Great Anzac Stories Read online

  ALSO BY GRAHAM SEAL

  Dog’s Eye and Dead Horse: The Complete Guide to Australian Rhyming Slang

  Great Australian Stories: Legends, Yarns and Tall Tales

  Inventing ANZAC: The Digger and National Mythology

  Outlaw Heroes in Myth and History

  Tell ’Em I Died Game: The Legend of Ned Kelly

  These Few Lines: A Convict Story

  (ed.) Echoes of Anzac: The Voice of Australians at War

  THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO CREATED

  THE DIGGER LEGEND

  GRAHAM SEAL

  While every effort has been made to obtain permission to reproduce copyrighted material in this book, the publisher welcomes further information from copyright holders so they can be acknowledged in future editions.

  First published in 2013

  Copyright © Graham Seal 2013

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.

  Allen & Unwin

  Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, London

  83 Alexander Street

  Crows Nest NSW 2065

  Australia

  Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100

  Email: [email protected]

  Web: www.allenandunwin.com

  Cataloguing-in-Publication details are available

  from the National Library of Australia

  www.trove.nla.gov.au

  ISBN 978 1 74331 059 5

  Cover photo: Australian War Memorial, Negative Number CAM/68/0144/VN (E00233)

  Set in 12.5/17 pt Adobe Caslon Pro by Bookhouse, Sydney

  Printed and bound in Australia by Griffin Press

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Contents

  Introduction

  Acknowledgements

  Glossary

  Foundations of Anzac

  Digger

  First to fall

  The forgotten island

  The silent Anzac

  The first day on Gallipoli

  Talk about go!

  The landing

  Parables of Anzac

  Silence of the guns

  Furphy

  Leaving Gallipoli

  At Pozières

  We did all that was asked of us

  The charge at Beersheba

  Heroes of Anzac

  They just poured into the wards all day

  Everyone was as cheerful as possible

  Private Punch

  A soldier of the cross

  Fromelles

  The Australians are here!

  The Roo de Kanga

  The only gleams of sunshine

  The underground artillery

  Matilda goes to war

  Tobruk Rats

  ‘Bluey’ Truscott

  Angels of the Owen Stanley Range

  Australia’s secret submariners

  The home front

  Scots of the Riverina

  The Durban Signaller

  The chalk Rising Sun

  Blighty

  Homecoming

  Very irritated

  Death’s soldier

  A stitch in time

  The Nackeroos

  Yanks Down Under

  The Brisbane Line

  Miss Luckman’s journal

  Laughter

  A million cat-calls

  The Pommies and the Yanks

  Religion

  Monocles

  Food and drink

  Babbling brooks

  Army biscuits

  The casual digger

  Officers

  Birdie

  The piece of paper

  Baldy becomes mobile

  Characters

  ‘The Unofficial History of the AIF’

  Please Let Us Take Tobruk

  Parable of the kit inspection

  The Air Force wife

  Legends of Anzac

  The Eureka sword

  The lost submarine

  The vanished battalion

  The two men with donkeys

  Murphy’s daughter

  The souvenir king

  The crucified soldier

  The walers

  ANZAC to Anzac

  Anzac and the Rising Sun

  The first and the last

  Memories

  No. 008 Trooper J. Redgum

  The first Anzac Days

  Return to Gallipoli

  After the war

  The lonely Anzac

  The longest memorial

  The lone pines

  Mrs Kim’s commemoration

  The long aftermath of Fromelles

  The Unknown Sailor

  The Long Tan cross

  Flowers of remembrance

  The lady of violets

  Sound and silence

  Hugo Throssell’s VC

  Do you remember?

  Select sources and references

  Picture credits

  Introduction

  SINCE 25 APRIL 1915, Australians have progressively expanded and deepened the significance of Gallipoli, the battles of the western front, Tobruk, Kokoda and Long Tan, in addition to many other engagements in the Middle East, Korea, Malaya, Indonesia, Iraq and Afghanistan. The national community’s awareness also encompasses the many peacekeeping operations around the world in which Australian troops have taken part. The death and injury of hundreds of thousands of Australians, together with the resulting grief and ongoing suffering within their families, have left a permanent and profound imprint on the nation. This is recorded in stone, wood and metal on memorials and honour boards in almost every community in the country and in many places abroad.

  The term that embodies this combination of sacrifice, duty, loss and meaning is ‘Anzac’, formed from the telegraphic address of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps—ANZAC. This ‘one little word’ has come to resonate many things Australians consider to be profoundly symbolic of their identity: courage, determination, anti-authoritarianism, egalitarianism and a larrikin attitude to the grim realities of war and so, of life and death in general. Whether these characteristics are genuine or not is a question that is often debated. Certainly, the fact that the concept of ‘Anzac’ has persisted for almost a century and shows every sign of strengthening into the future as a popular focus of national identity, among the young as well as the old, suggests that it has wide support in the community.

  Through the decades following World War I, during which Anzac has become an inescapable aspect of our society, innumerable stories have been told about those who contributed to its making. These spoken and written memorials include tales of heroism, suffering and endurance. Perhaps surprisingly to some, Anzac tales are often humorous, for laughter is an essential element in coping with the realities of war and its long aftermath. Many are widely known, in one version or another, and are told and retold in books, newspapers, films and even in schoolrooms. Many other Anzac stories are known only to particular groups or to the inhabitants of particular communities, perhaps only to a family. Whatever their provenance, these stories together make up an intangible web of knowledge about the Australian experience of war and the way we understand it through Anzac. They form a network of shared meaning that is publicly reaffirmed every year on 25 April a
t memorials around the country and, increasingly, around the world.

  It is these stories, told whenever possible in the words of those who were there—at the front line or at home—that appear in Great Anzac Stories. At least, a few of them appear. Anzac’s long existence and wide appeal has generated a vast body of anecdote, legend, reminiscence and yarn and this book can only represent a small selection of these many tales.

  In telling these stories, the book begins with ‘Foundations’, a selection of accounts from Gallipoli, the western front and the Middle East. This is followed by ‘Heroes’, which tells of courageous deeds in many of Australia’s wars. Home fronts are as important as battlefronts, and a selection of tales from Australia and ‘Blighty’—the United Kingdom—next appears here. The large body of digger humour is given due representation under the heading of ‘Laughter’, followed by a collection of Anzac ‘Legends’. The book concludes with a section titled ‘Memories’, which focuses on the commemoration of war and its consequences for all, at home and at the front.

  The concept of ‘Anzac’ is treated broadly. As well as stories about the army and the original diggers—the largely citizen foot soldiers of the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF)—the book includes those of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). As well as tales of men at war it includes those of nurses, doctors and even animals. While the ‘NZ’ in Anzac is often overlooked, there are also a few stories specifically about the Kiwi experience of war and the considerable significance of Anzac in that country.

  Anzac is an idea that is a vital element of the Australian consciousness. It has been with us for almost a century, sometimes referred to as ‘the spirit of Anzac’, or the ‘legend of Anzac’. Over that time it has increased and decreased in popularity, with the lowest level of public observance occurring on the Anzac days between the late 1960s and late 1980s. Since then we have seen a strong resurgence of interest in the day and, consequently, the meaning of Anzac itself. This has been particularly marked among young adults, although older Australians have also been flocking to Anzac Day events—especially the Dawn Service—as well as travelling to the various sites of Anzac memory in Britain, Turkey, France, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea and Singapore, to name only some of the more popular destinations for these ‘pilgrimages’, as they are often called.

  This enthusiasm for what some consider to be a glorification of war has generated controversy from time to time, with various groups, including anti-war organisations, voicing their opposition to aspects of Anzac. Arguments that Anzac and its day are about acknowledging sacrifice and remembering those who made it are not accepted by all Australians. Whatever the view taken, though, it is very difficult not to have a position for or against Anzac, so completely does it pervade our society.

  This book seeks to present the Anzac stories it contains as straightforwardly as possible, allowing readers to make their own judgements. The stories are left largely to speak for themselves, with only a minimum of explanation and background detail to provide context for today’s reader. Spellings, punctuation and other usages have been variously standardised and corrected, except where it is necessary to retain the original to preserve the sense of the quotation. A glossary of military acronyms, specialised terms and slang has also been provided. Military titles, ranks and honours are generally those possessed by the individual at the time of the events witnessed or experienced.

  To convey the immediacy of the events as they were experienced, many eyewitness accounts taken from letters, diaries and other contemporary documents have been included. These sources resonate with the attitudes and values of the day, and the emotions of the moment—and they are often rich in Australian Introduction ‘slanguage’, giving them colour and impact, even after many decades. The downside of this is that these accounts sometimes contain terms and represent attitudes that are no longer socially acceptable.

  Some pieces written in reflection, after the events they describe, are also included to show the always-developing significance of Anzac, not only in war but also in the periods between them that we call ‘peace’.

  Acknowledgements

  MAUREEN SEAL, JOHN Stephens, Alan Williams and the Fovant Badge Preservation Society, and the staff at Allen & Unwin. A portion of the royalties generated by this book will be donated to Legacy, a volunteer organisation formed by war veterans in 1923 to care for the dependants of deceased Australian servicemen and women—a great Anzac story of its own.

  Glossary

  THE MILITARY, TECHNICAL and slang terms that sometimes appear in the documents used for this book may not be familiar to most readers. The following list should be helpful.

  AB able bodied seaman

  Ack emma am, the morning

  ADS advanced dressing station

  ASC army service corps

  Batman personal assistant to an officer

  Billyjim or Billjim terms sometimes used for an Australian soldier in World War I

  Blanky euphemism for ‘bloody’, or any other swear word

  Bn, or Bat Battalion

  (the) Boche (sometimes as Bosche) Germans

  CO commanding officer

  DCM Distinguished Conduct Medal

  DSO Distinguished Service Order

  ‘Eggsers’ 28th Battalion AIF, from their battle cry ‘Eggs-a-cook’

  Enfilade to fire into a trench or enemy position from a number of sides at once

  Minenwerfer German artillery piece, World War I

  MM military medal

  NCO non-commissioned officer

  OC officer in charge

  Pip emma pm, the afternoon

  QMS quartermaster’s store

  Sap a tunnel or trench

  TB torpedo boat

  VC Victoria Cross

  WAAC (sometimes as ‘Waacs’) Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps

  Woodbine derogatory term for the British, derived from the brand name of the cheap cigarettes they usually smoked

  WT wireless telegraph

  8 chevaux ou 40 hommes French for ‘8 horses or 40 men’, a sign commonly stencilled to the side of French rail wagons in which many troops were transported in World War I

  Foundations of Anzac

  AUSTRALIA’S EXPERIENCE OF World War I, from September 1914 to the armistice of 11 November 1918, is the basis of the Anzac tradition. The high drama of the Dardanelles landings in Turkey on 25 April 1915, and the dogged fighting of the next eight months, meant that Gallipoli (Gelibolou) quickly became the originating location of Anzac and all it has come to stand for. Other events and locations—sometimes not so dramatic or formative, but all contributing to the evolution of the digger—have disappeared from our general knowledge of the war. The fighting in German New Guinea the year before Gallipoli, the importance of the Greek island of Lemnos and the significant role of submarine AE2 in 1915 have suffered this fate of being largely forgotten. On the western front, meaning the trench lines that ran the breadth of Belgium (‘Flanders’) and France, further feats of bravery, endurance and sometimes incomprehensible sacrifice burnished the legends of Gallipoli and the digger, in the minds both of the Anzacs themselves and of those waiting and worrying at home in Australia and New Zealand. Pozières in France and Passchendaele in Belgium are among the places that still draw large numbers of visiting Australians and which are recorded on war memorials around Australia. In the region now known as ‘the Middle East’, some serious battles were fought, now mostly forgotten, with the exception of Beersheba in 1917. These events, a handful among the many that took place in four years of fighting, are the foundations of Anzac.

  Digger

  The term ‘digger’, meaning the rank-and-file Australian foot soldier, is closely tied to the significance of ‘Anzac’. Together, these two words have been at the centre of popular ideas about national identity since World War I (1914–18).

  The term Anzac is derived from ANZAC, the telegraphic abbreviation of ‘Australian and New Zealand Army Corps’.
It seems to have become a self-descriptive word in use among members of the First AIF during training in Egypt, perhaps even earlier, and was immediately applied to the beach where the Australian and New Zealand troops first landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. At this time, the soldiers were often referred to as ‘Anzacs’, sometimes as ‘Billjims’, with the term ‘digger’ not becoming an accepted denomination until 1917 on the western front. Nevertheless, the term is commonly employed retrospectively to refer to Australian and New Zealand soldiers who fought from the beginning of World War I.

  The image of the digger draws on the nineteenth-century romance and mythology of the Australian bush and its heroes. These include the pioneer, the free selector, the gold prospector or ‘digger’, the shearer, even the bushranger, as well as many similar characters who feature in bush verse and song, and in the literature and art of writers Andrew ‘Banjo’ Paterson and Henry Lawson and painter Tom Roberts, among many others. From the 1890s, these archetypal figures were closely associated with popular ideals concerning Australian identity. When the country went to war, most Australians considered that this event represented the emotional ‘birth of a nation’. Through the experiences of the AIF, the ideal of the bushman effortlessly morphed into that of the digger. Instead of driving cattle overland, shearing sheep or rounding up herds of brumbies, the bushman now wore a uniform—more or less—and employed his bush skills and nous in excavating ‘dugouts’ and ‘possies’, making jam tin bombs, sniping and generally trying to outfox a wily enemy resisting an invasion of its homeland (in the case of Turkey). Even though many members of the First AIF came from the city rather than the country (contrary to a popular and persistent myth), as a body they demonstrated the bushman’s independence and ingrained disdain for authority, as well as pursuing—frequently to excess—the masculine pastimes of drinking, fighting and gambling. The digger’s symbolic status, rooted in these available traditions of the bush, was immediate and enduring.

  With this background it is not surprising that the origins of the term for the Australian infantryman have been the cause of ongoing controversy. It has been argued that the term was derived from the mid-nineteenth-century gold rushes in the eastern colonies, in which the men who hastened to the goldfields to seek their fortunes came to be known as ‘diggers’. It has also been suggested that the word originated at Gallipoli, because the Anzacs who landed there were quickly compelled by the Turkish resistance to ‘dig in’; they were famously commanded by General Sir Ian Hamilton to ‘dig, dig, dig’. New Zealand variations of the story include the suggestion that it came from the local term ‘gum diggers’ for fossickers of the fossilised resin of kauri trees. Another claim has been made for the origin of the term among members of the 3rd Division’s 11th Brigade, training and digging on England’s Salisbury Plain in September and October 1916.