When the guns stop firing, Jack starts digging. Not trenches now, but graves... The fascinating, largely forgotten story of the men who stayed on, who served King and Country first with a rifle, then a shovel, finding and burying the Great War's fallen. Find out more here: http://www.thegloriousdead.co.uk/
Just before the Australian divisions were sent from Egypt to France in 1916, General Archibald Murray, commander of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, sent this letter to Wully Robertson, Chief of the Imperial General Staff. In it Murray is pretty scathing about the Australians, criticising their discipline, leadership, morals, and egotism.
To me it demonstrates the clear disdain British regulars had for the Australians as soldiers who may have been brave, but were ultimately unsoldierly. It also shows that this wasn't a universal view of all "colonial" troops, and in particular didn't apply to the other half of Anzac, the New Zealanders.
"In order to prevent any possible disappointment regarding the military value of the Australians when they arrive in France, I think I ought to write and tell you privately what my opinion of them, as a fighting force, is. You are of course, at liberty to communicate this to Haig for his personal information should you so desire it.
They are unquestionably from a physical point of view a magnificent body of men, and hard and fit as they can possibly be. The finest by far that I have ever seen. As regards discipline, I wish to make it clear that I have never seen any body of men in uniform with less idea of discipline. Drunkenness is extraordinarily prevalent, and many of the men seem to have no idea of ordinary decency or self control. The streets of Cairo, Ismailia, Alexandria and Port Said are difficult to keep free from drunken Australians. Of a total 8858 Venereal Disease cases treated in Egypt since the beginning of military operations, 5924 were Australians, 955 New Zealanders and 1979 British Troops. On the 21st February there were 1286 Australians being treated for Venereal Disease at the Dermatological Hospital. 1344 soldiers have been returned to Australia suffering from the same disease.
I am, of course, doing all I can to put matters right as regards discipline, but it is an uphill task because the Australian officers are, as a whole, unequal to the task and not, as a general rule, respected by their men, and among some of the higher commanders there has always apparently been an idea that the Australian is a person to be petted and allowed to have his own notions of discipline.
I cannot help feeling depressed when I look at these magnificent men. They are a force which would have made incomparable soldiers if properly taken in hand by British officers when they arrived, and who have been nearly spoilt by neglect on the part of their commanders to instil into them even the rudiments of soldierly instincts. Matters have now been allowed to go on for so long that I fear it will not be easy to remedy the present state of affairs.
As regards the general training of the Australians as distinct from trench warfare, practically nothing was possible from this point of view whilst they were on the Peninsula, and previous to their arrival there apparently they had only undergone very partial training. Everything possible has been done during the last two months to prepare them for warfare in France, but there is leeway to make up and of course their lack of discipline and the inefficiency of their officers are a very great handicap, as is their enormous conceit in themselves. It has been so long the custom in the newspapers to laud the Australians as the finest soldiers in existence that it is very difficult now to convince them that they know very little of warfare.
Frankly, I am anxious when I think of what may happen when they get to France on the march and in the towns and villages where they are billeted. Their Staffs will have a heavy task should they have to organise an operation where prolonged march discipline, as well as other discipline, is essential. Of the magnificent bravery of the Australians, of course, there is no question, but if they have to take part in operations such as we have seen in France, their want of complete training, their lack of discipline and absence of soldierly, distinct from fighting, instinct may, I fear, involved them in unnecessarily heavy losses.
My remarks chiefly apply to the Australians and not to the New Zealanders, who are in many respects superior to the Australians except in physique."
Australians at the railyard at Poperinghe in 1917 for the Battle of Passchendaele. You can see the massive amount of large and small track available. This line went straight through Hazebrouck (sorry, I miss-spelled it earlier) towards Ypres. Below, a map showing the area, Hazebrouck is the intersection of squares 1,6,7, and 12. Bottom, a map showing where the British line held during the Battle of the Lys, April 1918.
A group photograph of British army officers posing in dress uniforms. The front row sit on the ground, the second row sit on chairs, and the rear row stand with trees behind them. The second man from the left on the middle row is Winston Churchill.
One of the top personalities of the war; enigmatic and unconventional, Col. T.E. Lawrence (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) proved the exception to the rule according to the “one size fits all” of British military leadership.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge was part of the Battle of Arras, in the Pas-de-Calais department of France, during the First World War. The main combatants were the four divisions of the Canadian Corps in the First Army, against three divisions of the German 6th Army. The battle occurred from 9 to 12 April 1917, marking the commencement of the Battle of Arras and serving as the inaugural assault of the Nivelle Offensive. The objective was to draw German reserves away from the French forces, preparing for a crucial offensive along the Aisne and the Chemin des Dames ridge several days later
Battle of Vimy Ridge - Wikipedia
Today the Canadian flag flies at half-mast on the Peace Tower in Ottawa in honour of Vimy Ridge Day.
Australian soldiers from the 7th Field Company of Australian Engineers posing at the entrance of a bunker system under Hill 63 known as the Catacombs in the Messines sector, Belgium, 22 January 1918
Feuchy Cross Roads, France. c. 1917. British Army soldiers constructing new dug outs to aid their defence of a newly captured area. (Donor British Official Photograph D1208)
King George V investing Second Lieutenant Cecil Leonard Knox of the 150th Field Company, Royal Engineers with the Victoria Cross at the Second Army Headquarters. Blendecques, August 6, 1918.
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