For generations the Australian public has associated Gallipoli with a beach and a dawn landing. In recent years, books, documentaries and television series have repeated a story that leap-frogs over the campaign’s stereotypical events and …
Debate: "Australia and the Great War"
Among the flood of centenary anniversaries and commemorations, one that slipped past without comment was the destruction of the German cruiser Konigsberg in East Africa on 11 July 1915. Although less well-known than her sister …
There have been at least seventy books by individual authors published under the title Gallipoli in as many decades. From the British Poet Laureate John Masefield in 1916 to Australia’s Les Carlyon in 2001 and …
Across much of the globe, the First World War—‘the war to end all wars’—still exercises a fierce hold on popular imagination. And many aspects of the war remain a subject of debate, more so than …
‘Tell the colonel the damn fools have landed us a mile too far north,’ yelled Royal Navy commander, Charles Dix, at dawn on 25 April 1915, as the first Australian troops jumped ashore at Anzac …
The strategic origins of the Gallipoli operation are to be found in the determination of the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, to use the navy decisively to influence the war on land, in …
Hands up if you agree that Anzac encapsulates ‘the unique qualities that gave birth to our national identity: courage, mateship, sacrifice, generosity, freedom and a fair go for all’. I can see almost all hands …
When Charles Bean first envisaged his plan to build a memorial to commemorate the commitment and sacrifice of Australia’s servicemen and servicewomen, he wanted to ensure that the people making the decisions to send Australians …
Last month marked the centenary of the first shots of the Great War. This month, last Saturday to be precise, marks the centenary of the inauguration of a crucial element in the way that Australia …