“… each night is a nightmare, the patients’ faces all look so pale with the flickering ship’s lights.”
Sister Ella Tucker, Australian Army Nursing Service, Hospital Ship Gascon, off Gallipoli
S
ister Tucker’s account offers a different perspective to the more familiar image of the brave ‘natural soldiers’ who landed on a Gallipoli beach as volunteers of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) proudly fighting under their own flag for the very first time. With the landing of the Australian troops on 25 April 1915 the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp (Anzac) legend was born. Australia’s official WWI historian Charles Bean shaped this legend in words: “Anzac stood, and still stands, for reckless valour in a good cause, for enterprise, resourcefulness, …show more content…
“Each accurately illustrated one of the AIF’s most significant actions during the campaign and was visually stunning and emotionally engaging.” (11)
While the Gallipoli campaign’s failed beginning at the landings has been widely studied and recounted, the most successful event at Gallipoli may have been the withdrawal of the Anzac troops at the campaign’s close in
December. The evacuation was an impressive feat of military planning and execution with only two lives lost. As one of Gallipoli’s few Anzac success stories, it is surprising that this event is not referred to more widely in accounts of the campaign. Surely, decisive strategy and actions that spare lives are as worthy of our notice as battles that give rise to loss of life. “It was a wonderful thing to get so many thousands of men, with artillery and stores, away in such a manner,” (12) wrote Corporal Reginald Gardiner on Christmas Day after the withdrawal was completed.
In addition to the Anzacs there were many hundreds of non-combat roles that were crucial to the war effort. In particular, the experience of Australian nurses working as members of the medical units is also often …show more content…
Despite the significant contribution made by
French troops to the campaign, their presence at Gallipoli is rarely acknowledged outside of France. (18)
In his diary Private McAnulty notes the many ethnicities, including the Indian-Nepalese Ghurkas: “More troops landed last night … some Gurkhas having landed. The gullies are swarming with men now, all nationalities.” (19)
At the outbreak of the war in 1914, the Indian Army was the largest, independent, all-volunteer army in the world.
However, only this year has it been acknowledged that about 15,000 Indian troops – two or three times as many as previously thought – were part of the campaign.(20) Sikhs, Hindus, Punjabis and Gurkhas served at Gallipoli in an infantry brigade, a mountain artillery brigade, medical units and a large contingent of mule drivers. In particular,
2016 Winner Victoria Felix Cousins Camberwell High School it was the mule drivers “who perhaps made the Indians’ most important contribution to the campaign”(21) in both supplying the troops in the frontlines with ammunition, food and water and supplies. The Indians also undertook the critical and dangerous role of stretcher-bearers carrying the most injured away from the front
Sister Ella Tucker, Australian Army Nursing Service, Hospital Ship Gascon, off Gallipoli
S
ister Tucker’s account offers a different perspective to the more familiar image of the brave ‘natural soldiers’ who landed on a Gallipoli beach as volunteers of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) proudly fighting under their own flag for the very first time. With the landing of the Australian troops on 25 April 1915 the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp (Anzac) legend was born. Australia’s official WWI historian Charles Bean shaped this legend in words: “Anzac stood, and still stands, for reckless valour in a good cause, for enterprise, resourcefulness, …show more content…
“Each accurately illustrated one of the AIF’s most significant actions during the campaign and was visually stunning and emotionally engaging.” (11)
While the Gallipoli campaign’s failed beginning at the landings has been widely studied and recounted, the most successful event at Gallipoli may have been the withdrawal of the Anzac troops at the campaign’s close in
December. The evacuation was an impressive feat of military planning and execution with only two lives lost. As one of Gallipoli’s few Anzac success stories, it is surprising that this event is not referred to more widely in accounts of the campaign. Surely, decisive strategy and actions that spare lives are as worthy of our notice as battles that give rise to loss of life. “It was a wonderful thing to get so many thousands of men, with artillery and stores, away in such a manner,” (12) wrote Corporal Reginald Gardiner on Christmas Day after the withdrawal was completed.
In addition to the Anzacs there were many hundreds of non-combat roles that were crucial to the war effort. In particular, the experience of Australian nurses working as members of the medical units is also often …show more content…
Despite the significant contribution made by
French troops to the campaign, their presence at Gallipoli is rarely acknowledged outside of France. (18)
In his diary Private McAnulty notes the many ethnicities, including the Indian-Nepalese Ghurkas: “More troops landed last night … some Gurkhas having landed. The gullies are swarming with men now, all nationalities.” (19)
At the outbreak of the war in 1914, the Indian Army was the largest, independent, all-volunteer army in the world.
However, only this year has it been acknowledged that about 15,000 Indian troops – two or three times as many as previously thought – were part of the campaign.(20) Sikhs, Hindus, Punjabis and Gurkhas served at Gallipoli in an infantry brigade, a mountain artillery brigade, medical units and a large contingent of mule drivers. In particular,
2016 Winner Victoria Felix Cousins Camberwell High School it was the mule drivers “who perhaps made the Indians’ most important contribution to the campaign”(21) in both supplying the troops in the frontlines with ammunition, food and water and supplies. The Indians also undertook the critical and dangerous role of stretcher-bearers carrying the most injured away from the front