ‘German’ Australians and German citizens living in
writer in source 3. Australia. German citizens had to register at their local police station, report there on a
weekly basis and take an oath not to do anything against the British Empire.
The War Precautions Act 1914 (Cwlth) gave the Department of Defence the power
to act against what it saw as ‘threats’ to Australia’s security. This Act and later Acts and
Regulations addressed potentially threatening behaviour from all groups in society and
placed a number of restrictions on those of German origin:
• They were forbidden to buy and sell property.
• As ‘enemy aliens’ they lost the right to enforce contracts with British Australians (the
Enemy Contracts Annulment Act 1915).
• They were not allowed to speak German on the telephone, in schools or during
religious services.
• They lost their right to vote (in 1917 prior to the second conscription referendum).
• They had to transfer any shares they owned to the government (the War Precautions
(Enemy Shareholders) Regulation 1916).
The legislation did not require proof that someone was aiding the enemy.

Anti-Germanism
As war continued, civilians demonstrated their patriotism through anti-German
behaviour and attitudes. For example:
• Australians refused to buy German beer and protested against government use of
products ‘made in Germany’.
• Workers took strike action to force the dismissal of ‘Germans’ among them.
• Concert halls banned the music of German composers.
• State schools in New South Wales debated whether or not teachers should be allowed
to continue teaching the German language.
• Popular opinion forced the resignation of South Australia’s Australian-born Attorney-
General, Hermann Homberg.

Chapter 7  |  World War I 291

 Source 4
A map of South Australia Governments and businesses responded to public pressure and changed any names
that the Sydney associated with Britain’s enemies. This enthusiasm for renaming saw ‘Frankfurters’ become
Mirror published on ‘saveloys’; ‘German’ sausages relabelled ‘Belgian’; and German Shepherds called ‘Alsatians’.
17 June 1916
Civilians were quick to report any breaches of
the regulations and sometimes used this to their
own advantage. Some ‘British’ Australians, under
the guise of patriotism, accused their competitors
of hiding their German origins. The owner of a
Melbourne cleaning and dyeing company reported
that three of his business rivals were Germans
trading under British names. A waiter sent the
government a list of ‘enemy aliens’ working in
Melbourne restaurants.
The Trading with the Enemy Acts 1914–1916
banned trade with individuals or companies from
enemy countries. The Defence Department interned
‘German’ Australians who directed or managed
companies that competed with those run by ‘British’
Australians. Edmund Resch, of the Sydney beer
brewing family, was one of the most famous of these
internees, even though he had spent 50 years of
his life in Australia. The government feared that,
Source question even if they were naturalised British subjects, these people might use their business
Identify the perspective opportunities to aid the German war effort.
of the creator of
source 4. Internees and internment camps
The Department of Defence classified 6890 men, women and children as ‘enemy aliens’
internment: the practice and sent them, for various periods of time, to internment camps. Internees had no right
of keeping people under to trial, jury or information about the length of time they had to remain in the camp.
guard in a specific area, Most of the internees were of German or Austro-Hungarian background. Over two-
particularly during wartime thirds of them were Australian residents before World War I. They included people who
had British citizenship, those who were second and third generation Australians and
even those with family members serving in the AIF. The remainder (about 2400) were
either Germans whom the British sent to Australia from British-controlled areas of
South-East Asia or sailors who had been stranded here when war broke out.
Initially the government established camps in each of the six Australian states. In July
1915 it transferred all the internees to camps in New South Wales. The main internment
camp was at Holsworthy, near Liverpool. The government also established:
• a camp at Berrima for sailors and officers
• a camp at Trial Bay for internees from South-East Asia and the Pacific
• a camp at Bourke for other German nationals and their families.
For many, the train journey to the new camps in New South Wales was a humiliating
experience. Guards forced them to wear handcuffs and showed little respect for the
internees’ rights or property.
Internees responded to the boredom of camp life by organising their own
entertainment, cultural events and sporting competitions:
• At Berrima, internees made model boats and organised an exhibition to display them.
• At Trial Bay, where many of the internees were artists, musicians and actors, they
organised concerts, established a café and took up tennis, hockey and swimming to
pass the time. The guards allowed some of them to sell their art and craft work to the
local community.

292 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

 Source 5
Major Corbett rose from his desk and informed us that we would be going to the Rottnest Island
An extract from The
camp .  .  . His crisp, cold words were like an electric shock. I was stunned. Gaining some composure
Home Fires by Anthony
I walked to Major Corbett to verify whether I, too, was included in the group. ‘Yes, every­-
Splivalo, who had
body!’ he replied sourly, .  .  . I then asked permission to run home to say goodbye to my
migrated to Australia Australian family and to my brother, and at the same time to gather enough clothes for one
from his village on the change, at least. He snapped at me with an arrogance not easily forgotten: ‘Nobody must leave
Dalmatian coast in the hall!’ I was terribly frightened, and felt as if in the grip of some monster. What harm had
1911. He was eventually I ever done to anybody? .  .  .
interned at Holsworthy Thus, just a few months after my seventeenth birthday, I became Western Australia’s
in New South Wales. youngest prisoner of war .  .  .
Around me soldiers, rifles, bayonets, cartridge belts and awful military officiality [sic]. Our
Source questions guards marched like conquerors .  .  . Men, women and children lined the streets to watch us
1 Identify the event the pass. They stood silently, showing no enmity, looking puzzled as if unable to piece things
writer of source 5 is together. I bitterly resented being exposed to public gaze like a criminal under armed guards
describing. .  .  . I noticed that Mrs Hehir was wiping tears from her warm and friendly eyes. My heart was
2 What motives, values heavy too. The picture of this Australian mother weeping for her foreign ward on his way to a
and attitudes explain prisoner of war camp is deeply etched in my memory.
Major Corbett’s Anthony Splivalo, The Home Fires, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, Fremantle, 1982, pp. 57–8.
behaviour?
3 Identify examples
of emotive language
the writer used
to describe his
experience.
4 Contrast this with
the language he used
to describe Major
Corbett’s attitudes
and responses.

Source 6
A photograph showing

AWM H17352
part of the internment
camp at Holsworthy,
New South Wales

Source 7
A photograph of some
AWM H17378

of the living quarters

for the Holsworthy
internees

Chapter 7  |  World War I 293

 Source 8
A photograph showing
some of the German
internees from the
Berrima internment
camp out boating in
1916

AWM H12132/39
Source questions
1 Describe what sources 6, 7 and 8 show about living conditions for internees.
2 What circumstances might have led to each of these photographs being taken?
3 Who might have been the intended audiences for each of these photos?
4 Use your own knowledge to comment on the usefulness and reliability of sources 6–8 for
someone researching the experiences of Germans in Australia during World War I.

Joining the AIF

Many families of German descent encouraged their sons to prove their loyalty to Australia
by volunteering for service in the AIF. About 18  000 did so. Some already had anglicised
surnames; some changed their surnames to avoid problems in gaining acceptance to the
AIF; others had German background on their mothers’ side only and so this was not an
issue. Some served at Gallipoli and many served on the Western Front.

The most famous person of German descent serving in the AIF was General John Monash,
Monash’s parents had dropped the ‘c’ from their surname, Monasch, before John was born.
Monash commanded the Australian troops in the final assault against the German forces from
August 1918. On 12 August 1918, King George V knighted Monash on the battlefield. This was
the first time in 200 years that a monarch had done this. Monash emerged from World War I as
Australia’s best-known and most highly respected war leader. Melbourne’s Monash University
is named after him.

At war’s end
Anti-German feeling continued into the 1920s:
• A German butcher was the victim of a 1500-strong crowd protest outside his shop
during the armistice celebrations.
• In 1919, the Commonwealth Public Service recommended against the employment of
people of German descent.
• The Commonwealth Government implemented a policy of deporting so-called ‘enemy
aliens’ and forced 6150 Germans and other ‘enemy alien’ nationals to leave Australia.
• The government continued to ban trade with Germany until the early 1920s and also
refused to take migrants from Germany.

294 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

 The changing role of women
Although Australian women had the vote, they did not have equality with men in
military and economic spheres. Australia did not need women to replace men in the
paid workforce as desperately as did countries like Germany and Britain. While women
in those countries took on ‘men’s work’, Australian women’s main wartime work
was in volunteer work and in poorly paid traditionally ‘female’ roles. The Australian
government refused women roles that many would have liked as members of auxiliary
units attached to the armed forces.

Voluntary work
Lady Helen Munro-Ferguson, wife of the Governor-General, helped form the Australian
Branch of the British Red Cross Society. She became its first president.
The organisation’s patriotic focus and links with the social elite attracted many
middle-class women, and significant donations from groups such as the Australian
Jockey Club. Women attended working bees where, over the period of the war, they
produced thousands of items of clothing for the soldiers abroad. The Red Cross also
sent food parcels to Australian prisoners of war and provided assistance to families by
establishing a Wounded and Missing Inquiry Bureau.
The Australian Comforts Fund (ACF) was the other key organisation for volunteer
work. Women officially established it in 1916 by joining together similar organisations
from each state. The ACF provided ‘comfort boxes’, which contained the ‘luxury’ food,
clothing or other items that went beyond the basics supplied by the AIF. These included
such things as:
• cakes and puddings • writing materials
• biscuits, condensed milk and sugar • newspapers
• cigarettes, tobacco and matches • extra clothing
• chewing gum • messages of support.
• handkerchiefs

Source 9
Photograph showing the Tin with Christmas
contents of a tin that message from the
the Australian Comforts Australian Comforts Fund
Fund sent to Private
Sidney Thomas Elliott
of the 21st Battalion for
Christmas 1915. During
the war, women sent
two million Christmas
comfort boxes to A tin of
tobacco Two packets
soldiers overseas. A box of of cigarettes
matches

Source question
A box with
How might someone two cigars
today judge the
suitability of the
contents of this comfort
AWM REL/00446
box?

Chapter 7  |  World War I 295

 In keeping with its motto, ‘Keep the Fit man Fit’ the ACF helped prevent trench foot
by ensuring that soldiers, who had no washing facilities in the trenches, had an adequate
supply of dry socks. Every few weeks, organisers sent 10  000 pairs of hand-knitted socks
to the men overseas — each pair representing about ten hours of labour. By late 1918,
Australian women had knitted 1  354  328 pairs of socks for the ACF.

Source 10
A photograph showing
women in Sydney
preparing parcels to
send to the soldiers of
the 30th Battalion

Source 11
A photograph
showing soldiers
of the Australian

AWM A03343
13th Battalion lining
up to receive comfort
boxes at Ribemont in
France
Source question
How are sources 10 and 11 useful for our
understanding of women’s volunteer work during
World War I?

Other important voluntary organisations

were Sydney’s Soldiers’ Sock Fund, which sent
21  000 pairs of socks overseas each year and
Adelaide’s Cheer-Up society, which helped
organise food, concerts and gifts for soldiers.
Women’s voluntary work also supported the
shipping costs of these organisations. They
raised funds by making and selling cakes,
running button days, fetes and street stalls, and
by organising and participating in door-knock
appeals. Voluntary work enabled some middle-
class women to develop skills in fundraising,
organisation, management, and collection and
distribution that they might not have gained
otherwise.
AWM E00401

The AWSC
In late 1916, hundreds of women joined the newly-formed Australian Women’s Service
Corps (AWSC). They wanted to prepare for a more active war role — performing non-
combatant tasks at the battle front as ambulance drivers, cooks or hospital orderlies. They
wanted work that would release the ‘able-bodied men who are now performing these
duties’ for active military service. The AWSC also conducted basic military training for its
members. The Defence Department refused to take these women seriously.

296 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

 The paid workforce
Women’s participation in the paid workforce rose from 24 per cent in 1914 to 37 per cent
in 1918.
Women found their war work largely restricted to traditionally ‘female’ areas of work
in the food, clothing, footwear, printing and textile industries. They also continued to
work as shop assistants, in office work, in teaching and as nurses.

Source 12
A 1918 photo showing
women sewing uniforms
at the Commonwealth
Clothing Factory,
Southbank, Melbourne.
The factory was well
ventilated and well lit
and this, along with the
latest machinery, made
it a ‘model’ for modern
production methods.

AWM DAX2294
Whenever women replaced men in the workplace, it was only as part of a ‘reserve’
labour force. This meant that people believed women had a short-term place in the
workforce rather than a long-term right to a position there. Some women took temporary
jobs in the police force, in farming, in factories and in small businesses. Clerical work was
popular, with about 10  000 women undertaking this form of employment during the war.
Unions feared that if women did ‘men’s
Source 13 work’ at female pay rates, they would
Cartoon titled threaten men’s jobs or force men to accept
‘That Promise’ lower wages. Society expected that when
from The Worker the war ended, soldiers would return to
10 February 1916 their homes, their families and ‘their’ jobs.

Source questions
1 Identify the message in source 13.
2 Whose perspective does it represent?
3 What could unionists have campaigned for in
order to make men’s jobs more secure?

THAT PROMISE
‘Melbourne women have been invited to enter the hitherto
exclusive Chamber of Finance as bank clerks.’
— News item
‘Many returned soldiers complain that the promise of employers
to keep their jobs open has been broken.’
— News item
BANKER (to returned soldier): ‘Yes, yes; possibly I DID say
something about keeping your position vacant, but it has lately
been capably filled by a charming young woman (to whom wages
are no object); and I feel sure that you, as a soldier, will not be so
unchivalrous as to ask me to discharge her to reinstate YOU!’

Chapter 7  |  World War I 297

 Women’s pre-war wages were usually about half of what men were paid for doing
the same work. This was decided in the 1907 Harvester Case, in which Justice Higgins
established the principle of a basic wage that would enable a man to support a wife and
three children (see unit 6.8 in chapter 6). Women’s wages were to be a percentage of this
amount. In the Rural Workers’ Case in 1912, Justice Higgins refused women the right to
equal pay for equal work because they ‘did not have to feed a family’.
He assumed that all ‘breadwinners’ were men and that all females would have a man
to support them. World War I showed the reality to be different, with some men enlisting
to escape unwelcome family responsibilities. The government responded by ensuring
soldiers allocated part of their pay to wives and children at home.

Women’s recruitment role

Australia needed to attract volunteers to serve in an army outside Australia as the law
restricted the regular army to service on Australian soil. The government expected
women to show their patriotism by putting pressure on men to enlist. It created posters
depicting women as potentially helpless and passive victims of unrestricted German
aggression, and enlistment as the only means of protecting them. In the conscription
Source 14 campaigns of 1916 and 1917, women launched appeals for both the ‘yes’ and the ‘no’
An extract from vote.
Jacqueline Manuel’s
article ‘We are the
women who mourn
Grief and worry
our dead’ in Journal Women on the home front were part of a community for whom sad news was an ever-
of the Australian War present threat. Many had a husband, brother, son or friend serving overseas. In a world
Memorial, Issue 29, without television or the internet, most had no mental image of the places where their
November 1996 loved ones battled, the conditions they endured or the cemeteries where they were buried.
Some women could balance the news of a
Although it was never spoken of, my grandmother had told me that loved one’s death with the thought that it had
my old great aunty’s husband had died soon after they had married. been for ‘a noble cause’. At the same time, they
He had gone to the Great War of 1914–1918 and did not return. had to re-make their lives with the knowledge
They had no children. She had never remarried. She lived in the that someone they cared for would not return.
same house, alone, for more than 60 years. This was a personal and individual hardship
that the nation could not share.
Source question As war continued and numbers of casualties on the Western Front multiplied, some
Identify the writer’s women became more cynical and more questioning when faced with government and
purpose in source 14. community expectations that they continue to express patriotic enthusiasm for war.

activities
Check knowledge and understanding
1 Create five topic sentences to summarise the war’s impact on the Australian home front.
2 List three ways Australians expressed anti-German feelings during World War I. Explain
how these were a denial of people’s rights.
3 Explain why Australians engaged in anti-German behaviour and attitudes during World
War I.
4 What does the example of General Monash indicate about the ‘need’ for anti-Germanism
during World War I?
5 Create a mind map to summarise women’s experiences of war on the home front.
6 How did Australian women’s war work differ from the work of women in Germany and
Britain, and what was the reason for this?
7 What were the advantages and disadvantages of women’s wartime roles?
STUDENT WORKBOOK 7.5 The home front

298 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

7.6 The conscription debate
divides Australia
In late 1916, the AIF was the only force made up entirely of volunteers. The war showed
no signs of ending. Australians’ enthusiastic responses to recruitment had decreased
as they learned more about battlefront conditions and the high rates of Australian
casualties in France. By June 1916, voluntary enlistment in the AIF was less than half
of the 16  500 men per month who were needed to maintain Australia’s fighting capacity.
Following a visit to Britain and France, the Australian Prime Minister, William (‘Billy’)
Hughes, proposed a solution — conscription.

Source 1 1915 1916 1917 1918

18 000
A column graph showing
enlistment in the AIF 16 000
1915–18 14 000

12 000

10 000

8 000

6 000

4 000

2 000

0
c.

ne

.
rch

ne

.
c.
rch

v.
rch

ne

.
c.
rch

ne

pt
pt

pt

pt

No
De

De

De
Ju

Ju
Ju

Ju

Se
Se

Se

Se
Ma

Ma
Ma

Ma

Source question
Use source 1 and your own knowledge to identify and describe the general trends regarding
enlistment over the period 1915–18.

To introduce this, Hughes needed Parliament’s approval. This was virtually impossible
to achieve as Hughes’ own party, the Labor Party, was against conscription and so
was most of the Senate. Only a year earlier, Hughes himself had declared: ‘In no
circumstances would I agree to send men out of this country to fight against their will.’
The Defence Act 1903 (Cwlth), gave the Australian government the power to conscript
men for military service inside Australia but not for service overseas. Hughes sought
the power to conscript men for military service outside Australia. Hughes’s tactic was to
pressure Parliament (and his party) to agree to conscription by gaining public approval
referendum: in Australia for the idea in a national referendum. Hughes hoped to gain sufficient ‘yes’ votes to
today, this is a vote in pressure the Labor-dominated Parliament to change its mind.
which people indicate their In a referendum people are asked to vote directly on an issue. In Australia today the
support for or opposition to
word referendum refers specifically to a vote to change the Australian Constitution.
a proposed change to the
Australian Constitution. The The 1916 and 1917 votes were technically plebiscites or opinion polls. Australia has
1916 and 1917 votes were had three national plebiscites: the two conscription plebiscites and a 1977 plebiscite to
really plebiscites — that is, choose the Australian National Anthem.
direct votes on an important In 1916 and 1917, Billy Hughes fought hard to convince Australians to vote ‘yes’ in
issue. the conscription referenda he introduced. He announced the first referendum with the
words, ‘I am going to work for this referendum and its success as if it were the only thing
for which I live’. His determination provoked a debate that bitterly divided the nation
and forced Australians to consider where their primary loyalty lay. It also created a
confrontation between Hughes and his own party as opposition to conscription was part
of the Labor Party platform.

Chapter 7  |  World War I 299

 On 28 October 1916, Australian voters responded to the question:
Are you in favour of the government having in this grave emergency the same compulsory
powers over citizens in regard to requiring their military service, for the term of this
war, outside the Commonwealth, as it now has in regard to military service within the
Commonwealth?
For the ‘yes’ vote to succeed, it needed both a majority of people and a majority of
states voting for it. The result was very close, with 1 087 557 ‘yes’ votes and 1 160 033 ‘no’
votes. Three states voted ‘yes’ and three ‘no’. Following the failure of his campaign:
• the Labor Party passed a vote of no confidence in Hughes as its leader
• Hughes and 24 of his supporters left the Labor Party and joined with the opposition
Liberal Party to form the Nationalist Party
• Hughes and the Nationalists had a resounding victory at the May 1917 federal election
and Hughes decided to try a second referendum on conscription.

Working historically
Interpreting political cartoons

/// Political cartoons are cartoons that comment on current political issues,
personalities, ideas and events by providing an analysis of them in picture form. They
present people in the form of caricatures, emphasising and/or exaggerating certain personal
characteristics, providing them with particular physical or mental attributes or placing them
in certain roles. Political cartoons often contain symbols that have a deeper meaning than
what is there on the surface. They often also include
irony by means of words or images that are stating the
opposite of their true meaning.
The political cartoonist wants to deliver a message
in a humorous and memorable way and seek to educate
and make people think more carefully about a particular
issue. To analyse a political cartoon, you need to identify:
• its target — who or what is the cartoonist making fun
of
• how the cartoonist is using caricature and/or symbols
to convey a message
• what message the cartoonist wants to pass on to you.
To understand and interpret the political cartoon at
left, you need to:
• identify the context in which the cartoonist created it,
i.e. the 1916–17 conscription debates
• recognise how the cartoonist uses words and images
to convey his message. Here the word ‘case’ in the
phrase ‘the case for Labor’ has a double meaning,
which the cartoonist reinforces by showing a
particular kind of case.
• look at how the cartoonist depicts the key figure, Prime
Minister Hughes, as an undertaker or cabinet maker for
an undertaker. Would you describe him as threatening,
determined, purposeful, lost, single-minded . . .?
• identify whose ideas the cartoonist is giving voice to
and what values and attitudes these express.
Source 2 Source questions
Claude Marquet’s cartoon 1 Identify the issue the cartoon is addressing.
from the Australian 2 Describe the perspective the cartoon is depicting.
Worker, 5 October 1916, 3 Describe what the cartoonist suggests will be the effect of this issue on the Labor Party
depicting Hughes building and identify techniques he uses to achieve this.
the ‘case’ for Labor

300 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

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 Australians voted on a second conscription referendum on Thursday 20 December
1917. The question this time was:
Are you in favour of the proposal of the Commonwealth Government for reinforcing the
Australian Imperial Force overseas?
Once again the vote was close with the ‘no’ vote of 1  181  747 winning by a slim
majority over the ‘yes’ vote of 1  015  159. This time, four of the six states voted ‘no’.
The AIF continued its participation as an entirely voluntary force for the remaining
11 months of war.

Divided loyalties
The conscription debates of 1916–17 reflected the division of loyalties that had emerged
in Australia since the late nineteenth century, and especially since Federation in 1901.
On the one hand, Australians felt a loyalty to their own young nation and a desire to
shape its destiny. At the same time, most still felt the ‘crimson thread of kinship’ — the
strong links to Britain that could be seen in the desire to re-create British culture in a
land on the other side of the world.
The conscription issue showed war to be dividing people within Australian society. It
also highlighted other divisions within Australia about religion, class and the inequality
of sacrifice that many people felt Australian soldiers were being asked to bear.

out’, added to the pressure on him. The day before the

When war broke out, Les Darcy (1895–1917) was already referendum, in defiance of the War Precautions Act, Darcy
a professional boxer and a sporting hero. He won 46 of stowed away on a ship to New York, where he intended to
his 50 professional bouts; many people think he was contest the world middleweight title.
one of the greatest boxers Australia has ever produced. The controversy about the manner in which Darcy left
Between January 1915 and September 1916, Darcy had Australia lost him many boxing opportunities in the United
22 consecutive wins. He held the Australian middleweight States and saw him branded a ‘coward’. He enlisted in the
and heavyweight titles. His winnings helped relieve the US Air Corps. Not long after, two of his teeth, which had
financial hardships endured by his family in Maitland. been stapled back into his gums after a fight in Sydney,
Darcy was under 21 and his mother refused to sign the became infected. The infection spread to his bloodstream.
enlistment papers for him. The government, keen to see He developed pneumonia and died in hospital on 24 May
him enlist (as an example to other young men), denied 1917.
him the passport he needed to accept fights in the United Back in Sydney, all was forgiven and over 250  000
States, where he was also well known. people lined the streets to pay tribute to him on his journey
The 1916 referendum campaign, with slogans like, to Central Station for the train journey back to Maitland,
‘The War cannot be won on points. It must be a knock- where he is buried.

The pro-conscription campaign

The campaign by Hughes for a ‘yes’ vote was organised through the nationwide
branches of the Reinforcements Referendum Council and endorsed by major
newspapers and journals including The Bulletin. Hughes embarked on a national
speaking tour that was supported by the Council’s propaganda posters and leaflets. In
1916, his arguments focused on the themes of maintaining the AIF at full strength and
maintaining national honour by not deserting Britain in its hour of need.
The campaign for compulsory military service had begun with the formation of the
Universal Service League (USL) in 1915. This group represented mainly Australian
conservatives of the middle and upper classes. Its membership included:
• prominent academics from Sydney and Melbourne universities
• Protestant church leaders and businessmen
• former Prime Minister Alfred Deakin.
This group and the Women’s National League, the Women’s Christian Temperance
Union and the National Council of Women were the main supporters of conscription.

Chapter 7  |  World War I 301

 Source 3
A photograph of Billy
Hughes (with arms
raised) during the 1916
conscription campaign

Source 4
A photo showing one
of the badges worn by
people encouraging a
‘yes’ vote

AWM A03376
Source 5
‘To every man and woman in Australia’, Mr Hughes concluded, ‘the appeal of our soldiers
An extract from
fighting on the battlefield . . . reaches straight to our heart. These . . . brave volunteers who went
Hughes’s speech at the
through the glories and agonies of Gallipoli and are now gaining fresh laurels in the gigantic
Sydney Town Hall in
battle on the soil of France, repose full trust in us. Shall we fail them now? (Cries of ‘No’).
September 1916 Shall we condemn them to death — (‘no, no’) — for they go to their death unless we send
support . . . Are their sacrifices and those of our glorious dead to be made in vain? (‘No’). Are
their deaths to be unavenged? No, I say, a thousand times no!
‘ . . . Who among us will support a base abandonment of our fellow citizens who are fighting
for us to the death with deathless heroism? Tens of thousands of our kinsmen in Britain have
died that we might live free and unmolested (Cheers). Is there one man who will say that
we ought not to pay the debt that we owe to Britain with our lives if need be, for shielding
our country with the bodies of her glorious soldiers and sailors from the scorching blast of
war? (Cheers). In this great hour, when our country and all we hold dear are in deadly peril,
who among us will not rise greatly and . . .…prove himself by his deeds worthy of these great
sacrifices, and prove himself worthy of the great privileges of citizenship in a free democracy?’
Sydney Morning Herald, 19 September 1916.

Source questions
1 Describe the image of Billy Hughes suggested by source 3.
2 What justification does source 4 provide for supporting a ‘yes’ vote?
3 Why do you think the creator has chosen these particular colours for the badge?
4 Identify the arguments for conscription that Hughes emphasises in source 5.

People supported conscription for a variety of reasons:

• Many people viewed conscription as an extension of their loyalty to Britain.
• Protestant church leaders saw it as an essential response in a campaign against the
evil ‘Hun’.
• Women often saw conscription as a means of supporting those men who were already
fighting.

302 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

 • Others argued that conscription would ensure that the burden of service was more
fairly shared than under a voluntary system.
• Some people argued that conscription could be used to advantage to exclude men
with wives and children, men whose skills were essential to the workplace, and males
under 19 years of age because they were too young.
The 1917 campaign for a ‘yes’ vote took up an additional theme, branding those men
who had not enlisted as ‘shameful’.

Source 6
The Anti’s Creed,
a poster outlining
the supposed
characteristics of the
anti-conscriptionists

Industrial Workers of the

World, an organisation
A passenger ship that sank
dedicated to encouraging
after being torpedoed by a
the bonds between workers
German submarine in 1915
regardless of their nationality

An Irish political party fighting

for independence from British nurse working in
British rule Belgium who helped British
soldiers to escape capture
by the Germans. As she
awaited execution in 1915, she
famously said ‘Patriotism is
not enough’.

Source question
Write 5–8 lines to
explain the image of the
anti-conscriptionist that
is created in source 6.
What propaganda
The organisation that created techniques does it
the source use (see the Working
Historically feature in
unit 7.5)?
AWM RC00317

The anti-conscription campaign

A number of anti-conscription organisations already existed before 1916. These were
often linked to a general anti-war movement and included:
• the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), an international socialist group
• the Society of Friends (Quakers)
• the Women’s Peace Army.
Groups that focused more specifically on anti-conscription goals included:
• the Australian Peace Alliance
• the No Conscription Fellowship.
Trade unions also campaigned against conscription. They feared that their members
might be replaced by cheap foreign or female labour and that the introduction of
conscription would provide opportunities for employers to abandon hard-won worker

Chapter 7  |  World War I 303

 Source 7 rights. During the 1916 referendum campaign, members of the Australian Railways Union
took advantage of their jobs to organise the distribution of thousands of copies of an anti-
A photo showing one
conscription manifesto that Senator Pearce, the Minister for Defence, had banned.
of the badges worn by
people encouraging a
‘no’ vote

Source 8
An anti-conscription
poster sponsored by the
Labor Party

Source 9 Source questions

A photograph of 1 What does source 7 reveal about the perspective of its creator?
Dr Daniel Mannix, the 2 What argument does source 8 give for opposing conscription?
Catholic Archbishop of 3 What does source 8 reveal about the role of women in the conscription campaigns?
Melbourne
A variety of attitudes motivated anti-conscriptionists:
• Some anti-conscriptionists argued that conscription was
wrong because war itself was immoral.
• Others argued that it was unjust to force someone to go to war.
• Some were motivated primarily by self-interest.
Opposition to conscription came mainly from within the
Labor Party and its trade union and Catholic supporters. These
groups feared that:
• the working classes would bear the burden of conscription.
• the working classes would be over-burdened in any case if
the main asset of the more privileged classes — their wealth
— was not also conscripted.
Labor Party supporters often viewed the pro-conscription
lobby as war profiteers who, in their selfishness, would happily
condemn others to die while they stayed home and made
money.

Archbishop Mannix
Dr Daniel Mannix, the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne,
was one of the most outspoken and controversial critics of
conscription. Having been born and educated in Ireland, Mannix
was reluctant to support any British cause. This was particularly
the case following the British government’s harsh treatment
of the 1916 Irish rebels and the execution of their leaders. To
Mannix and his followers, this event served only to prove that

304 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

 the British could behave just as barbarically as the ‘Huns’ (who in 1914 had been falsely
portrayed as having ruthlessly bayoneted Belgian babies). Mannix argued that Australia
had already given enough and that the war was being prolonged for economic advantages.
Farmers were also on the anti-conscription side. They feared that a compulsory
call‑up of all men in the 18–40 age group would deprive them of workers.

Source 10
We are told that the rich are giving their money, and that the poor should, therefore, cheerfully
An extract from a
give or risk their lives .  .  .
speech given by
I say that this cheap talk about equal sacrifice is galling, absurd and ridiculous. (Applause).
Dr Daniel Mannix
The wealthy classes would be very glad to send the last man, but they have no notion of
giving the last shilling, nor even the first. (Loud applause.) I warn you not to be under the
delusion that the capitalists will, in the end, pay for the war. You know that these people have
a remarkable facility for passing these obligations on. (Laughter) .  .  . While there was every
justification for England’s coming into the war to protect Belgium and France, and to protect
herself, there was — and is — no justification for that country to go into the war or to remain
at war for the purpose of securing the economic domination of the world. (Applause.) When
we can say we have vindicated the rights of the small nations, and secured ourselves from
aggression, we should think of making peace .  .  . …
Source question ….  .  . it is a great exaggeration for Mr Hughes to state that 7000 men are required to be sent
Outline the reasons for to the front monthly from Australia. At the very outside, the military authorities should not
opposing conscription need more than 5000, and I am inclined to believe that perhaps 4000 would be enough.
that Mannix puts Advocate, 8 December 1917.
forward in source 10.

activities
Check knowledge and understanding
1 Distinguish the main difference between recruitment for the AIF and recruitment for
other nations’ armies by 1916.
2 Construct a timeline to show the main events relevant to the conscription issue in the
period 1915–17.
3 In what ways did the conscription issue create problems within Australian society?
4 a Clarify the actual request being made to the voting public in each of the conscription
referenda.
b Identify the words/phrases that might have encouraged people to vote ‘yes’.
c What question was not put directly to the voting public? What do you think were the
reasons for this?
d Try rewording the questions to encourage a ‘no’ vote.
5 Construct a table that lists the groups opposed to conscription and the reasons for their
opposition.
6 Explain why some people would have considered it inappropriate to have Daniel Mannix
giving his views on conscription.
Research and communicate
7 Write a speech either for or against conscription. Your speech should:
a show an understanding of the attitudes and concerns of Australians in the years
1916–17
b include as much factual information as possible
c inspire your audience to support you.
For more ideas, use books and the internet to investigate speeches, pamphlets and
posters of the time. Present your speech to the class.
Use the Billy Hughes at war weblink to explore an online exhibition about
eBook plus
this complex and controversial figure.
STUDENT WORKBOOK 7.6 The conscription debate

Chapter 7  |  World War I 305

 7.7 Australia’s commemoration
of World War I
The armistice and ceasefire that brought an end to the
‘war to end all wars’ (see unit 7.4) came into effect at
11 am on 11 November 1918 — the eleventh hour of the
eleventh day of the eleventh month. People celebrated
the war’s end and mourned its high cost. Australians
had a high death toll among the countries that fought
in World War I, and it would have been hard to find an
Australian family not affected by over four years of
fighting. Within a population of nearly 4.5 million:
• 416 809 Australians volunteered for military service
• 324 000 of these served overseas
• 155 000 were wounded
• 61 720 Australians died either at sea, in the air
or more commonly, on foreign soil — 45 000 in
France and Belgium and over 8000 on the Gallipoli
Peninsula in Turkey.
In the nearly 100 years since the end of the war,
Australians have established traditions and practices
that recall the sacrifices of Australians who served and
AWM H11563
Source 1 died in World War I. For families too far away to attend a funeral service or see a burial
plot, these traditions and practices provide some comfort. It has also helped people of
A photograph of a
later generations to understand the experiences of those who fought, although some
Sydney street scene
after the announcement historians would say this has become
of the armistice in more of a sentimental than a realistic
November 1918 understanding (see unit 7.8).

Source 2 25 April: Anzac Day

The cover for the Anzac The Anzac tradition (see unit 7.8)
Day Commemoration grew from the sacrifices and mateship
Program, 25 April 1916 that emerged in the campaign on
(Sydney: Carter’s Print, the Turkish peninsula. These are
1916) observed in a public holiday each year
Source questions on the anniversary of the Gallipoli
landing — 25 April.
1 To what are the
Australians first commemorated
following aspects of
the Gallipoli campaign on 25 April
source 2 referring
1916. The acting Prime Minister
— the background
officially named this day ‘Anzac Day’
scenery, the three
figures and the flag? in the same year. In 1923, people
2 For what type of began the dawn services that are
event do you think now an Anzac Day tradition. Another
people used this feature of Anzac Day is the Anzac Day
booklet? March when men and women who
have served in wars march through
two-up: a gambling game the streets of towns and cities lined
in which punters predict
with well-wishers wanting to pay
the results after two coins
are thrown into the air their respects. Many then move on
— ‘heads’, ‘tails’ or ‘odds’ to reunions, where men traditionally
(meaning one of each) play two-up.

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 Nowadays, many Australians travel to
Turkey to be part of Anzac Day services
at Gallipoli, while others join in Anzac
Day ceremonies at Villers-Bretonneux in
France.
The ancient Greeks believed that
wearing rosemary helped improve the
memory and, in the centuries since,
rosemary has become a symbol of
remembrance. On Anzac Day, soldiers and
members of the public often wear a sprig
of rosemary to commemorate the war dead
and use poppies for memorial wreaths.

Source 3
Photograph showing crowds attending the
Anzac Day dawn service at the Shrine of
Remembrance, Melbourne, 2004

11 November: Remembrance Day

In Australia and in other Allied nations, 11 November became known as Armistice Day,
a day to remember those who had died in World War I. After further high losses in
World War II, the Australian government changed the name of the day to Remembrance
The one-minute
Day to commemorate the dead from both world wars. This day now commemorates all
silence tradition
began in 1919 in Australians who have died in conflicts fought for Australia.
London following Remembrance Day ceremonies include a one-minute silence at 11 am to recall the
the suggestion of silence of the World War I dead and of the ceasefire that silenced the guns of war. People
Melbourne journalist also commemorate this day with wreath-laying ceremonies at local and national war
Edward George memorials. Wearing a red poppy is another Remembrance Day tradition. The Flanders
Honey in a letter to Poppy, as it has become known, grew wild in the trenches, bomb craters and battlefields
the Evening News. of the Western Front and also in Turkey, where a valley near Anzac Cove was called
Poppy Valley.

The Australian War

Memorial, Canberra
War correspondent and historian
C.E.W. Bean (1879–1968) played a major
role in the establishment of an ongoing
commemoration of the Australians who
served in World War I — the Australian
War Memorial in Canberra. It includes:
• the Roll of Honour, a series of panels
listing all those who died in the war
• a Commemorative Roll that lists those
who died from war wounds later
• relics of war experiences that
Australians brought home with them
• a series of visual displays depicting
the day-to-day experiences of those
AWM PAIU2001/056.10

who fought.

Source 4
A photo showing the Commemorative Area
of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra

CHAPTER 7 | World War I 307

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 The Mt Ainslie Aboriginal memorial in Canberra — a small plaque on a rock — is
far more modest and reflects the government’s failure to recognise and commemorate
Indigenous ex-soldiers’ contributions to the war effort.
Source 5
It simply expected them to return to their former lives. Federal and state governments
A photograph of the created ‘soldier settlement’ schemes to provide and allocate farming land for ex-soldiers.
tomb of the Unknown
Records indicate that only one Aboriginal ex-soldier ever received land under these
Soldier at the Australian
schemes; the same scheme often took land away from Aborigines who had previously
War Memorial in
been using it.
Canberra
In April 2011, the Department of Veterans Affairs
took some official government initiatives towards
recognition of Indigenous Australians’ roles in war.

War graves
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
(CWGC) looks after the graves and memorials
of all those from Commonwealth countries who
served in World War I (and in wars since). The
Office of Australian War Graves (OAWG) works
to ensure that people recognise and remember
AWM PAIU2003/001.11

Australians’ wartime contributions. In 1993, the

Australian government exhumed (dug up) a World
War I unknown Australian soldier from the Adelaide
cemetery in Villers-Bretonneux, France, and reburied
him at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

We do not know this Australian’s name and we never will. The Unknown Australian Soldier . . . was one of those who,
We do not know his rank or his battalion .   .  
. where by his deeds, proved that real nobility and grandeur belongs
he was born .  .  . how and when he died .  .  . his age or his not to empires and nations, but to the people on whom they,
circumstances — whether he was from the city or the bush; in the last resort, always depend.
what occupation he left to become a soldier; what religion, That is surely at the heart of the Anzac story, the Australian
if he had a religion; if he was married or single. We do not legend which emerged from the war. It is a legend not of
know who loved him or whom he loved. If he had children sweeping military victories so much as triumphs against the
we do not know who they are. His family is lost to us as he odds, of courage and ingenuity in adversity. It is a legend
was lost to them. We will never know who this Australian of free and independent spirits whose discipline derived less
was. from military formalities and customs than from the bonds
Yet he has always been among those we have honoured of mateship and the demands of necessity .  .  .
.  . he was one of the 45  
.   000 Australians who died on This Unknown Australian is not interred here to glorify
the Western Front. One of the 416   000 Australians who war over peace; or to assert a soldier’s character above a
volunteered for service in the First World War. One of the civilian’s; or one race or one nation or one religion above
324  000 Australians who served overseas in that war and another; or men above women; or the war in which he fought
one of the 60  000 Australians who died on foreign soil. and died above any other war; or one generation above any
One of the 100  000 Australians who have died in wars this that has or will come later.
century. The Unknown Soldier honours the memory of all those
He is all of them. And he is one of us .  .  . men and women who laid down their lives for Australia .  .  .…

Source 6 Source question

An extract from the Create a dot point summary listing the four or five main points that Prime Minister Keating makes
speech given by the in source 6.
then Prime Minister Paul
Keating on 11 November
1993 at the funeral The Returned and Services League (RSL)
service of the Unknown The Returned and Services League (RSL) was originally established in 1916 as the
Soldier Returned Soldiers and Sailors Imperial League of Australia (RSSILA). It grew out of
the desire of returned soldiers to keep contact with wartime ‘mates’ and the feelings of
camaraderie they had developed through their wartime experiences. The RSL has been

308 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

 Source 7 active ever since in maintaining links among ex-service personnel and in promoting the
The Ode that is spoken commemoration of their war work. Its clubs initially denied membership and entry to
each day in RSL clubs Indigenous ex-servicemen. By 1924, only 9 per cent of those eligible to join had actually
around Australia, done so.
followed by a minute’s
silence, is an extract Visits to the battlefields
from the 1914 elegy For
Turkey
the Fallen, by English
poet Laurence Binyon In recent decades Australians of all ages have begun to travel to Turkey to visit the
(1869–1943). battlefields, cemeteries and museum that commemorate those who served in the
Gallipoli campaign. The Gallipoli campaign is a source of national pride for Turkey as
They shall not grow well as Australia. In 1934, one of Turkey’s military leaders and its first president, Mustafa
old, as we that are Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938), had the following words engraved on the Gallipoli memorial
left grow old; in Turkey:
Age shall not weary Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives  .  .  .  You are now lying in the soil of a
them, nor the years friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and
condemn. the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side now here in this country of ours  .  .  .  you, the
At the going down of
mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are
the sun and in the
now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land. They
morning
We will remember have become our sons as well.
them. The Atatürk Memorial in Anzac Avenue, Canberra, has the same words engraved on it
and is a symbol of the friendship between Australia and Turkey.
Source question
France: Villers-Bretonneux
Outline the message of
Many Australians nowadays visit the areas where Australians fought on the Western
source 7 and identify
Front. The village of Villers-Bretonneux in the Somme region of northern France
the audience Binyon is
commemorates Anzac Day, and its residents even today honour the Australians who won
addressing.
back control of their town from the Germans in April 1918. A number of local streets, for
example the Rue de Melbourne,
recall Australian place names, and
the local war cemetery is called the
• Victorian schoolchildren collected the money to construct (in 1927) the Adelaide cemetery. Villagers are
‘Victoria school’ in Villers-Bretonneux — built in the architectural style of proud to show Australians their
Australian state schools of the period, and decorated with Australian timbers village logo ‘VB’ and enjoy at the
and flora and fauna motifs. At the top of the blackboard in every classroom local pub another link to Australia.
are the words N’oublions jamais l’Australie (Never forget Australia). The
school’s roof space contains a small commemorative museum.
• In 2009, Villers-Bretonneux raised $21  000 to donate to the appeal following activities
Victoria’s Black Saturday bushfires.
Check knowledge and
understanding
Create a mind map using words
Source 8
and pictures to show how
War graves at the Adelaide cemetery Australians commemorate World
in Villers-Bretonneux, France War I.
Use the
eBook plus
Australian
War Memorial
and the Department of Veterans’
Affairs weblinks to find out the
roles of two government groups
in Australia’s commemoration of
World War I.
STUDENT WORKBOOK 7.7
Commemoration

Chapter 7  |  World War I 309

 7.8 Creating and debating the
Anzac legend
legend: a story or belief that The Gallipoli campaign and the Anzac legend that emerged from it have had a
has special significance significant impact on ideas about Australia’s national identity. Although a military
within a particular group or defeat, reports of Australians at Gallipoli have had a profound effect on how Australians
culture
view themselves. For many people, the participation of Australian soldiers in the
Gallipoli campaign symbolises Australia’s coming of age as a nation and demonstrates
the qualities that characterise Australians. British war correspondent Ellis Ashmead-
Bartlett (1881–1931) helped to create this legend with his newspaper report on the
Gallipoli landing.

Source 1
The Australians, who were about to go into action for the first time in trying circumstances,
An extract from Ellis were cheerful, quiet and confident. There was no sign of nerves nor of excitement . . . the boats
Ashmead-Bartlett’s had almost reached the beach when a party of Turks, entrenched ashore, opened a terrible
newspaper article fusillade with rifles and a Maxim [machine gun] .  .  .
‘Australians at The Australians rose to the occasion. Not waiting for orders or for the boats to reach the
Dardanelles: thrilling beach, they sprang into the sea and, forming a sort of rough line, rushed at the enemy trenches.
deeds of heroism’ Their magazines were not charged, so they just went in with cold steel. It was over in a
reporting on Australians minute. The Turks in the first trench were either bayoneted or they ran away and their Maxim
landing at Gallipoli. was captured.
Ashmead-Bartlett Then the Australians found themselves facing an almost perpendicular cliff of loose
‘observed’ the landing sandstone .  .  . Somewhere, half-way up, the enemy had a second trench, strongly held . . . Here
was a tough proposition to tackle in the darkness, but those colonials, practical above all else,
from a battleship
went about it in a practical way .  .  . They stopped for a few minutes .  .  . got rid of their packs,
some distance away and charged their magazines.
and did not arrive at Then this race of athletes proceeded to scale the cliffs without responding to the enemy’s
Gallipoli until 9.30 pm on fire. They lost some men, but did not worry. In less than a quarter of an hour the Turks were
25 April. out of their second position, either bayoneted or fleeing .  .  .
The courage displayed by the wounded Australians will never be forgotten .  .  . Though
many were shot to bits, without hope of recovery, their cheers resounded throughout the night
. . . They were happy because they knew they had been tried for the first time and not found
wanting .  .  . There has been no finer feat in this war than this sudden landing in the dark and
storming the heights .  .  .
Argus, 8 May 1915.

Source questions
1 In source 1, what are the Australians trying to do?
2 Identify the characteristics that the author uses to describe (a) the Australians and (b) the Turks.
3 Using source 1 and the information below, explain why this report would have made many
Australians proud.
4 Why might people question the reliability of source 1 as an account of the Gallipoli landing?

This was the first report on the landing that Australian newspapers published. It
found an appreciative and ready audience among those who:
• were concerned about Australian soldiers’ reputation for being ‘undisciplined’, gained
while they were training in Egypt
• feared that Australians might have behaved poorly in their first military engagement
• wanted to see Australian soldiers at least equal the efforts of British and Canadian
troops (who had performed well in France)
• were looking for a positive national identity for Australia that was distinct from that of
Great Britain
• were concerned about how people of other nationalities would judge Australia in the
world arena.

310 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

 Australians at home responded enthusiastically to this praise. Enlistment figures
for June 1915 (12 505) were nearly double the figures for April. In July, they soared to
36  575 — nearly a 300 per cent increase on the month before.
People used extracts from Ashmead-Bartlett’s report in fund-raising brochures,
theatre playbills and in a booklet that the New South Wales Department of Education
distributed to schoolchildren. One film-maker used it as the basis of a 1915 film entitled
The Hero of the Dardanelles (filmed at Tamarama Beach, Sydney). One woman, in a letter
distributed widely among soldiers, described her feeling on reading Ashmead-Bartlett’s
account as ‘pride’, ‘exultation’ and the sentiment ‘Thank God, I am an Australian’.
From this time onward, reports of what Australians were doing at Gallipoli took
precedence over reports of what the British or anyone else was doing. Ashmead-
Bartlett became something of a media celebrity and people valued and enjoyed his
reports.
Ashmead-Bartlett’s article inspired the creation of a framework for interpreting
events and experiences on the Gallipoli Peninsula and identifying the characteristic
features of the ‘true Australian’ — heroism, mateship, initiative, a disregard for
authority, athletic ability, endurance and a cheeky sense of humour. Australia’s official
war correspondent, Charles Bean, reinforced this image through his own reports from
Gallipoli, through his 1916 best seller, The Anzac Book — a book of soldiers’ stories,
poems and artwork — and ultimately in the 12 volumes of his Official History of
Australia in the War of 1914–18. Bean was conscious of doing this and careful to reject
any submissions to The Anzac Book that did not fit within this formula.

Source 2
An extract from D.A. Kent’s ‘The Anzac Book and the Anzac Legend: C.E.W. Bean as editor and
image maker’ in Historical Studies, vol. 21, no. 84, April, pages 381 and 382–3

[H]e excluded from The Anzac Book anything unpleasant which could not be treated
humorously. The dirt, the flies, the cold, and the monumental discomforts of Gallipoli are all
documented in The Anzac Book with a grim humour, but the danger, the brutality, the suffering,
the waste of life, and the dehumanizing effects of warfare are conspicuously absent .  .  .
In a revealing passage in his diary Bean noted how few men really wanted to fight, how
some had to be forced into action at pistol point, how many wanted to run away (and many
did) and some would ‘shoot their fingers off to escape from the front’. No trace of this reluc-
tance was allowed to appear in The Anzac Book. Two good sketches were rejected even though
malingerer: someone they make fun of the coward and the malingerer, presumably because Bean’s ‘Anzac’ was
who pretends illness or neither of these; in embracing all Australian soldiers as ‘Anzacs’ in the souvenir, he was not
disability, especially in order prepared to admit to such behavior .  .  .
to avoid duty or work In September 1915, Bean committed to his diary a lengthy appraisal of the Australian sol-
dier in which he acknowledged that fear, cowardice and reluctance were the ‘true side of war’,
but he added: ‘I wonder if anyone would believe me outside the army’.

Source questions
1 What is Kent saying in source 2 about what motivated Bean’s editing of The ANZAC Book?
2 What does Bean’s diary indicate about the reality of the Anzacs’ attitudes to war?
3 What do Kent’s comments indicate about how the Anzac legend was created?

From the late twentieth century onwards, Australian governments have once again
promoted the Anzac legend’s concept of Gallipoli as Australia’s ‘baptism of fire’ and the
Australian soldier at Gallipoli as the personification of Australia’s national identity. A
number of historians are concerned that enthusiasm for Gallipoli and the Anzac legend
is distorting the reality of our history. They feel that Anzac Day and the Anzac legend
have become expressions of emotion, sentimentality and nostalgia that deny the reality of
soldiers’ wartime experiences and undermine recognition of more significant events and
values in Australia’s history.

Chapter 7  |  World War I 311

 In his 1992 Anzac Day address, then Prime Minister Keating declared: ‘Legends .  .  .
define us to ourselves. But they should not stifle us  .  .  .  constrain our growth, or restrict us
when we have to change’. In October 2008, he delivered a speech articulating his view
that Australians should not see Gallipoli as the place where Australia was ‘born’ or
‘redeemed’ (see source 3).

Source 3
The truth is that Gallipoli was shocking for us. Dragged into service by the imperial government
An extract from Paul
in an ill conceived and poorly executed campaign, we were cut to ribbons and dispatched.
Keating’s speech of And none of it in the defence of Australia. Without seeking to simplify the then bonds of
30 October 2008 in empire and the implicit sense of obligation, or to diminish the bravery of our own men, we
which he expressed his still go on as though the nation was born again or even was redeemed there. An utter and
view of what Gallipoli complete nonsense.
represents for Australia For these reasons I have never been to Gallipoli and I never will.

Source question
In source 3, to what was Keating referring with the words ‘an utter and complete nonsense’? Do
you agree with him? Give reasons for your answer.

The ‘man with the donkey’

Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick
(1892–1915) was an Englishman who had
lived in Australia since 1910 after deserting his
position in the merchant navy. Motivated by
the hope of getting back to England, he enlisted
in the AIF in August 1914 under the name ‘John
Simpson’. He ended up at Anzac Cove.
Simpson’s actions there were mentioned
in official reports and became part of a 1916
book entitled Glorious Deeds of Australasians
in the Great War. This was propaganda, which
greatly exaggerated what Simpson had done
and singled him out as a hero at a time when
Australia needed new recruits.
Simpson served 24 days at Anzac Cove.
He was meant to serve as a stretcher-bearer
transporting seriously wounded men from
the front lines back down to Anzac Cove.
Instead, he chose to work alone, with a
donkey, delivering water as he made his way
up the heights above the beach, through
the dangerous Shrapnel and Monash gullies
to bring the wounded back down on his
donkey. He and the two wounded he was
transporting were shot dead in Monash Gully
on 19 May 1915.
For many people, Simpson typifies the man
of the Anzac legend. Others argue that he
was English, a reluctant recruit and someone
whose assistance to relatively few and not
seriously wounded men, while noteworthy, did
not make him a hero.
AWM ART40993
Source 4
Photograph showing Simpson and his donkey at Anzac Cove in 1915

312 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

 Historians who criticise the Anzac legend put forward the following points:
• The legend ignores the reality of Australia’s huge death toll fighting a war fought on
foreign soil in the interests of Great Britain.
• Australians invaded Turkey and killed people defending their own land.
• Soldiers of all armies experienced mateship and many of the other values celebrated
in the Anzac legend; these are not uniquely Australian.
• The fact that someone is heroic does not necessarily mean that they are morally right.
• World War I caused more division than nation-building in Australian society.
• At war’s end, Australia still had a British head of state and the British government still
decided Australia’s foreign policy
• The Anzac legend ignores other important sources of Australia’s national identity —
traditions of a ‘fair go’ and egalitarianism; support for economic, gender, racial and
social equality; belief in democracy.
• Australia’s history before 1915, Federation, campaigns for the achievement of social
and political rights and migration have also played significant roles in building the
Australian nation.
• To say that wars are what make nations come of age is to accept the value system of
the pre–World War I writers who sold a message that war was worthwhile.

Source 5
Like many Australians who are concerned with the homage paid to the Anzac spirit and
An extract from
associated militarisation of our history, we are concerned with the way history is used to
historians Henry
define our national heritage and national values. We suggest that Australians might look to
Reynolds’ and Marilyn
alternative national traditions that gave pride of place to equality of opportunity and the pursuit
Lake’s epilogue ‘Moving of social justice: the idea of a living wage and sexual and racial equality. In the myth of Anzac,
on’ in What’s wrong with military achievements are exalted above civilian ones; events overseas are given priority over
Anzac?, 2010, page 167 Australian developments; slow and patient nation-building is eclipsed by the bloody drama
of battle; action is exalted above contemplation. The key premise of the Anzac legend is that
nations and men are made at war. It is an idea that had currency a hundred years ago. Is it not
now time to cast it aside?

Source questions
1 Who are the authors of source 5?
2 List two things that concern them.
3 List two things that they think are being ignored in the focus on the Anzac legend as the birth of
our nation.
4 Devise one topic sentence to summarise their viewpoint.

activities
Check knowledge and understanding
1 Who were Ashmead-Barlett and Charles Bean, and what roles did they play in relation to
the Anzac legend?
2 Why did Australians welcome Ashmead-Bartlett’s news report?
3 List the two key concepts of the Anzac legend.
4 List what former Prime Minister Paul Keating sees as one benefit and one problem with
national legends.
5 What do you think are the most appropriate ways to commemorate Australia’s participation
in wars? What behaviours and values should/should not be part of this commemoration?
Use the Civics and citizenship weblink to access activities developed by
eBook plus
the Australian government to enable students to examine the role of the
Anzac legend in contemporary Australia.

Chapter 7  |  World War I 313

 Skills and understanding review
CHRONOLOGY, TERMS AND CONCEPTS ANALYSIS AND USE OF SOURCES
Use chronological sequencing to demonstrate the Identify the origin, purpose and context of sources
relationship between events and developments 7 Describe the context for source 5 in unit 7.7.
1 Which of the following provides the correct sequence of
Evaluate the reliability and usefulness of sources
events?
8 Watch the movie Gallipoli (1981) and write a review of
A Armistice Day, the end of the Gallipoli campaign, the
about 25 lines evaluating its usefulness for someone
second conscription referendum
studying Australia’s involvement in World War I.
B the end of the Gallipoli campaign, Armistice Day, the
second conscription referendum PERSPECTIVES AND INTERPRETATIONS
C Armistice Day, the second conscription referendum, Identify and analyse the perspectives of people from
the end of the Gallipoli campaign the past
D the end of the Gallipoli campaign, the second 9 What perspective do the soldiers in source 1 share with
conscription referendum, Armistice Day the author of source 2?
2 Work in pairs to create a timeline of the most important 10 How do their perspectives differ?
dates and events relevant to Australia’s involvement
in World War I. When you have done this, decide how to Identify and analyse different historical
colour code the events to indicate whether they provide an interpretations (including your own)
example of: 11 Identify, from source 2, Sir Harold Nicolson’s interpretation
a a continuing pattern of wartime life of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. What aspects of
the signing have led him to this interpretation?
b an event causing another event or development
c evidence of change. Source 1
Use more than one colour for each event if you need to. Photo showing Allied soldiers and officials looking
Use historical terms and concepts into the Hall of Mirrors to try to see the signing of the
3 Use the terms and concepts in each of the two lists below Treaty of Versailles
to construct two paragraphs about the events of World
War I.
a artillery comfort box
no man’s land over the top
stalemate trench warfare
Western Front
b conscription enlistment
inequality of sacrifice propaganda
referenda political cartoon
voluntary force

HISTORICAL QUESTIONS AND RESEARCH

Identify and select different questions to inform a
historical inquiry
4 List the key questions you think would help guide people
wanting to investigate Turkish sources on the Gallipoli
campaign.
Evaluate and enhance these questions
5 Choose one of your questions from question 4 and divide
it into sub-questions.
Identify and locate relevant sources, using ICT and
other methods
6 Identify five photographic sources that convey an
understanding of soldiers’ experiences of trench life and
write a sentence to explain the relevance of each of the
sources.

314 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

5_61_38746_Retro9_07.09.indd 314 14/05/13 2:38 PM

 Source 2
An extract from a description of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919, written by Sir Harold
Nicolson, a British delegate at the Versailles Peace Conference. From ‘Signing the Treaty of Versailles, 1919,’
Eyewitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2005)

We enter the Galerie des Glaces [Hall of Mirrors] .  .  . At the far end are the Press already thickly
installed. In the middle there is a horse-shoe table for the plenipotentiaries. In front of that, like a
guillotine, is the table for the signatures .  .  . There must be seats for over a thousand persons. This robs
the ceremony of all privilege and therefore of all dignity .  .  .
Bring in the ‘Faites entrer les Allemands,’ says Clemenceau in the ensuing silence.
Germans. .  .  . [I]solated and pitiable, come the two German delegates. Dr Müller, Dr Bell. The silence is
terrifying .  .  . They keep their eyes fixed away from those two thousand staring eyes, fixed upon the
ceiling. They are deathly pale. They do not appear as representatives of a brutal militarism. The one is
thin and pink-eyelidded. The other is moon-faced and suffering. It is all most painful.
They are conducted to their chairs. Clemenceau at once breaks the silence. ‘Messieurs,’ he rasps,
The meeting is ‘la séance est ouverte.’ He adds a few ill-chosen words. ‘We are here to sign a Treaty of Peace.’ .  .  . Then
open. St Quentin advances towards the Germans and with the utmost dignity leads them to the little table
on which the Treaty is expanded. There is general tension. They sign. There is a general relaxation .  .  .
Suddenly from outside comes the crash of guns thundering a salute; it announces to Paris that the .  .  .
Treaty of Versailles has been signed by Dr Müller and Dr Bell. Through the few open windows comes
the sound of distant crowds cheering hoarsely. And still the signature goes on.
.  .  . Only three, then two, and then one delegate remained to sign .  .  . There was a final hush.
The meeting is ‘La séance est levée,’ rasped Clemenceau. Not a word more or less.
adjourned. We kept our seats while the Germans were conducted like prisoners from the dock, their eyes still
fixed upon some distant point of the horizon.

Explanation and communication

Develop texts that use evidence from a range of
sources that are referenced
12 How did World War I affect Australia? Your response should
be about 25 lines in length and should include information
on the following and any other issues you think are
important. Provide a bibliography at the end.
a How the war affected Australia’s relationship with Great
Britain
b How the war affected Australia’s view of itself as a nation
and as a member of the world beyond its own shores
c How the war affected relationships within Australian
society
Select and use a range of communication forms
13 Consider the idea of an Australian government introducing
conscription today. Use online conferencing and other
forms of ICT to discuss:
• the reasons that might motivate such a development
• the government’s likely purpose
• groups within Australia who would or would not
support it
• whether or not you would support it and your reasons
• the arguments people might use to support or fight
against this idea
• countries today that do have conscription and their
reasons for introducing it.
STUDENT WORKBOOK 7.8 Crossword
STUDENT WORKBOOK 7.9 Summing up
STUDENT WORKBOOK 7.10 Reflection

Chapter 7  |  World War I 315

 eBook plus
ProjectsPLUS

The Anzac Day

memorials
SEARCHLIGHT ID: PRO-0045

Scenario
You are a reporter for Australia’s
Now Channel. It is pre-dawn on
25 April 2015 and you have been
posted at Anzac Cove to cover the
memorial service to mark the 100th
anniversary of the landing of troops
for the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign of
1915. Thousands of Australians have
gathered, many covered in Australian
flags or wearing green-and-gold
jerseys and beanies. Attendance at
the annual dawn service in Gallipoli
has continued to grow, with more
and more Australians making the
pilgrimage every year. Other reporters
have criticised the service as just
an excuse for backpackers to meet
and party but, as a first-time pilgrim,
you have been overwhelmed by the
emotional and respectful atmosphere.

Your task
Your producer has asked you to
craft a moving tribute to the annual
memorials on the shores of Gallipoli.
Your news story should explain the events that • Navigate to your Research Forum. A selection
occurred on these shores 100 years ago and why these of topics has been loaded for you to provide a
memorials are still so important to modern Australians. framework for your research. You should perform
You will write and record a voiceover of two minutes background research on the Gallipoli campaign,
duration, and use the bank of images available in your the memorials, and the ritual pilgrimages by many
Media Centre to create your news story. Australians and New Zealanders to this iconic place.
You might also like to explore other news stories
Process about Gallipoli. The weblinks in your Media Centre
• Open the ProjectsPLUS application for this chapter, will help you get started. Enter your findings as
located in your eBookPLUS. Watch the introductory articles under each topic in your Research Forum.
video lesson and then click the ‘Start Project’ button You can also rate and comment on the posts made by
and set up your project group. You can complete this other members of your group.
project individually or invite other members of your • When your research is complete, navigate to your
class to form a group. Save your settings and the Media Centre. A selection of images from the
project will be launched. Anzac Day memorials has been provided for you

316 Retroactive 9: Australian Curriculum for History

 to download and use in your news story. Select the
images you would like to use and download the
Storyboard template. Use this to write the script for
your news story. A guide to crafting news stories has Your ProjectsPLUS application is available in this
also been provided to help you write an effective and chapter’s Student Resources tab inside your eBookPLUS.
interesting story. Visit www.jacplus.com.au to locate your digital resources.
• Record your voiceover using Audacity, Garage Band Suggested software
or Windows voice-recording software, and then • ProjectsPLUS
use Windows Movie Maker, iMovie or other editing • Microsoft Word
software to create your news story. Remember that • Audacity, Garage Band or other voice-recording
these programs allow you to perform filmic actions software
like panning across images. You can also incorporate • Windows Moviemaker, iMovie or other editing
a number of different transitions to add drama or software
emotional impact to your story.
Media Centre
• Print out your research report from ProjectsPLUS Your Media Centre contains:
and hand it in with your completed news story. • a selection of images from the Gallipoli memorials
• a guide to crafting news stories
• weblinks to research sites on Gallipoli
• a storyboard template
• an assessment rubric.

Chapter 7  |  World War I 317