Pozieres

Author: Scott Bennett
Publisher: Scribe Publications
ISBN: 1922247480
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 417

Book Description
In 1916, one million men fought in the first battle of the Somme. Victory hinged on their ability to capture a small village called Pozières. After five attempts to seize it, the British called in the Anzacs to complete this seemingly impossible task. At midnight on 23 July 1916, thousands of Australians stormed Pozières. Forty-five days later they were relieved, having suffered 23,000 casualties to gain a few miles of barren landscape. Despite the toll, the operation was heralded as a stunning victory. Yet for the exhausted survivors, the war-weary public, and the families of the dead and maimed, victory came at a terrible cost. Drawing on the letters and diaries of the men who fought at Pozières, this superb book reveals a battlefield drenched in chaos and fear. Bennett sheds light on the story behind the official history, re-creating the experiences of those men who fought in one of the largest and most devastating battles of the Great War and returned home, all too often, as shattered men.

Pozières

Author: Scott Bennett
Publisher: Scribe Publications Pty Limited
ISBN: 9781921640353
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 398

Book Description
'A clear, fresh view of an epic battle, presenting conclusions that will challenge many readers' DR PETER STANLEY, author of MEN OF MONT ST QUENTIN In 1916, a million men fought in the first battle of the Somme. Victory for both sides hinged on their ability to capture a small French village called Pozières, perched on the highest ridge of the battlefield. After five attempts to seize it, the British retreated and called in the Anzacs to complete this seemingly impossible task. At midnight on 23 July 1916, thousands of young Australians stormed and took Pozières. Forty-two days later they withdrew, having suffered 23,000 casualties for the gain of a few miles of barren, lunar landscape. Despite the withdrawal, the capture of Pozières was heralded as a stunning tactical victory. Yet for the exhausted survivors, the war-weary public, and the families of the dead and maimed, victory came at such terrible cost it seemed indistinguishable from defeat. This account of the Pozières battle tells the stories of the men who fought there. Drawing on their letters and diaries, it reveals a battlefield drenched in chaos, suffering, and fear. Bennett sheds light on the story behind the official history, showing how commanders struggled with a war conducted on an unprecedented scale and how the survivors witnessed appalling human tragedy to return home as heroes but, too often, shattered men. While Gallipoli has entered the national mythology, Pozieres has received less attention. This superb book recreates the experiences of those men who fought in one of the largest and most devastating battles of the Great War.

Fromelles and Pozières

Author: Peter FitzSimons
Publisher: Random House Australia
ISBN: 0143783300
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 817

Book Description
In the Trenches of Hell On July 19, 1916, 7000 Australian soldiers - in the first major action of the AIF on the Western Front - attacked entrenched German positions at Fromelles in northern France. By the next day, there were over 5500 casualties, including nearly 2000 dead - a bloodbath that the Australian War Memorial describes as 'the worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history. Just days later, three Australian Divisions attacked German positions at nearby Pozières, and over the next six weeks they suffered another 23,000 casualties. Of that bitter battle, the great Australian war correspondent Charles Bean would write, "The field of Pozières is more consecrated by Australian fighting and more hallowed by Australian blood than any field which has ever existed . . ." Yet the sad truth is that, nearly a century on from those battles, Australians know only a fraction of what occurred. This book brings the battles back to life and puts the reader in the moment, illustrating both the heroism displayed and the insanity of the British plan. With his extraordinary vigour and commitment to research, Peter FitzSimons shows why this is a story about which all Australians can be proud. And angry.

The Nameless Names

Author: Scott Bennett
Publisher: Scribe Publications
ISBN: 1925693317
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 363

Book Description
Few Australians realise that of the 62,000 Anzac soldiers who died in the Great War, over one-third are still listed as ‘missing’. With no marked graves, the only reminders of their sacrifice are the many names inscribed on ageing war memorials around the world. Scott Bennett deftly tells the story of such missing Anzacs through the personal experience of three sets of brothers — the Reids, Pflaums, and Allens — whose names he selected from the Memorials to the Missing. Bennett traces their paths from small, peaceful towns to three devastating battlefields of the Great War: Gallipoli, Fromelles, and Ypres. He reveals the carnage that led to their disappearance, and their family’s subsequent grief and endless search for elusive facts. Bennett’s unflinching account addresses many painful questions. What circumstances resulted in the disappearance of so many soldiers? Why did the Australian government fail in its solemn pledge to recover the missing? Why were so many families left without answers about the fate of their loved ones — despite the dedicated efforts of Vera Deakin and her co-workers at the Australian Red Cross inquiry bureau, first in Cairo and then in London? Vera, a daughter of Australia’s second prime minister, had had a privileged upbringing, and yet devoted herself tirelessly to seeking answers for the families of the missing. The Nameless Names lays bare the emotional toll inflicted upon families, describing those caught between clinging to hope and letting go, those who felt compelled to journey to distant battlefields for answers, and those who shunned conventional religion and resorted to spiritualism for solace. This moving book delicately reveals the human faces and the devastating stories behind the names listed on the stone memorials.

Great Anzac Stories

Author: Graham Seal
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 1743310595
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Book Description
Stories of heroism, suffering and endurance, and humour, from the main wars in which Australians have fought. Includes stories from WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, plus the home front. Most of the stories haven't been seen since they were first published in newspapers and memoirs. Many were sourced from unpublished diaries.

Broken Nation

Author: Joan Beaumont
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 1741751381
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 660

Book Description
The Great War was, for the majority of Australians, one that was fought at home. As casualties of this monstrous war mounted, they triggered a political crisis of unprecedented ferocity in Australian history. The fault-lines that emerged in 1916-18 around

Victory at Villers-Bretonneux

Author: Peter FitzSimons
Publisher: Random House Australia
ISBN: 1742759521
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 786

Book Description
Across a 45-mile front, no fewer than two million German soldiers hurl themselves at the Allied lines, with the specific intention of splitting the British and French forces, and driving all the way through to the town of Villers-Bretonneux, at which point their artillery will be able to rain down shells on the key train-hub town of Amiens, thus throttling the Allied supply lines. For nigh on two weeks, the plan works brilliantly, and the Germans are able to advance without check, as the exhausted British troops flee before them, together with tens of thousands of French refugees. In desperation, the British commander, General Douglas Haig, calls upon the Australian soldiers to stop the German advance, and save Villers-Bretonneux. If the Australians can hold this, the very gate to Amiens, then the Germans will not win the war. 'It's up to us, then, ' one of the Diggers writes in his diary. .

Battle Scarred

Author: Craig Deayton
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1921941251
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 373

Book Description
"The dead and wounded of the 47th lay everywhere underfoot". With these words Charles Bean, Australia's Official War Historian, described the battlefield of Dernancourt on the morning of the 5th of April, 1918, strewn with the bodies of the Australian dead. It was the final tragic chapter in the story of the 47th Australian Infantry Battalion in the First World War. One of the shortest lived and most battle hardened of the 1st Australian Imperial Force's battalions, the 47th was formed in Egypt in 1916 and disbanded two years later having suffered one of the highest casualty rates of any Australian unit. Their story is remarkable for many reasons. Dogged by command and discipline troubles and bled white by the desperate attrition battles of 1916 and 1917, they fought on against a determined and skilful enemy in battles where the fortunes of war seemed stacked against them at every turn. Not only did they have the misfortune to be called into some of the A.I.F.'s most costly campaigns, chance often found them in the worst places within those battles. Though their story is one of almost unrelieved tragedy, it is also story of remarkable courage, endurance and heroism. It is the story of the 1st A.I.F. itself - punished, beaten, sometimes reviled for their indiscipline, they fought on - fewer, leaner and harder - until final victory was won. And at its end, in an extraordinary gesture of mateship, the remnants of the 47th Battalion reunited. Having been scattered to other units after their disbandment, the survivors gathered in Belgium for one last photo together. Only 73 remained.

Fromelles and Pozires

Author: Peter FitzSimons
Publisher: Random House Australia
ISBN: 0143786342
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 818

Book Description
THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER On 19 July 1916, 7000 Australian soldiers - in the first major action of the AIF on the Western Front - attacked entrenched German positions at Fromelles in northern France. By the next day, there were over 5500 casualties, including nearly 2000 dead - a bloodbath that the Australian War Memorial describes as 'the worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history. Just days later, three Australian Divisions attacked German positions at nearby Pozi res, and over the next six weeks they suffered another 23,000 casualties. Of that bitter battle, the great Australian war correspondent Charles Bean would write, 'The field of Pozi res is more consecrated by Australian fighting and more hallowed by Australian blood than any field which has ever existed . . .' Yet the sad truth is that, nearly a century on from those battles, Australians know only a fraction of what occurred. This book brings the battles back to life and puts the reader in the moment, illustrating both the heroism displayed and the insanity of the British plan. With his extraordinary vigour and commitment to research, Peter FitzSimons shows why this is a story about which all Australians can be proud. And angry. _____________________________ PRAISE FOR PETER FITZSIMONS 'Peter FitzSimons is an Australian phenomenon.' The Canberra Times ' FitzSimons knows how to make words race like eager sled dogs on their homeward run.' Newcastle Herald 'Meticulously researched, well-written and incredibly presented.' Weekend Notes

Anzac Memories

Author: Alistair Thomson
Publisher: Monash University Publishing
ISBN: 1921867582
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 426

Book Description
Anzac Memories was first published to acclaim in 1994, and has achieved international renown for its pioneering contribution to the study of war memory and mythology. Michael McKernan wrote that the book gave ‘as good a picture of the impact of the Great War on individuals and Australia as we are likely to get in this generation’, and Michael Roper concluded that ‘an immense achievement of this book is that it so clearly illuminates the historical processes that left men like my grandfather forever struggling to fashion myths which they could live by’. In this new edition Alistair Thomson explores how the Anzac legend has transformed over the past quarter century, how a ‘post-memory’ of the Great War creates new challenges and opportunities for making sense of the national past, and how veterans’ war memories can still challenge and complicate national mythologies. He returns to a family war history that he could not write about twenty years ago because of the stigma of war and mental illness, and he uses newly released Repatriation files to question his own earlier account of veterans’ post-war lives and memories and to think afresh about war and memory.