The Anzac People During The First World War

The First World War is remembered most clearly by Australians for the public grief it caused; for the new sense of national consciousness it created among the Australian population; and most significantly, for the legend of Anzac which it generated. The Gallipoli Campaign is widely recognised as the trigger of the legend, but it has also been spread by many famous historians. Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett once enthused: "The Australians...rose to the occasion. Not waiting for orders, or for the boats to reach the beach, they sprang into the sea, and forming a sort of rough line, rushed at the enemy trenches...The courage displayed by...wounded Australians will never be forgotten...I have never seen anything like these Australians before...There has been no finer feat in this war than this sudden landing in the dark and the storming of the heights" Comments such as this, and others from Ashmead-Bartlett's allied journalist CEW Bean, sowed the seeds of the Anzac Legend. The accuracy of their comments can not be denied as they actually went ashore with the troops!

The stereotype of the First World War soldier as a superb fighter, a larrikin, distrustful of authority, resourceful, humourous and above all, loyal to his mates, is deeply entrenched in the popular culture. In Bean's first volume on the Gallipoli Campaign, he states "To be the sort of man who would give away when his mates were trusting to his firmness; to be the sort of man who would fail when the line, the whole force, and the allied cause required his endurance; to have made it necessary for another unit to do his own unit's work... - that was the prospect which these men could not face...life was not worth living unless they could be true to their idea of Australian manhood." Bean is known to have done 'more than anyone to create the dominant Anzac legend' However, one could easily argue that there is more to the Anzac legend than the Australian troop's superior fighting quality. The other component is the incompetent leadership of the British, their allies in the First World War. Australians were said to have had what's called a 'special relationship' with Britain, whereby they thought that they were incredibly superior. Then again, not many could argue against this fact. M.R Foot, a British Historian, said "The Anzacs...were probably man for man, the most impressive combatants this century has ever seen!"

How the Anzac legend was created, perpetuated and exploited has been one of the main questions proposed to historians of the First World War. Most say that the root was accounts made by Bean and Ashmead-Bartlett. These specifically assisted in the public grasp of the legend. The process by which the Anzac legend developed its particular form began with the Gallipoli campaign of 1915, where the Australian involvement was noted by just about everybody who saw them.

Arriving for the first time on Anzac Cove, the troops were hoping to knock Turkey out of the war, and therefore get rid of the Russians. They also hoped to open up a new front through the Balkans to attack Austria-Hungary. Aside from these, the main aim of the campaign was to stop Bulgaria joining the Central Powers, and knock Austria-Hungary out of the war, leaving Germany Isolated. However, these plans fell apart for a number of reasons. The soldiers weren't trained how to operate on beaches and were just mowed down, and there was a new commander put in charge in the campaign, who decided to call it quits. Some of the problems the troops faced were disease, and water and food shortages.

The British and the French decided to land troops on the shores of Gallipoli and they needed an ally to do it with them. This is primarily how Australia became involved. From newzealandhistory.net: "The campaign had no significant effect on the outcome of the war. This could only be resolved where the main enemies confronted each other-on the Western Front, -and the prospect of a Balkan coalition forming to lead a mighty offensive from the south-east was illusory, if only because of the pitiful state of the Balkan armies. Moreover, there was no certainty that the Turks would necessarily have capitulated had their capital come under threat from Allied naval forces. In pursuit of this chimera, 120,000 British and 27,000 French troops became casualties."

Australians landed on the Gallipoli peninsula before dawn on the 25th of April. They were unable to secure higher ground, so that meant the following troops were unable to advance. Historians still debate whether Anzac cove was the right place to land. By nightfall on the first night they had gained a few hundred metres, but made little progress for the rest of the campaign

Fighting in the Anzac area continued throughout August, but the Australian Division suffered significant casualties in the duration of the battles. The Gallipoli campaign was a costly failure. While it is possible to point to moments when tactical developments offered the promise of success, the outcome was determined by strategic factors. Essentially there were not enough men available at the crucial moments.

"Australia fed 331,781 young men into the World War I mincer of France, Belgium, Gallipoli and the Middle East. Almost 60,000 never came home. Of those who did, 213,000 returned wounded, either in body or mind. Another 85,000 Australians enlisted but did not serve overseas. In a nation of just 4 million, 416,809 of its men - all volunteers - were in uniform at some time during the years 1914-18." Sydney Morning Herald 16 April 2005. Many of the battlefield areas on the Gallipoli Peninsula have now been farmed, and would be unrecognisable to the men of 1915. Not so the Anzac area. It is so rugged and inhospitable that almost the only change has been the planting of some trees, and the establishment of many military cemeteries. Visitors to the area today can still see the remains of the trenches, still stumble over the rugged gullies and ravines, still be torn and scratched by the prickly bushes, still see basically what the Anzacs saw in April 1915.

Australians think of the Anzac troops as courageous, loyal, integral and patriotic. They are some of the most respected Australians in out history. The legend that has been passed through the generations is still alive and well today, and we can see this through the celebrations of Anzac Day. This has become more prominent as time has gone on, to the point where the 25th of April has become more or less Australia's national day. It just goes to show the effect the soldiers have had, and the way we have cherished their input as a nation