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GLORIOUS DEEDS OF AUSTRALASIANS IN THE GREAT WAR
GLORIOUS DEEDS OF AUSTRALASIANS IN THE GREAT WAR
Books of Topical Interest. The Russian Campaign. The second series of Field Notes. By Stanley Washburn . Demy 8vo, 70 Illustrations. Price 7 s. 6 d. net. [ Third Thousand. Russia, the Balkans and the Dardanelles. By Granville Fortescue . Illustrated. Demy 8vo, cloth. Price 6 s. net. Ferdinand of Bulgaria. By the Author of "The Real Kaiser." Cartoons by Will. Dyson. Price 2 s. net. Sketches in Poland. By Frances Delaney Little . 12 Illustrations in Colour. Demy 8vo. Price 9 s. net. [ Second Editi
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PREFACE
PREFACE
In the course of writing this book I have interviewed some hundreds of wounded Australasian soldiers in London hospitals. From their narratives, delivered with a modesty which I have not sought to reproduce here, I gathered much material not obtainable in the short official accounts given of their exploits. The temptation to record individual deeds of remarkable bravery has been strong, but in most cases it has been resisted. This comparatively small force, which has suffered 25,000 casualties i
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PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION
PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION
The rapid exhaustion of four editions of this book has been accepted by myself as sufficient proof that I have succeeded in carrying out the main idea suggested to me by Mr. Andrew Melrose, the publisher. He divined that some continuous account of the deeds of Australasians in the war would be received with interest, pending the appearance of an authoritative work by the official historian of the Anzacs. I have now extended the book to include all the main incidents of the fighting in Gallipoli,
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CHAPTER I THE LONG BLACK SHIPS
CHAPTER I THE LONG BLACK SHIPS
On November 1st, 1914, there steamed out of the harbour of Albany, in Western Australia, three long lines of great ocean steamships. At their head proudly steamed the Australian cruiser Melbourne ; the procession was brought up in the rear by another Australian cruiser, the Sydney . So the long black ships, forty in all, set out from the last port of Australia in the golden Southern spring, bearing the army of Australasia to the Antipodes in the Old World. If another such army has ever been seen
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CHAPTER II THE END OF THE RAIDER "EMDEN"
CHAPTER II THE END OF THE RAIDER "EMDEN"
At 6.30 a.m. on the morning of November 9 the Melbourne was steaming at the head of the three long lines of transports when she picked up a wireless message from the cable station at Cocos Island. The message was imperfect, but conveyed to the Melbourne the fact that an enemy warship was then off the island. The convoy was at the time about sixty miles away from the island, so that it was obvious there was no time to be lost. The Melbourne was the flagship, and her commander was responsible for
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CHAPTER III IN THE LAND OF PHARAOH
CHAPTER III IN THE LAND OF PHARAOH
The fight that ended in the destruction of the Emden was the one exciting incident that broke the monotony of the tedious voyage from Australia. When they had left Albany, the last port of call in Australia, the men believed that they would go to Great Britain, there to train for service in Northern France. The intervention of Turkey in the war on the side of the Teutonic nations caused the original intention to be altered, and the men heard that they were to disembark at Egypt. This decision sh
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CHAPTER IV THE BATTLE OF BRIGHTON BEACH
CHAPTER IV THE BATTLE OF BRIGHTON BEACH
Four months in camp under the passionless gaze of the great Sphinx had shaken the men into a thoroughly fit and efficient army. It had also wearied them into an ardent desire to be up and doing. Each day brought them news of the fierce fighting in Belgium and Northern France. Their cousins and friendly rivals from Canada had already won undying glory, and the Australasians chafed at the monotonous round of hard work and military discipline that seemed to lead to nothing. Not for this had they co
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CHAPTER V OCCUPYING THE LAND
CHAPTER V OCCUPYING THE LAND
The morning of April 26 found the Australasians occupying the cliff top in a long semicircle, with its right resting on the sea at a point opposite the hill of Gaba Tepe, and the left resting on high ground above the coast at a place called Fisherman's Hut. The New Zealanders were on the extreme left, with the 4th Australian Brigade in support of them; next were the 1st Brigade from New South Wales, next to them were the 2nd Brigade of men from Victoria, while on the right were the 3rd Brigade,
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CHAPTER VI POPE'S HILL AND GABA TEPE
CHAPTER VI POPE'S HILL AND GABA TEPE
"I heartily congratulate you on the splendid conduct and bravery displayed by the Australian troops in the operations at the Dardanelles. They have indeed proved themselves worthy sons of the Empire." When this message, graciously sent by his Majesty King George to the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia, emerged from the fog of war, there was widespread gratification and pride throughout a continent of 3,000,000 square miles. Nobody knew what the Australians had done, for though mo
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CHAPTER VII THE CHARGE AT KRITHIA
CHAPTER VII THE CHARGE AT KRITHIA
The men of Anzac were now called upon to take their part in a great concerted attack, made by all the forces commanded by Sir Ian Hamilton on Gallipoli Peninsula. Those familiar with the operations in Gallipoli will remember that, simultaneously with the landing of the Australasians at Gaba Tepe, no less than five landings had been effected by the British and French expeditionary forces further south, on points situated on the extreme southern point of the peninsula. A great mountain rampart lay
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CHAPTER VIII THE BATTLE OF QUINN'S POST
CHAPTER VIII THE BATTLE OF QUINN'S POST
Captain Von Mueller boasted that he would sink the Australian cruiser Sydney . He lost his ship, and was carried a captive by the Australians to a British prison camp. General Liman von Sanders declared he would drive the Anzacs off the face of Gallipoli Peninsula into the sea. The result of his attempt was a slaughter of Turks that has not been equalled in the Dardanelles fighting, and the return of so many wounded to Constantinople that a panic was created in the Turkish capital. If any boasti
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CHAPTER IX A THORN IN THE FLESH
CHAPTER IX A THORN IN THE FLESH
The failure of the attempt to drive the Australasians into the sea was followed by two months of desultory fighting that resembled nothing so much as the deadlock between the Allies and the Germans in the North of France. The operations, of course, were on a scale infinitely smaller, and the Anzacs held the advantage of occupying the position of invaders. They were, indeed, a thorn in the flesh of the Turkish army, for they held a position with infinite possibilities. The object of the whole lan
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CHAPTER X THE SOUL OF ANZAC
CHAPTER X THE SOUL OF ANZAC
The great attack of August may well be divided under two main heads, the sortie from Anzac, and the landing at Suvla Bay. It is only with the first of these operations that I am called upon to deal in this book. The entire details, subject to Sir Ian Hamilton's approval, were formulated by General Sir William Birdwood, described by the Commander-in-Chief as "The Soul of Anzac," a description joyfully accepted by every man who ever set foot on the beach at Anzac Cove. Nobody but a born leader of
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CHAPTER XI THE STORY OF LONE PINE
CHAPTER XI THE STORY OF LONE PINE
The 1st Brigade of Australian Infantry, from the State of New South Wales, and led by General Smyth, had the honour of opening the ball. They were massed on the right of the Anzac line, in trenches that ran along a salient known as The Pimple. It was on the seaward edge of a heath-covered plateau, on the shoreward edge of which, almost among the formidable series of Turkish earthworks, stood one little solitary pine tree. Lone Pine plateau was a no-man's land, an open expanse swept by the fire f
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CHAPTER XII THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT HORSE
CHAPTER XII THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT HORSE
By midnight on August 6 the British forces were landing at Suvla Bay. It is probable that by that time the Turks were in full possession of this outstanding fact. The attack delivered successfully on the Lone Pine position during that afternoon had drawn a large number of the enemy from positions farther to the north to the defence, and so had helped to protect the landing. With the same object attacks were made from the Anzac trenches on strong positions in front of their line farther north tha
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CHAPTER XIII THE MIGHTY NEW ZEALANDERS
CHAPTER XIII THE MIGHTY NEW ZEALANDERS
Reference has already been made to the two New Zealand Outposts, at the second of which the troops to take part in the night sortie had been massed. Inland from these was a third post, once held by the Anzacs but afterwards wrested from them by the Turks. It had been the custom every night for some weeks for a British destroyer to arrive about nine o'clock and bombard the parapet of this trench for about half an hour. The Turks had learned to expect it; they always crept out of the trench as soo
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CHAPTER XIV THE VALLEY OF TORMENT
CHAPTER XIV THE VALLEY OF TORMENT
The loss of the crest of Sari Bair was the turning point in the fight for the Dardanelles. The whole of the Turkish forces were thrown into action at this point. The plan of attack had been designed so that a portion at least of these defensive forces should be held up by the advance of the troops which had landed at Suvla Bay. But the advance of those troops was delayed, for reasons which do not rightly come within the scope of this book, and therefore the bulk of the defending forces could be
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CHAPTER XV THE GREAT NIGHT MARCH
CHAPTER XV THE GREAT NIGHT MARCH
It is now time to follow the fortunes of the 4th Brigade of Australian Infantry who, under General Monash, had massed at Outpost No. 2 on the night of August 6. Their mission was to cross the two gullies up which the New Zealanders had charged to the capture of Chunuk Bair, and to storm a third and more northerly gully, known as the Aghyl Dere. The upper portion of this gully leads to the slopes of the height of Koja Chemen, the highest point of the mountain mass of Sari Bair. Its crest is 971 f
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CHAPTER XVI THE STORY OF THE "SOUTHLAND"
CHAPTER XVI THE STORY OF THE "SOUTHLAND"
The transport of the Second Australian Division from Egypt to Gallipoli was not to pass without at least one striking incident, which proved that the Australian army, if without traditions of its own, is able at a moment's notice to live up to the finest traditions of the soldiers of the British race. There is probably no Australian who has not been made familiar with the history of the Birkenhead , and it fell to the lot of one battalion of the Second Division to show that "To stand and be stil
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CHAPTER XVII THE V.C.'S OF ANZAC
CHAPTER XVII THE V.C.'S OF ANZAC
In all records of bravery, and in all chronicles of devoted deeds, there occur some acts that stand out even against the brilliant background on which they are set. It was so at Anzac. The immortal story of the landing is set with such resplendent actions, but in many cases there was no responsible officer at hand to report the amazing daring of the Australasians on those first days. Afterwards it was possible to keep a closer record of individual actions, and the result was that a number of the
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CHAPTER XIX THE BAND OF BROTHERS
CHAPTER XIX THE BAND OF BROTHERS
An Australian officer had been telling me of the remarkable bravery of two men of his company, and I asked the natural question: "Did you report them for recognition?" "No," was the answer. "They did no more than their duty; no more than any other two of my men would have done in similar circumstances." The feeling that underlay that reply cuts far deeper than the award of crosses and orders. It proclaims the Australasians for what they are, a band of devoted brothers, fighting for something far
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CHAPTER XX A TRIBUTE TO THE TURK
CHAPTER XX A TRIBUTE TO THE TURK
In his speech delivered in the House of Lords on September 15, the Minister for War said: "It is only fair to acknowledge that, judged from a humane point of view, the methods of warfare pursued by the Turks are vastly superior to those which disgraced their German masters." The unanimous testimony of the Australasians supports this statement of Lord Kitchener. The decency and fairness with which the Turk makes war came as a pleasant surprise to the Australasians, who had been led to expect some
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CHAPTER XXI GURKHAS, WHITE AND BROWN
CHAPTER XXI GURKHAS, WHITE AND BROWN
"Here you are," cried my friend Trooper Billy Clancy, of the Australian Light Horse, as I entered the convalescent camp. "Ask him. He knows what I'm saying is true." His very charming visitor regarded me doubtfully. "Go on; ask him," urged the soldier; "he knows." "Is it true," asked the fair ministrant to lonely Colonials, "that there is a real Australian language and a different way of comparing such adjectives as good?" "Good; bonza; boshter," I answered promptly. "There," crowed Trooper Clan
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CHAPTER XXII THE MAN WHO WASN'T LET
CHAPTER XXII THE MAN WHO WASN'T LET
Perhaps he was Let, eventually. But when I met him he was emphatically the man who wasn't Let to fight. I met him in London, a tall, well-set Australian, wearing the all-wool khaki of the Commonwealth and the neat leather cap of the Australian Divisional Supply Column. In his own words he was a "Leatherhead." He was a thirteen-stone man, but without a spare ounce of flesh on him anywhere; one could quite believe him when he said he was "as strong as a Monaro steer." And over his right eye he wor
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CHAPTER XXIII THE AUSTRALASIAN SOLDIER
CHAPTER XXIII THE AUSTRALASIAN SOLDIER
And Southern Nation, and Southern State aroused from their dream of ease, Shall write in the book of Eternal Fate their stormy histories. "The Australasians are possibly the finest troops in the world." The considered judgment of an observer at the Dardanelles, Commander Josiah Wedgwood, M.P., deliberately pronounced for publication in the Press, caught the attention of many readers of newspapers in this country. Cabled out to the Southern Hemisphere, it was reproduced in every newspaper in Aust
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CHAPTER XXIV FILLING THE GAPS
CHAPTER XXIV FILLING THE GAPS
From Blackboy to Mena, from Mena to where They drew the first blood with the bayonet, They hoisted the heathen foe out of his lair Who'd the Germanized courage to stay in it. From Suez they scattered the truculent Turk, To far Teheran and to Tripoli; And at last they beheld British Jackies at work On the gun-bristled hills of Gallipoli: On the gun-bristled hills of Gallipoli, A minute of wading in bullet-splashed waves, The Cooees of Motherland thrilling 'em. But those minutes cut holes in that
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CHAPTER XXV THE ARMIES OF AUSTRALASIA
CHAPTER XXV THE ARMIES OF AUSTRALASIA
Until the year 1870, the Imperial Government maintained a small body of troops in Australia for the defence of the country. They existed for two purposes: the chief one being to protect the country from risings of the convicts. The other purpose was to assist in repelling any foreign invasion, for they formed the garrisons of the rather primitive forts which protected some of the Australian harbours. From time to time local defence bodies were formed, when the troubles of the Mother Country seem
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CHAPTER XXVI CLEARING THE PACIFIC
CHAPTER XXVI CLEARING THE PACIFIC
When the war broke out, the ports of Australasia lay within striking distance of German harbours, where lay a powerful squadron of armoured and light cruisers. A very real danger to Australasian shipping and seaports had to be encountered; and the first warlike steps taken by Australia and New Zealand were expeditions against Germany's Pacific Colonies. At that time they were very considerable possessions, about 100,000 square miles in extent. Chief among them was Kaiser Wilhelm's Land, or, to g
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CHAPTER XXVII THE YOUNGEST NAVY IN THE WORLD
CHAPTER XXVII THE YOUNGEST NAVY IN THE WORLD
On the morning when the news of the sinking of the Emden reached London there was at least one good Briton of that city whose elation was curiously mingled with puzzlement. He was puzzled to know how Australia came by a navy; he had seen references to an Australian navy before, but had always supposed that a misprint had been made for "Austrian navy." His wonder is so far excusable that the first ship of that navy was only launched as recently as 1911, when the battle cruiser Australia left the
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CHAPTER XXIX THE SECOND DIVISION
CHAPTER XXIX THE SECOND DIVISION
The Second Division of the Australian Infantry consisted of the twelve Battalions of the Third Contingent, numbered from Seventeen to Twenty-eight. Their passage from Australia to Egypt had been less eventful than that of the pioneers, and their training in Egypt had been conducted on the same lines as that of their predecessors. They landed at Anzac in August and September, and found their portion in three months of dogged endurance of the most trying methods of warfare. The Turks were embolden
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CHAPTER XXX THE LAST OF ANZAC
CHAPTER XXX THE LAST OF ANZAC
And so we come to the end of the Great Adventure. The withdrawal from Gallipoli was suggested to Sir Ian Hamilton as early as October 11. It was the subject of a report by Sir Charles Monro, the skilful British general upon whose plans the transference of the British Army on the Western front to the northern position opposite Ypres was so successfully carried out. It was considered by Lord Kitchener upon the spot in November, and his opinion that it was not only necessary, but immediately necess
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HONOURS LIST
HONOURS LIST
AUSTRALIAN FORCES C.B. Lieut.-Col. Granville John Burnage, A.I.F. Lieut.-Col. J. H. Cannan, 15th (Q. and Tas.) Batt. Col. (temp. Brig.-Gen.) Henry George Chauvel, C.M.G., 1st (N.S.W.) L.H. Lieut.-Col. R. E. Courtney, 14th (Vic.) Batt. Col. (temp. Brig.-Gen.) J. J. T. Hobbs, Commanding Div. Artillery. Col. (temp. Brig.-Gen.) Frederick Godfrey Hughes, 3rd (S.A. and Tas.) L.H. Lieut.-Col. G. J. Johnston, 2nd A.F.A. Col. (temp. Brig.-Gen.) the Hon. James Whiteside McCay, A.I.F. Col. (temp. Brig.-Gen
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