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ANZAC thread

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Damp Squarie

Damp Squarie

Umm Qasr
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Has anybody been to the Spirit of Anzac travelling Exhibition at the Wayville Showgrounds?
I highly recommend it. You've got 1 week left;)

If you have been... the digger in the foxhole/trench exhibit was astounding.
You must book free tickets online before you go, where you can choose a timeslot.
Coffee beforehand was pretty good too.
 
We have loyalties and passions for our teams, particularly for the showdown between our local AFL teams – the Adelaide Crows and Port Power. So it was too, during World War 1, for the men fighting on the Western Front. Athletics contests and Australian Rules football games provided relief from the horrors of the front line, serving as a reminder of ‘ordinary’ life as it was lived at home. What many may not be aware of is, that like home, there was fierce rivalry between AIF units, with much pride in their achievements in games played during snatches of rest and respite behind the line.

The unit history of the 27th Battalion is punctuated with mentions of team victories over brother battalions in the 2nd Division and other Brigades. Yet, where and how the matches were played was very different from the local football ovals at Norwood, Unley, West Torrens or Adelaide. One game played by the 27th Battalion in April 1917 was described as ‘the most unique game of football ever contested.’ The following passage provides some insight into why…

… The ground was situated amidst the heavy system of entrenchments that constituted the German front line prior to the great Somme offensive in July 1916. The famous La Boiselle crater, the blowing up of which was the signal for the advance, was about 1,100 yards away. Practically surrounded by trenches, the ground was frozen and strewn with pieces of barbed wire and fragments of shells. Sheltering from the cold wind, the spectators viewed the game from the trenches, their heads just visible above the ground. A few plucky volunteers held the goal posts in position during the game.

The Blue and Brown Diamond – History of the 27th Battalion (AIF) on Active Service, W. Dolman, H.M Skinner, Adelaide; Lonnen & Cope, 1921, p. 81.

The 27th defeated the 28th Battalion on that day; one more victory that added to a total ensured the 27th Battalion would become the champions of the 2nd Division. Their brother, South Australian Battalion, the 10th, became champions of 1st Division. Both of these teams would meet just once on the Western Front. Again this event was memorable and described in detail in the 27th Unit History. The troops spectating had to route march 12kms to get to the site. The football teams were transported in wagons to save them for the game. When the troops met, one soldier reported that it was ‘like a miniature South Australia.’ The 27th won the day by 2 points, in a match described as being close to League standards.

This friendly rivalry continued in the years after the War. In July 1919, the first post-war match was played within a Peace Day event. Thereafter, it became a traditional Anzac Day event at Adelaide Oval. A local businessman, Mr Heylen, donated a trophy, and for some ten years that followed, the 10th, 27th, 43rd and an Artillery unit, provided ‘double header’ matches for keen supporters.

By 1929, the football players decided they ‘were getting a bit past it’ and the Anzac Day Shield was presented ultimately to the 27th Battalion, because it had been the most successful team over the years.

Whilst on the Western Front, the 27th had played 36 matches, winning 31 of these and losing just 5. Thus, the 27th was the champion team of the 1st and 2nd Divisions during and after the War. The Anzac Day Shield subsequently became an efficiency award for the citizen military forces.


Contributed by Claire Woods, Veterans SA
 
'MURPHY'S MULES." (Simpsons Donkey)
One of the finest things done in those first fatal days at Anzac must be put to the credit of Murphy's mules.
Murphy's ambulance was looked for as anxiously as Gunga Din. His real name was Simpson (?), and he was a stretcher-bearer. He used to hurry up with
water to the firing line, and carry back the wounded. There were too many dead at first to bury. It was a terribly heavy pull up and down Shrapnel Gully from the cove to the top of Brand's Hill. So "Murphy" pinched a couple of mules, and did yeoman service.
He used to leave the mules just under the brow of the hill, and dash forward himself to the firing line to save the wounded. "Murphy's" voice near them sounded like a voice from Heaven.
Time after time he climbed the hill, and did his noble work. Day after day he smiled and carried on. The mules were missed, and they found out who stole
them. But they also found out what splendid work "Murphy" was doing, so the officers connived at the theft.
There came a day when "Murphy's mules" came not. Stretcher-bearers were working overtime, and the wounded cried, "For God's sake send 'Murphy's mules.'"
Later on they found the mules grazing contentedly in Shrapnel Valley. Then they found poor "Murphy". He had done his last journey to
the top of the hill.
"Where's 'Murphy?'" demanded one of the 1st Battalion.
"Murphy's' at Heaven's gate," answered the Sergeant, "helping the soldiers through."

The Sydney Morning Herald 20 July 1915
 
Lest We Forget -The Battle Of The Somme which started 100 years ago today.
The initial day of the offensive, remains the most costly day in the history of the British (including Aussies) army.
It suffered almost 60,000 casualties, a third of whom were killed, and the name "Somme" has become synonymous with slaughter.
 

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Just wanted to thank all of those Aussies and their family members who serve and/or have served.
 
An amazing stat.

During World War 1 an estimated one tonne of explosives was fired for every square metre of territory on the Western front.[1]
As many as one in every three shells fired did not detonate.
In the Ypres Salient, an estimated 300 million projectiles that the British and the Germans forces fired at each other during World War I were duds, and most of them have not been recovered.[2]
In 2013, 160 tonnes of munitions, from bullets to 15 inch naval gun shells, were unearthed from the areas around Ypres.[2]

Unexploded weapons—in the form of shells, bullets, and grenades—buried themselves on impact or were otherwise quickly swallowed in the mud. As time passes, construction work, field ploughing, and natural processes bring the rusting shells to the surface.

Most of the iron harvest is found during the spring planting and autumn ploughing as the region of northern France and Flanders are rich agricultural areas.[3] Farmers collect the munitions and place them along the boundaries of fields or other collection points for authorities.[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_harvest
 

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I encourage everyone to watch the episode of You Can't Ask That they played on Anzac Day.

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/you-cant-ask-that/

For those not familiar, the show interviews a group of people and asks them questions that you would normally be too embarrassed/ashamed to ask. They have had dwarves, sex workers, ice addicts, etc on previously.

The Anzac Day episode was on recent war veterans.

I only just flicked over to it once it started, hadn't planned on watching it, but I couldn't stop watching.

Very confronting, heart breaking, and gives a great appreciation for the sacrifices these people make.
 
radiojake said:
How many vets thought the overly jingoistic way this country celebrates anzac day rather than acknowledges it was disgusting?
Click to expand...
you either have a botched understanding of jingoism or a very narrow perspective of ANZAC day if you think that's the correct term to use.
 

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radiojake said:
Ah ok - it doesn't count if it's only a little bit
Click to expand...
I probably should have said warped perspective.

maybe you should provide a case for whats so jingoistic about it if you feel that way.

99% of ANZAC day is reserved for remembering the poor bastards who served. I feel like you must have dug up the work of a pretty pathetic columnist to find someone championing the more recent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. If such articles are out there though please share, I'd be interested in seeing them for myself.
 
DD#23 said:
99% of ANZAC day is reserved for remembering the poor bastards who served.
Click to expand...

That's the generic message -

but then it goes on about mateship, courage, sacrifice and all these qualities that none of us actually have, and makes it seem like they are exclusive to Australian Values -

Then we can bomb (or explicitly support those who do it) far away countries and while we're at it we will make sure they certainly don't come here to try to escape it

STRAYA
 
radiojake said:
That's the generic message -

but then it goes on about mateship, courage, sacrifice and all these qualities that none of us actually have, and makes it seem like they are exclusive to Australian Values -

Then we can bomb (or explicitly support those who do it) far away countries and while we're at it we will make sure they certainly don't come here to try to escape it

STRAYA
Click to expand...
those qualities aren't projected onto anyone, they're based on first-hand accounts from the people who actually did it and how they were able to survive the hardships they endured. Perhaps they're qualities some people want to aspire to but you sure as shit don't get them for free and I've never heard it suggested otherwise.

there's very little glory to be had at an ANZAC day event, its an incredibly sombre affair - people standing around struggling to imagine what it would have been like to be up to your neck in mud and blood. Its about as strong an anti-war sentiment as you could get.

there is absolutely zero connection between ANZAC day celebrations and the public's disinterest in their being implicit in ours and the United States war crimes in the middle east. Blame the media on every other day of the year for that.
 
poppy.jpg


Today marks the 99th anniversary of the Armistice which ended the First World War (1914–18).
We shall always remember them. Lest We Forget.
 
https://quadrant.org.au/shop/books/australias-secret-war-unions-sabotaged-troops-world-war-ii/

As the Turnbull government begins to take on union power and corruption, a timely new book reveals the union movement’s role in one of the most shameful periods of Australian history. What the wharfies did to Australian troops - and their nation’s war effort - between 1939 and 1945 is nothing short of an abomination. Perth lawyer Hal Colebatch has done the nation a service with his ground-breaking book, Australia’s Secret War, telling the untold story of union bastardry during World War 2. Using diary entries, letters and interviews with key witnesses, he has pieced together with forensic precision the tale of how Australia’s unions sabotaged the war effort; how wharfies vandalised, harassed, and robbed Australian troop ships, and probably cost lives. One of the most obscene acts occurred in October, 1945, at the end of the war, after Australian soldiers were released from Japanese prison camps. They were half dead, starving and desperate for home. But when the British aircraft-carrier HMS Speaker brought them into Sydney Harbour, the wharfies went on strike. For 36 hours, the soldiers were forced to remain on-board, tantalisingly close to home. This final act of cruelty from their countrymen was their thanks for all the sacrifice. Colebatch coolly recounts outrage after outrage.

There were the radio valves pilfered by waterside workers in Townsville which prevented a new radar station at Green Island from operating. So when American dive bombers returning from a raid on a Japanese base were caught in an electrical storm and lost their bearings, there was no radio station to guide them to safety. Lost, they ran out of fuel and crashed, killing all 32 airmen. Colebatch quotes RAAF serviceman James Ahearn, who served at Green Island, where the Australians had to listen impotently to the doomed Americans’ radio calls: “The grief was compounded by the fact that had it not been for the greed and corruption on the Australian waterfront such lives would not have been needlessly lost.” Almost every major Australian warship was targeted throughout the war, with little intervention from an enfeebled Prime Minister Curtin.

There was the deliberate destruction by wharfies of vehicles and equipment, theft of food being loaded for soldiers, snap strikes, go-slows, and demands for “danger money” for loading biscuits. Then there were the coal strikes which pushed down coal production between 1942 and 1945 despite the war emergency. There were a few honourable attempts to resist union leaders, such as the women working in a small arms factory in Orange, NSW, who refused to strike and “pelted union leaders with tomatoes and eggs”.

This is a tale of the worst of Australia amid the best, the valour and courage of our soldiers in New Guinea providing our last line of defence against Japanese, only to be forced onto starvation rations and to “go easy on the ammo” because strikes by the wharfies back home prevented supplies from reaching them.

A planned rescue of Australian POWs in Borneo late in the war apparently had to be abandoned, writes Colebatch, because a wharf strike in Brisbane meant the ships had no heavy weapons.

There was no act too low for the unionists. For instance, in 1941, hundreds of soldiers on board a ship docked in Fremantle entrusted personal letters to wharfies who offered to post them in return for beer money. The letters never arrived.

At one point in 1942 a US Army colonel became so frustrated at the refusal of Townsville wharfies to load munitions unless paid quadruple time, he ordered his men to throw the unionists into the water and load the guns themselves.

In Adelaide, American soldiers fired sub-machine guns at wharfies deliberately destroying their aircraft engines by dropping them from great heights.

Australian soldiers had to draw bayonets to stop the same Adelaide wharfies from stealing food meant for troops overseas.

You will read this book with mounting fury.
Colebatch offers various explanations for the treasonous behaviour of the unions. Many of the leaders were Communists obsessed with class warfare. Fervent “identity politics” led them to believe they were victims, and that servicemen and women were “puppets of capitalism whose lives were of no consequence”.

Contrary to popular belief, strikes and sabotage continued to the end of the war, even after the Soviet Union became an ally, writes Colebatch, who contends that the Australian Left may have wanted to undermine the military in preparation for revolution after the war.

Whatever the reasons for the defective morality of those unionists who sabotaged our war effort, the traitors have never been brought to account.
This story has been largely suppressed for 70 years because Labor and the Left have successfully controlled the narrative of history.
But no more, thanks to Colebatch.
 

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