The New Zealand Part of the ANZAC Forces

This year, I was chosen to be a Shrine of Remembrance Youth Ambassador. As a youth ambassador, I am expected to inform both my community and my school of the happenings of World War One and Two as well as continuing on the legacy of the ANZAC Forces.

This school holidays, I was asked to help run a program called ‘Dogs, Dolphins and Donkeys’ for children aged 4-10. This program is about learning what animals did in the theatres of war.

When I ran the first workshop, I got into conversation with a mum (who was from New Zealand) who had brought her two sons to the program. We got talking and she shared with me two amazing stories of her great-grandfather and her grandfather who fought in WW1 and WW2.

The first story she told me was about her great-grandfather who fought at Gallipoli. He was apart of the ANZACs and he had a donkey. He was a stretcher bearer who also used a donkey to transport wounded ANZAC’s to hospital ships. He worked alongside John Simpson Kirkpatrick and the most amazing thing is the famous painting of Simpson and his Donkey that she recalls being told that it is actually of her great-grandfather.

The other story was of her Grandad. He was deployed to Crete and after fighting there, was taken Prisoner of War by the Germans. This is where the story takes a surprising turn. For some reason, the German officials in charge of his group liked him and allowed him to set up a laundry business for the Germans. He was even paid! By the time he was liberated, he had earned quite a bit of money and went back home to New Zealand with cash in hand.

Information about the Battle of Crete: The battles were fought from the second week of May, where German airbourne troops attacked the allied divisions. By the end of May, hte resistance had broken down and the Germans took small groups of allied soldiers prisoner. (Info found at https://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/crete.asp )

These stories that were told to me were very facinating and being able to share stories of family members (especially her grandfather) must have being very hard and I thank her for sharing those stories with me.

For info about the Shrine of Remembrance: http://www.shrine.org.au/home

Important: I have recieved verbal permission for this to be posted.

 

How did World War One contribute to Australia’s sense of Nationhood

World War One definitely did contribute to Australia’s sense of nationhood.The word nationhood can be defined as ‘the state of being a nation, or a large group of people united by a common language, culture or economic lifestyle’. Some of the things that assisted Australia’s sense of nationhood was the bravery shown at the Gallipoli landings, the sense of loyalty shown at Fromelles and the determination of the soldier in the First and Third Battles of Passchendaele.

At dawn on the 25th April 19115, the ANZAC’s landed just north of ANZAC Cove. Their mission was to take control of the Gallipoli Peninsula and clear the way so that the Royal Navy could capture the Turkish capital of Constinaple (now Istanbul). The ANZAC’s were met with a strong Turkish force and any hope of advance was shut down. During the first 5 days of the offensive, 643 men had been killed in action and another 213 more died from wounds or disease.

The Battle of Fromelles was the worst 24 hours in Australia’s history. 5,533 Australian soldier were either killed or wounded in action. Many of the soldiers that were higher in command knew that the campaign would be costly. Even Major H.C.L Howard predicted that the attack would prove to be ‘a bloody holocaust’. Some of the soldiers could have refused to fight but proved to be stay loyal to their commanders and army.

The determination of Australian forces during the two battles of Ypres is to be commended. In the eight weeks of fighting, 38,000 Australian soldiers were either killed or wounded. It is even harder to believe that hardly any progress was made. In fact, only a couple fo kilometers were gained. The intention of this attack was to drain German manpower. This instance is the perfect description of determination because the soldiers could have given up at any time but didn’t.

When we think of Australian’s in World War One, we think of bravery, determination, and loyalty. This was the first time that Australia could show that they were united and they made a great impression. This helped Australia’s sense of nationhood because they would be remembered for their strength, loyalty, bravery, and determination.

Evacuation from Gallipoli

On the 15th November 1915, the decision was made by the Commander in Chief of the British Army that Gallipoli was to be evacuated. His reasoning was that without re-enforcements, little progress would be made against the strengthening Turkish Army.

The hardest bit of the operation was going to be hoe to leave the peninsula without arousing suspicion from the Turks. An evacuation plan was devised by  Lieutenant Colonial Charles Brundenell White which involved ‘elaborate’ deception plans. There were to be ‘silent stunts’ where there was to be no artillery fire or sniping from the Australian lines. White hoped that by not firing on the Turks, they would become accustomed to the thought that the Allied forces were preparing for the winter, not withdrawal. There was also great care taken to keep up the irregular firing that was expected by the Turks.

The evacuation was planned to be 3 parts. During the first 2 stages, the number of soldier reduced from 41,000 to 20,077. The idea was that by the end of the second stage, the soldiers would be reduced to a point where they could still hold of a major Turkish offensive for a duration of about 1 week. The remaining soldiers would then be evacuated in the ‘Final Withdrawal’ that would be spread over 2 nights.

On the nights of 18-19 and 19-20 December the final 20 000 Anzacs were taken off. On 19 December, the British cruiser HMS Grafton lay in off North Beach ready to take the soldiers on board and, if necessary, to open fire on any enemy attempt to hinder this final withdrawal. An observer on the Grafton noted:

It is about 9 o’clock. An ideal night for the job. No ships (only a few lights) visible at Suvla. One ship about a mile on our port beam. Barely a wrinkle on the water. Soft air from the north. Moon at present quite invisible. The wash of the destroyer has been lapping against our sides like wavelets at the edge of a pond.

10.00 pm- Three ships just gone in …

10.35 pm- Five trawlers coming out with cutters in tow.

On 19 December just 10 000 men held the lines of trenches from Bolton’s Ridge in the south to Hill 60 in the north. The day was spent by firing aimed at convincing their watchful enemy that things were proceeding as normal. At 2.15 pm the British started a small scale attack at Helles to distract the Turks. At dusk the rear guard soldiers began leaving for the beach until finally there were but 1500 left in the dark trench. Company Sergeant Major Joe Gasparich, Auckland Infantry Battalion, was among the last to depart in the early hours of 20 December:

I came down – I got off my perch (the firing step) [and]I walked through the trench and the floor of the trench was frozen hard … and when I brought my feet down they echoed right through the trench, down the gully, right down, and you could hear this echo running ahead … Talk about empty, I didn’t see a soul … It was a lonely feeling.

By 4.00 am, 20 December 1915, a handful of men were left at North Beach. Among these was the commander of the ‘Rear Party’, Colonel J Paton, from Waratah, Sydney. At 4.10 am, Paton, having waited ten minutes for any last Anzac straggler, declared the evacuation complete and sailed off. The Anzacs had successfully left Gallipoli with hardly a casualty.

Spirit of ANZAC Centenary Experience

A couple of weeks ago, I went to an exhibition at the Convention Center in Melbourne, Australia. This exhibition was a very interactive space where you walked through areas that were about different aspects of World War 1.

At the start of the experience, we were given an iPod Touch and headphones. As we walked through each of the spaces, a recording played through the iPod that explained more about the space that you are in.

As you walked through each of the areas, there were stations where you could touch the iPod and you could find out more information on the space that you were in. My favourite part of the experience was the Galipoli space.

To find out more about this experience, visit their website (http://www.spiritofanzac.gov.au/).

Here are some more links that will give you more information on the role that the ANZACS played in World War 1:

Australian War Memorial: https://www.awm.gov.au/

Shrine of Remembrance: http://www.shrine.org.au/Education/Research